You'll Never Guess

Yes, they did it again.

This time, Mark Loretta came through in the 9th to win the game. As you know, he is right before Ortiz in the lineup; finally, someone took the pressure off David. So it was the bottom of the 9th, and Cardona (who gave up the game-winning HR to Ortiz the other night) got the first 2 outs quickly. He then hit both Mirabelli and the Gonz (he hit the Gonz!! I was very upset about that)
and walked Youkilis. Then the fantastic Mark Loretta hit one off the wall to get the 2 runs necessary to win the game. And it was another celebration for the Sox, and they sure have been having a lot of them lately. And despite SportsCenter's intro, it is NOT getting boring when the Sox have walk-off wins!

Wily Mo Pena hit yet another home run in the 6th to give the Sox a 4-3 lead. I love Trot Nixon and all, but there's no way Pena can keep sitting out. He's so young, and he has Ortiz and the staff teaching him...whenever I think of his broken-bat double off the wall, I get chills. He is going to be WOW good.

Jon Lester had a hard time in the first inning, but the 3 runs he gave up then were the only runs he allowed throughout his 6 innings of work. Delcarmen pitched a scoreless 7th, but Timlin gave up 2 in the 8th for his 4th blown save.

Of course, Papelbon was an ace in the 9th.

David "Clutch" Ortiz has been named the AL Player of the Month for July. Well, of course.

Pardon the Interruption: Wilbon is quite concerned over the loss of Varitek; Dan Le Batard doesn't see it as a big deal. Hopefully, Le Batard turns out to be right and Wilbon is as wrong as wrong can be. By the way, where the hell is Kornheiser?