Sports Redux: Stay Up Late

You play until the late hours against your fiercest rival, then fly six hours cross-country to face one of the toughest pitchers out there. How would you fare?

If you're the Red Sox, you'd fare badly for a while, then really well, then disappointed. Oakland starter Danny Haren was fantastic, shutting the Sox down with 9 strikeouts through the eighth. So Boston did what they do best, which is bide their time until the bullpen comes in. Enter old friend Alan Embree to pitch the ninth. Ortiz doubled, Varitek singled him home, then Wily Mo Pena ripped a hit to right that scored pinchrunner Coco Crisp. Tie game.

The Sox bullpen caused some irregular heartbeats of their own in the bottom of the ninth. As in bases loaded and nobody out. But J.C. Romero vaporized Eric Chavez for a strikeout, then induced the ol' 5-2-3 double play off of Bobby Crosby. Extra innings! But sadly, the Red Sox were victimized when the Ghost of Wendell Kim sent Dustin Pedroia home on an Ortiz double; we're not saying sending him was a bad idea, but the catcher already had the ball in his hand and had taken off most of his catchers' gear by the time Dustin arrived. Then Eric Chavez took Kyle Snyder deep in the 11th, and the game was over.

The extra innings were a godsend for Oakland's Mark Ellis, who got the hard parts out of the way in regulation, then singled in the 10th to hit for the cycle. First time the Red Sox have had anyone do that since Andre Thornton in 1978 (does that year have to keep coming up?).

Daisuke goes against old friend Lenny DiNardo tonight, so don't put the coffeemaker away yet. And congratulation to Dustin Pedroia, the obvious choice for AL Rookie of the Month for May. That's two Red Sox rookies in a row to win the award; Okajima won in April.

Managers gone wild! Lou Piniella found out his suspension was four games (the Cubs are 2-0 in his absence), but got worse news when he found out his tantrum wasn't even the craziest of the week. If you haven't seen it yet, this freakout by Mississippi Braves manager Philip Wellman is completely and utterly off the charts. We could watch it again and again and again. We have, in fact. The Nixonian salute at the end is the best part.

The Stanley Cup is one game away from snubbing Canada yet again. Even without suspended defenseman Chris Pronger, the Ducks beat Ottawa 3-2 to take a 3-1 series lead.

Ortiz photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez, from RedSox.com.