Only Saturday's morning game was the blemish on the series. The three others were all great games with awesome catches, timely hits and even a few nail biting moments.
Friday's game saw Wakefield pitch the game he wanted to pitch against the Rangers last week. Instead of an inning and 2/3, the knuckler pitched a solid 8. They were so solid that not one Jay scored. While the rain bogged down spectators and players alike, it clearly didn't hamper Wake's knuckler which was floating every which way. With 4 K's and not a single walk, it's probably one of Wake's best outings this season.
Meanwhile on the offensive Jed Lowrie went two for two with a pair of RBI's. Papi had a 2-run double in the 7th and Kevin Cash hit one over the monster for three more in the bottom of the 8th. Those seven runs gave the Sox a much needed win on a night when most of the other games on the east coast were rained out including the Rays/Yankees opener.
I won't talk about Game Two not because we lost but because for some reason the game was blacked out on the west coast. I saw nothing, and let me tell you. I'm glad I did. I don't think the first game of the double-header would have been very fun to watch.
But Game Three the Sox came back with avengence. This time Bartolo Colon was on the mound. Just back from an extended stint on the DL, he looked good for the first inning. While he pitched six, the 2nd created great concern for me as I watched Colon give up five runs because of a Jed Lowrie error. Luckily though, the Sox didn't let the 3-run deficit get to them and they did what they do best - buckle down and nibble away at the opposition. And thanks to some smart base running by Ellsbury and Pedroia in the first, the Sox only had to get four more runs to take the lead.
In the classic John Sayles movie "Eight Men Out" Joseph Sullivan asks a peer "You know how much you feed a horse to get a day's work out of him? Just enough so he knows he's hungry." And after the morning's loss and just three games between them and the division leading Rays, our Sox were very hungry. It was that hunger that got them the four runs they needed to win the game. Lowrie's sac fly to deep right in the bottom of the sixth started them off. Then Ortiz's take down of Marco Scutaro in the 7th allowed Ellsbury to score run number four on Youkilis' fielder's choice. The Sox just needed one more to tie it up.
That tying run came from a combo effort by Jason Bay's double off the monster and Jed Lowrie's RBI single up the middle in the eighth. But the Sox were still only tied. If they didn't want to go into extra innings, our boys in red had to make their stand now. And stand they did. With two outs, Ellsbury stepped into the batter's box and proceeded to foul off pitch after pitch. Finally he managed to get some wood on the ball, but only enough for it to dribble about 20 feet down the first base line. Somehow the ball stayed fair, allowing Ellsbury to reach first safely and Lowrie to score the Sox's sixth run. Ortiz added some insurance when he plated Dustin Pedroia with his 26th double of the season.
Saturday night's win gave the Red Sox the momentum they needed to storm into Fenway Sunday and take the final game of the series. The Sox may have needed eight innings to get the four runs they'd need to win, but they still got the W. Thanks to a spectacular outing from Jon Lester and some timely hits against the Jays' ace, Halladay, the Sox managed to squeak out four runs and take the lead against the Toronto team. The score was 4-1 going into the 9th and that's what it should have stayed. Unfortunately, Papelbon took the mound and he hasn't been lights out recently. He blew the save against the Rays on Tuesday and came dangerously close to repeating that effort last night.
After giving up a lead-off double to Vernon Wells, and two more singles to Adam Lind and Lyle Overbay, the score was 4-2 Sox. Luckily a call went the Red Sox's way when Overbay was called out at 2nd, but Lind was still standing on third with only one out. A sacrifice or ground out would plate Lind. And although Papelbon did manage to get the next two men out on ground balls, Lind still managed to get home and make the final score 4-3. Pap got his 38th save of the year, but not without a lot of nailbiting from Red Sox Nation.
Today it's off to Tropicana Field for the final series against this year's enemy, the Tampa Bay Rays. Dice-K faces Kazmir... and I'm not sure I have enough finger nails to get me through this game, let alone the series.
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