The One They Call Yaz Sends Boston to the Playoffs!

You read that right, everyone!

A three-run homer by Yastrzemski clinched a playoff spot for the Boston Red Sox.....while they were losing to the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-1, at Tropicana Field.

Thankfully, Mike Yastrzemski was playing for the Atlanta Braves, and his three-run homer propelled the Braves over the Houston Astros, thus securing Boston’s spot in the postseason.

Whatever the method of clinching was, the most important thing is that they have made the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

Granted, the second Wild Card was not the professed goal of the front office, at least publicly, all winter. But with what we saw in April and May, the fact that we will still have a few more games to watch, podcasts to fight over, and articles to write means here’s too small victories.

As for the game itself, it was probably the second-to-last time we will have to see Patrick Sandoval in a Red Sox uniform, so again, a small moral victory. And since it was a Sandoval game, it was a scheduled loss, as they say.

Tampa got out early with a four-run first that sent all of Red Sox Nation scurrying to their phones, computers, and various streaming services to see if they could watch the Braves game and bring a little joy to their rainy Sunday afternoon.

Stop me if you have heard this before, but Sandoval had lots of traffic on the bases in the bottom of the first.

It started with a four-pitch walk to leadoff hitter Yandy Díaz, followed by a hit-by-pitch with two strikes to Ryan Vilade and a single by Junior Caminero to load the bases. Jonny DeLuca doubled in two runs, and then Chandler Simpson singled in two more to give Tampa a 4-0 lead before Sandoval had even recorded…