They're BA-A-A-CK!--Peter

Tonight's game against Mr. Hankie's Yankees can be described in the names of three Sox players, two of whom are referred to in the headline. The players are, of course, Big Papi and Manny, who are definitely BACK in no uncertain terms, and the starter for the evening, Jon Lester, who didn't just win a game--he pitched a game.

Starting with the core of the Sox attack, the three and four holes, a total of five ribbies of the Sox' nine runs came from this pair, three from Papi and a deuce from Manny. Papi's included a no-doubt about it homer, a huge shot to the right field bleachers and Manny's evening included a pair of doubles, both screamers into the wings of the outfield. It would have been even more had Manny's third AB not been driven to the deepest part of Fenway possible. In a towering drive that was mimicking the EverReady Bunny, Manny sent one out to deepest right center that just kept going and going and going--toward the triangle. When Cabrera finally ran it down, he must have had claustrophobia from the surrounding Fenway walls. He was that deep into the triangle.

All of this is going on while the usual debate about Manny's future with the Sox is being carried out everywhere--the Internet, the print media, and the broadcast media. I swear if the announcers of tonight's game had made one more reference to the situation, at least in part manufactured by these same commentators to fill space, I was seriously considering throwing my dinner plate through the screen! It's gotten so bad, Manny has become a gossip subject much like Madonna or Britney Spears. They're even wasting everybody's time talking about a jaywalking incident of his in Seattle the other night--three or four games after it happened! Are the media jocks THAT starved for something to say? Notice I did NOT say "something legitimate" because commenting on an alleged jaywalking incident in which no ticket was even written has no legitimacy--just as a lot of the other commentary about ManRam.

Then we come to Lester's performance. For a guy who's still in what amounts to his first full year in the Bigs, he is demonstrating the maturity that many players never achieve in a decade. Rolling along through four with a seven zip cushion, he suddenly finds himself in the 5th with the sacks jammed on a bunch of soft, and I mean dictionary definition of soft, singles--with nobody out. Next Yank batter dribbles one down the third base line and, Lowell delaying a play as long as possible in the hopes it will roll foul, finally is forced to try to tag the runner coming into third--too late and a run scores, ending Lester's string of consecutive scoreless innings against the Stripes at 13. Next batter up singles and now that 7-0 lead is down to 7-2 and the batter stepping into the box is A-Rod.

It has been observed by students of the game that anyone can roll along with a nice lead and nothing bad happening; but it's situations like this that you truly learn about pitching. Lester did just that. He pitched--did he ever! Starting with A-Rod, he set down the next three Yankee batters of the inning, ending what could have been a serious threat to get back into the game for the New Yorkers. Having righted the ship, he then sailed through the 6th and 7th, consecutively retiring the last nine batters he faced.

The Other Manny, Delcarmen, took the ball for the 8th, and allowed a harmless single, and Jenn's 'favorite', Timlin, pitched in his second consecutive game, closing out the 9th with an inning of perfect baseball in just ten pitches.

In addition to the heart of the order personally taking the Stripes apart, Jake had what appears to be an end of the slump evening, getting three hits, including one of five Sox doubles. Tek also got a run-scoring two bagger as did Dusty.

Speaking of Pedroia, the guy's just a hit machine. He's like a little kid with an oversized bat. He steps to the plate, takes an aggressive stance and has a swing that guys twice his size wouldn't attempt. More often than not, the result is a base hit, frequently a double. He's among the AL leaders in both categories, as well as being in the top three or four in the league in B.A.

The W came at just the right time, as it stopped the Yankee surge toward our heroes for the moment and also got us back to within a game of the Rays. Now it's on to a few W's against the next visitors to the Fens--the Halos.