Sports Redux: Meet J.D. Drew

Remember J.D. Drew? David Jonathan "J.D." Drew, 31 years old, plays right field, graduated from Florida State?

J.D. Drew hasn't generated much favorable buzz these days. The only things we've heard about him for the past month and a half has consisted of justifiable griping from fans and predictions from Theo Epstein that The Slump is only temporary.

But Drew made his presence known on Friday night during interleague play in Arizona. Continuing his widely-known knack of pounding on National League pitchers, Drew notched two three-run homers and an additional RBI double for Boston as the Red Sox defeated the Diamondbacks 10-3. The seven RBIs marked a career high for a player that prior to Friday night, had convinced many that his early-season offensive skills were lost and gone forever.

It was just a downright weird game for the Sox we've come to know here in 2007. The guys relied on to deliver the offense seemed to step back to let the guys most often complained about on WEEI a moment in the spotlight. Drew ended a 33-game homer-less streak, while Julio Lugo surprised the fans with a lead-off home run in the first.

The offensive output helped Josh Beckett (eight innings, 92 pitches, five hits, no walks) systematically work his way through the Arizona lineup to improve to 9-0 in his first nine decisions. What more can be said about Beckett? The numbers speak for themselves - the guy is incredible this year.

But let's go back to Lugo for a moment. Julio wasn't content with just a spike in his offensive output - he decided to give the team a little something special on the defensive side. In the third inning, he joined the ranks of few baseball players by actually pulling off the hidden ball trick.

Seriously. He totally picked off Alberto Collapso with the hidden ball trick! Fewer than 300 successful HBTs have been pulled off in baseball history and with that move on Friday, Lugo became the first to do it since then-Florida third baseman Mike Lowell busted Luis Telarrero in August 2005.

By the way, who was Telarrero playing for during that game? Arizona, thus suggesting that perhaps the D-backs are either the most gullible or least observant team in the majors. Just sayin.

(Side note: Wikipedia's "hidden ball trick" entry had already been updated to include Lugo as of this morning. Talk about quick turnover...)

Having won two in a row, the Sox now put their faith in Julian Tevarez, who faces Arizona's Micah Owings in today's game (9:40 p.m. EST).

-- The Sox made room for the returning Mike Timlin tonight by cutting J.C. Romero from the lineup. Now designated for assignment, the young arm has to wait the ten days to see whether Boston waives, trades, or releases him. Romero found out about the move shortly after the Red Sox win and, as the Globe reports, .

-- Speaking of reactions, Curt Schilling has posted on 38Pitches his thoughts about coming so close to his first career no-hitter.

"In the locker room after the game Eric Hinske comes up and says “Man, we just stopped a four game losing streak, our starter just won 1-0, threw a one hitter and I am so damn mad right now.” We laughed our butts off," Curt writes. "There were quite a few guys uttering those same thoughts and you have to realize what that means. I’ve watched guys do this before, come close, miss it. But as a team, we are all so invested in each other and care that much about each other that when something happens to one of us, most of us feel it. It’s a pretty rare dynamic in team sports theses days but when you are on a team that has that makeup you enjoy the hell out of it, because it might be the last time you get the honor of being a part of something that special."

-- Roger Clemens is scheduled to make his MLB return today when the Yankees host the Pirates today. Start practicing your boos and hisses.

-- Seven horses take to the mile and a half at Belmont today. The big question is whether Curlin has what it takes to go the distance against the rest of the field.

Image of the unexpected star of Friday's game from flickr user Lodigs.