Johnny Damon has a tendency to run into the wall for no good reason. To make the play he was trying to make, running into the wall was required. He nearly amde the play, too. From the Green Monster I could see that the ball was going to be trouble once it was hit. Then I saw Damon running towards the triangle where he had made a homerun saving catch earlier. This time he nearly made a spectacular play catching the ball in his glove before it got knocked out by the wall.
The game itself was a great one to go to. The Red Sox struggled through 4 innings, getting no hit by Daniel Cabrera. Miller seemes to be ready to lose it in the first few innings. In the 3rd, he gave up that 415 foot triple to Gibbons, then a wall ball double to Fasano. He was then able to keep the ball in the infield to prevent anymore scoring.
Thing seemed bleak. Ramirez was given the day off and wasn't put into the game when Damon got hurt. This meant that the lineup was Olerud-Renteria-Ortiz-Nixon-Tek-Millar-Mueller-Payton-Bellhorn. The lineup loses some of its ferocity when Damon and Manny aren't in it.
The defensive adjustments caused by Damon's injury worked out though. Olerud made a fine double play at first, Payton's arm was able to hold a runner on third base after a fly out, and Millar barely had to move in left field.
Finally in the 5th they broke out of the no-hitter. Mueller led off with a walk, Payton hit a double play ball but hussled to be safe at first. Bellhorn got the first Boston hit with a single up the middle. Olerud doubled, scoring Payton. Renteria singled, scoring Bellhorn. Ortiz singled, scoring Olerud. Nixon hit a weak grounder that scored Renteria. Varitek then struck out to end the inning but the Sox had a lead they would not relinquish.
The Man of the Game is Wade Miller who settled down very nicely to go 7 strong innings allowing only the 1 earned run. He could be very important as a #3 or 4 starter to this team and considering that we got him for barely anything, he's been a pretty solid pickup.
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