Rays rally to snatch AL wild card from Boston

Tampa Bay Rays pulled out the American League wild playoff berth card from the clutches of the Boston Red Sox from a stunning 12-inning home victory over the New York Yankees on the last day of the regular season on Wednesday.

Rays looked down and out, but destroyed 7-0 deficit with six runs in the eighth and two out of Homer, Dan Johnson in the ninth, before the demolition of houses Evan Longoria's run in the 12th sealed the victory hardly 8.7.

Longoria, who limited the eighth inning rally with a three run home run in the house was surrounded by the plate after its demolition brought down the left field line from Scott Proctor for the victory.

The stunning triumph in conjunction with the heartbreaking loss to Boston, 4.3 included Baltimore Rays (91-71) to clinch a berth and avoid Matches one game playoff against the Red Sox (90-72) were the teams ended the regular season with identical records.

Boston led Ray’s nine games in the first days of September before their dives in recent weeks.

Triumph of the Tampa Bay came in a few minutes after, Red Sox squandered lead 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth, when closer Jonathan Papelbon was unable to win after hitting the first two batters.

Chris Davis lined up two of the doubling of the right-field line and Nolan Reimold followed with a ground-rule double to center to tie the game.

Great Expectations

When Robert Andino lined performance scoring one that charging left fielder Carl Crawford narrowly managed to glove the last placed Orioles celebrated as if they got to the playoffs.

"I'm disappointed," said Crawford, who signed the richest free agent contract with Boston after stellar season’s rays.

"I had high hopes for this season."

Papelbon added: "Whatever does not kill you makes you stronger, I was always alone recover We recover and come back next year after it again ..."

Rays and Red Sox entered the final day of the 162-game season with a 90-71 record. If they both win or lose, they would have met in Florida on Thursday to see who would advance the division playoffs.

"I'm just so lucky to get this opportunity and take advantage of," said reserve first baseman Johnson, who had two strikes on him when he belted the game tying pinch hit Homer in the ninth against reliever Cory Wade.

"This team is just a bunch of grinders. We just go out there and try to win every night. We just kept grinding it."

Longoria said he had heard Orioles tied Red Sox, as he reached the plate in the 12th, and then I realized Boston lost, when I heard the crowd roaring Tropicana Field even louder.

"I cannot express it in words. We were there for the most part of five hours, after which it seemed that everything happened within seconds," Longoria said after a four-hour 54-minute match against Al-best Yankees.

"It was a lot of different things going on in my head."