Vampires 8, Rays 7

You just cannot kill these guys. As a Yankee fan, I'm still haunted by 2004. Welcome, Tampa fans, to our world. The folks in Cleveland know how you feel.

Good luck the rest of the way, you're going to need it.

It was over. We were getting ready to lower the storm windows and put baseball to bed for the long New England winter.

And then the reeling Red Sox dug down and found the lost magic of recent Octobers. They recovered from a 7-0, seventh-inning deficit to stun the Tampa Bay Rays, 8-7, in the fifth game of the American League Championship Series. It was as wild, wacky, and wonderful as anything that's happened at Fenway Park in this century. Which is saying a lot.

In the proud tradition of the Cowboy Uppers, Idiots, gypsies, tramps, and thieves who carried this team to a couple of world championships, the 2008 Sox staved off elimination with one of the great comebacks of October lore.

The Sox won in the ninth at 12:16 this morning when J.D. Drew roped a single over the head of Rays right fielder Gabe Gross with two on and two outs. It was the 11th walkoff win in Red Sox postseason history: The first in which the Sox trailed by seven runs in the seventh.

"I've never seen a group so happy to get on a plane at 1:30 in the morning," said Sox manager Terry Francona. "In the first six innings we did nothing. They had their way with us in every way possible. And then this place became unglued and we've seen that before . . . That was pretty magical."

The series resumes in St. Petersburg, Fla., tomorrow night with the Sox still trailing, three games to two, but the catatonic Rays have to be doubting themselves after watching their World Series tickets dissolve in Fenway's midnight madness. If you are a Rays fans, you have to worry. The young bucks choked the way few have choked before. They were inches from a clean getaway, a Fenway sweep that would have embarrassed the defending world champs and elevated the Tampa team to elite status. And they coughed it all up in three ridiculous innings.

I tuned out at 7-4 well past 11 pm. Outside of New England and Tampa, I doubt many on the east coast saw the game. This morning, everyone will claim they did.