Papi To The Rescue! : Peter

Well, for the second day in a row against the Bengals, things were looking bleak. The Sox starter, Dice in this case, got well behind early (four zip today) in spite of getting a good number of K's and the opposing hurler was basically setting the Sox down almost as fast as they came up. They did get to within two in the 7th, but Papi, for the second consecutive inning ended the inning leaving men on base. In the 6th he struck out with men on 2d and 3d to end the inning and repeated again in the 7th with the sacks jammed to end that rally. Then came the fateful 9th. Tigers hurler Coke, who'd entered the game to start the 9th had previously faced Papi eight times and was perfect against him, getting him out all eight times, including three K's. So when he loaded the bases with just one out, you had to think he was more than happy at the prospect of facing his old "sure thing".
Well, this time Coke was anything but the Real Thing. Finally getting his pitch, Papi drove a shot deep into the gap in left center clearing the bases and winning the game for the Hose. For those of you keeping a record, it was his eighteenth walkoff hit of his career, and one that couldn't have come at a better time. It allowed the Sox to pick up a game on the second place Rays and maintain pace with Mr. Hankie's Yankees as the latter beat the former today. The win for the Sox was their fourth of five games and sixth of nine, either of which would be a good pace to maintain for the balance of the season and get to the playoffs.
The pen was well represented, allowing no hits over three innings and having it all capped by Oki's perfect 9th for the 'W'. Offensively, besides Papi's 2-5 and three ribbies, Martinez, Hall, Kalish (more in a bit) and McDonald all had a pair of hits on the day. Kalish was a late callup to replace Hermida, who was sent down to the Pawsox.The Sox also sent Ramirez to the Giants, where he can face the other Ramirez that the Sox shed two years ago, and picked up some catching insurance from Texas in the form of Saltalamacchia (think I guessed right on the spelling)in exchange for a couple of prospects. Actually, you could use his last name as one of the words in the final stages of the national spelling bee championship and you'd probably eliminate one of the contenders right there. I can see it now, but I digress. Good day all around for the Sox and on to the series finale tomorrow.