Big Papi Walk Off Wonder

For the first time this year, Big Papi David Ortiz hit a walk off home run to propel the Boston Red Sox to another come from behind victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The final score was 5-4 good guys. It was Papi's 2nd home run of the night. He hit a three run shot in the third inning to pull the Sox within a run at 4-3. Jon Lester had a disastrous outing, giving up 4 first innings runs and only lasting 3 2/3 innings total. In that short span he gave up 8 hits and walked 4 in addition to that crooked first inning number. He's been on and off, good and bad all season, but so have Wakefield and Daisuke. They represent 60% of the team's starting pitching rotation, and that spells trouble for the post season. And with the Yankees winning their 7th straight last night over the Blue Jays, this three game weekend series coming up after today's off day looms large, huge in fact.

Manny Ramirez took BP before the game last night, and if he does not suffer a setback today when he again swings the bat, we'll see him batting third on Friday night. And that's just great to hear. Papi said this.......

"He's still hurting a little bit," Ortiz said. "I talk to him pretty much every day. When he warms up, it starts feeling better. But that injury, the oblique, you have to be careful, because you can go from being OK to getting worse."

Peter here, and Manny, be careful. It would be great to see you in the 3 spot Friday night when the "refuse to lose" New York Yankees come to town. Boston will be dancing with excitement, RSN and RSI will be watching, and the Fenway Faithful will be in for quite the treat. But isn't that what baseball is all about?

Click on the title of this post for Gordon Edes' complete game wrap, and enjoy this off day Thursday as we slide together into the weekend. Oh, and hi Natalie!