In the middle of the 7th inning, with the Red Sox trailing the Rays 7-0, my wife abandoned the vigil and went to bed. I told her I was staying up, because the Red Sox, while heartless and inert, had been a big part of my life for six-plus months. I owed it to this team (to myself) to watch it through to its morbid, inevitable finale, even though it felt like watching your friend go to the gallows.

But in the words of Gunny Sgt. Hartman, "Well, holy dog sh*t."

Four runs scored on two-out hits in the 7th?

Pedroia’s feisty at-bat, getting us off the snide?

A three-run homer from Big Papi, who’d been dead?

A two-run homer from J.D. Drew, who’d been dead?

Remember the Duke-Kentucky game when Laettner hit that game-winning turnaround from the foul line off that baseline baseball pass? Thomas Davis put his hands on his head and nearly wept in disbelief.

(What, you want my man card? Fine, take it, I nearly deuced through the floor when J.D. Drew went yard.)

And then, once I regained control of my bowels, Mark Kotsay finally gets one past B.J. Upton. At this stage, I’m saying, "OK, we came back, we showed we had some grit. If we have to lose 7-6, with Coco Crisp at the plate, I can’t complain."

And then Crisp hits a rope to right, and you expect the play at the plate ("Keel heeeeem!") but a bad throw from Gabe Gross allows Kotsay to score (hurrah!) and traps Coco in no-man’s land.

For a time, the momentum seemed stunted, especially after the Rays had first and second and one out in the 9th, with Carlos Pena up.

But then the Sox induce the inning-ending double play.

That was it, we had it. You knew it.

J.D. Drew…

Wow, I’m sure the Rays’ bullpen will take a lot of grief for this loss. But what I saw, as a fan of the Red Sox, was a team that wasn’t going to go out like a punk bitch. It sure seemed like they would — after losing the last two games by a margin of 22-5, and then trailing this game 7-0.

Seven runs down? That team? I would have wagered that my discarded fingernail clippings had more life.

So much to digest after this game.

For now, however, I marvel at a team that drew blood from a stone.