Red Sox, Braves in shock after completing horrific collapses

In what can only be called a fitting ending to the epic September swoons of the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves, both teams lost leads in the 9th inning and then lost their games, only to see the teams that they were tied with in the standings (Tampa and St. Louis respectively) win their games to win the wild-card spots outright. The Rays set an MLB record for the largest comeback in September to make the playoffs (9 games) and the Cardinals tied the NL record (8 1/2 games). ESPN's David Schoenfield called it the "most shocking, unbelievable, thrilling night in baseball history." It's hard to disagree with him.

• St. Louis won an easy game 8-0 after scoring 5 first run innings over the Houston Astros but the other 3 relevant games were nail-biting thrillers.

• The Red Sox were beating the Orioles 3-2 in the 7th inning when a rain delay stopped the game for the time being. However the Red Sox had to feel comfortable as they'd dodged a few good scoring opportunities by the Orioles and more importantly, the Rays were getting clobbered 7-0 by the Yankees.

• However, in the 8th inning the Rays used a combination of walks, hit batsmen and a home run be superstar Evan Longoria to pull within 1. In the 9th the Rays still trailed 7-6 and with 2 outs, 2 strikes and no runners on base when little-used 1B Dan Johnson hit a ball down the right field line for a home run to tie the game. The Red Sox began playing again, after seeing their security cushion hundreds of miles to the south completely disappear.

• The Red Sox took their 3-2 lead to the bottom of the 9th but with 2 outs, star closer Jonathan Papelbon gave up a double followed by another double which tied the game, followed by a liner that Carl Crawford slid for but missed, allowing the winning run to score.

• Exactly 3 minutes later in Tampa, Evan Longoria hit his 2nd home run (the first being the one in the 8th inning) down the left field line. The ball only traveled about 320 feet but was hit to the shortest part of the park and just barely fair and the Rays, who already knew that Boston had lost, mobbed Longoria at home plate, celebrating their 3rd playoff appearance in 4 years.

In the National League the Braves had a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 9th as well but star closer Craig Kimbrel allowed the tying run and they went on to lose in heartbreaking fashion 4-3 in 13 innings after Hunter Pence singled in the winning run.

A few notes:

1. Crawford, who failed to make the catch on the final play of the Red Sox season, left Tampa for Boston after getting a $142 million deal from the Red Sox. Now he'll get to watch his old teammates play in the playoffs.
2. Boston had been 77-0 when winning after 8 innings.
3. David Ortiz said tonight's loss was 'much worse' than the loss to the Yankees in the ALCS on Aaron Boone's famed home run.
4. Ryan Lavarnway, the hero of Tuesday's game for the Red Sox, went 0 for 5 and left 9 runners stranded on base.
5. Dan Johnson, who hit the game-tying HR for the Rays in the 9th, was hitting .108 with 1 HR on the season.
6. The Braves lost their final 5 games, and all nine games against the Cardinals and Phillies in the second half of the season.
7. Former MVP and baseball analyst Barry Larkin said that Wednesday's baseball games were the most exciting he'd ever seen and fellow ESPN employee Stuart Scott came just short of that, saying that tonight and the night that Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris's single-season home run record in 1998 were the two greatest baseball nights he'd witnessed.
8. Houston finished with 106 losses which is the most in baseball since the 2005 Royals.
9. Longoria is only the second player in MLB history to hit a home run in the final at-bat of his team's final game to put them into the playoffs. The other? Bobby Thomson and the famous 'Shot Heard 'Round the World.'
10. The Red Sox lost 20 games in September, the most they'd lost in September since 1952.
11. The Rays will begin their postseason journey in Texas against the Rangers while the Yankees will return home to play Justin Verlander and the Tigers.