Jenn May Be Right--Peter

Well, tonight was the worst way to lose a game. The boys from the Fens struggle and sweat for 13 long innings to stay with the Rays. They want to win to get back within 1/2 game of the team from Tampa, particularly with their nemesis, Toronto, arriving in Beantown day after tomorrow for a three game set. This is particularly the case with the Jays having just had a 10 game win streak, including three against the Twinkies.

So, our guys match the Rays from early in the game right through the expected end of the game in the 9th; sorry, it continued on past there. They matched the Rays scoreless inning for scoreless inning through the 13th inning. By the time the fateful 14th arrived, no-one had scored in ten innings! It was like a double shutout had occurred in the middle of the game, and no-one likely to break the ice.

In the 3d, the Hose had gotten on the board, tying the Rays at 1, when Dusty collected his 46th two bagger of the year, many innings later to be followed by his 47th. The 3d inning drive brought home Lowrie. Beckett was pitching another gem, his second in as many appearances since coming back off the DL. He went six, allowing only a sole run in the 2d and six hits, while nailing seven K's in the process.

Following his departure, Tito not wanting to put too much strain on that arm so quickly, the Sox bullpen, through four hurlers, performed beautifully. From Oki through Lopez, the Sox threw nothing but zeroes at the Rays. In fact, the four surrendered only a collective three hits and four passes in 7 1/3 innings, a collective WHIP of less than one! Masterson, as part of this quartet of quality, allowed no hits at all!

The one failing we seemed to be having was that nobody was able to deliver a timely hit, in a number of cases where we had the baserunners and just a single hit would have sufficed to end the game in the Sox' favor. We ended up stranding SIXTEEN (not a misprint) runners. Had both teams' stranded runners scored, the Sox would have won, 18-17. Sounds almost like the win our guys did get recently against Texas.

Hell, it got worse as the game wore on! In the bottom of the 10th, the Hub Heroes had two men on with no outs--and couldn't score. In the bottom of the 11th, we had two on with just one out--and couldn't score. In the bottom of the 12th, we had two men on with just one out--and couldn't score. The final killer, literally, was in the bottom of the 14th. Trailing 4-1 after a former Red Sock, Carlos Pena, the Pride of Haverhill, Mass drove one into the monster seats for a three run blast, the Hub Heroes got the first three men to bat against the Rays' closer to reach base, starting with Jake's standup double. There they were--bases loaded--NOBODY out, and all we could get was a single run, 4-2; Tampa wins. By the way, lest we forget what I was so baldly hinting at in the headline, guess who gave up the shot by Pena? Take a wild guess--RIGHT--Timlin!

Well, it's done. Got to look forward at Toronto and stop the Jays while we root for Mr. Hankie's Yankees to stop the Rays.

There was some good news in the wreckage of tonight. Based on his last two starts, it appears JB is ready for the post-season, assuming we do make it. We're now still in the wild card lead, and trailing the Rays for the division lead by 2 1/2. Colon was called up from the Pawsox and is expected to face the Rangers in the Fens next week, and Drew is supposedly healing and could be ready for duty in the final one or two weeks' push to the tape. Dusty went 2-4 tonight, increasing his AL-leading B.A. to .328.