Sports Redux: Role Reversal: Red Sox Save Game For Papelbon

Jonathan Papelbon and the Red Sox decided to add a little drama to their regularly-scheduled win over the Devil Rays.

The Sox gave Jon Lester, in his second start returning from his cancer surgery, a 5-2 lead going into the seventh-inning stretch. The lead was built on a well-balanced sprinkling of hits and timely run-scoring offense, exactly the kind of thing we were constantly yearning for a few weeks ago. Was there really a time when this team couldn't bring anyone home? Is Tropicana Field Ponce de Leon's legendary Fountain of Youth?

Lester hit a speedbump in the seventh, giving up solo shots to Jonny Gomes and Josh Paul. The Sox grabbed an insurance run in the eighth, and confidently turned the ninth over to Papelbon. Uh oh. Papelbon surrendered a hard single to Delmon Young, followed by a booming home run to the aforementioned Jonny Gomes: his second blown save of the year.

But he got out of the ninth, and the Devil Rays proudly showed why they're the worst franchise in Major League Baseball. Into the dregs of the Devil Ray bullpen (which, ten years ago, would have been called "Altoona"), the Sox got the bases loaded in the twelfth. Then Julio Lugo walked, scoring the go-ahead run. Then, just to make things official, Kevin Youkilis crushed a bases-clearing triple to deep center to make it 10-6. Then, just because the Devil Rays stink, Manny Ramirez doubled in two more. Javier Lopez pitched an uneventful bottom of the 12th, and folks who stayed up late got their "happily ever after".

Roger Clemens and the Yankees failed yesterday in Baltimore, dropping the expensive ace to 3-5, and the expensive New York ballclub back to nine games out.

The baseball world today turns its attention to Cooperstown, as the Hall of Fame welcome two guys that are a welcome diversion from all the sports chatter about gambling, steroids, dogfighting and David Beckham. Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken spent their entire careers in the same city, to the point where just hearing the words "San Diego Padres" conjures up an image of Gwynn, and Ripken could probably comfortably win an election for governor of Maryland if he so chose.

ESPN took a cool angle on the inductions this week; both Tony and Cal have little brothers who had stints in the major leagues. Neither one came anywhere close to the glory of the Hall of Famers, of course, but Billy Ripken and Chris Gwynn are completely jealousy-free and beaming with pride. It;s an interesting read.