July 9, 2008
Sports Redux: Timing Is Everything
Hey, these are starting to look like the good Red Sox again!
Except for one bad inning by Jon Lester, the Sox looked pretty good last night, beating the Twins 6-5. Lester pitched a mostly solid game, and the Sox once again found some clutch hitting and took advantage of another team's shaky bullpen.
Lester, in fact, had some in the crowd buzzing early about a repeat performance of his May no-hitter (well, a few in the crowd, most people were showing up late and/or trying to get an early Wave going). But that fell apart in the fourth, when two singles led to a 2-run Brendan Harris triple and a Nick Punto RBI single. 3-1 Twins. A Youkilis triple and a couple of Twins runs, and it was 5-2 going into the last of the 8th, and Minnesota starter Nick Blackburn had to feel OK about his chances.
But the Twins, like most teams, have bullpen issues. And one of those issues is Matt Guerrier, who surrendered a Pedroia single (what a nice hit), an RBI groundout by Drew, and a Manny shot into the Monster seats that tied the game. Apparently, Twins brass liked what they saw, because they left Guerrier in to allow a Youk double, a wild pitch, and a game-winning single by Brandon Moss. Papelbon came in, lost an epic 12-pitch battle to Nick Punto for a single, then flame-broiled Jason Kubel and grounded out Casilla for his 27th save.
That's two big clutch hits for Manny in two days. We imagine Dan Shaughnessy sitting up in the press box, while Fenway is rocking and cheering, swearing and frowning like Rachel Phelps in Major League.
In the Bronx, it was one of those games that, on paper, the Sox win either way; either the Rays lose and the Sox make up ground, or the Yankees lose, and an angel gets its wings. The Yankees won, but we like to think everyone in the Stadium, Yankee and Ray alike, was dismayed when they flashed the updates from Fenway on the scoreboard.
Other sports news: The Olympics are about to be ruined by a plague of locusts...Channel 7 sports reporter Julie Donaldson is trying to put her alleged jackass boyfriend behind bars...The Cubs got some pitching to match Milwaukee...CelticsBlog will be our go-to place all week for free agency news and rumors...and the era of the big-time city sports columnist is just about at an end. Yet Shaughnessy remains.
Photo by Winslow Townson/Associated Press. Kerry Skemp contributed to this post.
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I don't understand the Twins (a) taking out Blackburn who had the Sox under control for 7 innings and had only thrown 85 pitches and (b) leaving in Guerrier and more specifically not having anyone warm up until after the Youkilis double when Guerrier obviously didn't have it, but hey, we'll take it.
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