My Cortisol Levels Were Through the Roof

Coco Crisp's first at-bat: He got a standing ovation, and he grounded out to the shortstop. He said he definitely enjoyed the ovation, but he's such a shy guy he didn't know what to do. He went 1-for-5 with an RBI, but it was a crucial RBI because the Sox won 5-4.

Wily Mo Pena is on the DL with "left wrist woes." That isn't good news. Timlin is also on the 15-day DL with a right shoulder strain, retroactive to May 26.

Wakefield pitched 8 fantastic innings of shutout baseball. Who expected that? Seanez came in to pitch the 9th and could only get 2 outs on 35 pitches before Tavarez came in to bail him out (but it took him a long while). Seanez gave Tavarez the great gift of bases loaded, then Tavarez got the guy to strike out but a run scored anyway because of a passed ball. And Mirabelli didn't have any passed balls with Wakefield (figure that one out). At this point I was wishing Francona hadn't said Papelbon definitely wouldn't pitch today. So Tavarez walks in another run to make it 5-2. The crowd was yelling "We want Papelbon," which is awesome. THEN TAVAREZ WALKED IN ANOTHER RUN TO MAKE IT 5-3. 5 walks so far this inning. Wakefield was probably pretty mad right about then, he finally pitched a good game and the bullpen was about to blow it. Then Crawford singled and Willie Harris threw Gathright out at home! It was so nerve-wracking, you have no idea (unless you watched it, of course). I was screaming and freaking out and they finally got the out and it was pure relief. Willie Harris, you are the man.

Relievers threw 54 pitches in the 9th. Wakefield threw 108 the whole game. YEAH.

WEEI Quote of the Day: "I didn't know he had that kind of ups." - on Youkilis' 9th inning catch, which turned out to be pretty important.