Red Sox clich playoff berth, seek divisional crown

In the bottom of the seventh inning, it looked like Boston was on it's way to a second straight won over would be spoilers, Tampa Bay when Javier Lopez relieved Dice-K with two outs and two on to finish off one last batter. Six pitches later, the Devil Rays had their first lead of the game after a 3-run homer. Like many Sox fans, my heart was in my throat. I watched this same scenerio play out against the Yankees and Blue Jays in the past week. Fact is; Boston hasn't come back very many times in the late innings to win games. This was a must win with the Yankees winning in walk-off fashion earlier in the day against Toronto in 10 innings.

Then after the scoreboard flashed the score of the Tigers losing, the Boston bats came alive in the 9th with a home run by J.D. Drew to tie the game and then two batters later, Julio Lugo put the exclaimation point on his old team with a two-run shot.

Jonathon Paplebon came in to pitch the bottom of the 9th after Eric Gagne recorded his second 1-2-3 inning in as many nights. With Pap getting the save and Gagne getting the win, Boston clinched at least a wild card spot with seven games left in the regular season. Boston's lead over New York remains at 2.5 games.