Fenway Park had long since been vacated by 12:50 a.m., the people drastically outnumbered by the garbage bags that marked where a game had been played. But there were a few people left in the hidden recesses of Fenway Park to react when Rangers first baseman Hank Blalock struck out looking to conclude Texas’ 5-2 loss to the Angels.

And with that, it was official. A bit more than two hours after their fifth straight defeat, this one an 8-7 decision to the Blue Jays, the Red Sox were left to celebrate. Never mind the recent losing streak. With a 91-66 record, the Sox had clinched the American League Wild Card, marking the team’s sixth trip to the playoffs in the span of seven years, a remarkable run of success that only one other team (the Yankees) can claim in that timeframe.

And so, the Sox celebrated. Behind the closed doors of the clubhouse, the muffled sounds were of players hollering and, as manager Terry Francona had suggested just a couple days earlier, grown men behaving like little boys. Because the ballpark was empty save for team employees and the couple dozen remaining members of the media, there were no snapshots of a celebration: no Riverdance, no opportunity to spray the fans with champagne, no occasion to storm nearby watering holes and pour drinks for the celebrating fans.

The clubhouse was never opened to the media, instead a steady drip of six bubbly- and beer-soaked players (Mike Lowell, Dustin Pedroia, Jason Bay, Tim Wakefield, Takashi Saito and Junichi Tazawa) making their way into the concourse just outside of the clubhouse to offer their reactions to the accomplishment. The exchanges were a bit awkward, as the players left the thumping bass of the clubhouse for the silence of the empty ballpark, but the enthusiasm, sense of achievement and anticipation for another October run nevertheless came through.

Some of the postgame reactions:

MIKE LOWELL

“It’s up there, man. We play from the first day of spring training, this is the goal. I know it wasn’t the ideal thing and you’d probably much rather do it on the field after a victory but you know, we battled hard all year to get to this point. I don’t care how it comes. We deserve to celebrate just like the other teams that have made the playoffs. We’re excited to be here. This is hopefully step one. I think we’ve got our team where we want it to be and we’re excited.”

“It’s wet. No, guys I think just feel the ultimate satisfaction of starting out in spring training, you have this goal. The season always brings ups and downs but you fight through it collectively and you enjoy the good times. Like I say, we deserve to enjoy this time. Not every team gets to go to the playoffs and I know my first five years in the big leagues, I was home right after the last day of the season so any time I have to celebrate a great team accomplishment, I think we should.”

“I think, you know, there’s a decent core of us that have now reached the postseason three years in a row. That consistency is something that we’re really proud of. I think there’s a lot of expectations playing in this market that you have to reach the postseason. To meet those expectations, I think you feel very satisfied but with that being said, I don’t think we want to be complacent just reaching the postseason. We want to go deep.”

(How many guys are in the clubhouse?) “I’m saying 90 percent. Some guys live kind of far away. They’ve got families. Everyone’s got their own situation. I’d say a big handful of us. Everyone was kind of asking around, what happens if we don’t win? Do we stick around. I think the overwhelming response was absolutely. We came into this together and we should celebrate together.”

Different feeling? “It’s a little different because we didn’t do it on the field but I don’t think that takes away the joy we have. It’s still a great accomplishment for us.”

What about the fans? “I think you can notice today, we were down 8-2 and they’re all on their feet looking for a rally. They get us going. They’re a big part of why we succeed here at Fenway and they’re a big part of why we have such great support across the country.”

What about Papelbon? “He’s probably in a thong right now with goggles and drinking Budweiser. Anheuser Busch.”

DUSTIN PEDROIA

We’re excited.

Any time you make the playoffs, it’s a great accomplishment. It’s a good season. Now we just have to go out there, play well and win a championship.
It doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you’re in.

I went home, put my son to sleep and came back. We all watched the game.

(What were you doing upon the Rangers’ final out?) We were all yelling at each other. That was pretty much it.

We like our chances. We have a great pitching staff. It’d be nice to have some momentum. We’ve lost a few games in a row. But when playoff time comes, a lot of guys have been through it. That’s a positive thing.

[Where's the celebration?] Just in the clubhouse.

[Weird to clinch while not winning?] Got swept in New York, lost the first two games against Toronto, so we definitely wanted to get in. We’ve got some guys banged up, guys that can take a couple days off, get rested and ready to go. We’re excited.

[Would you like to be on a roll] We’d like to have played better.

The last few games haven’t been good. But we’ll be alright. I don’t think anybody is [excited] over the last couple losses, but we’re excited to be in the playoffs and make a run at everything.

JASON BAY

“I left for a little bit, but I was following the GameCast on my phone and got back before the end of the game.”

[Is it weird to celebrate despite the team's recent struggles?] “I don’t think so. I feel like three in a row in the New York series and now this, a couple tough games, but this was something we just wanted, I don’t want to say get over with, but it was something on the horizon that we wanted to put it behind us and look forward now that it’s locked up.”

“You play an entire season, spring training included, to get to this point. One night, you get to throw champagne around, and have a little bit of fun.

I think that everyone is entitled to that.”

[How many players are in there?] “I don’t have a head count, per se. I’d say – we’ve got a lot of guys, probably about 85, 90 percent of the guys. I don’t know exactly how many. But I would say most of them, for sure.”

“I was on a team where this would have been a luxury, going to the playoffs.”

“You construct a team, you put it a certain way, a lot of things still have to go right. Four teams from each league get to go to the playoffs. That’s the big thing – everyone’s pulling in the same direction.”

A lot of people expect good things, big things.

They deserve it.

It’s kind of like that reward at the end. You get to go to the playoffs. That’s what you wanted to do. Not ultimately: there’s still a lot more to do.

[When do you start thinking about the Angels?] Probably in the next couple days. I’ll admit that a couple people probably already have, especially since we played them a couple weeks ago. It’s pretty fresh in our minds.

There’s some history in this wild card and what have you, so it shouldn’t be a dull one. No question. But I think right now, enjoy it and we’ve got a week to get ready.

TIM WAKEFIELD

“It’s always good to get in the postseaon. I’ve been a part of a lot of these and I’m happy to be going again.”

[Weird the way it happened?]

No because we watched NY lose to Baltimore that one year [2007] we won the East. That was I can’t remember … two years ago? I’ve been here too long. My years are running together. We’d have like to have won tonight and celebrated on the field, but we’ll take it any way we can get it.

[ever get old?]

Never. Never. There’s so much work that goes on from the offseason into spring training with one goal in mind and that’s to get to the postseason and win the World Series. It doesn’t matter how you get in as long as you get in.

[what makes this team special?]

It’s a different group of guys than what we started the year with. That’s what makes this special. The organization did a great job of picking up guys like Victor and Wags and putting pieces together when we were struggling for a little while and we came through tonight to get in the postseason.

[what’s it say about guys sticking around?]

That says a lot about our team that we really care aobut where we’re going. Most of the team is here, 99 percent. It says a lot about the character of this team.

NEW YORK — As the Yankees streamed onto the field from the clubhouse, the bullpen and the dugout to celebrate their first division title since 2006, several members of the Red Sox remained behind in the dugout to take stock of the festivities. They did not seethe. They did not mourn.

It is one thing to watch champagne corks fly in late October, quite another to see a team enjoy itself in late-September after winning the American League East on the strength of a remarkable 100-win season. The Red Sox considered it anything but a devastating development to watch the Yankees celebrate on their home turf, given the likelihood that Boston will enjoy its own festivities back at Fenway Park in the coming days.

“We’re going to be celebrating something sooner rather than later,” said outfielder Jason Bay. “It wasn’t like it was a stunning revelation that just happened. They just played a better series than we did and it resulted in them clinching the division. Now we have to take care of our business and get ourselves a playoff spot and do the same. I don’t think it was more insult to injury. You get swept, and that was the result.”

The Red Sox did suffer the ignominy of a three-game sweep in New York, as well as losses in nine of the last 10 meetings between the two teams. The Yankees were relieved by the turn of events, which was largely responsible for the team’s separation from the Sox.

“They were very difficult on us the first half of the season. It was frustrating.  We had to answer questions about it and our guys got frustrated about answering questions about it,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. “The way we were able to turn that around was important for this club.”

Though the Yankees — after losing each of the first eight games this year to the Red Sox — manhandled Boston down the stretch, the Sox insist that the one-sided conclusion of the regular-season series is hardly cause for alarm should the two teams meet in October.

“The playoffs are a different beast,” said Mike Lowell. “There’s too many swings [in a playoff series] to worry about, ‘Hey, they beat us nine out of the last 10.’ I don’t think that’s a factor at all.”

Moreover, because the Sox have the experience of winning the World Series as both a wild card and division winning team, they have the luxury of perspective. Four teams have won the World Series as the wild card during the 14 years of the current playoff format. The team — which has spent much of the last week beginning to rest players to keep them fresh and strong come the start of the playoffs — hardly dwells on how it gets into the playoffs, so long as it gets there.

The A.L. East title was viewed as a point of pride, but with only limited practical benefit, foremost in a home field advantage. Certainly, the Sox — whose magic number is at two following the Rangers’ 7-6 loss to the Rays — will not apologize for how they punch a ticket to October.

“I was a Wild Card once and got a Series. That means I don’t care,” said David Ortiz. “The Wild Card has been dangerous the last [14] years I guess.”

That being the case, the Sox were by and large willing to tip their collective caps to the Yankees for a spectacular regular season. In a division that was considered unbelievably deep with talent, the fact that New York has already claimed 100 victories is somewhat remarkable. Certainly, it was a profound mode of separation from the disappointment of having missed the 2008 playoffs. New York has gone 85-39 in its last 124 games, establishing itself clearly as the most dominating team in baseball during the regular season.

“I think I actually made the comment that they probably got aggravated and that they’d spend a billion. I was only half right,” mused Sox manager Terry Francona. “They’ve got a good team. It’s an unbelievable regular season.”

Now, the Sox look forward to securing their own berth in the playoffs. If that happens, then the team hopes that Sunday marked the last time this year that it will have to watch the Yankees celebrate. Some members of the Sox — among them, Ortiz, Jason Varitek and Dustin Pedroia — lingered in the dugout and observed the Yankees’ joy.

“I was just thinking about the game, how the game went and some situations we should have executed better and we never did and that made the difference. Watching the season they had last year and watching the way they played this year, they deserved to celebrate,” said Ortiz. “Hopefully we’ll get back here sometime because I know the way they’re playing is great. We might have the chance to face them again, you know?”

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After the Red Sox’ 8-5 loss to the Rays on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field, both members of the top of the Sox’ rotation said they were fine physically and looking ahead and not back.

Jon Lester said that the ailment that led Red Sox manager Terry Francona to take him out of the game for precautionary reasons wasn’t so much of an issue with his groin but more his right hip. The lefty said the injury felt better a day after his start and that it shouldn’t hinder any part of his preparation for his next start.

As for Josh Beckett, who struggled at the outset of his Wednesday start — surrendering four runs in the first two innings — before finishing strong in the final few frames of his five-inning stint, he felt cause for some optimism, but the outcome trumped any improvements.

“A lot of it is based on results and we lost today,” he said.

One of the positives stemming from Beckett’s outing, which was marred primarily by a three-run second inning, was the continued improvement of his two-seam fastball, which he later estimated resulted in just one hit (a single) all night.

As for the other Beckett quotes…

“The big inning was the second inning. I thought I made some adjustments after that.”

“I just wasn’t locating my pitches.”

“We lost so there wasn’t a whole lot of positives to come out of that.”

“We lost. I just have to look at the damage there in the second inning. Base hit after base hit just isn’t going to do it.”

Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell was a bit more descriptive after Beckett’s start, which moved him to 0-2 with an 8.88 ERA in his last four appearances.

“He threw the ball with more consistency in terms of quality of execution of pitches. He battled enough to keep us in the ballgame. Clearly tonight there was an improvement from innings two, and then (during innings) three through six he had much better action on his curveball. His fastball command, particularly in the bottom of the zone, was better. Unfortunately the way things turned out in the end of the game it wasn’t enough for it to hold up.”

“Tonight was probably reminiscent of the game he had in Baltimore when he had a couple of rough innings and then he was able to right the ship and pitch very effectively and dominant for the last four innings he was out there.”

“I think tonight, you look at 70-percent-plus strikes and the total number of pitches he threw. I think tonight was more typical of the outings he gives, particularly in the four innings I mentioned.”

Red Sox outfielder Jason Bay also chimed in on Beckett’s outing…

“He had one or two bad innings, and that one inning got away from him. Other than that it seemed he kind of found his stuff after that. He wasn’t leaving those pitches over the middle of the plate like he had been, and I think that’s a positive for both him and us going forward is that he really finished on a good note.”

“It’s just a reminder that it isn’t over yet but ultimately we like the spot we’re in.”

That spot right now is with the Red Sox holding a lead of 2 1/2 games on Texas and five games over Tampa Bay in the Wild Card.