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I have to admit, going into this game, I didn’t think we had a chance. Derek Lowe has been spectacular all season, and we were tossing out an inconsistant rookie who likes to walk lots of batters. Not a good combination. However, we instead got a wonderful pitching duel. Benoit went six innings, allowing 2 earned runs – and that’s all the Red Sox got, because our bullpen (Alvarez, Powell, Kolb, Rodriguez, & Cordero) combined for four innings of shutout relief. It wasn’t a cakewalk, but they got it done. In fact, Rich Rodriguez (why is he still here?) threw just one pitch to get the win.
Derek Lowe was even better, going 7 innings, and allowing just one unearned run. He deserved the win, but Boston’s bullpen let ’em down, by allowing a solo home run to Todd Hollandsworth in the 9th inning, and another solo home run to Pudge in the 10th to win it. Cordero nailed it down, and we got a nice come from behind win in Boston.
Carl Everett got the predicted reaction in Boston. Interesting that the umpire he head butted is here, too, although he won’t work the plate during the series. Arod didn’t get a home run, so his mega streak of consecutive games is over, but I attribute a lot of that to Derek Lowe – although Arod came close on one ball hit to the deeper parts of Fenway.
Nice game – nice win; on my birthday, too. :) Five in a row now. Would be nice to sweep all the way through Boston & New York without losing, but somehow I don’t see that happening. :)
Additional game commentary here.

It’s Arod again – hitting two more home runs, rocketing past Sammy Sosa for the ML lead with 44 now. That’s 6 home runs over the last 3 games – with 1 on Friday, 3 on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday. In fact, he almost had three Sunday too – putting one just short of the right field fence during the game.
Aaron Myette was really wild this game. He got the win, but walked 7 in 5 innings, and threw 116 pitches through 5 innings as well – quite frankly, he didn’t deserve the win, I felt. The game was pretty much in hand until late when we almost blew it in the 9th, giving away four runs, and requiring Cordero to come in and save the bacon.
We also had a home run by Raffy, and Carl Everett had a good night with three hits. Our offense is clicking very well – it’s too bad it happened this late in the season.
It was also nice to be at the park to see the ML debut of Jason Hart, who walked. Not an eventful debut, but at least it wasn’t an out! And he technically doesn’t have any at bats, either.
Additional game commentary here.

What can you say about this one? Arod does it again. And Again. And again. Three more home runs for Arod were the story of this game. He had 3 home runs in three straight at bats going into the previous game. He ended up with three home runs for hte night – and was left on deck in the bottom of the 8th.
We also had hoem runs by Herbert Perry & Raffy, but the story of this game was Arod – no doubt about it.

There was a lot to like about this game. First off, I had just finished working on my fence in my back yard, so being able to sit on the sofa after 3.5 hours of manual labor in the back yard was great. Thank god for TiVo, so I could watch the game from the start. :)
I really got a kick out of seeing Buck O’Neil at the game last night. Was really nice to hear a few stories of his, plus it was a blast hearing him go “Come on Arod – Come on Arod”. Al Oliver was before my time, so I didn’t enjoy his speech as much, but it was still nice to see the guys from the past here. Sometimes think I want to go to Kansas City and check out the Negro League baseball museum. Watching Buck O’Neill in the Ken Burns baseball documentary was a lot of fun. Man certainly loves his baseball – and like a lot of old timers, he doesn’t seem to have a distaste for today’s game too – which is nice to see.
Anyway, about this game – Kenny Rogers was pitching again on the day a strike date was announced. The last time he did that, he pitched a perfect game. Not to happen here, as Kenny was nowhere near as sharp as he was last Friday in Cleveland, but was “OK”. He gave up 5 runs over 7 innings – not great, but not totally horrid, either. Danny Kolb, however was great coming out of the pen, pitching the final two innings and giving up a big fat donut.
Our offense was led by Arod (who else) who was 4 for 4 with 3 RBI’s and two runs scored. It was capped off by a game winning home run in the bottom of the 9th to win the game. I have to say I wish Buck O’Neil was still around then to see the home run – boy does Buck get excited about baseball, that’s for sure. Anyway, the problem here was that we had two players get hit on the hands by pitches. Kevin Mench (who stayed in the game), and Frank Catalanotto, who came out immediately, and has a broken hand, and very well could be done for the year. Not sure who we’re calling up for that, but it’s a bummer that Cat is out again.
However, given the way the season has gone, I can’t say I’m totally surprised, either.
Additional game commentary here.