What A Difference A Day Makes: Peter

Well, Jenn, last nite I just couldn't bring myself to relive the horrors of the team's late inning meltdown, followed by Wake's single pitch loss. Pap didn't blow a save; did an inning of hitless ball, but after having led 8-2, the team fell apart and we lost.
Tonight was an entirely different story! The Sox combined some excellent pitching, timely hitting and a fabulous throw out of an attempted steal at the penultimate moment to win. Jenn, you'd have loved it. Saw it in its entirety on MLB Network, which was carrying NESN's feed. So it was like home, with Remdog and the crew. Just great! Anyway, the game. Lester was just awesome! He went eight scoreless, allowing just five scattered hits and zero free passes. His game WHIP was 0.625! In fact, on the rare occasion he found himself in a jam, he just elevated his game and pitched himself clear. The final time this happened was in the Texas 7th when, with one out, Texas suddenly had a man, Cruz, on third via a long triple that ricocheted off the right field wall away from Drew. Normally, JD's in perfect position for the carom, but hitting this particular part of the right field wall, the ball went away from him and by the time he picked it up and threw to 3d, the Texas batter was halfway to the bag. Not even close. What did Lester do? The next two batters were only able to manage soft grounders for the inning ending two outs. Lester continued this through the 8th, getting the three Texas batters in order, effectively finishing by retiring the last five batters he faced in a row, and fifteen of the last sixteen, going back to the Rangers 4th when their leadoff hitter got a single. All this is 101 degree August Texas heat.
Enter the Sox 9th, the Hose still up by a very slim one zip lead. Lowell leads off with a double that had to be placed exactly where it was for him with his hip to make it safely to second. The next two Sox hitters singled, driving in one run, after which Scutaro sacflies another run in, but ends up on base due to a fielding error in the Rangers outfield. While that was the scoring for the night, the fact that the Sox were able to get three more men to the plate before having to hold serve gave the pitching staff a bit more time to prep for the finish.
Atch came in and did a creditable job. He deserved better, but got the first Texas hitter. The next, Hamilton, who is having an MVP, batting title, possibly Triple Crown year drove a shot to center that Patterson, subbing for Jake (more on that later) chased vainly into the center field wall. It cleared the wall, Patterson didn't (but wasn't hurt) and it was 3-1. Guerrero, always a dangerous hitter through his entire career, and a definite HOFer once he hangs 'em up, copied last night's heroics, diving headfirst into first base to beat out the throw on a grounder to the left side of the infield. Tito figured even though Atch wasn't really getting lit up, it was time for a new pitcher. Enter Doubront. While he's facing his first batter, Vlad decides to steal second to be in scoring position. V-Mart had him by ten feet. The throw wasn't great--a bit off to the first base side, but with Vlad's relative lack of speed, Scutaro's excellent handling of it, he was able to tag Vlad as the latter tried to slide under the throw. Total game complexion change! Doubront, pressure gone, simply struck out the Texas pinch hitter. Game Over! What more can one say? Not much too say! Enjoy it on the Tivo!
Add to this, the Dustman had a good showing today in the first rehab game he played, so he may be back as early as next week.
Now for the bad news. Jake went back on the DL today due to his ribs. They didn't really get specific, or if they did, I missed it, but apparently they've not healed totally. I can't imagine how badly they were broken to have him going through this for so long. I mean he's basically missed the better part of 70% of the season--over four months! Speaking from experience (busted ribs on three different occasions) it never took four months to get back to a regular schedule. In fact, when I broke two ribs the third time, preparing for my Black Belt test, I successfully took the test two months later. HEEEYAH!