Cream

Game 157 – Red Sox

Red Sox 7, A’s 3
Record: 93-64

In the words of Jerry Remy, “Don, this has been a weird game, hasn’t it?” I know your name probably isn’t Don, but the point is otherwise spot-on. Last night’s strange brew of a contest featured, among other things:

Manny Ramirez batting second in his return to the Sox’ lineup after an extended
injury-related absence.

J.D. Drew going 3-for-4 with a run-scoring walk and seemingly finally figuring out that the Green Monster could be his friend.

Oakland starter Chad Gaudin pitching 4 relatively strong innings before walking the first 4 batters in the bottom of the 5th.

A’s infielder Marco Scutaro striking out 3 consecutive times after only whiffing once in his previous 64 at-bats.

Eric Gagne struggling to protect a 3-run lead in the top of the 8th. Wait – that’s not weird in the least. The weird part was Tito using Jonathan Papelbon to bail him out and being willing to use Paps for a 4-out save in a game where every other move seemed geared towards getting the team focused on the postseason. Manny left the game after 3 at-bats, Curt Schilling was lifted after 86 pitches, and, well, Papelbon was in line for a 4-out save - until the Sox scored 3 in the bottom of the 8th to take a 6-run lead and let Tito off the hook…

Except that Brian Corey tried to light himself on fire in the top of the 9th, allowing the tying run to reach the on-deck circle with only 1 out…

Only to be bailed out when Dustin Pedroia’s nice running grab on a pop to shallow right turned into a baffling game-ending double-play.

On top of all that, the Yankees blew a 5-0 lead to the Devil Rays and lost in 10 innings. As I said, weird.