Game #13...Boston Red Sox 7 New York Yankees 3...KOTSAY TO BOSTON (?)

Tuesday was an all-around great day for the Boston Red Sox. In their last ever series at Yankee Stadium (barring a miracle), they defeated the New York Yankees by a score of 7-3, Toronto beat up on the first place Rays and the club found out that Josh Beckett will be able to return to the rotation on Friday evening. The Sox crept to within 3 1/2 games of those Rays and have a full three game wild card lead over the Twins and a 6 game lead over the pinstripers. That's a lot of reasons to be happy, but there's one more--a big one. Boston just might be playing their best baseball of the year at the most important time of this long season. That's just terrific! And keep reading to learn about the latest possible Red Sox acquisition, ANOTHER piece of great news.

Tim Wakefield returned to the mound after an injury "time out" and was able to go five full innings, throwing 80 pitches while giving up just 3 runs on 8 hits. He walked one and struck out one and said this after his outing...

"I got a couple game balls from tonight," Wakefield said. "Lou Cucuzza, the clubhouse guy, got me some dirt from the mound. It's pretty special. Playing in this league the last 14, 15 years, and pitching here for such a long period of time, it's such a cathedral of sports. To walk the hallowed grounds that such great players before us have played their game and walked and ran and hit, it's pretty special."

It was a quality start for Wakes, and he would have gone an inning longer if last night wasn't his first start back. After Wakes, the recently effective bullpen took over and posted zeros galore. Javy Lopez, Manny Delcarmen, Justin Masterson, who made the biggest pitch of the game against AROD (he induced the chump to hit into a double play, erasing a possible rally), Hideki Okajima and Jonathon Papelbon all combined for perfection, cementing Wakefield's 8th victory. Jonathon Papelbon earned his 34th save in 38 chances. Oh, what a relief it is...and I ain't talking about Rolaids.

Boston managed just 7 hits, but it was their speed and aggressiveness on the basepaths that left the Yankees eating their dust. New York looked like they were just "going through the motions", lethargic and seemingly out of it. And if they keep playing in such a manner, they WILL be out out of everything. Hear that, Hankie?? And that's just fine with me. New York MUST win these next two games with their east coast rivals just to be able to say they are in it. And they won't. Today at 7:05pm EDT, it'll be Paul Byrd versus that punk (he is!) Sydney Ponson. We usually hit the sh*t out of him and I hope it continues. Nothing would please me more than winning the first two games of this series. The Sox have found road success this past month, and if that continues, the playoffs are a sure bet. Add to that concoction a liberal Friday dose of Josh Beckett, sprinkled slowly over 7 innings, and you have the recipe for success, success the Boston way, my favorite kind.

One more bit of great Sox news. They possibly acquired the services of outfielder Mark Kotsay, who will be with the club in time for tonight's game. He was batting a healthy .289 with 37 RBIs and 6 home runs and will fill the emptiness that is JD Drew, who was put on the DL with his possible herniated disc. JD saw a spine specialist in New York on Tuesday, and we hope surgery will not be needed. So the outfield is restocked, Boston is playing great, and right now, all is good!

Please click on the title of this post for more on last night's monumental merriment, have a great Hump Day Wednesday, and as always, BE WELL. I'll answer all of your comments.