Clawing Their Way Back

Sox: 5 Halos: 4

So how long was the line to get on this roller coaster? It was a game full of ups and downs for the Sox as they squeaked out a win, with Paps managing to Dice-K his way out of a bases loaded jam in an agonizing bottom of the ninth. The game started with the Sox continuing their frustrating pattern of squandering opportunities at the plate. Jake led off with a hit, then snatched second, but got a little overzealous trying for third and got caught in a rundown. Running into an out is never a good thing, especially when the team's in a run-scoring slump. Grounding into double-plays is another fine way to ensure more offensive futility and there were two of those today, courtesy of Jake and Mikey. But, Mikey redeemed himself in the 5th by taking a Saunders pitch yard for a two-run shot. The hero of the game has to be J-Bay, who saw Mike Napoli go deep twice and thought it might be a good idea to do the same thing. Bay also made a highly unusual catch in left, robbing Torii Hunter of extra bases. The ball snow-coned into his glove, fell out, and then fell back into his glove. Whether or not it touched the wall in between we'll never know, but the second base ump ruled it an out.

Penny had a quality outing, throwing six innings and giving up 3 runs. His nemesis on the Angels' squad has to be Napoli, who homered off of him twice. His velocity was good, which bodes well for the Red Sox. How he feels after this start will be another indication of what they might be able to expect out of him this season. Ramon Ramirez was sharp again in relief, pitching 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Pap got an easy third out in the eighth, but made the ninth inning all kinds of interesting (and maddening!) by letting Torii Hunter knock one out and Kendry Morales double before recording his first out on Juan Rivera. He handed out a freebie to Napoli, whiffed Erick Aybar, another freebie to Chone Figgins (thank goodness Figgy couldn't steal with the bases loaded) before Howie Kendrick came to the plate. Kendrick gave Papelbon fits as he fouled off something like nine pitches in a row before finally flying out to right and giving the Sox their first win since Opening Day.

Tomorrow, Beckett's back on the mound and we hope he's the same Beckett we saw on Tuesday. If so, the Sox have a very good chance of climbing back to .500.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!!