It’s over, Jonny.

About a month ago, Zan and I went to see the Red Sox play on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. The game was awesome. The Sox won it by pulling ahead in the eighth inning on a two-run homer by Dustin Pedroia. We had a blast cheering them on and relishing the win.

The picture above is not even close to being the best one from that day … but I’ve chosen it because of the man on the mound. That’s Jonathan Papelbon, one of the most dominant closers in the game. Yesterday, in Game 3 of the ALDS versus the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, he was given the ball with a four-run lead and four outs away from victory … and he choked for the first time ever in a postseason game.

Zan and I watched the whole game together yesterday, and we were high-fiving and hugging and screaming as the Red Sox scored six times. By the time Papelbon had two outs with nobody on in the ninth inning, it was a given that there’d be a Game 4 tonight. The thought that he could have two outs and two strikes on three different guys in the ninth and end up coughing up three runs to allow the Angels to take the lead and sweep the series … well, that’s just sheer lunacy.

And yet, it happened.

That is the toughest part of being a baseball fan: having your team be scant inches from living to play another day, and then suddenly getting sandbagged. Season over, no next game, have a nice winter.

Winter. Ugh. The prospect of watching the Red Sox continue to play for the next two or three weeks was the one thing getting me through the bummer of heading into another dreary fall and winter.

At least last year, we got eight more games and a miraculous comeback before the prize got snatched away. And now here I am, again posting a Red Sox Photo of the Day to mark the disappointing end of another season.

Right about now’s the time when I wish I could swear off of being a Sox fanatic … but the likelihood of me being able to renounce my Red Sox fandom is even smaller than the odds of Papelbon blowing his first-ever postseason save.

Ugh.