At 10:02 EST, Mariano Rivera induced a groundout from Lyle Overbay, ending the Red Sox' season.
There you are folks. It took longer than many of us might have expected, but math has finally caught up to expectation.
On the one hand, this sucks. This really, really sucks. We had a fantastic team this year that was killed by some of the worst luck imaginable. Youkilis, Pedroia, Martinez, Buchholz, Ellsbury, Cameron, Varitek, Lowrie, Beckett, Scutaro--it's really amazing that this team is fighting for 90+ wins right now, and all the more disappointing that such an amazing effort will be for naught.
On the other hand, at least now we're done with it. Wipe the slate clean, try and ignore the playoffs if the Yankees win, and look forward to an offseason that will shape the Sox for the next few years--hopefully, all of them healthier than this one.