This was a good win for the Sox but I think we got somewhat lucky with Guerrero being on the DL and Escobar still recovering from injuries. Escobar dominated for 6 innings. The Sox were able to get to the bullpen, but had a bit of a scare in the 9th inning. The good news about the 9th inning was the the Angels didn't really hit the balls all that hard. A basehit, an infield single, a grounder to left field and then Foulke was still able to get the strikeout. Wells looked good for most of the game except for the 5th inning. He settled back down after that though and if it hadn't been for the way Myers matched up with the Angels in the 8th, he probably would have at least started the inning.
Wells can be a decent 4 or 5 starter with this club. He can give us innings and keep the team in the game. He won't go out every 5 days and throw gems, but that's the job of a 1 pitcher, not a 4 or 5 guy.
Johnny Damon had a better game than the 1 for 5 suggests. He hit the ball directly to Erstad twice and would have had more RBI and hits if it weren't for this. He has been a big catalyst to this team's offense. The offseason may be interesting with Damon but until then, I'm just gonna enjoy watching him produce.
Mike Myers has been a great role-player with this club. The Sox have lacked a good situational lefty in the past few years and have paid for this fact.
It was good to see Millar start the big rally in the 7th and it was good to see the bottom of the order contribute to the offense.
A few random things. Wells became the 60th player to reach 2,000 career strikeouts. Trot Nixon stole his first base since July of 2003. Including the playoffs, this was the 10th straight Fenway win against the Angels. I really liked the ovation welcoming Orlando Cabrera back to Boston.
The Man of the Game is Kelvim Escobar who went 6 innings allowing only an unearned run off 3 hits. He struck out 8. If he wasn't still on the recovery path from some injuries, he would have gone at least 7.
YANKEES AND O'S STRUGGLING
The Yankees were on a tear this time last week. After starting off poorly and falling to 4th place, and even losing 3 of 4 to Tampa, they began to win. What no-one on SportsCenter or Baseball Tonight ever mentioned was the quality of the teams they were playing. New York took 2 of 3 from Oakland, swept Seattle, swept Oakland, and then took 2 of 3 from the Mariners. They took 2 of 3 from a good team they've always dominated in the New York Mets but then Boston came to town. The Yankees beat the then struggling Red Sox 6-3. The next day they lost 17-1, then lost 7-2. They then got swept by the Kansas City Royals, the worst team in baseball. It was only the 3rd time the Yankees have EVER been swept by the team with the worst record in baseball. As I type this, they have just lost 6-3 to the Twins. Steinbrenner is getting pissed and when he gets pissed, he does something big and stupid like sign Jose Conseco or fire a manager.
The Orioles are also struggling. They lost to Detroit tonight and have lost to the Tigers the last 4 times they've played them. I don't think they're going to last. Their pitchers are good only against us. The Lopez injury will catch up to them. Sosa isn't really doing that much. Roberts is an unkown. This team has little experience of playoff contention baseball. Alot of the players, the pitchers especially, have little experience of scoreboard watching and how to win those tight games in September.
