Twin Killing

Sox: 10 Twins: 1
Sox: 7 Twins 3

The Red Sox gave birthday boy Tito another reason to celebrate, with a sweep of the double-header against the Minnesota Twins. Since this double billing was the entirety of the series at Fenway against Minny, the Sox now have back-to-back sweeps and a seven-game winning streak. The man who started it all last week in Oakland, Tim Wakefield, was on the mound again today for the matinee and threw another complete game. A rain-shortened complete game, as he went 7 innings, giving up one run. For the stat geeks, Wake is now 2-0 in games pitched on a Wednesday afternoon in 2009.

The Red Sox' victim in the first game was Twins starter Scott Baker, who surrendered six Sox runs, in pairs, over the first three innings. Why pairs? Three two-run dingers, one per inning in the first third of the game. Youk went deep around the Pesky Pole in the first, Nick Green (who has a habit of using his bat to atone for the sins of his glove) hits his first homer as a Red Sox in the second, and Lowell puts one atop the Monster in the third. The rest of the runs were charged to the pen, who were in the midst of taking a beating reminiscent of Monday's throttling of the O's pen. Five hitters had multi-hit games: Jake, Papi, and Green with two apiece and Drew and Lowell with three apiece.

The nightcap had Jeff Bailey at first with Youk moving across the diamond to give Mikey the night off. Bails went deep in his first at-bat, knocking in three runs. Then, Papi added to the damage against Liriano with a 2-RBI double. The last two runs were scored by an RBI groundout by Jake and a sac fly by Pedey. Penny, who had a much improved outing over last Friday's 8-run debacle against the O's, was touched for three runs, including a Morneau homer. The bats have been there for Penny, bailing him out on Friday and giving him the victory tonight.

Friday night, the Yanks are coming to town. Jon Lester, who is flip-flopping his rotation spot with Beckett to allow for his teammate's suspension, will start for the Sox and the Yanks, electing to skip the banged-around Wang (darn it!) instead throw Joba out there. Will Youk have to duck and cover with his "nemesis" on the mound? And, if Joba should throw in the general direction of Youk's noggin, will MLB be evenhanded and hand him the same suspension they levied on Beckett? Without A-Rod around, will the boos for Sox-spurner Teixeira be loud enough for the both of them?

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!