Thanks Angels, see you losers next week

In what has to go down as one of the lamest clinches in sports history, the Boston Red Sox lost to the Toronto Blue Jays 8-7 last night-their fifth straight defeat-but still obtained the American League wild card as the Rangers lost to the Angels 5-2 early this morning.

It is the sixth time in the last seven seasons that the Red Sox have made the postseason.

It would have been a perfect way to win it as the Sox (91-66) rallied from a 8-2 deficit with five runs in the eighth at Fenway Park. Kevin Youkilis struck out looking to end the game with two runners on base.

Oh well, none of this matters one iota. Nobody has to think about the Red Sox for the next week or so, before the real games start against the Angels in the ALDS. It'll be the third straight season that the two teams have met in the first round and it's hard to forget how dominant the Sox have been over the Angels in October.

Clay Buchholz was shelled last night after having been spectacular for the last month or two. In five innings, he allowed seven earned runs on eight hits with a walk and four strikeouts. The loss dropped him to 7-4 and he gave up five home runs.

Adam Lind-who should be AL rookie of the year-had three homers for Toronto (74-84).

In the first, Jose Bautista hit a homer on the first pitch of the game and Lind followed shortly after that with a two-run bomb. Travis Snider's RBI single made it 4-0 Blue Jays in the first.

Victor Martinez drove in Dustin Pedroia (3 hits) with an RBI single in the bottom of the first.

Aaron Hill (his 36th, HAHA) hit a solo homer in the second and Jason Bay scored on Ricky Romero's wild pitch in the bottom of the second.

After struggling so much against Boston this season, Romero (13-9) finally had a decent start. He went five innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with a walk and three strikeouts.

The Blue Jays hit three more solo home runs: Kevin Millar in the 3rd, Lind in the 5th and Lind in the 7th to make it 8-2.

That's when the Red Sox bats came alive and it looked like they'd have one of their most memorable wins of the season. Youkilis and David Ortiz (2 hits) both had RBI doubles in the eighth. Ortiz just missed his 29th homer as his drive hit a bullpen wall. J.D. Drew had the big blast as he cranked a three-run shot over Toronto's bullpen.

Jason Frasor nearly blew it but he recorded his 11th save.

With so much going on elsewhere in the sports world: Bruins open up tomorrow, Patriots-Ravens on Sunday and Celtics starting training camp, it's nice that the Red Sox games are completely irrelevant for a few days.

The playoffs will be here soon enough.