ROLE REVERSAL

Bad start from Schilling, some confusing pitching decisions, and some poor hitting combined for a 7-3 Sox loss. Schilling looked pretty bad at times. He looked good in the first then things started to unravel. If Manny didn't make that catch on Damon's fly out, that's two runs and the inning continues.

One singular pitch stands out. The 3-2 to Matsui with 2 outs in the 5th. It wasn't deceptive, it was just a ball. It had no chance of tempting Matsui to swing at it, whatsoever. Matsui took it for ball 4, then Posada homered and made the game unreachable for the Red Sox bats.

A few questions for Mr. Francona. Normally, I try to avoid nitpicking managerial decisions, but there were a few tonight that baffled me.

1. What the hell was Varitek doing batting 6th, ahead of Mike Lowell. Coming into the game, Tek was 5 for 47 (.106) against Mussina with 23 strikeouts. 23! Not surprisingly, Tek went 0 for 4. He looked foolish with a looking strikeout to lead off the 2nd. In the 3rd he has a bases loaded, 2 out situation and grounded out softly to third. In the 6th with a man on 1st and 0 out, he hit a very soft groundball that was too soft to turn a double play. Tek should have been moved down in the lineup, and Lowell moved up.

2. Why was Willie Harris in the lineup? The explanation was Harris's history against Mussina (5 for 13 with 3 doubles). Also, he is a better defensive center-fielder than Pena and Schilling is a fly ball pitcher. I don't agree with the decision to start him, though. With Gonzalez, Crisp out, and Varitek effectively owned by Mussina, you've got three holes in the lineup already. Throwing in Harris risks having a 4th. He's batting below his weight, which is impressive because he is listed at 170 pounds. Harris is batting .111, WM Pena is batting .320. Pena is 11 for his last 28 (.393) and he was taken out of the lineup for a player who is 2 for 18 on the season.

3. Why didn't Francona pinch hit for Harris in the 6th? At that point, the Sox were down by 3 with a runner on base and 2 outs. Outfield defense is much less consequential when down by 3 runs, and Pena is much more likely to get an extra base hit to knock in a run and get in scoring position for a possible 2 run inning. Harris was already 0 for 2, and didn't look that good in his previous at-bats against Mussina. Why not pinch hit for him, giving Willy Mo 2 at-bats in the game and giving yourself a better chance to score multiple runs?

4. I don't understand the pitching decisions AT ALL. Granted, it didn't end up mattering, but what the F**k was Mike Holtz doing in a 3 run game?????????????? Holtz went from pitching against the Ottawa Lynx and Syracuse Sky Chiefs, to matching up against guys like Bernie Williams and Johnny Damon. What was Francona thinking? Use a AAAA (not a typo) pitcher that's been up and down with several clubs in a 3 run game? Then, he decided to use one of our good pitchers when it became a 4 run game. I guess Timlin wasn't good enough to pitch in a 3 run game in the 6th, but a 4 run game in the 6th and he can go in. Of course, we could have used Foulke for 2 possible innings if we didn't use him in the 14-3 game.

The Man of the Game is Jason Giambi who went 2 for 4 with a homer, 2 RBI, and a run. Since he did steroids, his Man of the Game will have an asterisk next to it.

The B*tch-Goat:
Schilling: 0.6 - 5 IP, 6 ER
Holtz: 0.1 - 0.1 IP, ER
Varitek: 0.2 - 0 for 4, 4 LOB, K
Francona: 0.1 - Holtz, Harris, Tek batting 6th

A FEW THOUGHTS ON BARRY BONDS

This will be my only post on Barry Bonds. His accomplishments do not deserve much attention from this site. Frankly, Alex Gonzalez's 82 career homeruns are much more impressive accomplishments than each of Barry Bonds's 713. The man is a cheater. His head grew, for crying out loud.



Head growth is a tell tale sign of HGH usage. The evidence is too overwhelming to not believe that Bonds has taken some illegal supplement. This taints his numbers. Hank Aaron's 755, Babe Ruth's 714, Willie Mays's 660, Frank Robinson's 586, Harmon Killebrew's 573, Reggie Jackson's 563, and so on and so forth are untainted numbers. However, guys like Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and Palmeiro stink up the top of the homerun leaderboard with the odor of used needles and empty supplement containers.

Then there's Bonds's big mouth. His anti-Boston remarks a few summers ago were ill-founded and out of date. Then the stuff he said about beating Babe Ruth was simply ludicrous. This is an excerpt from this article last year

"Willie's number is always the one that I've strived for," Bonds said before the All-Star Game on Tuesday. "And if it does happen, the only number I care about is Babe Ruth's. Because as a left-handed hitter, I wiped him out. That's it. And in the baseball world, Babe Ruth's everything, right? I got his slugging percentage and I'll take his home runs and that's it. Don't talk about him no more."

He might have just been kidding, but even if Bonds goes on to hit 800 homeruns, he will never surpass Ruth as a ballplayer unless he hits 1,000 homers, and starts pitching.

Let's just compare Ruth and Bonds for a few minutes. At the moment, Bonds has about 800 more career at-bats than Ruth. Ruth has scored about 100 more runs. Ruth was on a great offense, but Bonds played in the most offensively dominated era in the history of the game. Ruth has 123 more hits than Bonds in 800 fewer ABs. Ruth's career average is an impressive .342 (10th all-time), while Bonds's is at .300.

Bonds might pass Ruth for homeruns, but he will never pass Ruth in a surprising category: triples. Ruth has 136, Bonds has 77. Ruth is actually 71st all-time in triples, only 4 behind Willie Mays. Undoubtedly, those triples were products of large and awkwardly shaped ballparks of the 1920's. A good number of those triples might have been homeruns in more traditionally shaped ballparks.

We all know the total homerun numbers are similar. 714 for Ruth, 713 for Bonds. Ruth had a homerun average (HR/AB) of .085, Bonds average is .077. Bonds hits one every 12.91 ABs, Ruth hit one every 11.76 ABs. Ruth had 11 40+ HR seasons, Bonds had 8. Ruth had 4 seasons with 50+ homers, Bonds had 1.

In 1919, Babe Ruth set the single season homerun record with 29. The previous record was 27. In 1920, Ruth broke his own record with 54 longballs. The NL leader had 15. In 1921, Ruth passed his record again with 59. Ruth passed himself again in 1927 with 60. The Babe led the league in homers 12 times. Bonds led the league twice. Ruth utterly dominated his era, Bonds is dominant, but he is not overwhelmingly dominant.

In 1920, Babe Ruth had 54 homers. George Sisler finished 2nd in the homerun race with 19. The entire American League hit 369 homers. That means Ruth hit 14.6% of the homers in the league. No TEAM in the AL hit more homers than Ruth. Only the Phillies (and Yankees, of course) had more homers than Bonds. Ruth was above 14 entire teams in homeruns!

In 2001, Barry Bonds hit a record 73 homeruns. Sammy Sosa finished 2nd with 64. Luis Gonzales had 57. 17 players came within 38 homers of Bonds (no-one came closer than 38 to Ruth). In 1920, Sisler hit about 35% the number of homers that Ruth did. In 2001, 54 players hit 35% (or more) the number of HRs Bonds hit. In 2001, a homerun was hit every 29.8 ABs in the NL. In the AL of 1920, a homer was hit once every 113.7 at-bats.

As far as power hitting goes, Ruth was a much more dominant hitter compared to his peers.

There's more to baseball than power hitting, though. Bonds is a much better baserunner with over 500 stolen bases. Ruth wasn't a slouch on the bases, though. He stole over 100.

Bonds has passed Ruth for walks, but Ruth's OBP is still .030 higher than Bonds's. Bigger than that, Ruth's slugging percentage is still on top at .690. Bonds is a very impressive .611, but he isn't much of a threat to break Ruth's record.

Ruth is 2nd all-time in RBI with 2,217. Bonds has 1,865. Bonds will probably not pass Ruth in the RBI category

Bonds is a better fielder, no doubt. Eight Gold Gloves speak for themselves.

Bonds has never won a World Series. This is a reflection of the teams he has been on, but is also a reflection of him as a player. Bonds has a .245 post-season average. Bonds has 24 RBI in 48 playoff games. Ruth, on the other hand, has 7 World Series rings. He has a .326 post-season average with 33 RBI in 41 games.

So you can see that Ruth is a better position player than Bonds.

Now let's move on to pitching. Bonds has never pitched an inning in his career. Ruth pitched over 1,200 of them.

Ruth was 94-46 (.671 Win %, 12th best all-time) as a pitcher. In 148 starts, he threw 107 complete games, had a career ERA of 2.28 (15th of all-time). From 1915 to 1919 (Ruth's years when he was a regular pitcher) his ERA was always below league average. In the post-season, Ruth is 3-0 with an ERA of 0.87. 31 innings in 3 starts (do that math and you see he averaged 10.1 IP per start).

Bonds is 0-0 with 0 IP, 0 Ks, and no ERA.

Case closed, Ruth is better and always will be.

Anyway, sorry for that rant but when people suggest Bonds is better than a player who will soon be 3rd in homeruns AND is 15th all-time in ERA with 7 World Series rings, and the best slugging percentage ever, I go a little bit crazy.

Bonds has been enabled by the fans of San Francisco, and elements of the media as a hero when all he truly is is a cheater. He would have been a really good player without the roids, probably hitting about 400 homers. Instead, his 7-- will always have an imaginary asterisk next to it as a falsely inflated number.

BIG UNIT, AND A ROD SHRINK IN THE FACE OF CHALLENGE

Randy Johnson is supposedly New York's ace. Randy Johnson didn't look like an ace last night. He couldn't come near the strike zone at all. He threw 92 pitched, 49 for strikes. He also mixed in a pair of wild pitches.

The Red Sox dominated this game in all aspects. Pitching wise, Beckett outclassed Johnson and the Yankees staff. 7 innings and 3 earned runs is impressive against the New York Yankees lineup. Just imagine if steroids didn't exist, Giambi wouldn't have hit that homer and we would have won 14-1.

Defensively, the Sox made some solid plays and the Yankees made 3 errors, 2 by the "MVP" E-Rod.

Offensively the Sox were very good, getting big hits and taking advantage of Johnson's lack of control and the Yankees lack of defense. As a team we went 16 for 45 with 3 doubles and 2 homers.

Every Sox player that had an appearance reached base at least once. That's 12 different guys on base. Ten Sox hitters had hits, nine scored runs, and six knocked in runs.

Mark Loretta has been hitting really well as of late. He went 3 for 6 with 2 RBI. Ortiz went 1 for 4 with a double. Manny went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and a solo HR. Lowell went 2 for 6 with 2 doubles. His last 8 hits have all been doubles. Gonzalez had another big night going 2 for 4 with a homer, 3 runs, 3 RBI, and 2 walks.

The one thing that confused me was the use of Keith Foulke to pitch the 8th. We were up by 8, Foulke pitched 2 days ago, and we might need him in tomorrow night's game. Other than that this game was pretty much a flawless victory for the Red Sox.

In fact, I'm going to start a new designation on the sidebar. Flawless Victories. These will be games in which everything went right for the Sox. This game will be the first.

It was nice seeing the supposedly calm, cool, collected, and "business-like" New York Yankees get riled up. Bernie Williams should get a short suspension for tossing his helmet in the direction of the home plate umpire. And why was Jeter whining and moaning about a strike call when his team was down by 8 runs? Just sit down and take the beating like a man, Yankees.



It's also nice seeing the Yankees F**k up. E-Rod had two errors, the replacement right-fielder had an embarrassing Yankee Stadium debut with a dropped ball, and Randy hit the backstop twice.



The Man of the Game is Josh Beckett who settled down after a steroid driven homerun to go 7 innings and allow only 3 runs. If we really needed him to, he probably could have gone 8. After the Giambi homer, he retired the next 12 men he faced. He struck out 7 and walked nobody on his way to his 4th win of the season.

How come no one will call Yankee fans classless or accuse them of treating Randy Johnson like a common criminal after they booed their own "Ace?"

Isn't it awesome when the Sox make clever Yankee fans like these ones shut-up?



Damon went 0 for 3 with 2 strikeouts. He is 0 for 7 against us as a Yankee. That probably won't last, but it is still nice to keep his bat silent, even if it is for a mere two games.

Curt Schilling will take the mound tomorrow night against Mike Mussina in a matchup between each team's best pitchers. Schilling is going for his 6th win of the season and 199th of his career. Mussina has been one of the best starters in the AL, holding opponents to less than 3 runs in every one of his starts. He's won his last 4 games and is 5-1 with a 2.35 ERA.

The Sox have seen Mike Mussina a great deal. Our lineup has 329 career regular season at-bats against Mussina. Historically, we've had some trouble hitting him. The Yankees have 248 at-bats against Schilling with similar levels of success.

I think this will be a close pitching duel with both guys going at least 7. It might come down to bullpens, which is why using Foulke in the 8th upset me just a little bit.

DELCARMEN DOWN, HOLTZ UP

The Red Sox optioned righty Manny Delcarmen back to AAA Pawtucket. Delcarmen pitched 3.2 innings, allowing 6 earned runs. He only pitched in blowout situations or when the Sox were desperate.

Holtz is a 33 year old lefty journeyman with a 4.69 career ERA in 250 MLB appearances. In Pawtucket he threw 16 innings with a 1.69 ERA. Lefties were batting .091 against him.

I don't know if Francona will use Holtz as a proto-typical situational lefty, getting tough lefthanders out late in close games. I think he might use Holtz as a middle-reliever in situations when he will be facing several lefthanders in an inning.

THE RADIO SITUATION
The Red Sox agreed to broadcast their games on WEEI and WRKO next season. The deal is worth somewhere between $130 million to $140 million over the next 10 years. Strangely, this was the same approximate worth as the WBOS deal on the table. Reportedly, WEEI will have weekday day games, and Friday night games. WRKO will have all other games. WRKO won't change its format to sports, and the Sox will continue to have a relationship with WEEI.

I think having two radio broadcasters is stupid. The situation with NESN and channel 38 splitting games didn't work too well, and even though WEEI and WRKO will promote each other, it is still stupid to have games on 2 stations.

PATRIOTS DRAFT RECAP (LATE, SORRY)

Sorry this is a few weeks late, been busy with finals etc. to write all of this out.

The Patriots drafted a running back, a wide out, a tight end, a fullback, a kicker, an offensive tackle, a DE/OLB, a guard, a defensive tackle, and finally a defensive back/return specialist.

The Pats first pick was Laurence Maroney, a 217 pound, 5' 11" running back our of Minnesota. Maroney appears to be the running back of the future for us, and will probably see some time with Dillon getting most of the carries. Dillon will be 32 in October, and last year he showed some wear and tear from his 2,419 career carries.



Maroney is just a little bit smaller than Dillon, but being younger he has time to build up size. His frame can definitely allow him to add another 10 pounds or maybe even more. He had a good career as a Minnesota Gopher, even though he only played until his junior season. He racked up 32 touchdowns in his career and a few thousand yards rushing. He isn't much of a receiver, but he can be a dump off option. I think the Patriots coaching staff and system will turn this guy into a really good running back.

The Pats traded up in the 2nd round to nab WR Chad Jackson out of Florida. Jackson was one of the most highly touted receivers in the draft. The Pats are in need of replenishment to their receiver corps with the loss of David Givens. Jackson will come in as one of our biggest receivers as well as one of the fastest. It looks like he has the ability to be a really good receiver. He is also willing to work hard, leading the Gators in receptions even though few were for big yards. He also played special teams and I wouldn't be surprised if he wound up returning kicks for us.



The next pick confused me, at first. The Patriots have a lot of needs on their roster, but tight end didn't seem like one of them. Watson was coming into his own as the season progressed last year and Daniel Graham has always been very good. Plus, we have Vrabel on goal line situations. Maybe Belichick likes Wendy's and decided to pick David Thomas, a TE out of Texas.



The guy is a good tight end and was a captain on the National Championship team. Talent wise, he looks very good, with a large number of receptions for a tight end, and more than half of his catches going for 1st downs. However, he fits in 3rd on our depth chart at TE at the moment. I just don't see what the need and desire for Thomas was. Ironically, right after Thomas was picked, the Ravens picked CB David Pittman, then Carolina got OLB James Anderson, then two picks later, Tampa got WR Maurice Stovall. These were all guys at positions the Pats needed and they slipped by us.

However, Daniel Graham's rookie contract expires at the end of this season. If Thomas shows potential and works for us, we might not re-sign Graham. If Thomas doesn't work out, we can re-sign Graham. Bellichick and the boys are crafty, aren't they? Draft for a future need the season before you might have it. It gives you more and better options.

The Patriots had 2 4th round picks and used them to get some role players. They got fullback Garrett Mills out of Tulsa and kicker Stephen Gotskowski out of Memphis.



Mills is actually a tight end drafted as a fullback. His receiving numbers are awesome. He is the NCAA record holder for TE receiving yards in a season. He had 87 catches last year and 201 in his college career, in which he played all 4 years. His size is the reason he is moving to the backfield. He is only 6' 1" and 232 pounds. The Pats could use a guy like this to catch passes out of the backfield, but we also need him to work on his blocking for pass protection and for Dillon and Maroney.



Gotskowski is 127 for his last 128 extra points, which is pretty good for a college player. He went 10 for 10 in kicks beyond 40 yards last season, and 3 for 3 beyond 50. His long was a 53 yarder. He's 42/49 in the past two seasons. He is 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in Memphis scoring in a season. He's also a pitcher for the Tigers.

In the fifth round, the Patriots got run blocking offensive tackle Ryan O'Callaghan out of California. Last season the Bears had two 1,000 yard rushers, and one 2,000 yard rusher in 2004. He's a good run blocker, but he is slow to change direction which could pose a problem in pass blocking situations in the NFL against speedy D-linemen and linebackers.



In the 6th round, the Pats addressed another need, drafting DE/LB Jeremy Mincey of the Florida Gators. He's a tweener that could fill in at the role McGinist had with us, lining up on the line as essentially both a D-End and an OLB. He's a good pass rusher, but he struggles to stay at home. If he can work on that, he could come to be a McGinist type player, always prepared to make the big play, and always allowing his teammates to make big plays.



Also in the 6th, the Pats drafted Dan Stevenson, a 300 pound Guard out of Notre Dame. He is small and not very athletic, but the word is he has great technique and is a very hard worker. I'm sure Bellichick and the Pats know that this is true considering the relationship with the head coach of Notre Dame.



Right after that, the Pats drafted Kevin Smith, a defensive tackle out of Nebraska. The problem with Smith seems to be effort. He put up some nice numbers at Nebraska, demonstrating an ability to pass rush, run defend. and eat up blocks. But his effort changed from series to series. He seems like he is a project for Bellichick, Seymour, Warren, and Wilfork to potentially mold.



The Patriots waited until pick #229 to get a defensive back. Willie Andrews played as a Safety but isn't big enough to play in that spot in the NFL. His specialty is returning. He set the punt return yardage and kick return yardage records for Baylor. Baylor sucks, but he is fast, quick, and elusive. We could use a guy to specialize at returning, and he might be a possible candidate.



So the Pats addressed a need at running back, a possible future need at tight end, a need at wide receiver, they got a potential fullback, a kicker, two offensive linemen, an OLB/DE tweener, a defensive tackle, and a DB/return specialist. Not an amazing draft, but it looks like it has good potential to help the Pats fill some needs. Jackson, Maroney, and Thomas look very good and the rest of the players drafted all look solid with potential to be very good.

WELLS, CRISP, WRKO, ROTATION, RISKE,

David Wells threw 60 pitches off the mound in a bullpen session. Here is the rest of his rehab schedule:

Wednesday 5/10: 50-60 pitches off mound
Saturday 5/13: simulated game
Thursday 5/18: minor league rehab start

So, we probably won't have Wells back until at least the 23rd of May, and they probably will keep him in the minors for more rehab starts this time around so we might not see him until June.

CRISP BACK IN A FEW DAYS...MAYBE
Coco Crisp might be picking up a bat and taking some swings any day now. He has been doing more with his hand lately, including throwing barehanded. He will probably have a rehab stint very soon. The rumor is he will be back in around a week. We need his bat in this lineup. We can hit off Baltimore without him, but Toronto and Tampa proved too much for us.

SOX TO MAKE MOVE TO WRKO...MAYBE
This isn't a definite, but it appears as though WBOS has fallen out of the running for the Red Sox broadcasting rights. WEEI's contract expires at the outset of next season. WBOS had been the front runner. Reportedly, their offer was for $140 million over 10 years, plus an $8 million signing bonus, plus 25% ownership of the station itself. Entercom (owner of WEEI and WRKO) must have made an amazing offer to top that. The $140 million proposal would make the Red Sox deal the largest in baseball. WBOS also may have been willing to air games on FM radio, which has much better sound quality than AM.

WBOS ownership, however, left the table citing financial reasons. Apparently, the Sox wanted too much from them. Entercom was left by themselves at the negotiating table. A move to WRKO would probably help Entercom more than it would help the Sox. WEEI's ratings are much better than WRKO.

Another reason for the potential move may be to separate the Red Sox from WEEI, even though the separation would only be superficial. WEEI's primary function is as a sports radio station. Thus, it's primary function is to criticise and question. The Sox might not like this. A move to WRKO would make it seem as though the two entities were separate. However, WRKO and WEEI both have the same owner and even the same program director. They both broadcast out of the same building.

ROTATION CHANGES
With the rainout last week, and an off day today, the Red Sox were able to rearrange their rotation. Beckett will start it off tomorrow against New York. Schilling will follow. Wakefield will be third. Clement will be fourth. DiNardo will round it out at fifth. Why the change? I don't know. I guess it is nice to finally have Schilling and Beckett 1 and 2.

RISKE ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL
David Riske threw a bullpen session on Sunday. He will pitch a rehab inning in AAA Pawtucket on Wednesday. The need for him to come back healthy in be productive is not a small need. Our middle relief is very weak right now. We need all the help we can get.

That's about it for now. Might do a preview of the Sox/Yankees series for tomorrow.

SOX COMPLETE SWEEP OF ORIOLES

A few firsts this weekend. Wakefield, for the first time this season, got some support. DiNardo also got his first MLB win.

Saturday's 9-3 win was an all around effort. Every starter got on base. Manny's starting to hit, he got his average up to .301 after Saturday's 1 for 2 performance. About the only soft spot offensively has been Ortiz who is mired in a 20+ at-bat slump.

The pitching was also a team effort. Wakefield had another solid start, going 6 and allowing 3. Tavarez had an outing that got a little bit too interesting when he hit Luis Matos. The two jawed at each other, benches cleared, nothing serious happened. Apparently, the two are friends and were fooling around or something. Whatever. The fact of the matter is, Tavarez nearly gave up a 2 run homer after the incident. Timlin had to come in to get an out. Technically it was a save situation so Timlin got a hold. The Sox put up 2 in the 8th then Seanez pitched a 1-2-3 9th to end it.

The Man of the Game is Alex Gonzalez who went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI, a run, and a walk. You know the Sox had a good effort when it is really difficult to pick a Man of the Game. This one was very, very hard to select.

The Sox followed up their 9-3 win with a 10-3 win on Sunday. They did a good job of getting to Kris Benson, which surprised me because he has 4 wins and we haven't faced him that much in the past. Usually, those types of guys we haven't seen really screw up the bats. That was not the case yesterday.

The Orioles and Kevin Millar blew a bases loaded, no out opportunity, scoring only 1 run in the top of the 1st. The Sox had a similar opportunity and Varitek capitalized with a Grand Slam into the bullpen. That was the end of the game.

DiNardo didn't pitch amazingly, but he was good enough to get around some mistakes. He only allowed 2 hits in 5 innings, but he walked 5 men. Tavarez looked shaky as usual, but we had a huge cushion by the time he entered the game. Foulke threw a scoreless 1.1 and Delcarmen pitched the 9th without incident for another cruise to victory.

The Man of the Game is Jason Varitek. He only had 1 hit all day, but it was the game winning hit and came in the 1st. Psychologically that hit was devastating. Baltimore had such a squander in the 1st, to come back and put up 4 with a Granny was like twisting the dagger after stabbing them.

The Sox have an off day after going 5-1 on their homestand. Then we go down to The Bronx.

Beckett vs. Johnson on Tuesday, Schilling vs. Mussina on Wednesday, and Wakefield vs. Chacon on Thursday. All those pitching matchups are pretty equivalent. An average difference of 0.29 in ERA between starters.

This picture is awesome, by the way:

Seriously, where can I get a t-shirt that says that?

SOX DOUBLE UP ON ORIOLES

The Red Sox put up five doubles last night against the Orioles, including three from Mike Lowell. Remember when we saw Mike Lowell as just a salary dump?

Solid start from Schilling for win #5, scattering 8 hits and 0 walks over 7 innings. Timlin got his 7th Hold with a scoreless 8th inning, and Papelbon got save #12 with a perfect 9th.

The Man of the Game is without question Mike Lowell who did it all. He went 3 for 4 with 3 doubles. He scored twice, stole a base, and made an AMAZING play that baffled Jerry Remy and everyone at Fenway. To quote Remy "Boy is he playing some baseball."

Bedard vs. Wakefield in game 2 tonight