Another JD Drew-Powered Victory...Red Sox 7 Phillies 4

JD Drew's June numbers (so far) are AL Player of the Month caliber. He's batting .441 with nine home runs and 21 RBI in 17 games. That's nothing short of awesome. And his club, OUR club, took the three game series with the Phillies with a getaway day 7-4 win. Justin Masterson went the first five frames but was not as effective, control-wise, than in his earlier starts. Just 53 of his 92 pitches were strikes, but he held the potent Philadelphia lineup to 4 hits and 2 runs. Javie Lopez pitched a quick and clean sixth before the roof came close to crashing down. Why? Two words...Craig Hansen. He failed to record an out and gave up two runs and two hits. Add a walk to those woeful numbers and you can begin to imagine the mess that Manny Delcarmen inherited. After walking the first hitter he faced to load the bases (remember, the score was 7-4 at the time), he retired the next three, striking out Ryan Howard to end the inning and preserve that three run lead. He breezed through the eighth and left the game as a hero. Jonathon Papelbon worked a 1-2-3 eleven pitch ninth, and suddenly, it was over. Boston was beckoning, and the Sox players were more than eager to get there. Manager Terry Francona had this to say about the pitching hero of the day...

"Things started happening a little quicker than we wanted them to, but Delcarmen came in and was terrific," Francona said. "He slowed the game down when it started to get loud. He got some big outs and had a good inning.

Peter here. That does it for the hurling hero...now we move to the Red Sox offense and IT'S hero... JD Drew, who went 4 for 5 with 4 huge runs batted in. He has taken Big Papi's spot in the batting order and has put up numbers that David would envy. Dustin Pedroia and Sean Casey also had multi-hit games in a 13 hit offensive display that Philadelphia could not match. Manny Ramirez (tweaked hamstring) and Kevin Youkilis (back) did not play but there's reson to believe that one or both will be back Friday night, where the DH rule is happily back in force. Boston owns the best interleague record...7-2. After today's day off, they will entertain the Cardinals at Friendly Fenway. The players are getting home just in time for today's (Thursday) Boston Celtics Rolling Rally, set to kick off at 11am EDT. If you can't receive NESN on your local cable service, I would suggest NESN dot com...they will have coverage of some sort. The weather will be just fine and the turnout should be fantastic. I'm already wearing green, and it's only 5:44 in the morning!

If you'd like, click on the title of this post to be directed to the main sports section of the Boston Globe. By linking to that, you'll find everything you needed or wanted to know about not only the Sox game but the Celtic's rally, too. So enjoy, have a great Thursday as another week rockets by, and as always, be well. Click on that title, and remember, I will read and respond to each and every compliment.....errr, comment sent. Just kidding. Smiled, didn't you?