Ups & Downs: Peter

First of all: WELCOME BACK, JENN! Good to have you again, even if only occasionally; and a great series to do so! Aidan looked way cool; can't wait to see him swing his first bat! That WAS a very interesting bit of history--first time ever the whole infield had HR's--who'da thunk it--particularly with some of the great infielders the Sox have had over the years: Dropo; Junior Stevens; Petrocelli; Kell; Boudreau; Malzone--really amazing it's never happened before. Anyway, better late than never!
Now for the down: tonight's game. Lester unfortunately let things get a little too far away from him too early. Although he did strike out seven in just six innings, allowing four runs via a game WHIP of more than 2 isn't the best way to get a 'W'--for yourself or the team. What made it more infuriating is that three of the four runs came off the bat of Peralta, a recent pickup from the Tribe. Hell, the guy can't even spell his own first name: Jhonny. That's the way he spells Johnny, with the 'h' before the 'o', not after. Hits in the low .200's and he gets a pair of shots off one of the best hurlers in the league. Go figure. Add in Wake's two runs allowed and the Sox were in too deep a hole to come all the way back. However, they almost got there. Last of the 9th, they crawled from a 6-1 deficit to within a run on Papi's Grand Slam, his 22d HR of the year. That came with only one out, but that was it for the evening. Once again, too many left on base--an even dozen this time. Other than Papi's shot, and Scut's way earlier in the game, nothing timely about the Sox' delivery tonight. It's especially hurting when you have the Rays and Stripes squaring off against each other, so you know there's ground to be gained one way or the other. Tonight the Stripes lost, so we could have gotten a game closer to first, but no--didn't happen. Maybe tomorrow--still a chance to at least take the series against the Bengals--and have a run of seven of ten.