Meanwhile, in Seattle...

... the Mariners beat the Yankees again today, taking 2 out of 3 in their series. Joba 'Headhunter' Chamberlain couldn't make it past the 3rd inning, getting shellacked to the tune of 3 IP, 6 H's, 7 ER's, 3 BB's, only 2 K's, and 1 HR. Chamberlain is now 8-6, with a 4.72 ERA.

With Seattle's win over the Yankees and the Sox beating the Orioles again today, the Sox are now only 5 games behind the Yankees, but only 4 games behind in the loss column.

I'm tellin' ya, it could still happen!

Yankees Beware

These are not the same Sox that you knocked around starting in game #9 of the season. After getting your collectives asses kicked 8 times in a row, you finally rise up and show some life like it was a pro wrestling smackdown. These Sox however, have won 9 of their last 10 games.

These Sox knocked the birds of Baltimore out of their nests for the 15th time in 17 contests between the 2 clubs this season. Jon Lester was good tonight, but not overpowering, and garnered his 14th win and team leading 22nd quality start, as the Sox beat the Orioles 11-5 at Fenway South. He allowed 10 hits in 6 innings, yet with all those hits, including 2 home runs, he kept the damage to 3 runs allowed. He did not issue any free passes.

Wagner, Saito, and Ramirez pitched 3 scoreless innings, allowing only 1 baserunner. Unfortunately, sandwiched in there was Manny Delcarmen's tough outing. He served up a phat meatball sandwich: 2 walks, 2 home runs, 0 outs. After a lights out April in which he tossed 13 scoreless innings, his ERA has been steadily rising ever since. I love a good home-town-boy-makes-good story, so I certainly hope he can correct his miscues before October. I'd hate to see him go. The Sox will certainly need the April MDC in about 2 & 1/2 weeks. Barring a '78esque implosion, the Sox will be squaring off against the Angels in the ALDS. They technically have not been eliminated from the AL East crown, but they are 7 games ahead of the reeling Rangers, the magic number down to 9 for the wild card slot. Let's not dismiss the fact that the Sox are 9 and 1 in their last 10 games, and have reduced the Yankees lead from 9 games to 6, but only 5 in the loss column. Yankees! You'd better not look over your shoulder lest you trip and fall! It still could happen, yaknow. Just sayin'....

OK, let's get back to tonight's game. Every starter had at least 1 hit, Pedroia and Ortiz 2 hits each, and Drew and Lowell 3 hits each, including a home run by Drew. Rookie Josh "Glenda" Reddick hit his 2nd home run of the season.

Alex Gonzalez made a 'Web Gem' worthy stab and turned a great 6-4-3 double play! I'm tellin' ya- sign this guy for the next 3 years!

Sox Win 11-5 BOX SCORE

No Brooms Tonight

Josh Beckett went 8 full tonight, allowing 7 hits and 3 runs while striking out 7 Halos. That and 2 home runs, 1 each by Ellsbury and Bay, were not enough to sweep the Angels out of Boston. Tied 3-3 going into the top of the 9th, Billy Wagner suffered his 1st loss in a Sox uni by a combination of Angel's small ball (sac bunt in the 9th) and Howie Kendrick going 3/4, including a HR, 2 RBI's, and 2 runs scored. Victor Martinez was back in the line up and connected for another hit.

I don't know much about the Angel's 2nd baseman, except that he's 26 yo, has a .304 average spanning his 4 season in the bigs so far, and has played 1st base for Ellay before moving over 1 base.

Sox Lose 3-4 BOX SCORE

Red Sox Win! Red Sox Win! Red Sox Win!

You're once, twice, three times...
No, that one won't work.

Three times a charm?
Naah, been done before.

Three's company?
No, not that one, either.

I'm wrackin' the ol' noggin tryin' to come up with some snappy title to this post about the Red Sox coming back 3 (three) times tonight, but not having much luck, so I'm going to type away and see if any lightbulbs flash on along the way.

Paul Byrd was adequate tonight. (I promise no aviary humor tonight.) He went 5+ innings allowing only 3 runs to score by the Angels. Well, there is the matter of the 9 hits he allowed, but as the final score would indicate, it's not how many hits you make, it's how many runs you score. Despite holding the Halos to 3 runs, he left the game on the short end of 3-0 deficit. Not to worry as the Sox scored 5 times in the bottom of the 6th (comeback #1) After Byrd handed over the ball to the bullpen, Saito came in and pitched 1 inning and allowed another run in. Next up was Ramirez who had nothin', nada, zippo, zilch tonight as he allowed 3 more Angels around the diamond while registering only 1 out. So now the Sox are down 7-5. (Around about that time the Bums from da Bronx tallied a comeback of their own, as they were down 2-4 and came back to beat Toronto 5-4.) The Sox scored twice in the 8th for comeback #2, tying the game, but not for long, as the Angels put another run up in the top of the 9th. (Are you following all this?) Down by 1 run in the bottom of the 9th, Ortiz draws a 2 out walk. Joey Gathright enters to run for Papi. J.D. Drew singles. Reddick had pinch hit earlier for 'Tek and scored one of the 8th inning runs, so now enter Dusty Brown at catcher. Enter Jed Lowrie to pinch hit for Brown before he even had a chance to step up to the plate. Lowrie singles. Nick Green coaxed a walk to load the bases. Next up, A-Gonz who singled to drive in Drew and win the game.

Earlier I said it's not how many hits, but how many runs that counts (Baseball 101.) The Sox had 13 of 'em tonight, but the Halos had 17. Thankfully, the Sox pitchers scattered them just barely enough to offset that lopsided statistic.

Now, about this shortstop dilemma. I commented on an earlier post about the possibility of a long term future for Alex Gonzalez in a Sox uni. The usually light hitting (yet vacuum like sweeping of just about any ball hit in between 2nd and 3rd bases) Gonzalez was hitting at a fugly .210 clip when he arrived for his 2nd tour of duty in Boston. He has lifted his batting average by a full 25 points in the past month. Since August 16th, he has 29 hits in 93 at-bats for a nice .312 average. He's only 32 years old. Both Lowell and Jeter are 35 years old, and are doing just fine, thank you very much. Theo would do well to lock him up for the next 3 years.

Despite winning 7 in a row, the Sox remain 6.5 games behind the Yanks, but only 5 behind in the loss column. Texas has lost 4 in a row, distancing themselves from the Red Sox in the Wild Card race by 6.5 games.

Sox Win 9-8 BOX SCORE

How does Tito pick his lineup?

Ortiz, Varitek, Martinez, Youkilis, Lowell, Kochman, Kotteras, Gonzalez, Lowrie, Green, and Pedroia are all involved in Tito’s daily ordeal of trying to come up with a line-up for the day. You could almost pull the whole outfield onto that list, as Youkilis has done some time in left field, but for this discussion we’ll stay with the DH and infield positions:

Ortiz~ DH, 1B
Varitek~ C
Martinez~ C, 1B
Youkilis~ 1B, 3B
Lowell~ 3B
Kochman~ 1B
Kotteras~ C
Gonzalez~ SS
Lowrie~ SS, 3B, 2B
Green~ SS, 2B, 3B, P
Pedroia~ 2B

You can see how many players and positions are involved, it’s downright incestuous. Actually, any one of them could fill the DH slot.

An unconfirmed source reports that Tito has used several methods of picking his line-up for the day: dart board, wheel of fortune, roll of the dice, pulling straws, NASA computers, tarot cards, tea leaves, astrology, palm readings, consult with a team of Jamesian statisticians, and rock/paper/scissors. The only exception to these rituals comes when Dustin Pedroia beats Tito at cribbage. Then Pedey gets to pick the line-up.

Jon Lester is God

As of right now, the Ace of the Boston starting rotation is Jon Lester. Beckett may have had that title, and he may well earn it back (as evidenced by his latest start), but right now it’s Lester.

He has been a formidable force in his last 19 starts. Going back to May 31st, he has won 10 and lost 2, while posting an absurdly low 2.02 ERA. In 11 of those starts, he allowed 1 earned run or less. No left hander has succeeded in Fenway Park as Lester has done since Mel Parnell stood on the Fenway mound back in the ‘50’s. The 2nd game of today’s double-header bears witness to this. Lester went 8 shutout innings and allowed only 2 hits, while striking out 7 to lead the Sox of a doubleheader sweep and a series sweep over the reeling Rays. Billy Wagner tossed a scoreless 9th inning.

Offensively, the Sox scored 4 runs on 7 hits. It was a relatively quiet day with the bats, but Jason Bay did mash hit 32nd tater of the year in the 8th inning. In Tito’s daily ‘pick the line up’ game (does he use a dart board?), he had Ortiz at DH, ‘Tek catching, Martinez at 1st, and Lowell at 3rd, while Youk had the day off.

3 Dead Rays

Sox Win 4-0 BOX SCORE

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Rays	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Red Sox	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	4	7	0

Rain Out

The Rays-Sox game has been postponed and will be made up as part of a double-header on Sunday. The game had actually gotten underway, Lester had thrown 23 pitches and had loaded the bases with only 1 out. Since this was the Ray’s last trip up north, it was decided to try and get the game in, but when the skies opened up, the umpires halted play. After a 2 & ½ hour rain delay, the umpires, Red Sox, and MLB decided to restart the game on Sunday. Both starting pitchers will start the 2nd game on Sunday.

The rain skirted NYC long enough for the Orioles-Yankees game to count- with the O’s on top 10-4 over the Yankees in the top of the 7th. In that game, Derek Jeter overtook Lou Gehrig in the 3rd inning for the franchise record of most hits.