Yeah, baby! We all know that the Red Sox should be thumping the Devil Rays, but it's hard to argue with two consecutive hard-fought, come-from-behind wins from a lineup that's been painful to watch for stretches this season.

Last night, the Sox surrendered four early runs to Tampa Bay, with starter Jon Lester throwing 65,431 pitches and only making into the fourth inning. Rays starter Edwin Jackson, looking like a Cy Young candidate (the Sox do that to people), finally faltered in the third, surrendering Big Papi's 30th home run of the year and making it a one-run game.

The teams traded zeroes for the next few innings. Julio Lugo and Coco Crisp stole bases. Julian Tavarez pitched very very well. J.D. Drew got two more hits (Hey! Welcome to Boston, kid!). Fast forward to the bottom of the ninth. Tampa's closer is in the game, the Sox down by one, one on, Papi at the plate. In the past, this ending was more predictable than the ending of a very special episode of Full House. This year, who knows?

Now we know. Ortiz hit one over the head of the turned-around Delmon Young and just barely into the right-field stands for the game-winner - Papi's first walkoff homer of the year.

Now the Sox get a day off before the Yankees, who have won 146 straight, come to town. Daisuke, Beckett and Schilling will face Pettitte, Wang and Roger. Buckle your seatbelts, and if you're going this weekend, please don't forget about Joba Chamberlain firing fastballs at Kevin Youkilis' head.

As much as we don't want to talk about Patriotgate right now, it's hard not to. Jackie MacMullan says, rightly, that this is a dumb move by an ordinarily brilliant coach. Bill Simmons can't think of a good excuse, but tries to make us feel better. Mike Vacarro of the Post makes the sensible suggestion that Bill be suspended for the next Jets game. We say replay Game One, but give the Jets a $50,000 gift certificate to Radio Shack and suspend Bill in a tank of water, able to communicate only with one of those chalkboards scuba-divers use.

Brazil beat Mexico, 3-1, in front of a raucous crowd, which didn't include Bostonist and friends, who realized 2 hours into the drive to Foxboro (1 hour and 20 minutes of which were spent covering the mile before Route 1) that we'd never get there in time, and went to IHOP instead for our fix of international color and pageantry. But we hear it was a great game.

Image from IMDB.