Nervewracking, But a Win is a Win--Peter

Well, I got my wish--the Sox returned to their winning ways in Fenway against the Redbirds, but it was quite a wringer they had to go through. Lester did his usual good job, surrendering only a pair of runs in seven and a third, the two runs not coming until the 6th. The Sox then took the lead,scoring one in the 7th and a pair in the 8th. Youk accounted for the run in the 7th with his 12th HR of the season. All this while The Other Manny--Delcarmen pitched the last two outs of the 7th, both K's.

At that point, Laserman entered--should be another Sox win, right? Not this time. Even though he K'd two Cards batters, he also gave up a walk and an RBI double for his fourth blown save of the year, finally closing out the 9th with the Sox tied at 3.

After Pap's exit, Okajima, Hansen and Lopez each pitched scoreless ball, with Lopez finally gaining the win on 2/3 of an inning of shutout ball. This after both Oki and Hansen each contributed 1 2/3 innings of shutout ball, Hansen's being a piece of perfection and including 3 K's--all on 22 pitches.

However, even as the Sox pen, post-Papelbon, was hanging zeroes on the board, no-one on the Sox was doing much with the stick to end the game--until Youk came up again, this time with Lowell on base. Working the count to 3-1, he then unloaded for the second time in the game, driving his 13th of the year into the center field seats and sending everyone home (except El Birdos) happy.

Youk now has 47 ribbies, second on the team, to Manny's 49. In addition to Youk, Crisp, Pedroia and Lowell had multi-hit games, Dusty getting four for the game. Of a total of 13 hits, the Sox connected for extra bases on seven of them. With today's victory, the Hose regained the game over the Rays they lost yesterday and kept pace with Mr. Hankie's Yankees.