Black Hole Has Gone Missing...

Sox: 7 Yanks: 3

When I saw the lineup for tonight's game, I anticipated some serious black hole-ishness from 7-9, especially 8 and 9, but I will happily eat crow over that prediction. Number 7, Coco, had three hits while Bailey and Cash had two apiece, Bailey collecting two RBI on a single in the fifth. Coco also had an RBI. Jason Bay showed the Yanks that, although they rejoiced at the Manny trade, they might have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. He had two RBIs on the night. Big Papi also had a good night at the plate, with two doubles. The only guy in the lineup not to have a hit was Pedey, who had a bit of an off night, going 0-5 with an error, though he drew a walk and scored. Lowrie was charged with an error as well, when he was playing third later in the game. It was his first error with the big club.

As the Sox were putting runs up on the board, A-Rod was having a choke-tacular night, striking out twice, grounding into two double plays, making an error, and being a lightning rod for the boo-birds.

Wake had a nice comeback outing, doing better than I had expected, considering his record against the Yanks and his just coming off the DL. He allowed three runs over five innings, two of those runs coming off solo dingers by Damon, in almost exactly the same place. He picked up his 8th win of the season, improving to 8-8. Lopez pitched a flawless 6th. Delcarmen, coming off a clutch save on Sunday, was a miss tonight, recording only one out, walking one, and allowing a hit. Masterson came in and got A-Rod to ground into his second double-play of the night. He ran into a little trouble in the eighth after an error by Pedey allowed Giambi to reach and Nady singled. Oki came on, struck out Matsui, got Cano out, and then Paps took it from there.

Tomorrow, Byrd starts against a team that is not the Toronto Blue Jays. The Yanks have Ponson on the mound. With tonight's win, they already have a winning road trip, but another win or two in the stadium would be some nice icing on the cake.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!