AL Wild Card Race: Red Sox Don't Deserve to Play in MLB Postseason

If the team hasn’t hit the panic button yet, it is time for the Boston Red Sox to freak out. They have blown a nine-game lead in the American League wild card race, and are in a dead heat with the Tampa Bay Rays for the final playoff spot. As hard as it is to believe, considering where they were four weeks ago, the Rays are going to the playoffs.

Admittedly, I gave up on the Rays long before September started. It didn't seem that the lineup was going to produce enough on a consistent basis to support their pitching staff. However, ever since future stud outfielder Desmond Jennings was called up on July 23, this team has posted a 37-24 record.

The Red Sox have had every opportunity to put this whole situation to bed, but their pitching has been terrible, posting an ERA over 6.00 this month. Things are so bad in Boston that of the six wins the team has this month, only one of them has come when they have scored fewer than seven runs.

ESPN.com Sweetspot blogger David Schoenfield did his best to try and put this collapse in perspective; comparing it to other terrible months that the Red Sox have had.

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The Boston Red Sox have had months like this before. They went 9-21 in August of 2006. They went 8-21 in June of 1965 and followed that up with a 9-21 mark in July. That was a rough year: the Sox lost 100 games. September of 1952 was difficult, as they stumbled to a 7-20 finish…

But none of those months compare to this one. No way. Not when one of the biggest collapses in baseball history is at stake, not when a team of MVP candidates and All-Stars and a payroll approximately four times that of the team it’s trying to fend off is on the verge of a complete disaster.

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It is easy to look at the collection of talent that the Red Sox have and just assume that they are going to the postseason. But, because they have played so bad for the last four weeks, it is impossible to think this team is going to the playoffs.

Plus, you have to factor in the matchups. The Rays are playing the Yankees, or at least the artist formerly known as the Yankees, as they have nothing left to play for and are going to run out a team of triple-A and replacement players to protect their starters for the postseason.

The Red Sox are playing the lowly Orioles, but they have to start Erik Bedard on Tuesday night. Bedard has pitched six innings or more in just three of his seven stars as a member of the Red Sox. So, expect the bullpen to be called upon early tonight.

The Rays, meanwhile, will have Jeremy Hellickson going up against Bartolo Colon. That is the same Colon who gave up seven runs in three innings to the Rays last Thursday.

Just for good measure, the Rays will have David Price going in the season finale on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Jon Lester will pitch for the Red Sox on Wednesday, and he has been so inconsistent this month that you simply can’t count on him to perform well in a game that his team must win.

There is too much working against the Red Sox in the final two days of the regular season to expect them to put everything together and make it back to the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

That said, don’t sell the Rays short in this race (or beyond). They have obviously benefited from the Red Sox collapse, but, in addition, they have the deepest pitching staff in the American League and have what it takes to make a deep run in the postseason.