Red Sox and Rays Both Victorious, Wild Card Still Tied

If you watched any of the Boston Red Sox game against the Baltimore Orioles Tuesday night, we hope you caught the Adam Jones at bat in the bottom of the ninth inning with two out and a man on second. What an attention whore.

After ten agonizing pitches, Jonathan Papelbon eventually got Jones to ground out on a slider and end the game. The 8-7 victory, combined with the Tampa Bay Rays' 5-3 win over the New York Yankees, allowed the Red Sox to stay alive another day in the American League Wild Card hunt.

Boston went yard four times in the evening, including two homers off the bat of adorable rookie catcher Ryan Lavarnway. The Yale philosophy major who never even played a big league game before this August, nailed a three-run shot in the fourth before adding a solo shot for good measure to give his team an 8-4 lead in the eighth. The O's tried to rally late in the game, but Papelboner was having none of that.

The Red Sox will send workhorse Jon Lester to the mound on three days' rest to face Alfredo Simon in the season finale Wednesday night in an effort to punch their fourth ticket to the postseason in five years.

We Heart Matt Joyce

Matt Joyce is a stud. You know it, I know it. Joyce on the other hand, had some butterflies this weekend.

The 24-year-old Tampa Bay Rays outfielder, a local boy who was recalled from the AAA Durham Bulls on Saturday, debuted at Tropicana Field Sunday in center field in front of a dozen friends and family... not to mention the 26,000 strangers. He may have been a little nervous, but the kid went 2-for-3, including a go-ahead solo shot in the fifth anyway.

Of his first hometown longball, Joyce recalled: