"If the freefalling Red Sox live to see the playoffs — amazingly, they're still running at the head of the wild card race — they can thank the New York Yankees.

How's that for irony?

Before and after the Sox sent their surest thing, ace right-hander Josh Beckett, to the mound and absorbed yet another gut-punch, 6-4, from the bottom-feeding Baltimore Orioles last night in the regular-season finale at Fenway Park [map], the Yankees stormed back to win a pair of 4-2 decisions against the Tampa Bay Rays.

That's what qualifies as good news in the Red Sox clubhouse these days.

"We're basically just keeping pace right now," Beckett said. "We've been pretty fortunate (the Rays) are playing who they are and still playing well. Would we like it to be different? Yeah. We would have liked to pick up a game or two today, or even yesterday or the day before. Right now, it's kind of status quo.""