Here's my new theory: People say that Joe Maddon and Tony LaRussa are geniuses (and they obviously believes it about themselves) but Terry Francona is a friggin grandmaster.
His opening gambit in this series was very passive; almost to the point where it looked like he wasn't making any effort to win baseball games. You see: for this strategy he couldn't let Tampa sweep the series but he really didn't want his team to win more than one. Right now Tampa is feeling really good about themselves and is flying down to New York for a four game series in which they will try to beat the Yankees in Yankee Stadium.
Meanwhile, Baltimore is also coming into town for a four game series. And while Baltimore is paying lip service to their games being important and saying that they have some say in how the race turns out, they are still, fundamentally, Baltimore.
But Francona has his team lying in the weeds. And as long as Boston suddenly remembers how to play and win at baseball, he's positioned them perfectly to make their move. If Tampa wins or splits the series in New York, then the division is still up for grabs. If New York wins or sweeps, it'd be like handing Boston the wild card.
If they can beat Baltimore, it's really very brilliant.
And you thought that starting Conor Jackson in left and the repeated use of Matt Albers (apologies to Messrs. Jackson and Albers) was a joke.
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