Krause: It was a most improbable, heart-stopping day/night in Boston sports

Hello sweetheart ? give me rewrite.If there were ever a line that symbolized the rough and tumble world of the old-fashioned ink-stained wretch, that would be it.A A Dornfeld liked it so much he used it as the title for his story about the City News Bureau of Chicago (upon which the movie The Front Page is derived).Sunday, rewrite desks all over America swung into action not once ? but twice. First, the New England Patriots and Tom Brady rallied to beat the New Orleans Saints, 30-27, with a 17-yard pass to Kembrell Thompkins with five seconds left at Gillette Stadium. Less than five hours later, it was the Red Sox responding to the ” top this” challenge by pulling their own Lazarus, coming back from a 5-0 hole to beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-5, in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, with Jarrod Saltalamacchia?s walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth scoring Jonny Gomes.It was left to the dour, taciturn Bill Belichick to utter the remark that neatly summed up the day.?Sorry if you had to rewrite some of those stories there at the end,” said the coach, with a hint of a smirk, as he addressed the media after his game. “I feel as if that took five years off my life.”He wasn?t alone. For after Detroit starter Max Scherzer lulled everyone to sleep with a frighteningly efficient seven innings of work in the nightcap of this improbable piece of Boston sports history, the Red Sox made innings eight and nine a heart attack-in-waiting.Let?s start at the top. The Patriots went into the lockerroom leading the Saints, 17-7, and leaving us to wonder how ? with their two best defensive linemen out and Rob Gronkowski still hors de combat ? that was possible.It appeared as if the Saints woke up. A field goal and a touchdown later, it was tied 17-17 in the third quarter and New England?s best cornerback, Aqib Talib, went limping off with a hamstring issue (the Patriots called it a hip, but it was the hammie). They would later lose valuable linebacker Jerod Mayo as well.The Patriots retook the lead, 23-17, on two Stephen Gostkowski field goals but the Saints got it back on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Drew Brees to Kenny Stills that made the score 24-23. Twice, the Patriots tried to dig their way out. The first time, they went four and out, going for the fourth down and giving the Saints a short field. The defense held, and New Orleans got a field goal to make it 27-23. The Pats tried again, only to have the Saints pick Brady off.Once again, the Patriots defense forced a three-and-out, giving Brady one last chance will still over a minute left (horrible clock management,not to mention play-calling, by the Saints).This time, Brady didn?t miss. Completions to Julien Edelman and newly-acquired receiver Austin Collie set up the final 17-yard pass to Thompkins with five seconds left.The play, coming just 45 minutes before the first pitch was scheduled at Fenway, provoked a huge ovation from the fans already seated at the venerable ballpark.Then, for seven innings, the Red Sox could do little with Scherzer, who struck out 13 batters in seven innings, allowing two hits and one run. In fact, the Red Sox might as well have been hitting with toothpicks to that point. In 14 2/3 innings, they got three hits and scored one run off Tiger pitching ? two of the hits and the only run coming in the bottom of the sixth inning Sunday (Shane Victorino single and Dustin Pedroia double) after the Tigers had taken a 5-0 lead.But when Tigers manager Jim Leyland decided not to bring Scherzer out for the eighth, the Red Sox went to work. With one out, Will Middlebrooks doubled and Jacoby Ellsbury walked. After Victorino struck out, Pedroi a?s base hit to right loaded the bases (down 5-1, the Red Sox weren?t about to take any risks).That?s when Leyland brought in his closer, Joaquin Benoit. A night earlier, Benoit got out of a dicey ninth inning by getting Xander Bogaerts to pop up. But he wasn?t facing Bogaerts Sunday night. He was facing David Ortiz, he o