ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- With the complicated math of baseball in the wild-card era, players in the Boston clubhouse were unaware the Red Sox are playoff bound.Dustin Pedroia hit his fourth career grand slam to help Rick Porcello get his major league-leading 22nd win, and the Red Sox clinched a playoff berth by beating the Tampa Bay Rays 6-4 Saturday night for their 10th consecutive win.Boston maintained a 5 1/2-game lead over Toronto for the division title and ensured no worse than the ALs second wild card. While the Red Sox technically have a magic number of one, the Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles play each other three times in the seasons final week -- meaning only one of them can win match Bostons 91 wins.Among the other wild-card contenders, only Detroit can reach 91 victories.I havent heard it, Red Sox manager John Farrell said moments after the game.Porcello was informed of the news by a reporter.Obviously, its big, Porcello said. Its the position that we wanted to be in coming into this last week of September. We definitely want the division going forward.Boston is on its longest September winning streak since an 11-game run in 1949.Pedroia stopped an 0-for-17 skid with a single in the sixth and gave Boston a 6-3 lead with a seventh-inning drive off Danny Farquhar.Everybody is obviously grinding, Pedroia said.Pedroia hit several foul balls, including one off his toe before going deep.You can see why hes as good as he is because he fought off some good pitches and got his pitch (a changeup) and crushed it, Farquhar said.Porcello (22-4) gave up three runs, eight hits and struck out nine over 6 1/3 innings. He just missed getting his 12th consecutive start of seven or more innings and three runs or fewer, which would have moved him past Cy Young (1904) and Pedro Martinez (2000) for the longest stretch during the same season in franchise history.Porcello is first Boston pitcher to have 22 wins since Martinez had 23 in his AL Cy Young Award winning season in 1999.Craig Kimbrel, the fifth Boston reliever, reached 30 saves for the sixth straight season despite allowing Logan Forsythes solo homer in the ninth.Brad Miller hit a two-run double in a three-run second that put Tampa Bay up 3-1 and gave him 80 RBI.Tampa Bay threatened in the second but failed to score due to two nice defensive plays. Pedroia made a throw from just in front of the outfield grass at second base on Mikie Mahtooks grounder to get Corey Dickerson at the plate. Third baseman Brock Holt made a solid play along the line on Alexei Ramirezs grounder and threw him out at first to end the inning.We made a couple of really nifty plays, Farrell said. Petey with a heads-up play and then Brock made a beautiful backhand play to finish the inning.TRAINERS ROOMRed Sox: Farrell didnt rule out 3B Pablo Sandoval (left shoulder) from coming back this year if an injury replacement is required in the postseason. . Knuckleballer Steven Wright (right shoulder) threw at 120 feet on level ground for the second straight day but is not ready to throw off a mound.RAYS: DH Nick Franklin (left hamstring) was in the lineup for the first time since Sept. 15. He did pinch hit twice in-between.LOOKING AHEADFarrell said LHP David Price will start Tuesday and Sunday, which lines him up for Game 2 of the AL Division Series.HONORING BIG PAPIThe Rays will honor Red Sox DH David Ortiz in a pregame ceremony Sunday before his final game at Tropicana Field. He will be just the fourth visiting player to be honored, joining Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Cal Ripken Jr. Whenever somebody takes their time to honor my career I always appreciate it, Ortiz said. Everybody has shown a lot of respect and love.UP NEXTRed Sox LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (3-7) will go against Rays RHP Jake Odorizzi (9-6) in Sundays series finale. Nike Vapormax Uk Sale . They were putting most of their energy into a record-setting offensive display. Cheap Vapormax Online . President of baseball operations Larry Beinfest was fired Friday after 12 years with the Marlins. The move came as the team neared the end of its third consecutive last-place season in the NL East. http://www.cheapvapormaxuk.com/ . -- Matt Kuchar and Harris English ran away with the Franklin Templeton Shootout, shooting a 14-under 58 on Sunday in the final-round scramble to break the tournament course record. Buy Nike Vapormax Online . President of baseball operations Larry Beinfest was fired Friday after 12 years with the Marlins. The move came as the team neared the end of its third consecutive last-place season in the NL East. Nike Vapormax Uk . -- Nathan Pancel scored twice as the Sudbury Wolves defeated the North Bay Battalion 4-2 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. LOS ANGELES -- Clay Helton, whose first season as head coach of No. 20 USC begins against No. 1 Alabama on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium (8 p.m. ET, ABC), is replacing more than just a coach. He is replacing an era.When Pat Haden, the former Trojans athletic director, took interim off of Heltons title last November, USC formally stopped trying to extend Pete Carrolls nine-year tenure of glitz and glamour.USC is not Hollywood, Helton said.Wait just a minute, Coach. Or should we say Cut!?John Wayne played for USC, for heavens sake. Frank Gifford and O.J. Simpson glided through the Trojans line and into TV careers. During Carrolls wildly successful tenure -- two national championships, three Heisman Trophy winners, seven conference championships and 28 All-Americans -- USC became Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian. Matt Leinart and Lindsay Lohan. Snoop Dogg and Will Ferrell on the sideline.Thats exactly who the new head coach of USC isnt. Carroll, the bling coach, is gone. His successors, Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian, melted in front of TMZs lights. They proved ill-equipped to handle the pressures of trying to win with their hands tied by NCAA probation. The devastating penalties took away 30 scholarships over three seasons and resulted in USC being stripped of two Pac-12 titles and Bushs Heisman.The probation is over, too, and there is a sense of a fresh start at USC. Sarks replacement, Helton, hunts alligators. Hes courtly and self-deprecating, two traits that every Southern parent demands. His mantra is faith, family and football, and those items are not just in alphabetical order. And the only Kim hanging around the Trojans these days is Heltons father. Kim Helton was the head coach of the Houston Cougars for seven seasons and spent 12 as an NFL assistant.To repeat, USC is not Hollywood, at least in the mind of its new head coach.When you think of the names Marcus Allen and Ronnie Lott, Marv Goux, a legendary [assistant] coach here, you just think of toughness and physicality, Clay Helton said. Those are the things that have won championship after championship here.The image of Carrolls teams was of a regular lunchpail crew, if you buy your lunchpails at Prada.It is customary in college football to hire a new coach who is the opposite of the old, failed predecessor. A disciplinarian follows a players coach. A defensive guru takes over from a guy who kept all the talent on offense.So, ditch the limo; cue the Ford F-150. Lets all pretend that USC has left La La Land (meaning Tinseltown, not the new Emma Stone-Ryan Gosling romantic comedy).Take the new discipline inside the Trojans locker room. Before Helton took over, if a player skipped a class, he got two hours of physical drills. Now, if a player skips a class, his whole position group gets the extra work.You had guys who would book it in their weekly schedule, their two-hour punishment, quarterback Max Browne said. They may miss class, and on Friday afternoon, I might die for those two hours, but Ill be able to sleep through a class for the rest of the way. Its one thing if you miss a class, you get punished yourself and only yourself. But when your teammates are also getting punished? Thats a whole other element.Take the feeling of family. Clay hired his brother, Tyson, to coordinate the Trojans passing game. You can cry nepotism, at least until you see that for the last two seasons, he ran the Western Kentucky offense in which Brandon Doughty threw for 9,885 yards and 97 touchdowns.Tyson Helton brought offensive line coach Neil Callaway with him. Callaway was on the Auburn staff when Clay Helton signed there as a quarterback in 1990. Callaway spent four seasons as Kim Heltons offensive coordinator at Houston. Kim Helton spent five seasons as Callaways offensive coordinator at UAB.Callaway started for Bear Bryant on the Alabama team that beat USC in 1977. He spent more than two decades as an assistant at Auburn, Georgia and Alabama before he went to UAB. Callaway has a voice thats part syrup, part metal grinder. Actually, he just grinds up players.He brings us Southern hospitality, Southern gentlemanship and very much a Southern toughness, Clay Helton said. I just knew that experience, that knowledge, that toughness and physicality was something that I really wanted for our culture.Helton warned his offensive line.I said, Guys, just understand, Helton said. Youre going to think this guy is literally the devil. But after a month youre going to love him, because youre gonna know hes going to make you better as a player.After three sessions of spring practice, offensive tackle Zach Banner cornered Helton in the locker room and said, Coach, know this. Were taking Coach Callaway out to dinner and youre never going to see him again because were going to kill him.We gott a good bunch of guys, Callaway said of his players.dddddddddddd I dont mean theyre all angels. I aint saying that. But all the kids are into ball. Its important to them.There aint been a whole lot of Trojans assistant coaches saying aint lately.Take the way that Helton and his staff are coaching. The players understand why theyre so tough.He loves us, you know what Im saying? Toa Lobendahn said of Helton. A big thing in life for me is giving out love. I feel hes a big proponent of that. The way he treats us and respects us and even coaches us, thats the way we want it to be.The only time Ive ever seen him get [upset] is if weve done something outside of football -- if weve left our dining area dirty and [the custodial staff] had to clean up for us and he had to hear about it, or we left our players lounge dirty.Hes probably the most genuine guy Ive ever met, not even just [in] football but outside of it, Browne said of Helton.All of which shows how Helton is wrong. USC is still Hollywood, but under Helton, its rated G. Frank Capra would have loved him.Helton was practically born in a college football stadium. Kim was a graduate assistant at Florida in 1972, the year Clay was born.Heck, the first year of my life were living in the Swamp, Helton said. Were living in the dorms right at the stadium. I grew up in the profession.As a quarterback at Auburn and then for his dad at Houston, Helton proved he would be a better coach than player. As soon as he graduated, Duke head coach Fred Goldsmith, an old colleague of Kim, made Clay a graduate assistant. A year later, at age 23, Helton became the Blue Devils running backs coach. He went into the family business. The construction business lost a hardhat.I think my mom is still mad at me, Helton said. I was nine hours short of a mechanical engineering degree. I had enough hours to get an interdisciplinary math and science degree.Helton spent 10 seasons as an offensive assistant coach at Memphis, rising to the job of offensive coordinator. He coached All-America running back DeAngelo Williams. And in his last season, 2009, as the Tigers plummeted to a 2-10 record that cost head coach Tommy West and his staff their jobs, Helton made an impression.When Memphis lost to Tennessee and first-year head coach Lane Kiffin, 56-28, the Tigers rushed for 210 yards and threw for 193. After the season, Monte Kiffin, the Vols defensive coordinator and Lanes dad, called Helton.He said, Clay, yall did the best job against us. Do you mind taking me through what you saw? Were going to play Virginia Tech [in the Chick-fil-A Bowl]. I feel like theyre going to do some of the things that you did. What did you see? So we ended up talking for a couple of hours, Helton said.Helton left Memphis and landed at Arkansas State. Weeks later -- so soon after the move that Helton was still sleeping on the floor of his new Jonesboro office -- Monte Kiffin called again. Lane had gone to USC and he needed a quarterback coach. Helton agreed to interview after signing day.Not thinking that I have a chance in hell, he said, laughing. Got through signing day, came out here, and something just clicked. ... Probably some guys said no, and youre the one left standing. Something clicked. Like I told everybody, I felt like I won the lottery coming out here.Helton weathered the storms of coaching under Kiffin and Sarkisian. When interim head coach Ed Orgeron refused to coach the Trojans in the 2013 Las Vegas Bowl, Helton took over. And when USC fired Sarkisian after five games last season, Helton took over again. The Trojans went 5-2 over the rest of the regular season, and the day after they beat crosstown rival UCLA to clinch the Pac-12 South championship, Helton lost his interim status.If you want to see people who think they won the lottery, watch the video of the teams reaction when Haden told the USC players their new coach would be their current coach. It looks like every World Series celebration youve ever seen, minus the champagne.With all of Heltons new responsibilities, Browne said his head coach hasnt changed one bit. The feeling around the team, though, changed a lot.Less on edge, I guess, Browne said. Just to be going out and playing a game, playing football, I think it was nice to just kind of move on from all that. It just seemed more free, and I dont want to say that because it makes it sound like it was unstructured. It wasnt unstructured. But it seemed like guys were just going out there and having fun.If there is to be a Clay Helton era at USC, the lights, camera and action begin Saturday night. USC football is still Hollywood. Theres just a new guy in charge of the studio. ' ' '
