Who Owned The Night?

Hint: It wasn't a certain dreadlocked former Sox left-fielder who now sports #99 for the Dodgers. It wasn't necessarily Felix Doubront, who, while he showed promise in his major league debut, will benefit from more seasoning in Pawtucket. It could have been Scott Atchison, who, since making the emergency start last Saturday against the Phillies, has been making a case for sticking around in the 'pen.

The night belonged to the Sox offense, one that put on a Dustin Pedroia-patented laser show for the Friday night Fenway crowd and stole some of Manny's thunder. This offense was thought to be fair to middling at the start of the season, what with no 35-40 homer, 120 RBI guy looming in the middle of the lineup now that Jason Bay had left for Queens and coveted slugger Adrian Gonzalez didn't magically appear in the clubhouse with a brand spankin' new Red Sox jersey waiting for him. Instead, the offense, even without the originally conceived starting lineup, has become a more balanced one. No longer would they need to rely on one or two guys to knock all the dingers drive in all the runs. Production would come from throughout the lineup: From leadoff hitter (in Jacoby Ellsbury's absence) Marco Scutaro, who is showing that last year in Toronto wasn't a fluke. From AAA call-ups Darnell McDonald and Daniel Nava, who never could have imagined the impact they would have on this team. From .339 hitting offseason acquisition Adrian Beltre, who leads the team in both average and RBI. From backup catcher Jason Varitek, who is adjusting to his new role beautifully and making the most of his opportunities at the plate. From Victor Martinez, the new everyday catcher, who overcame a slow start to heat his bat up in a big way. From Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia, because you know those two grind out at-bats and wear pitchers down. From JD Drew, who has been on a tear of late in interleague play (although he may be DL-bound after straining his hammy catching a fly ball hit by none other than Manny Ramirez), And, yes, from David Ortiz, who turned his season around in May and has once again been a guy you want at the plate with guys on base and the chance to take the lead with a long ball. Bill Hall, Mike Lowell, Jeremy Hermida, and Mike Cameron have pitched in when they can.

This offense is first in runs scored, RBI, and slugging percentage and second in home runs. As with any team, there have been days when the offense just didn't show up, but this year, it's shown up more often than not. The team ERA has been in the middle of the pack, despite some runs of brilliance by Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, so the offense has been key to the Sox making up the ground that they have in the division. As of today, they are a game back of both the division and Wild Card, with the Yankees and the Rays tied for first. The division leaders have run into a little trouble with some surging NL East teams in interleague play and have opened the door a bit for the Red Sox to close the gap and close the gap they did.

Today, Wake stands on the mound for the Sox and Padilla for the Dodgers. The Sox hope to continue their interleague success and keep pace with, if not, dare I hope, surpass their division rivals.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! BEAT LA (AGAIN!)!!!!