The Ghost of Dave Roberts, Uehara and Boston Strong

Last night's game was a walk in the park. Tonight's couldn't have been scripted by Hollywood. Peavy starts and goes a strong six before opening the 7th with a BB and a hit, the walk coming after he had Ichiro at 1-2. Leading 7-2 at that point, the Sox proceed to be unable to get anyone out and by the time the Stripes have finished the inning, 10 Yankees have gone to bat and the score is 8-7, Stripes. In the Sox 8th, they go quietly, 1-2-3, and after Breslow holds the Stripes scoreless in the last of the 8th, the Hose come to face the greatest closer of all time, Big Mo. Rivera is usually death to any hopes of coming back against the Yankees, but the one possibly encouraging thing is that if any team can do it, the record shows that over the years, none other than the Sox have by far the best record coming back against Rivera. In fact, in the League championship three zip comeback against the Evil Empire, it was against none other than Rivera that the Hose began that unprecedented turnaround.
Tonight, with two out in the 9th and down to their last strike, the Sox pulled a repeat. Napoli got a hit to right and was immediately pulled for a pinch runner, Quintin Berry. Berry is part of the late season expanded roster call-up, and wasted no time in doing his best Roberts. In that famous comeback in '04, it was Roberts who started things going for the Sox by stealing second base against the same Rivera. Tonight his second coming wasted no time in doing an excellent imitation of the event. Even better than the Roberts theft of nine years ago, however, the ball ricocheted on the pickoff throw into left center and, after a moment's hesitation, Berry set sail for third and came in without a throw. Drew, realizing there was no better time to get what was his only hit of the evening, rifled one into right field and Berry scored. Tie ball game! Blown save for Rivera. Once again, the Sox had shown the baseball world that you can get to Mo.  Not often to be sure, but not impossible.
The next heartstopper came in the Stripes' half of the same inning. With one out, Soriano reached base on a freebie, and stole second after he should have been dead and gone with his base running. He was caught so badly off 1st by Breslow that it was only a poor throw by the Sox hurler that instead of out, he was on second as the potential winning run. About then, I'm thinking, "gotta' get a pair of K's, or this game will be over.' Soriano made it even better than that for the Sox. Perhaps emboldened by his good fortune in getting to second, he took off for third as Breslow was into his leg kick. Looked like a sure steal, but n o t  s o  f a s t. Instead of going to the plate, Breslow turned and pegged a perfect throw to Middlebrooks at third. Dead to rights, but Soriano is quick. Realizing he had less than no chance at all to make it safely to third, he quickly reversed direction, chased by Midds. Midds was taking no chances. He quickly threw to the Sox SS, Drew, who, as the chase moved ever closer to second tossed it ahead to Pedey. Pedey placed the tag a good two feet in front of the bag, and the Stripes' threat was dead. Then, Breslow got the K--inning over. So was regulation. In the 10th the Hose wasted no time. Rivera had left after the end of the 9th and was followed by Chamberlain. Now, I don't know what you think of Joba, but I've never thought that much of him either talent wise or attitude. He stares at the plate with that pig-eyed squint and then throws. Now, sometimes he is very hard to hit. But unless he's really, really on, he's reachable--VERY reachable. Tonight, happily, was one of those nights. With one gone, Jake singled and promptly swiped second, the ball again ricocheting into center. However, this time it wasn't far enough for Jake to take third right away. No matter. Vic came up and rifled a single into right and you had the perfect matchup on the play at the plate--Ichiro's cannon-arm vs Jake's hypersonic speed, speed that Terry once referred to (also in a Yankees game) as "breath-taking". It was very close, but Jake beat the throw by an eyelash and the Sox had what was to be the winning run--as soon as they got through the Yankees' half of the inning.
How to do that? Why, Uehara, of course. Entering with, according to the play-by-play on ESPN, a string of 25 perfect innings, the Sox closer started by getting AFraud on a two pitch pop to the infield, and then slammed the door with a pair of K's. Game over. Sox win and extend the current win streak to three. This one took a bit longer than his usual perfection. Instead of his 13 pitch average per outing, he took nineteen to do the job. But, when it was over, the result was the same. His ERA is now down to 1.14 and the opponent's BA is .134. He doesn't do it with an overpowering heater. He uses a combo of a splitter and a split finger slider (if there is such a pitch) that both have movement that would make a snake envious.
As things turned out, I'd place bets that the cardiologists in both the Hub and the Big Apple had a sudden surge of patients after the game tonight. And this is just the first of seven against this same team in the next fourteen days. Sox are now twentyeight over .500 and have twenty to go in the season.