I am beginning to believe that the Boston Red Sox are on a strict regimen to NEVER LET US SLEEP AGAIN!
Fact is among 11 walk offs on the year is another far more sleep depriving tally. For the 27th time in 116 games, the Boston Red Sox once found themselves down a run or more yet by the time the 9th inning had been completed, they were in the lead. For the 27th time in 116 games, the Boston Red Sox belted a comeback win.
Now frankly, it should not have been this hard. I mean coming into this now concluded sires with Houston, the Red Sox were the best team in the Al and well, the Astros were the worst. So, going by any and all simple logic one could produce, those three games should have been a cake walk….not at all. Boston dropped game one then fell behind in game two as they were into the bull pen by the end of the 1st inning. Things were not looking good, but in the blink of an eye, that all changed. In the span of just 5 innings, the Sox rode long balls by Johnny Gomes and Jacoby Ellsbury all the way to a dominant 15 to 10 win.
So on we go to last night. With the 3 game set knotted at 1-1, the Sox were going for the win they were expected to get, and well, the Houston Astros were going to likely set a new high point in their dismal 2013 37 win campaign.
"Credit to Houston, they pushed us to the hilt in this series and I'm just proud of the team for the grit we showed yet again," said manager John Farrell without understating a single fact. Houston DID push Boston. "This is, once again, a team win."
After beginning the night with a scoreless 1st, Boston broke through in the second and 3rd innings as by the bottom of the 3rd they had given their starter: Ryan Dempster a decent cushion to work with. But nevertheless in a season in which Dempster had already allowed 21 home runs, he saw another cracked off one of his pitches as with one swing of the bat, Robbie Grossmen tied the game for Houston there in that 3rd inning.
For a short while, Houston seemed to have flipped the tides in their favor. By the time that the Red Sox took to the plate in the 7th inning they were down 5-2 and once again it SEEMED that the Astros had the game won. But not against Boston.
Much like the situation in the bottom of the 3rd, the Sox made it a game again in the 7th inning via a dominant 2 run blast by Johnny Gomes. But by then, all the work was not yet completed. After going down in order after Gomes' homer and then losing their 8th inning at bat via a clutch double play, the Astros found themselves still up 5-4 with just one obstacle standing in their way: the ninth inning.
Josh Feilds on the mound, Stephan Drew at bat, one out, one on as Johnny Gomes once again stood at second base representing the tying run. 0-1 the count to Drew, the second pitch of the at bat, hurled over the upper right hand corner of the strike zone. Drew, turning with power, lines the ball into deep to right field, Red Sox dugout rising to its feet, the Houston right fielder looking up and the ball was gone. 7-5 lead for Boston at Stephan Drew had once again sent Boston into a late game pandemonium.
Gomes rounds 3rd and heads for home, pumping his fist because at that point he knew that this game was over.
"He threw me a first-pitch change-up, and watching Jonny's at-bat and having faced [Fields] yesterday, I just figured if I got something up in the zone I'd put a good swing on it," said Drew. "I got a curveball and he left it out over [the plate] and I got a good rip." Drew said ensuring the fact that he KNEW that that ball was gone.
"I should have buried it down a little bit more," opposing pitcher Feilds said to contradict Drew's words.
Over the past few weeks, the word comeback has been a constant theme in Boston as 6 of their last 7 victories have come in such a way. But while we have been amazed at the power of this teams refusal to quite, another name has caught on fire in that same 2 week span.
Since David Ortiz massacred Baltimore's phone back on July 27th, he has continued his reign of terror with some bat slamming of a different sort. In the 11 games since then, Big Papi has almost literally torn the cover off the baseball as he is currently on a 19 for 46 cut and is already batting .469 in the month of August. It has been 3 games since he has struck out, but most impressively, he has tallied 9 hits in the Houston series. 8 of those hits have come in the form of back to back 4 hit games thus bumping his SEASON batting average up to an astounding .412. He is just 3 thousandths of a percent short of equaling his career high for single season batting average.
I said it yesterday and I will say it again. Baseball has a since of humor. It pits the worst against the best and hands you the strangest of outcomes, all before yanking a sure win away and handing it to an opponent who just a few innings ago seemed down and out.
Baseball is weird but as long as things keep going in Boston's favor, I'm not complaining.
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