fenway park

Perched on the right-field roof at Fenway Park, Dennis Eckersley could see it all slipping away from the Boston Red Sox.

Heard it, too. No noise, no hope. "People were just sitting there. I can't remember it ever being that quiet," the Hall of Fame pitcher said Friday.

"It's not like the Rays were scoring runs on groundballs.

Fenway Park fell silent, and the Boston Red Sox were on the verge of going down without a whimper.

Joe Maddon is essentially playing with house money right now. When his Rays left for Boston early last Sunday morning, Maddon could have realistically hoped that they might return to Tampa on Friday with two wins at Fenway Park under their belts and a 3-2 ALCS lead.

Joe Maddon is essentially playing with house money right now. When his Rays left for Boston early last Sunday morning, Maddon could have realistically hoped that they might return to Tampa on Friday with two wins at Fenway Park under their belts and a 3-2 ALCS lead.

BOSTON -- By 3:15 p.m., five television trucks were idling on Van Ness Street, beyond right field of Fenway Park.

A few steps from a statue of Ted Williams and within view of a series of banners honoring Red Sox greats, a local sports reporter led into the afternoon news broadcast and summed up the club's prevailing attitude toward Manny Ramirez: "They loved his power hitting but not his antics ..."