With rare exception, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays is a different team when Scott Kazmir is on the mound. But on Tuesday night, the Red Sox was also a different sort of team - one that came back for only the second time in 43 games from a deficit heading into the eighth inning.

Yeah, that's right. The Sox were down late in the game and they actually came back to win, 2-1. The game wasn't a Mother's Day miracle, but it was one that left many rubbing their eyes in disbelief nonetheless.

The victory could not have come at a better time. It provided a fairy tale cap to Jon Lester's Fenway Park homecoming party, gave fellow cancer survivor Mike Lowell opportunity to tie the game with a ninth-inning home run (and remind the front office that the Sox already HAVE a strong third baseman) and proved that Eric Gagne can in fact take the mound at Fenway Park and get himself a win.

Add to that the fact that the Yankees were spanked by Baltimore yesterday (we think Kevin Millar felt badly for that three-run extra-inning blast over the weekend) and the lead's back to five. Let's take a moment to breathe...

It was a good night for Lester, putting it mildly. It got off to a shaky start when he walked leadoff Devil Ray Akinori Iwamura, but Lester settled down and pitched sharp baseball for seven innings (two hits, one run, four strikeouts and one walk) before Manny Delcarmen, Mike Timlin and Gagne went in to keep the defense tight until Jason Varitek lined a double and Coco Crisp delivered a right field shot that allowed Tek to slide into home and start a victory celebration.

While media writers set to figuring out how to capture the emotional poignancy of the game, Lester put it pretty simply: he was just glad to a guy on the team again.

"That's all I've asked from the beginning," he said, according to the Globe. "Just to be treated normal and nothing special. I just want to go out and pitch every fifth day and hopefully do well."

-- Anger issues, anyone? Former major leaguer and current Long Island Ducks player Jose Offerman was hit by a pitch Tuesday during a minor league game in Bridgeport, Connecticut last night. Instead of just trading words with Bridgeport Bluefish pitcher Matt Beech, or even charging the mound, Offerman ran at the mound with his bat and then went on to hit Beech on the hands and hit Bluefish catcher John Nathans' head. Now he's facing two counts of second-degree assault.

-- Former NBA ref Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty this morning to two felony charges stemming from his betting scandal. He's facing a maximum of 25 years in prison for the charges - conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting waging information through interstate commerce. He's also going to have to pay $500,000 in fines and at least $30,000 in restitution.

Photo of Fenway by flickr user wallyg