Pauley Helps the Winning Effort

First things first: Wily Mo Pena is out for 6-8 weeks due to wrist surgery. And it seems my excitement over Kapler's return was premature. Mike Lowell did something to his hamstring. Bad week so far.

David Ortiz started off the game with a solo HR. As he does.

David Pauley had a pretty good first inning, which got me thinking that maybe he was going to have a pretty easy game. The second inning he walked 3 guys and only let one run score, which is better than half the pitchers on the team. By the end of the third inning, Pauley had gotten a double play to get out of each inning.

A rain delay in the Yankee/Tigers game got me some NESN coverage, and hearing Remy and Don was like sweet, sweet bliss. And a Mark Loretta 2-run homerun made it even better! The man hits 'em long even with a "sore toe." 15-game hitting streak for him.

Manny scored on a wild pitch. Then bases loaded with no outs in the 4th. Including Manny, 3 guys had been walked with a Youkilis double. Nixon struck out. The Gonz did nothing. In fact, I was so confident that the Gonz had zero chance of getting more than 1 RBI, I vowed to go on a week-long fast if he did. Then Coco Crisp hit a single to score Youkilis, but Lowell was out at home (got to love that third base coach and his many, many bad plays). I hate when that happens.

Manny hit one hard into the stands, and scored Ortiz in the process. Put the Sox up top 7-2.

And then Pauley fell apart in the 5th and gave up 4 runs.

But Nixon hit a homerun the next inning! And Gonzalez and Loretta turned a very pretty double play to end the 6th inning and leave the score at 8-6.

And when Papelbon came in to pitch, you knew it was a done deal. We didn't get swept! Yay!