Jacoby MVP-sbury

Before last night, Jacoby Ellsbury had never had a walk-off hit in his major-league career. Tonight, he has two in a row! Last night, it was a single that drove in a pinch-running Salty. Tonight, it was a majestic shot into the stands in straightaway center field. Both nights, Ells and the Red Sox got it done in the bottom of the 9th, avoiding the bullpen toll of extra innings.

The starters of both walk-off games, Beckett last night and Wake tonight, can commiserate about paltry run support. Beckett got 2 runs and Wake got 3. Beckett gave up 2 runs and Wake gave up 3. Two tie games, two walk-off wins, one hero. Carl Crawford passed the walk-off torch to his fellow speedster tonight. With the Yankees steamrolling the White Sox, each Red Sox win has been essential to staying on top in the division race. Each team has one more game against their AL Central opponents before facing each other this weekend. The Red Sox have newcomer Erik Bedard facing old friend Justin Masterson. I like Masterson. He's a class act and a very talented young pitcher who has put together an excellent season for the Tribe. That said, I hope the Red Sox hand him a loss tomorrow and help Erik Bedard get his first win in a Red Sox uniform.

Bedard will be working with a reduced pitch count tomorrow (75-80 pitches) and may still have a little rust from his DL stint, so patience--not an area of great strength for me--will be necessary. According to scouts, the stuff is there. I'm looking forward to seeing how he transitions to the big market and the pennant race. Some run support for him would be nice. He didn't get a whole lot of that with the M's.

Back to Jacoby and the amazing season he's having so far. Once again, he has as many home runs as Adrian Gonzalez. He's batting .317 with 18 HR and 65 RBI out of the leadoff spot, with a .374 OBP and an .885 OPS. He has the highest batting average of all center fielders in the league and the second highest in the majors. All this after missing almost all of last year.

Pedey's another player who has bounced back admirably after a season-ending injury last year. Since June, he's become the Pedey he was before the fouled that ball off his foot and broke a bone that Red Sox Nation is now all-too-familiar with. Who else without a medical degree had heard of the navicular bone before Pedey's injury? He started out this season slowly, but once he got his balky knee checked out in June, the peace of mind he gained from the procedure fueled his return to Pedeyness and paved the way for the Legend of the Muddy Chicken. (Laser Show is so 2010) He was named AL Player of the Month for July, a month in which he put together his career-best 25-game hitting streak (which actually began in late June and extended through almost all of July).

Then there's Gonzo. He still leads the majors in batting average (.357) and RBI (90) but the power's down from his days as a Friar. Sometimes when the average rises, the power falls. He's also coming off of shoulder surgery in the off-season. When he's driven in more runs than any other player in baseball and gets hits more often than any other player in baseball, I'll take that any day. He plays a stellar first base to boot.