Got Walk-Off?

Do they still do those celebrity milk mustache ads? The ones that say "Got Milk?" If so, Pedey would be a perfect candidate for one, given his joking comment last week about his return to form at the plate, "I'm strong. I drink milk". Milk does the Pedey good, as we saw yesterday in the bottom of the 9th inning against the Dodgers' high-powered closer Jonathan Broxton. The game was tied and there were 2 outs. Pedey was down to his last strike before the game would be forced into extra innings, a situation which has spelled doom for the Sox so far this season. But the calcium-powered Dustin Pedroia Laser Show prevailed and Pedey lined a single into right field, scoring Nava from second, the winning run and Pedey's first career walk-off hit.

Had Pedey not delivered in the bottom of the 9th and they followed their perplexing pattern of losing in extras, this blog might have been titled "A Tragedy of Errors" instead. There were 4 instances of defensive FAIL in this game--Bill Hall, playing right field for the first time with JD being hurt, had 2 of them. The other two belonged to the left side of the infield, Beltre and Scoots. It was only the last error that was costly for the Sox--it led to the game being tied in the 7th, but it created the situation in the ninth where they had to score or they'd have to go into extras. I guess you could say it set the stage for Pedey's heroics, in winning a game they probably shouldn't have won, but Red Sox Nation will take wins in any way we can get them, especially now that the wild card and division are one more Sox win and one more Rays and Yankees loss away.

Before Pedey's knockout blow, both Youk and V-Mart went yard and Nava doubled in a run. Wake pitched well enough to keep his team in the game, despite the lack of help from his defense. The shortage of outfielders, forcing Hall to play a position he had played little if any of, denied Wake the win, but with 6.1 innings and 3 earned runs (4 total), he did his part. Should Drew need to be DL-ed, the Sox would be put in a position to have to make a trade for a major-league level outfielder. Josh Reddick needs to play every day in the minors and Ryan Kalish has even less PawSox time than Reddick (plus, he's on the minor league DL). In order to make room for another outfielder, they will have to part with Lowell in some way or another. Let's all cross our fingers that JD can play on Tuesday.

Tonight, the game's on ESPN and Clay Buchholz toes the rubber for the Sox against Hiroki Kuroda. Will the Beat LA chants become Sweep LA? It would be a sweet sweep after what happened on Thursday night at the Staples Center.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! SWEEP LA!!!!