Truly A Team Effort!-Peter

First of all, before I begin dissecting the ways that this was a team effort, let it be noted here that this win is DEFINITELY going to be regarded as a mixed blessing by Jenn. You all know what a mixed blessing is. It's the sort of thing that occurs when your mother-in-law drives over a cliff in your new Ferrari. Anyway, tonight's version of that situation--Timlin was the winning pitcher! In his third consecutive good outing, he came in and got credit for the win, pitching a perfect third of an inning.

As for the rest of the team, virtually everyone had something to do with the victory. Things started off bad before the game, as Beckett was scratched due to a stiff neck (on top of his previous bad back?). What in hell is going on with the guy? Josh--close the window by your bed when you sleep; get a new mattress; try yoga;do something--this is getting serious! In his stead the Sox called up someone from the Pawsox, Pauley, who had three appearances last year with OK results.

However, tonight wasn't OK. After being given a quick one run lead, complements of Ellsbury's first of what would become two homers in the Sox half of the first, he quickly surrendered, in successive innings, 3 runs and 2 runs--Sox down, 5-1. In fact, he didn't even make it out of the fifth. But, at that point, things began to turn around for our heroes.

Tavarez replaced him with one gone in the fifth and, to use Jenn's description of Julian, we got Dr. Jekyll tonight. Thank God! He pitched through the sixth without giving up any runs. Then, when he tired in the 7th, putting the first two men he faced on base, Okajima arrived, Hideki on the spot, and closed out that inning with no further damage. By the way, when he came in, the Sox had already taken the lead, 6-5.

That hadn't come all at once. They'd gotten back in front with one in the 4th, 3 in the 5th (another ribbie by Papi as he continues the trek back and a two-spot shot by Youk) and the go-ahead run in the 6th on Ellsbury's second roundtripper of the evening. You can see what I mean by truly a team effort.

However, as things proceeded through the Angels' eighth, Oki suffered his first blown save of the year, giving up a game-tying HR to Kotchman. Enter the soon-to-be mixed blessing. One batter, four pitches and the inning was over. I truly think that Mike's early disasters this year were due to his torn knuckle rehab and the fact that he didn't really have a true spring training to get to regular season shape. The early beat downs by the 'Stripes were, in effect, his spring training, and now he's looking better every time he goes out to the mound. Like I previously said, you don't hang around long enough to own four rings if you're lousy. Will there be future disasters? Probably from time to time. But can he pitch? Oh, Yeah--he definitely knows how, and will continue to prove it, more often than not, in this his final year (by his own plan) before hanging them up.

So what else has yet to be said about this evening's team effort? You have to ask? P-Save, Papelbon, came in and faced three hitters, getting the first two on strikes and the final one on a harmless fly. Most impressive was his K against the Angels' guaranteed future Hall member, Vlad Guerrero. Zip, ZIp, ZIP--and Vlad was toast--burnt toast, at that.It's amazing how badly a laser can burn toast. Game over.

All told, Sox got 16 hits, seven of them for extra bases, including the previously mentioned pair of circuits by Jake. Dusty was 4-5 with three two baggers. This makes the tenth game this season the Sox have come back from being behind to win, and the ninth in a row they've scored at least five runs in.

See ya' tomorrow!