Well, tonight was an even better repeat of last night than the original. Taking the ball was recent Sox acquisition, Paul Byrd. Allowing just five hits and a pair of runs while knocking down five K's, Byrd acted like deja vu all over again--the last time he faced the Stripes he was beating them in last year's playoffs to clinch Cleveland's Division Series victory. Tonight, however, was as much Dusty's evening (not to mention Jason Bay, as well) as Byrd's.
While going 3-5, he saved the best for last. In the top of the 8th, bases loaded, Dusty took the third pitch he saw and drove it to left, finally settling in the cheap seats, the first grand slam by an opposing second baseman in Yankee Stadium history. That shot made it 11-2, and convinced most of the Yankee fans that their time would be better spent riding the IRT to their homes. Avoid the rush! Oh, wait a minute--since they almost all left then, they created the rush.
Prior to that blow, the Sox had assembled a 7-2 lead, helped in large part by Bay, who drove in four runs with a double, triple and sacfly. Papi continued his batting surge with a 2-3 evening, including a double, and added on a pair of free passes, while overall the Sox collected a total of 13 hits, five of those for extra bases.
On the other side of the ball, after Byrd left, he was ably picked up by The Only Manny-Delcarmen for an inning of perfect ball. He handed the ball off to Jenn's favorite, Timlin, who, other than a first pitch homer by Giambi, produced a satisfactory two innings to close out the game.
This win leaves Mr. Hankie's Yankees seven games to our rear, and the Sox still lead the Twinkies by 2 1/2 and the Chisox, who lost tonight, by 1 1/2 in the wild card, with thirty games left in the season. Tomorrow we have Lester going, and, hopefully, he and the team will complete a fitting Sox final farewell to Yankee Stadium--SWEEP!!
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