Another big playoff victory for the Red Sox!
However, haters and whiners will complain they only prevailed because of the controversial ground-rule double call. Here's my -completely objective - preemptive response. OK, maybe it's not TOTALLY objective, but it's still right:
- The call was absolutely required by the rules. See explanation in the linked article. Maybe the rules are flawed. There's a serious argument to that effect. But MLB can't change them on the fly.
- Perhaps more importantly, even if the Rays had gotten credit for that run, the Sox would still have won! Had everything then proceeded in the same way, the top of the 13th inning would have ended with the Rays leading 5-4. Then the Sox would have won 6-5 on Vazquez's walkoff HR in the bottom of the inning. Exact same result as before, except for a slightly different score (6-5, rather than 6-4). You can argue that you can't assume the outcome would have been the same. But the strategy of the game would have been very similar, involving all the exact same players. So, at the very least, you also can't assume things would have been different.
Whiners gonna whine, and haters gonna hate. But the Red Sox just keep moving!