After seeing his Red Sox complete a stunning collapse that saw them lose the American League wild card playoff berth on the last day of the regular season, Boston first baseman Adrian Gonzalez took the disappointment calmly.“It’s definitely something we didn’t plan for,” Boston Globe writer Peter Abraham quoted Gonzalez as saying. “We were wholly confident that we would make the playoffs, but it didn’t happen. We didn’t do a better job with the lead. I’m a firm believer that God has a plan, and it wasn’t in His plan for us to move forward. God didn’t have it in the cards for us.”
Instead of blaming the Man Upstairs, the Red Sox All-Star who grew up in Tijuana pointed to the schedule: “We play too many night games on getaway days and get into places at 4 in the morning. This has been my toughest season physically because of that. We play a lot of night games on Sunday for television and those things take a lot out of you.”
The Red Sox had a nine-game lead over Tampa Bay for the wild card berth on September 3, but hit the skids over the final month of the regular season to lose out to the Rays on the final day of the schedule.
Abraham took umbrage at Gonzalez’ philosophical view of his team’s collapse, but it’s hard to place much blame on the four-time All-Star. In his first season in Boston, Gonzalez batted .338 with 27 homers and 117 RBIs, leading the American League with 213 hits. He also fielded .997 at first base, committing just 4 errors in 1,351 chances. Over the final ten games of the season, he batted .417 by going 15-for-36 plus 8 walks for an on-base percentage of .639.
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