A Perfect Friday

Don't expect the Angels to walk Ortiz to get to Manny again!

The walk-off 3-run home run from Ramirez was a perfect way to end the night, after Ortiz was IBB'd twice in the game. Manny was having none of that and this picture says it all:

Matsuzaka was not perfect, but he only gave up 3 runs; to Boston's offense, not that much of a threat. The bullpen, however, was perfect: they didn't allow a single run. Papelbon was so excited to get out of the 8th and 9th innings:

A special thanks to this kid, who saved an out by taking the ball from the Angels catcher and allowing the Sox to keep their inning going:

And without J.D. Drew, who singled in the first with bases loaded, the game might not have ended in our favor.

Also, the Yankees losing was fantastic.

Djokovic!!

Djokovic just beat Federer. Djokovic just beat Federer. Djokovic just beat Federer. Djokovic just beat Federer!!! He's gotta be the first guy to ever beat Nadal and Federer in the same tournament, right?

What a great, great match that was. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about Boston's game today -- they were of course winning, then late in the game they blew it and Kevin Millar hit a stupid walkoff home run. Kevin! You are supposed to be our friend!

And what's the deal with the supposedly really good bullpen? Schilling left poised to win it, and as soon as I saw Timlin in I knew the game could be lost. BUT TIMLIN DIDN'T LOSE IT!! (shock) Okajima, Gagne, and Snyder all gave up runs to get us yet another loss. Surprisingly, Timlin and Delcarmen were the ones who pitched well. I feel another late season collapse coming on and this is a really bad feeling :(

Took the Series

That's a triple! A bases loaded triple courtesy of Varitek in the very first inning - that's the way to start things off! And a single after that to send our captain home. Way to bounce back from that last game that we shall not talk about.

I had a feeling those 4 runs would be all we needed, and it turned out that they were - Boston took this one 6-3. Gabbard pitched 5 strong with 7 strikeouts. They did have to use 5 pitchers out of the bullpen but none of them pitched more than one inning so they should be good to go for the Yankee series that is coming up tomorrow.

Oh, and Boston now has the best record in all of the Major Leagues at 30-13. Not to mention a huge lead in the AL East. A very good thing when you're going into a series against Mussina, Wang, and Pettitte.

How Different

What a difference a few hours makes.

We won the first game today 13-3, with a Mike Lowell grand slam (!) and a fantastic pitching performance by Matsuzaka (8 IP, 3 ER). Over his last three starts, Matsuzaka is 3-0 with a 1.87 ERA. Oh yeah, and Lugo, Wily Mo, and Youkilis also had HRs in the game.

And then came the second game. Hansack started and gave up 4 over 4 innings. Not that bad. Then Pineiro came in and gave up 4 in 2. And Lopez allowed 3 in only one measly inning of work. Romero tried to end the bleeding, and he did, for one inning. But Donnelly came in after that to pitch the 9th, and totally gave up 3 runs. BULLPEN '06 RETURNS. We lost, embarrassingly, 14-0.

Those Yankees lost again - in awesome fashion. Johnny Damon pushed a non-HR ball into HR territory. Cano made 3 errors (though I kinda like that kid and do feel bad for him - he actually threw one ball off his foot after making a really good stop). Jeter was very un-clutch. Another one of their pitchers didn't make it through the first inning, though I can't be too happy about this one because Rasner ended up with a fractured finger. They have some BAD luck lately, somewhat reminiscent of a certain team from Boston late last season.