Are You Kidding Me??????

I had just about given up. The Red Sox were being shut out by the Baltimore Oriole's pitcher Jeremy Guthrie and it was the bottom of the 9th with the score 5-0 Birds. And then this series of events took place, started by an innocent dropped pop up by catcher Ramon Hernandez. Let me take you back. This is from the Hartford Courant, and I thank them........

"The Red Sox scored six runs in the ninth - the final two on Julio Lugo's infield single and Ray's error with the bases loaded and two outs - to pull out a 6-5 victory before a delirious crowd of 36,379 at Fenway Park. The Red Sox increased their lead over the Orioles and Yankees in the AL East to eight games.
"It's amazing," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "A dropped popup, and the next thing you know, a combination of some magic here and some really good players that don't quit. On a day when it was awfully quiet, we didn't mail it in at the end and kept playing."
On Sunday, Perlozzo's decision to lift Guthrie with one out, after catcher Ramon Hernandez dropped Coco Crisp's popup in front of the plate, doomed the Orioles. Guthrie, making his third start, had thrown 91 pitches and retired eight in a row before Hernandez's error.
But Perlozzo came out and summoned Danys Baez to face Ortiz.
Ortiz greeted Baez with a double to center, scoring Crisp with the first run and injecting new life into the ballpark.
Wily Mo Pena followed with a single, Ray replaced Baez, and the rally was on. Ray (3-3, 4.35 ERA), who gave up a late grand slam to Pena last month in Baltimore to lose a game, walked J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis to force in the second run, then allowed a double to right by Jason Varitek to make it 5-4.
After Hinske was walked intentionally to reload the bases, Alex Cora hit a chopper to second. Brian Roberts threw home and barely got Youkilis for the force and the second out.
Lugo worked a full count, then hit a chopper wide of first. Kevin Millar flipped the ball slightly behind Ray, who appeared to have a half-step on Lugo in the race to the bag. But Ray dropped the ball, allowing both Varitek and Hinske to score to win the game."

Peter here. and as the crowd went delirious at Fenway and in their living rooms, the Sox players raced out of the dugout for a mass celebration just as if they were shot out of a cannon. 6 runs scored in the bottom of the 9th. AMAZING! The Red Sox have an 8 game lead in the AL East. and the best record in baseball. This win was reminicent of the Cardiac kids, those 1967 Boston Red Sox who never gave up and always found a way to win, and so many of those improbable comebacks were due to Carl Yastrezemski, who had the most clutch season any Sox player has ever had, and I'm including Big Papi!
So the Sox are now 25-11 with the red hot until yesterday Detroit Tigers coming to town. And on a sobering note, Josh Beckett has a piece of ripped skin on the middle finger of his pitching hand. I linked an article about it. Just click on the title of this post. It's likely he'll miss his next start. If that's all he misses, we'll have to consider ourselves lucky. Let's hope so. But there was nothing lucky about yesterday's win. That was pure magic! Red Sox magic. The best kind.