I Hate Yo-Yo's - Jenn

Up and down. Up and down. That's what a yo-yo does. And that's what the Red Sox were last night.

I knew it was going to be an interesting evening when Wang, who was lights out when the Sox faced him last Friday, walked Pedroia. Wang who rarely gives up a walk, gave up three in the first four innings and Pedroia was the first. He'd eventually come around to score on a double by Manny Ramirez and it looked like maybe we could extend the winning streak to five. Unfortunately Clay Buchholz gave up three runs in the 2nd half of the first inning and the yo-yo began.

It's a sad state of affairs when your offense is working its butt off and yet the defense is taking a nap. Actually it wasn't all the defense, just the pitching. Last night's pitching staff was horrible on both sides. It just happened to be worse on ours. Buchholz, the starter, only made it 3.2 innings before he was pulled for giving up 8 hits and 7 runs. Julian Tavarez would come in for the last out of the third and eventually give up four more runs over his inning and a third. Clearly the Tavarez of '06 was back again. I swear this guy's a regular Jekyll and Hyde, too bad you never know what you're gonna get. Last night Hyde was back.

Aardsma would take over for two shutout innings making him the only beacon in a foggy sea of bad pitching. With only 2 hits over his two innings, his ERA is now a healthy 1.80. Too bad Timlin's not in the same ballpark.

Timlin may have saved face the other night with a scoreless inning against the Tribe, but the pitching challenged man I hate so much was back in glorious form last night. He came in for the 8th inning and the Sox were only down by two runs. Unfortunately by the time time Timlin left the mound, the Sox would be down by 6. Over that one inning Timlin would give up three hits, two walks and four runs. And while Giambi didn't homer off him again, he did get a double to drive in two. At this rate I wonder if Giambi is paying Timlin to make him look good. The man who can't hit anything, seems to hit everything Timlin throws at him.

While the yo-yo continued through all nine innings, the fifth inning is when it really took off. The score was 7-3 Yanks. It looked like the game was over and there were still five innings left. But then a miracle happened. The first five men that Wang faced reached and three more runs scored before he was pulled for Ohlendorf. But he didn't fare much better giving up two more hits and two walks. By the time the inning was over the Sox had batted around, Pedroia had gotten two hits in one inning, and they were back in the lead 9-7. Unfortunately, that lead wouldn't last long thanks to Tavarez who I've already talked about.

By the time the fifth inning was over, an unbelievable 50 minutes later, 19 batters had come to the plate, there were 10 hits, 10 runs were scored and a whopping 72 pitches were thrown. In one inning. I should've turned the TV off at that point. But I'm a masochist and had to see how it'd all turn out. As I've already mentioned, it didn't turn out well for our boys from Boston. But today's a new day and Beckett's back on the mound. Here's hoping we can turn things around.