Projo Sox Blog

BY KEVIN McNAMARA
Journal Sports Writer

St. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- You'd think that Jonathan Papelbon would have learned by now that saving baseballs after postseason wins is a smart thing to do.

After last season's World Series clincher in Denver, Papelbon keptt the winning ball, took it home to Boston but said he lost it when his dog ate it. Last night at Tropicana Field, the Red Sox closer came off the field after saving a 2-0 win over the Devil Rays and tossed the ball in a garbage can in the Sox' clubhouse.

When someone told him he'd just broken a major-league record for most career scoreless innings in the postseason, he realized he'd made a mistake. He pulled the ball out of the can and tucked it into his locker.

"I accidentally threw it away," Papelbon said. "I usually kind of throw them away or throw them in the corner. I threw this one away and wasn't even thinking that it was a major-league record."

Papelbon blew away the Rays in the bottom of the ninth inning to preserve a splendidly pitched game for the entire Red Sox team. Daisuke Matsuzaka held a no-hitter through six innings and came through with one of his best outings of the season. The bullpen took over in the eighth inning and Hideki Okajima and Justin Masterson combined to escape brewing trouble with Masterson getting Evan Longoria to ground into an inning-ending double play.

That gave the game to Papelbon and he shut the Rays down, striking out Carl Crawford for the first out and Dioner Navarro to end the game. He's now thrown 20.2 career scoreless innings, the longest streak in baseball history. Joe Niekro held the record with 20 innings. Papelbon has six scoreless innings this postseason and now owns six career playoff saves.

"This is what we do in the postseason. Our goal was to come out here and take some games and take it back to Boston," he said.

Papelbon doesn't shy away from his record. In fact, he says he feels the responsibility to ratchet his game up to another level in October in order to cement his place in the game's history.

"I've always told myself that big leaguers are remembered throughout this game for what they do in the postseason and (with) championships. For me, that's always been a critical part of my game. To kind of step it up in postseason. What can I say? I'll take it one inning at a time and try to run with it," he said.

Papelbon spoke to reporters with a bags of ice packed to his right arm. The 27-year old says he "doesn't feel great right now. I'm pretty beat up,'' but admits that the extra adrenaline he finds this time of the season is helping him pitch even better.

"It's all about taking it to another level," he said. "It matters a little bit more in the postseason. You could look at all these great players throughout history and none of them are really remembered until they win championships or do special things in postseason. I've always kind of taken that to heart."

 Tags  Jonathan Papelbon

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