Inside the Thrilling and Super Fun Red Sox–Rays ALDS

What a series. We typically reserve that summation for playoff series that go the full five or seven games, because there’s nothing like the adrenaline rush of a winner-take-all game to decide an exciting matchup. But the Red Sox–Rays ALDS, which ended in four games with Boston's knocking out last year’s AL champs, was the exception to the going-the-distance rule. This series had everything we could’ve hoped for.

First came the setup: This series featured two intradivision foes that faced each other 19 teams in the regular season, with Tampa Bay winning 11 of them.