Baseblogging

I was out earlier in the evening watching the Red Sox join every other series-leading team by going up 2-0 over their opponent. It was touch and go for a while, and traditionally this hasn't been a team that you can count on to pull things out, but that's what they did tonight. Behind in the fifth inning, they caught up through the help of a teen fan in the stands who prevented Angels catcher Jeff Mathis from catching a foul ball from Manny Ramirez. (The ball was completely in the stands and out of official play, but if Mathis had come up with it, he would've got the out. Danny Vinik grabbed the ball just before it made it to Mathis's glove, making him the anti-Bartman, helping rather than hurting the team he was rooting for.) After that, Manny made it to first on a walk, loading the bases, and Mike Lowell knocked in a run with a sac fly. Although the Sox had scoring opportunities, the score remained tied into the bottom of the ninth. The Sox had set themselves up into scoring position again, and the Angels decided that they'd rather not face DH David Ortiz, giving him an intentional walk. Manny hadn't been at his best on defense throughout the evening, but as he walked to the plate, he had a lackadaisical quality, appearing unconcerned that the game was in his hands: An out would send it into extra innings. It seemed to me that he simply had an air of, "I'll take care of it, no need to worry." He took one ball, but as the second pitch left Francisco Rodriguez's hand, I thought, "This is it." When Manny connected, though, I was surprised anyway, thinking, "This is it!"

The Red Sox showed flashes of a championship team tonight, but they didn't make it through the whole game. They've got a travel day on Saturday, but the Red Sox and Angels are back at it on Sunday. They can wrap it up then and start getting ready for the winner of the Indians-Yankees match up (which I called for Cleveland before they were actually up 2-0 over the Yanks). But, in true Red Sox tradition, let's don't start getting ahead of ourselves.