I love playing Boston. It’s always a great game, even if we lose. They’re probably my favourite opponent to play period. My wife loves it when we play Boston too, because one of her favorites is there, Nomar Garciaparra. Lynn also has a thing for Gabe Kapler, and we had brought the binoculars last night, and when Gabe was at second base, she could see Nomar & Gabe at once. :)
Anyway, enough teasing of the wife. It was an awesome game last night. After a shaky early start, Kenny Rogers got settled down, and other than the home run ball to Carl Everett, he looked pretty solid. He made the usual Kenny Rogers defensive plays that he makes, including one in the 7th that forced him out of the game early and to the X-ray machine (as I write this, the results have not been disclosed). Tim Crabtree came in and gave up a couple of runs, but was throwing some major heat last night. Even John Wetteland got in on the act, not allowing any runs, and getting a save. There was a bit of drama when he walked a batter, which brought Nomar up to the plate in the 9th as the go ahead run. Fortunately, he popped up the first pitch, and we won the game.
On the other side of the plate, our offense can really be chalked up to two players. Rafael Palmeiro and Luis Alicea. Raffy got us started with a two run home run in the third. Later on, Tim “Knuckleball” Wakefield (who we never do anything against) came in, and loaded up the bases. Recently, we have a very disturbing trend where we do nothing with the bases loaded (see the Twins series). Anyway, Luis came through with a two out two run single off of Wakefield. It felt good, and the radio show on KRLD after the game said that Luis had a big smile on his face – he deserved that one. Raffy came through with his 8th home run later in the game (a solo shot), which turned out to be the cushion we needed to win the game.
Overall, an awesome game, the weather was great, had some nice fans around me to talk baseball with, and it wasn’t too crowded (just a tad over 26,000). Plus it was $1 hot dog night. :)
Tonight I’m going back for my third trip to the Temple in three days, and it’ll be a treat. Pedro Martinez pitches, and while I’m not expecting to win this one, I expect I’ll really enjoy it.