Bats Gone Bananas

A pre-game team meeting courtesy of the skipper. An inverted Wally in the NESN booth. Heidi Watney's return from the sports reporter DL. All these things preceded a Sox schooling of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. A sweep at the hands of the cellar-dwelling O's had the team and the fans reeling, with much of Red Sox Nation fearing an impending Soxmageddon. The Sox themselves were fed up with losing and a bunch of pissed-off ballplayers wielding bats put up a colossal 17-run attack on the Halos, who were just a half-game better than them record-wise, but in a considerably weaker division. Everyone in the starting lineup had at least one hit, with multi-hit nights for V-Mart (2 for 6), Youk (2 for 3, HR, RBI, 2 BB, HBP), Drew (4 for 5, 3 RBI), Lowell (4 for 4, 4 RBI, BB), Beltre (2 for 5, HR, 3 RBI), Hall (2 for 4, HR, 2 RBI, BB), and McDonald (2 for 4, RBI, BB). Youk, Hall, Beltre, and Pedey all went yard. For Beltre, it was his first dinger in a Red Sox uniform.

Buchholz had a rocky outing, but pitched well enough to win, thanks to his guts and determination as well as the deluge of run support he got from his teammates. Kendry Morales had made Buch's ankle his personal bullseye as he hit two balls right up the middle, one hitting said ankle and another one grazing it. Buch shook the first drilling off fairly easily, but got a little more rattled by the second one, which came in the fourth inning, where he gave up 3 runs. The ankle tightened up on him and his command suffered in the sixth, when recorded two outs, gave up a run, then handed it over to Manny Delcarmen. MDC promptly struck out the first batter he faced and retired the side in order the following inning. RamRam pitched a clean 8th, and Schoenweiss allowed the Angels to double their score in the ninth, prompting us to wonder why he was the better choice over Alan Embree.

Besides the offense, another positive thing in tonight's game was V-Mart throwing out a baserunner. Both he and Tek have showed improvement in their throws to second base lately, even in the debacle of a weekend series with the O's.

Tomorrow night, Lester faces Ervin Santana and he can only hope the offense has enough gas left in the tank after tonight's onslaught. You can be sure of one thing: Wally will be standing on his head in the booth!

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!! AWESOME GAME TONIGHT!!!!!