These are the games you're supposed to lose. No offense in the early innings, some young pitcher you've never seen mowing through the lineup. But these are the games that good teams are able to win.
This was a hard fought victory for the Sox. Down 3-0 in the 6th, Drew had a two out single which set up Varitek's two run shot. Varitek followed it up in the 8th with an RBI single to tie the game. Okajima did a good job of pitching around an error in the 9th in order to force the game into extra innings. Then in the 10th, Lowell hit a sac-fly to score Ortiz, and Papelbon finished the game off.
Very nice character win for the Sox.
This will not be Tavarez's last start of the season. Jon Lester says he feels better than ever, but he will pitch at least one more rehab start on Thursday against the Richmond Braves.
Have to give credit to Tavarez, though. Lately he's pitched well enough to give his team a chance at winning, and that's all you really want from your #5 starter.
The value of Kevin Youkilis's versatility comes through in these NL box scores. He can hit leadoff, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, he can play 1st, he can play 3rd (and if you ask he can play 2nd and the outfield).
The Man of the Game was Jason Varitek. He went 2 for 5 with a homer, a double, 3 RBI, and a run.
Honorable Mentions:
JD Drew - 3/5, 2 Runs
Micah Owings - 6 IP, 2 ER
Hideki Okajima - 2 IP, 0 R, BB, K
Unfortunately, no Pittsburgh Pirate hitter slammed a line drive up the middle into Roger Clemens in his start today.
I don't know about you Rob, but I really thought Roger's performance against the Pirates was unimpressive. I'm seeing headlines like "Clemens brings new life to Yankees" because he pitched six innings to a traditional NL cellar dweller, one of the worst teams in baseball in the Bronx and gave up 3 runs in the process? That's a 4.5 ERA against a bad team. I suppose 9 runs from the Yankee lineup didn't hurt either.
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