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Red Sox Clinch Post Season Birth
#1
It happened in the middle of the night.

The Boston Red Sox were airborne, heading from Baltimore to Cincinnati. Maybe they exchanged a few high-fives somewhere over West Virginia. Or maybe they just slept through it. At least they will have something to toast at dinner on their night off Thursday.

But the champagne-and-beer celebration, the one in which corks fly across a room and players break out designer ski goggles? That will wait, as it should, for another time and place.


The Red Sox reeled in another postseason appearance thanks to Wednesday's win and an Angels loss. Patrick McDermott/USA Today Sports
It's not that clinching a playoff berth -- as the Red Sox did Wednesday night with the combination of their 9-0 pounding of the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Angels' 6-5 loss to the Cleveland Indians -- isn't a notable accomplishment. Only 10 teams get to play beyond the regular season. To stand among them is no small feat, especially considering the Red Sox have done it in only three of the past eight years.

But after getting swept out of the playoffs in the American League Division Series last year, the Red Sox have loftier goals, such as winning the division. They lead the American League East by three games over the New York Yankees with 10 games to play. If they can close the deal next week, then it will be party time.

"Just getting into the playoffs is not our goal," manager John Farrell told reporters Wednesday night. "Certainly it’s a stepping stone toward other things that we have our sights set on, as many teams do. We've got a lot of work ahead of us."

Indeed, the Red Sox can't afford to take their feet off the pedal. The Yankees have won 14 of their past 18 games, forcing the Red Sox to win 11 of their past 14 just to keep the division lead from getting really uncomfortable.

"We're just worried about our business, worried about what we have to do in going out there to win games,” ace Chris Sale told reporters after becoming the first AL pitcher since Pedro Martinez in 1999 to record 300 strikeouts in a season. “I don't know what the [magic] number is. I don't know who needs to do what. I know if we keep winning games we're going to put ourselves in a good position, and that’s really all that matters to us.”


http://www.espn.com/blog/boston/red-sox/...ason-berth

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