Boston blogs on the Red Sox comeback and Game 7

Win or lose tonight, what the Boston Red Sox have done these last few days - coming back to force a Game 7 in the American League Championship series, after being left for dead in Game 5 - is undoubtedly incredible. So, what are Boston bloggers saying about the series?

Adam Kilgore, blogging at Boston.com, runs through just how improbable the comeback would be:

“In that situation, with the home team down by 7 runs, only 0.6% of all teams between 1977 and 2006 have come back to win the game,” Agami writes. On Friday, “coolstandings.com gave the Sox a 22% chance of winning the next two games in a row, so that would mean that when Balfour entered the game the Sox had a 0.1% chance of winning the ALCS (multiplying 0.6% by 22%) - about one in 1,000.”

At 10:57 p.m. Thursday, the Red Sox had a 1 in 1,000 chance to win the ALCS. Now they’re nine innings away, and they have already thrown some of the final shovelfuls of dirt on the Tampa Bay Rays’ season.

Randy Booth at Over the Monster compares the comeback to last year's:

Does anyone remember what that feeling was like at this time last year? I don't remember. I wish I could, because I'd like to compare it to right now. Right now it just seems like it's set up nicely. The Sox evened the series and now it's do-or-die time. Someone will be playing their last baseball game tonight.

It's hard to compare this team to last year's team because it is so different. Mark Kotsay at first base and Jason Bay in left field? Could anyone have guessed that in spring training? Coco Crisp in center field, nevertheless, after the benching of Jacoby "Jactober" Ellsbury. It's a different team.

A different team, but the same attitude: play like there's no tomorrow. That's how the Sox will play tonight. From the top of the order to the bottom, from the starter (Mr. Jon Lester) to the bullpen. The ALCS is culminating with this and it feels great.

The Rational Sox Fan marvels at the team's playoff tenacity:

I think the Red Sox have made it clear, once and for all, that it is simply a waste of time to count out a playoff team, even when their back is to the wall. You cannot say, "it looks like it is all over for the Red Sox this year", or anything like that. Instead, you need to say things like, "the Red Sox are down 3 games to 1, and are in a perfect position to make this a truly exciting playoff series".

Jose Melendez gives the Red Sox a new tagline:

Don’t bury me… I’m not dead.

That was the tag line for the 1988 Wes Craven film The Serpent and the Rainbow, based painfully loosely on a book by ethnobotanist Wade Davis describing search for a scientific explanation for Haitian zombie myths. It might as well be the tagline for the Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox are not dead; they are never dead, and yet year after year, teams come to throw piles of moist black earth upon them.

Jeff Louderback at Sox and Pinstripes looks ahead to Game 7:

After a rough start in Game Three, Lester has another chance to show he is one of the top go-to starters in Major League Baseball. A game like this is where Lester's poise will help. Tampa Bay starter Matt Garza is intense, and his emotions are sometimes detrimental to his success on the mound. The keys to a victory for Boston tonight are no different than they were for Game Six. The Red Sox need to drive up Garza's pitch count and get into the Tampa Bay bullpen, which was exceptional during the regular season but now must be feeling some doubt after the last two games. Lester must control B.J. Upton, Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford (the 2-6 hitters who have pounded Boston pitching in the series)