Says Josh Beckett to the Concerned Masses:

After a bit of forced practice for the off-season (wandering around the house, wondering what I'm going to watch with no baseball on my television) they managed to get enough of tonight's game in. Definitely a good thing because Josh Beckett looked better and the bats were in good form. More runs and good pitching from the good guys tomorrow. Please.

Calling all Clays.

Well Clay, no pressure or anything, but it's up to you. If you could do that Clay Buchholz: Made of Awesome thing that you can sometimes do, that would be aces. Thank you.

The Lizard King.

For all I know, Matt Garza could be the nicest guy ever. He may embody all of the good things in the world. I have heard things in that vein about him. People who have met him seem to think that he's a nice guy. And at one point last season, they showed him psyching himself up for a game by very enthusiastically rocking out his own self with an imaginary drum kit to whatever was playing on his IPod and it was kinda adorable. But I can't get behind the idea of good-natured Matt Garza.

He spits too much to be a nice guy. One would think he'd be creating hazardous working conditions with the trail of phlegm he leaves in his wake. Someone might slip. And since, short of actual damage to his salivary glands, no one could produce that much spit out of necessity, the spitting must be malicious. He must intend for his opponents to step on a loogie, lose their footing, and go crashing to the ground.

Y'hear that Josh Beckett? You can't let this guy and his tricky, slimy ways beat you. Not tonight.

Homing Pigeon.

After the past couple of games I had come to the conclusion that Theo Epstein might know more than I do about running a baseball team. And I had been working up the courage to publicly admit that I was wrong. (It's a big step.) Clearly, when taken away from the soft, gooey center that is the Baltimore pitching staff the offense has once again hit a snag and the bat of Victor Martinez has proved to be useful.

I wasn't totally ignored, though. I said that his starting pitching staff was a little bit weak on the back end and that he should have done something to address the situation. [Note: I was not wrong on this point. And I may have to demote Buchholz to 3/7 of a pitcher.] Obviously due to my fabulous insight, Theo Epstein has addressed the situation by re-hiring Paul Byrd.

It's not quite the move I was hoping for. I spent most of his starts for the Sox last season with my fingers crossed, mumbling "Please don't suck. Please don't suck. Please don't suck."

Meanwhile, Epstein's 'pen mostly worked wonders last night. It was quite impressive. And the less said about the rest of it, the better.

And I Laughed.

It's not funny. Or, at least, it shouldn't be funny. Like the Lugos and the Javier Lopezs of the team, I find myself trying to stick up for Brad Penny. I don't like when guys get picked on, especially when most of the time it isn't entirely their fault that the team lost. But when Tom Caron Freudian-slipped that Bad Penny would be pitching tomorrow, I got a case of the giggles.

And what I really wanted to write here was that Penny had gotten the best of the Rays hitters that he had faced. But, sadly, that isn't the case. Pat Burrell has seen him the most and has ten hits in forty-two at bats (three home runs and a double) with three walks. He did strike out twelve times, though. Kapler has three hits in seven at bats but two of them were home runs. You could make excuses and say that those at bats would have come last year when Penny was hurt and Kap was red hot, if you wanted to. Haverhill and Crawford are both one for three. And Gabe Gross is one for two with a walk.

After having been called out by Tom Caron hopefully, tomorrow's game goes well for Penny.

Uncle.

Sometimes when you get one-hit by a guy with a salivary gland problem and your, supposedly, great pitching staff can't seem to figure anything out, you have to turn to the guy on your roster with the most experience in losing. And so we look to Jason Bay for advice and he tells us:

Moment 2: Back from the Dead.

October 16. Tampa Bay at Boston.

Honestly? I thought it was over. The Red Sox were down by seven runs with seven outs left in the game. I'd turned the sound on the television off long before. I was only half paying attention to the game, while the other half of my brain was composing a eulogy for the season. But one should never lose faith in Dustin Pedroia's desire to not lose.

Through six innings Scott Kazmir had allowed two hits, both of them singles. He also walked three, hit Varitek with a pitch, and threw a wild pitch but that was it. Nothing. Bupkis. It seemed like a perfectly logical time to go to the bullpen, especially given how well they'd pitched last season.

First out of the 'pen? Grant Balfour. The first batter? Jed Lowrie--who hit a double to deep right. Oooh! Extra bases! Exciting! Oh, wait. Never mind. Varitek and Kotsay both harmlessly flew out to center. But then my Covelli (I told you he was great) got a single and Jed moved over to third. But still first and third, two out, bottom of the seventh, up by seven-it's not a really dangerous position to be in. Except for when the next batter is Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia got a single, knocked Jed in and moved Coco to third. And then David Ortiz hit a home run to right. And maybe, maybe I could listen to a little bit of Chip Caray. Maybe.

Balfour was replaced by Dan Wheeler. Wheeler temporarily staunched the bleeding by getting Youkilis to fly out to right. Papelbon (who had allowed two runs-both of them Manny Del's-in the previous inning) got it together and struck out Aybar, got Navarro to fly out to center, and struck out Gross, both of them swinging. Wheeler, however, couldn't keep it together when he came back out. First, he walked Jason Bay. Then he gave up a home run to JD Drew. 7-6. Pressure on. Wheeler responded by getting Lowrie to fly out and having Sean Casey strike out for Varitek. Once again having two outs wasn't particularly helpful for the Rays. Mark Kotsay doubled to center. And then Covelli dug himself in. He wasn't going anywhere but first base and he wasn't going there without a hit. He saw nine pitches in that at bat and he sent off foul ball after foul ball before he got one he could hit to right. A little single, just a little single. It brought Kotsay safely around from second because of some heads up base running by Coco. Tied game.

Justin Masterson was called upon to relieve Jonathan Papelbon. He gave up a single to Bartlett, got Iwamura to fly out to left, but then walked BJ Upton. Heart in throat. One out, two on, and up to the plate sauntered Haverhill. Carlos Pena *tilde implied* does not ground into double plays. He hit into six of them in 490 at bats last season. It may have been through sheer will power that Masterson got Haverhill to hit the ball at Pedroia. Pedroia tossed the ball to Lowrie for one, who passed it on to Kotsay for the second. Crisis averted.

For the bottom of the ninth, Maddon went with J.P. Howell as his pitcher. Howell started off by getting his two outs: Pedroia grounded out to third and Ortiz struck out. Tampa's bullpen struggles continued as Youkilis hit a single to third and moved to second on an error by Longoria. They IBB'd Bay. But then JD Drew hit a the ball over the head of Gabe Gross. Drew roared. Youkilis scored. And the series went back to Tampa Bay.

Ultimately, it wasn't to be. The Sox had one more win in them before the Rays went on to play Philly. But they didn't go down without a fight. And that was easily the most exciting game that I have ever half-paid attention to for the vast majority of it. And so it is moment number two of 2008.

Moment 5: Fight!

June 5. Tampa Bay at Boston.

Covelli was a good egg all season. He wanted to play but was being passed over for the younger, hunkier version. Then, David went down and Manny became the DH. For four days, Coco was the starting centerfielder. On the fourth day, Jason Bartlett dropped his knee in front of second base as Coco dove for the bag. This pissed off Coco because a similar incident resulted in him missing quite a lot of playing time and he'd just gotten some for himself. Assuming Bartlett would again be covering second, Covelli stole second the next time around and slide hard--he didn't go in spikes high, he just copped a feel--and took out Akinori Iwamura. Later during a pitching change, Maddon and Coco started yelling at each other.

The next night, Coco was batting eighth and James Shields was pitching. Covelli's at bat came at the start of the second inning. With his first pitch, Shields plunked Coco in the thigh. Coco charged the mound and all hell broke loose. The fight resulted in the suspension of eight players: Coco, Sean Casey, and John Lester from the Red Sox and Carl Crawford, Jonny Gomes, Akinori Iwamura, Edwin Jackson, and James Shields from Tampa Bay.

Was it as momentous as the Tekrod fight? No. But Coco got to call them little girls and so it's my number five moment from 2008.

I Went to Philadelphia and All I Got Was This Stupid Hat.

I know that sounds bitter. I know that being bitter is part of the negative image of Boston fans. But I'm not bitter. I really was rooting for Philadelphia and not rooting against Tampa. I may not like some of the players on the Phillies but I wanted this for the Phillies fans. I suppose, though, that I've learned the attraction of bandwagoning-all of the joy, none of the angst.

Most sincere congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies on the World Series Championship. See you on June 12.

Silver Lining.

I suppose one thing to take away from that game is that the bullpen, with the exception of Mike Timlin (whom I don't see earning himself a post-season roster spot, anyway), was good tonight. And a good bullpen is vital.

Okajima's first inning was cake. He had trouble in his second but in came Justin Masterson. I just wanted to hug the big lug or buy him a drink or something (though in his goody-two-shoes-ness he probably doesn't drink) after he got out of a bases-loaded-one-out jam with a strike out of the only good batter the Rays have and a ground out. He strutted out there for the ninth inning (and with the help of Kevin Cash) mowed them down.

And then it was Manny Delcarmen's turn. *Gulp* Manny Del did Dennis Eckersley proud. Eck has said repeatedly that Manny Del is too good to be scared of batters and tonight he wasn't. He got a strike out, a ground out-with some heads up fielding by Delcarmen, and a fly out in the tenth. And in the eleventh got a ground out-with some slick fielding by Lowrie, a strike out, gave up a double, but got a ground out to end the inning.

Then came old buddy Javier Lopez. On Javier's birthday I promised to try to be nicer to him but if he continues to pitch like he did tonight, and has been doing recently, I probably won't have to try. Javier got through his first inning with two ground outs and a strike out. He gave up a double and a walk to start off his second inning but then got a double play and ground out to finish it off. He even came out for the first batter of the fourteenth inning and got a strike out.

Granted, the Rays aren't the Angels or even what Chicago was a couple of weeks ago in terms of hitting. But it's all good stuff to see.

Woot!

Jason Bay is friggin awesome. Papelbon? Not so much tonight.

Poetic.

I try very hard to keep my Yankee-hate in check. But after the bad behavior exhibited by said fans tonight, there's something very poetic about the Yankees players not having all that much to do with the win. Jeter and Rodriguez? Offensive duds tonight. Yankee-trained Navarro? The throw to second was just not good. Rivera? Ridiculously lucky to have a couple of double-plays turned behind him. It was also nice that seventy-five percent of the runs scored by the AL tonight came from the two teams that are ahead of them in the division.

Meanwhile, JD Drew seemed to be the only player still interested in playing baseball five hours after the game started. Voted-in by the players to his first all-star team, JD was declared the MVP of the game. A two-run home run, a single, a walk, a stolen base, and a couple of routine catches in right field will do that for you. So yay JD!

I was never particularly high on JD last year. Trot is a hard act to follow and it's even harder when you're the anti-Trot. Maybe it's just because he sucks less this year but he's starting to grow on me. There was a nice interview describing his feelings about going to the All-Star game on SouthCoastToday yesterday in which he comes across as a really good guy.

We Now Return You to Your Regularly Scheduled Programming.

This may prove to be imprudent but just like that the Red Sox have retaken the lead in the AL East. The Rays have hit a bit of a rough patch, the Yankees offense tends to show up every once in a while but more often than not gets left at the hotel, Baltimore is Baltimore, and Toronto continues to somehow squander the talent they have up there. You can't count the Yankees out and Tampa isn't going to go quietly but it's nice to be on top.

Tampa Bay doesn't look good at the moment-dropping seven games in a row is not a good thing, but they'd won seven games in a row previous to the losing streak so it all evens out. Hinske's cooled off some, which-although I loved Smiley McGee-seemed inevitable. Haverhill hasn't been the same since Masterson broke his finger. Carl Crawford has hit a dry spell. But Dioner Navarro and Cliff Floyd (when he gets playing time) have both been solid. Longoria has been tearing it up-it'll be interesting to see if he can keep it up for the second half. Their starting pitching should be a real concern going into the second half of the year. They're such a young staff-Garza has already surpassed the number of innings he'd previously thrown in a season and Sonnastine is fast approaching a place he's never been before-you just can't tell what's going to happen to them. Edwin Jackson has either turned a massive corner or is in for an atrocious second half. James Shields looks to be the rock of the organization at the moment-you know what to expect from him because (so far) he's having a perfectly average year. The Polish Prince (Kazmir sounds like a Polish name and he looks Polish, so I'm going to go with it) has suddenly run into trouble. You've got to think that when a strike-out guy (who's not the physical prototype of a starting pitcher and has had issues with injuries in the past) starts walking guys, running the count full, and has trouble getting through five innings, something might be wrong. That said, they've got themselves a juicy farm system down there in North Carolina. So they very well could be alright if things get worse or go wrong.

The Yankees have gotten off to a rough start this year. Their highly touted pitching prospects (Hughes and Kennedy) did not do very well in the bigs. They have been absolutely riddled with injuries. Three-fifths of their opening day starting rotation (Kennedy, Hughes, and Wang) have landed on the DL-Kennedy is probably the first back next month. Their biggest bats (Rodriguez, Matsui, and Posada) have all missed some time. Even the cogs that make the machine run (Damon and Jeter) have had to sit out some games. It's impressive that the motley crew they've pulled together has done as well as they have. And although Cabrera and Cano have had down years, Giambi has flourished in this contract year. Surprisingly, they've gotten solid contributions from Mussina and Pettitte-both of whom looked like they were done after last year. And as much as I had hoped he would go the way of Hughes and Kennedy, Chamberlain seems to be working out for them. If they could get it together, figure out how to string together a couple of hits and then a couple of wins, and get healthy, they could make a run for it. If no one else goes down, they could be back to their usual offensive (hee!) selves. Matsui could be back soon and Damon seems to be on the road to recovery. Hughes and Wang are probably out until September. Posada's shoulder, on the other hand, is unlikely to get better without the surgery and it may well be affecting his swing; he's unlikely to be the Posada of last year or even the year before.

There's still sixty-five games to go and you never can tell which way the wind is going to be blowing on any given day but it's still good to be in first. The state of the Sox tomorrow...

Oof.

I haven't done a game recap in awhile and I'm not going to start again now but damn, that really sucked.

Matsuzaka should have gotten that win. Yeah, it would have been better if he could have gone deeper into the game so that Francona didn't have to bother with the craptacular bullpen but there's no way this game should have ended up as a win for the Rays. Daisuke did a good job-he held the Rays to one run through five innings but when 2008-Okajima and Javier Lopez are the bright spots of your relief pitching, something is desperately wrong. It was as if someone told Manny Del, Hansen, and Aardsma that the Rays wanted to win the game and they collectively said: Oh! Sorry about that. Here you go.

Maybe in the same way that Cleveland has the bugs and the ex-girlfriend anthem/God Bless America singers (I don't remember which it was), their equivalent of the bullpen cop is secretly a hypnotist and whispers in the relievers ear: Don't throw strikes! Don't throw strikes!

At least they had offense tonight which is definitely an improvement. It mostly came in the form of Dustin Pedroia (who was a single short of the cycle.) I'm not generally one for second-guessing (it's easy to decide something was the wrong move after things have fallen apart) but what was Varitek doing out there to end the game? Had Lowell not been caught stealing, he would undoubtedly have grounded into a double play. You've got Casey sitting on the bench-let him try to score the game winning run on his birthday. If he struck out, it wouldn't be any worse than what you were likely to get from Varitek anyway.

It's the Red Sox of my youth-finding new and creative ways to lose games daily. Oh, how I missed you.

Garza v. Masterson (Game 61)

Justin Masterson once again put in a nice performance. He threw ninety-one pitches over six innings (sixty-one of them for strikes.) He allowed four runs on six hits (including two home runs-one to the first batter of the game and a two-run shot to Pena *tilde implied* in the sixth inning.) He walked two batters and struck out five. The other Rays run came off a pair of doubles he let fly in the fourth inning. He remains a well-grounded, unruffled, polite, sweetheart of a kid.

Manny Del was the first out of the bullpen in relief of Masterson. He came out to pitch the seventh inning. He walked the first batter but then got a fly out, a strike out, and a ground out to end the inning without allowing the runner to advance to second.

Lopez came into the game for the eighth inning and had own of his not so good outings. He walked the first batter he saw. He gave up a base hit to the second. He was then replaced by Hansen.

Hansen came into a not easy situation. There were runners on first and second and no outs but the new Craig Hansen? He wasn't disturbed by the situation-though he might not have been paying too close attention based on how long it took Francona to get him out there. The first batter he faced reached on a fielder's choice when Youkilis took the out at second. With runners on first and third, the second batter Hansen faced struck out. The last batter grounded into a fielder's choice for the force out at second.

Papelbon came out for the ninth inning and made a much better go of it than he did the last time out. He struck out the first batter he faced. He got the second to ground out to second. And he got the last batter to strike out to pick up his seventeenth save of the year.

The first two Red Sox runs of the night came in the second inning. Manny started things off with a single to center. And then, Lowell hit a home run to left field to make the score 1-2.

In the top of the fourth inning the Rays would tie things up but JD Drew hit a home run to right in the bottom of the inning to give the Sox the lead again.

The Rays took a one-run lead in top of the sixth inning but the Sox would answer that as well. Youkilis was hit by a pitch to lead-off the inning and then Manny booked it down to first base after he hit into a potential double play. Luckily, the shortstop couldn't get a hold of the ball and by the time he threw to first base both Manny and Youkilis were safe. Lowell fouled out for the first out of the inning. Then, Drew drew a walk to load the bases. Varitek hit a single to center and batted Youkilis in. With the bases still loaded and still only one out, Coco--funny little story about Coco there--hit a double to deep left that brought in Manny and Drew. Then, with runners on second and third and still only one out, Lugo drew a walk to reload the bases. Ellsbury then hit a sacrifice fly center that Varitek came around to score on and then Pedroia struck out to end the inning.

Defensively, both JD Drew and Pedroia made some really nice plays in the game.

Next Up: the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rays pitcher for tonight is Matt Garza. The last time we saw Garza was in April when he went up against Tim Wakefield. He allowed three runs on five hits. He walked three and struck out only one. He throws a mid-nineties fastball, a hard slider, a curveball, and a changeup. He plays really well at Tropicana Field but not so well in a different park. Although he's started fewer games away than he has at home, he's allowed more hits, more runs, more home runs, and struck out far fewer (he does give away more walks at the Trop.) Opponents are batting .220 against him at home and .281 on the road. He also does not fair well with runners on.

Wednesday the Rays plan to field Edwin Jackson. Jackson is an aggressive pitcher who throws a high nineties fastball, a slider, and a changeup. Control continues to be a problem for him but if he's on, he can be very good. The first time the Sox saw him this year he was on. He went seven innings and gave up one run on five hits. He also walked three and struck out four. The second time they saw him, he was not on. He ended up going only four innings, giving up six runs on nine hits (including a home run.) He walked three and struck out four in that game, as well. He has a much more difficult time getting lefties out.

The last Rays pitcher of the series is James Shields. His best pitch is his change-up but he also has a low-ninties fastball and a solid curveball. The first time the Sox saw Shields this year he went nine innings and gave up only two hits. He did walk one but he struck out seven. When they saw him a few days later it was a different story. He went only 3 and two-thirds of an inning. He gave up seven runs on ten hits. He walked three batters and struck out three batters. Righties have a much easier time hitting him than lefties. He also has trouble when there are runners on.

Dioner Navarro, Eric Hinske, and BJ Upton continue to be their best hitters. As a team, they don't make many errors at all-Bartlett has a team-leading five at shortstop. BJ Upton is the most likely player to steal a base with seventeen on the season-he's also been caught six times. He also has the most walks, the most RBIs, and the highest number of doubles on the team.

And the Moral of the Series (Tampa Bay: Games 31-33) is...

I suppose the easiest thing to say is that while good pitching is vitally important, you're not going to win games if you don't score any runs. That was the situation the last time out with the Rays-the pitching was very good but they just couldn't score any runs. But not so much this time. The pitching wasn't as good as it was the last time out (in any of the games) but they slugged themselves to a win in each of them.

The pitching wasn't as sharp as it could have been. Julio Lugo continues to be a puzzle. The bullpen (beyond Okajima and Papelbon) might be a cause for alarm amongst all but the least faint-of-heart. Brandon Moss' surgery puts them in a tight spot if one of their outfielders goes down (Coco's knee looked like it took a beating during his almost-catch in the last game.) And the recurring pain in Ortiz' knee can't be a positive.

Regardless of all that, a sweep of the Rays is a good thing and hopefully, they've built some moment to carry them through Detroit.

Kazmir v. Lester (Game 33)

A decent performance by Jon Lester. He got off to a rocky start but between the second and third innings figured out a way to get himself back on track. He ended up throwing one hundred and twelve pitches over just six innings. He allowed one run (a home run) on four hits. And he's getting the number of walks he allows down-just three today. It's always a good thing when you can strike out more batters than you walked and Lester accomplished that today with five strike outs.

Manny Del continues to struggle. He pitched the beginning of the seventh inning and got the first batter he faced to ground out. On a one-two count, the next batter hit a single to center. Then on a three-two count, the next batter hit a triple just out of the diving reach of Coco and a run scored. Okajima came in to finish the inning and allowed Manny Del's runner to score on a single by the first batter he saw. But then he settled himself down and got the next to batters to strike out to bring an end to the inning.

Okajima came back out for the top of the eighth inning. He got two quick ground outs before Eric Hinske dropped a bunt along the third base foul line. The ball came to a rest right on the chalk and in a lighter moment, Mike Lowell reached down and nudged it foul. Papelbon came out to finish the inning and got the last batter to ground out. He also pitched the ninth inning. During which he threw thirteen pitches-eleven of them for strikes-and got three ground outs.

By the end of the fifth inning the Red Sox had a four to nothing lead. At the end of the sixth it was four to one and halfway through the seventh it was four to three. By the end of the seventh they'd gotten a run back to lead five to three. And by the end of the eighth they led seven to three.

In the first inning, they had one hit and one run. Ellsbury got a single, Pedroia drew a walk, and then they double-stole to move themselves over to second and third. Youkilis hit a sacrifice fly and Ellsbury scored.

The third inning was a lucky one from them. They had two runs on three hits. Pedroia singled, Youkilis doubled and then on a wild pitch Pedroia scored and Youkilis moved over to third. Manny then doubled and Youkilis scored. (There was also a passed ball that moved Manny to third but nothing came of that.)

In the fourth inning, they had one run on one hit. Coco started it off by singling, then stealing second, and taking third on the throwing error by the catcher. Lugo walked and Ellsbury popped out. Pedroia grounded out and Coco scored. Youkilis flied out to end the inning.

Youkilis was the lead off batter of the seventh inning, in which they scored one run on two hits. He started it off with a home run to center field. (Varitek hit a double and took third on a passed ball but for naught.)

In the eighth inning, they had two runs on two hits. With one out, Lugo hit a double off the base of the wall. Ellsbury walked and then the two of them double-stole second and third. Youkilis then doubled down the left field line and the two of them came around to score.

Shields v. Beckett (Game 32)

After a series of nine games that largely featured goose eggs on the Sox-line of the box score, this was a fun game to watch.

Beckett didn't have as good of a game as he did last Sunday in St. Pete. It was a perfectly acceptable outing, just not as dominating as he can be. He did work very efficiently; he threw one hundred pitches over eight innings. He gave up seven hits (including two home runs) and allowed four runs. He walked only one batter and struck out only five. The closest he got himself to being in real trouble was in the fourth inning. Eric Hinske started off the inning by doubling to deep left center. Carlos Pena *tilde implied* hit a single to right and moved Hinske to third. With no one yet out, Longoria got a single and Hinske scored. The Rays had runners on first and second, when the next batter (Navarro) lined out to left for the first out. Beckett walked the next batter (Gross) to load the bases. Thankfully, the next batter (Haynes) lined out to Manny; who, with a very good throw, got the ball back to Varitek in time to get Pena *tilde implied* out at the plate for the double play. The other three Rays runs came as a result of the home runs that Beckett allowed; the first of which was a two-run shot in the second inning and the second was a solo in the eighth.

Aardsma came in to pitch the ninth inning and he didn't have the easiest time of it. He did his job (the score was the same at the end of the inning to what it was at the beginning) but he throws a lot of balls. You've (or at least, I've) got to wonder what gets said in those conferences on the mound. I imagine it goes something like: John Farrell trots out there, intimately places his hand on the pitcher's lower back, leans in, and whispers "Throw strikes."

The first batter Aardsma faced fouled out to Youkilis on a two and two count. The second batter got a base hit on a two and two count. The third batter walked. After seeing three balls and two strikes, the fourth batter grounded into a fielder's choice for the force out at second. And the last batter grounded out to the short stop on a two and two count.

The Red Sox got four hits and three runs in the bottom half of the first inning. Ellsbury singled. Pedroia singled. Ortiz doubled (Ellsbury scored.) And Manny singled (both Pedroia and Ortiz scored.)

They got two hits and one run in the second inning. Ellsbury walked with one out. Pedroia singled and Ellsbury came around to score. Ortiz also hit a single.

They got two hits and one run in the third inning. With one out, Drew singled. After Varitek struck out, Lugo hit a double to deep center and Drew scored.

They had two hits and two runs in the fourth inning. Pedroia started it off with a double. Ortiz followed him with a double of his own, on which Pedroia came around to score. Manny grounded out but moved Ortiz over to third. Lowell struck out but Youkilis walked. With runners on first and third, Drew drew a walk to load the bases. Varitek got hit in the knee with a pitch and knocked in Ortiz.

They didn't score in the fifth inning but they came back in the sixth to get two more hits and two more runs. Manny walked to start things off. Lowell doubled. Youkilis singled and Manny scored. Drew reached on a fielder's choice and Lowell scored.

They didn't score in the seventh inning but did in the eighth. In the eighth inning they had three runs on two hits. Manny again started it off by walking. Lowell lined out before Youkilis drew another walk. Drew got a double and Manny scored. Varitek singled and both Youkilis and Drew scored. Varitek then got himself out at second trying to stretch his single into a double.

Jackson v. Buchholz (Game 31)

Woot for offense!

Buchholz didn't have an easy time pitching tonight's game. He didn't pitch poorly but it wasn't his best performance to date either. He threw ninety-six pitches in five and one-third innings. He allowed five hits and handed out four walks. He struck out six. Twice, in the second and third innings, he worked himself into a mini-jam by allowing the first two batters to reach first (in the second inning by walking two and in the third by giving up a single and a walk) but both times he escaped unscathed by returning the next three batters to their seats.

Buchholz did run into trouble in the fifth inning. He walked the first batter, then got a fly out for the first out. The next batter hit a double to left field. With runners of second and third, Clay threw a pitch that got away from Varitek, rolled to the backstop, and allowed the first Rays' run to score. The play that ended the inning was a pretty one, though. With a runner still on third, the next batter hit a grounder down the left field line that Lowell scooped up and tossed to Youkilis for the out at first. After Lowell decided to go to first, the runner at third took off for home but he couldn't beat the throw from Youkilis to Varitek and was out at the plate.

Buchholz started the sixth inning by giving up a single to the first batter and getting the second batter to fly out to center. He was then replaced by Lopez. Lopez finished the inning relatively easily (he got a ground out and a pop out) but ran into some trouble when he came back out for the seventh. I'd like to think that I'm a kind and generous, forgiving and understanding soul, but Javier Lopez seems determined to test me (as does Julio Lugo-they might be working in tandem.) The two of them started off the seventh inning with a high throw from short to first that allowed the base runner to reach safely-though, in the replay it did look like Youkilis got down in time for the out. Next, Lopez gave up a double and on a sacrifice fly from the third batter of the inning, the first runner scored. The fourth batter of the inning grounded out to short and the second run of the inning scored. Manny Delcarmen came in to replace Lopez at that point. Delcarmen looked a little shaky to start things off. He walked the first batter and gave up a single to the second one he saw. He got it together, though, and struck out the last batter without any further damage done.

Okajima pitched the eighth inning, saw three batters, and got three fly outs. Papelbon pitched the ninth inning, saw three batters and got two ground outs and a strike out.

So, yeah. Hooray for offense and runs! Hooray for runners in scoring position and extra base hits! Hooray for home runs and rookies with something to prove!

They got their first run in the third inning. Lugo was up after Varitek had grounded out to short. After seeing a ball, Lugo shot the next pitch to deep center for a double (it's all part of his testing the limits of my patience strategy-hitting streaks, going through error-less phases.) Ellsbury flew out to left for the second out of the inning. But then Pedroia, with an ugly hack, sent one down the left field line for a double and Lugo came around to score. Manny struck out to end the inning.

The big offensive push came in the fourth inning with two outs. Brandon Moss sent the first good pitch he saw to straight away center field for a home run. Next, Varitek got a single and Lugo walked. Ellsbury got a hit that knocked in Varitek and sent Lugo to third. Ellsbury then stole second and Pedroia got a single that scored both Lugo and Ellsbury. Pedroia moved himself over to second on the throw and then came around to score on a single by Ortiz. Manny ended the Rays misery by striking out to end the inning.

The Sox picked up another run in the eighth inning. Moss started off with a single and then took home on a double by Varitek. And although they had loaded the bases by the end of the inning, no more damage was done when Manny struck out.