Three More Wins

Since I only got to listen to our last two games against the Jays, here's a recap.

4/18 (4-1, Sox win)
4/19 (5-3, Sox win)

Quick thoughts:

Wed: Only 5 hits for the Jays... Mirabelli goes deep... Wakefield gets some love... That knuckleball's working well this year... I might've been a little hard on Lugo in that last game, that runner was damn close to being completely in his way.

Thur: Coco's waking up... Tavarez did a great job keeping us in the game... Manny picked a nice time for his first home run... Another save for Papelbon... Until Friday's game it was easily the most important, confidence-building win of the season.

Friday was an outstanding come from behind win against the Yankees, with Mariano Rivera blowing yet another lead against the Red Sox. It started with Schilling vs. Pettitte. Schilling gave up two homers to A-Rod, who became the fastest to 12 home runs, in 15 games. Aside from Tek's 2-run blast the bats were pretty quiet against Pettitte. Coco almost killed himself slamming into the bullpen wall going after one of A-Rod's home runs. The eighth inning started off 6-2 Yankees and ended 7-6 Red Sox. Okijima came in to close it out and picked up the save since Paps was unavailable.

From ESPN, here's how it all went down:

"J.D. Drew had three hits for Boston, which trailed 5-2 before David Ortiz led off the eighth with a double and Manny Ramirez walked. Drew moved the runners up, then Mike Lowell singled to make it 6-3 and bring in Rivera. Jason Varitek, who hit a two-run homer in the fourth, singled to make it 6-4, then Crisp tripled down the right-field line to tie it. With the infield in, Cora fisted a blooper over Jeter's head to the back of the infield dirt, driving in the go-ahead run."

The Sox wore their green St. Patrick's Day uniforms and apparently it was the first time in team history that the players have had their names on the back of their uniforms while playing @ home. My roommate walked in the door, took one look at the TV, and asked "What, are the Sox celebrating 4/20?". In a way, I guess they were :)

Welcome Home!!

It's been a few days since my last post, so let me jot down a few observations from the past few games before getting to today's game...

Daisuke obviously pitched a great game last week, as did his opponent Zack Greinke. It was little annoying how big a deal the announcers (at least on WEEI) kept making about Greinke's anxiety issues, but what can you do? One run (a home run), 10K's, 7IP, not a bad day for a guy who's never pitched in the US before.

The 2-0 loss to Texas in Wake's first start was a tough one to take. The team picked up right where it left off with the lack of run support for this guy. Let's hope they can turn that around in the next couple of starts he has.

Then there was the 8-4 loss the next day in Tavarez's first start... pretty much a messy game and I gave up on the boys a bit too early to even comment much on that one.

The 3-2 win in the last game of the series was, for me at least, the best game of the trip. Schilling looked SO much better than he did in his first start which was a relief. Papi's bat came back to life with 2 home runs and 3 RBIs, and after the pen almost blew the game Paps came in to save the day with 5 straight outs. Hell of a game guys!

I expect Beckett to have a decent game today and pick up the win. Seattle hasn't played in ages with all of their games in Cleveland getting snowed out, so they'll probably need a game or two to get warmed up again. There was a really nice ceremony before the game for the '67 team, kind of wish I could've seen that but maybe NESN will be replaying it tonight. Ahh, one more day until my first trip to Fenway since I was 8 years old... I can't wait!!