Patriots Day and a Clean Sweep - Jenn

First I want to apologize for having been out of the loop for a few days, I was out of town. But I'm back now and what a homecoming.

Since today's Patriot's Day's game was so early (it may have been 11 on the east coast but that's 8 am for me) the Red Sox bar I go to all the time made special arrangements to open early just for the event. Before I talk about the game, I want to give a shout out to my favorite Sox bar in LA County - Fat Faced Fenner's Fishack. It's on Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach and it's great. I've been going there to watch both the Sox and the Patriots for so many years, I'm now a regular and know most of the hardcore patrons. Anyway, since this morning was such an early start, Rob, one of the bartenders, decided to open the back bar at 7:30 just for us hardcore fans to watch the game. So at 8 am, just before the first pitch, I joined the handful of die hard Sox fans who decided to blow off work to watch the game.

And what a game. We outscored, outhit and just outplayed the Rangers in the final game of a four game series. Pedroia went 2 for five, extending his hitting streak to 10 games and Papi's coming back strong. First his grand slam on Friday and two more hits today driving in three of the Sox's 8 runs to bring his batting average up to .177. Sure that average may not be standard for Papi, but it's going up, and that's all that matters.

All those runs are owed to Texas' middle relief. Kason Gabbard was doing a fine job keeping his former team at bay until the second inning when in the middle of a pitch he stumbled and rolled an ankle. He finished out the inning but gave up three walks which luckily for him didn't turn into any runs. He seemed to be doing okay until he came out to warm up in the bottom of the third inning. His foot just didn't feel right, so they pulled him and in came the Sox's saving grace - Dustin Nippert.

Over the 2.1 innings Nippert pitched, he gave up 4 walks, 9 hits and 8 runs, giving him an ERA of 16.62. The Rangers would never recover. Buchholz threw 103 pitches (the most so far this season) over a solid six innings. He may have given up five hits and two walks, but he struck out six batters.

Aardsma was the reason the Sox couldn't finish the series with a shutout. In an unusual turn, Aardsma only pitched 2/3 of an inning, and while he struck out two, he walked two and gave up a hit. Those miscues turned into two runs for Texas. They would score once more in the 9th against Delcarmen, but there was never any fear the Rangers would catch the Sox.

Since the Yankees don't play today they can't lose, which means the best we've got is a 3.5 game lead over the evil empire, but today's game keeps the Sox at the top of American League East and brings their winning streak to five. Tomorrow the Los Angeles Angels come to Boston to face Beckett for the first time this season, and if it's anything like the last time Beckett pitched, it's going to be a great game!