PEDEY, With Four Hits, Leads The Way Again...Boston 8 Chicago 2

Dustin "Pedey" Pedroia kept his power show going for the second game in a row. He was 4-4 in Boston's 8-2 rout of the White Sox, their 8th win in the last 11 games. What a great time for this world championship team to get hot, and on fire they are. With Kevin Youkilis out, apparently just feeling "under the weather," Pedey was the clean up batter, and late in the game with Big Papi on third, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen actually walked him intentionally. Now that's a compliment! Here are two more kudos...

“This guy right now is on fire,” Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said. “No matter what you throw there, he’s going to get it.
“We did a good job,” Jason Varitek said, “led by our little man."

Right you are, Ozzie and Jason. And here's what Pedey's manager said about placing him in the cleanup spot of the order...

“I’ll never hear the end of this,” said Francona before the game about batting Pedroia fourth. “Pedroia said this was long overdue and Ortiz said he was retiring.”

Peter here, and that one made me laugh out loud. But the guy puts the bat on the ball and the ball in his glove. That says it all. Jacoby Ellsbury and newcomer Mark Kotsay also had multiple hit games as the Red Sox collected 15 hits for the second game in a row. Mark Buerhle was the victim of the offensive onslaught. With the Minnesota loss, Boston now has a 4 game (in the loss column) lead in the wild card race. The Yankees are 6 back and going nowhere fast.

Red Sox starter Michael Bowden, all of 22 years old, made his major league pitching debut, and he was good. Not great, but good. He was able to go 5 innings, throwing 89 pitches, 62 of those for strikes. He allowed 2 Chicago runs on 7 base hits while walking 1 and striking out 3. He recorded his first career win while proving that he could step up to the major league level. All the young guys are playing a huge role in this 2008 season. Here's what skipper Tito Francona had to say about HIS team...

“It’s a good day for the organization,” Francona said. “We’re playing a lot of young guys at times, and our veterans more than pull their weight and help make sure these guys are not walking on eggshells, so they can go out and compete.”

Peter here, and it's true. The young guys are mixing with the veterans and the result is a great team on the field. Maybe the best...we'll see. Red Sox Nation and Red Sox International are in a good place right now with a little more than one month to go until the regular season ends and the real excitement begins. Boston will be a part of that excitement...that much I know.

I hope your holiday weekend is going great and Labor Day will be good to you. For more on last night's win, simply click on this post's title. And don't forget--Josh Beckett will be back on Friday to reclaim his role as our ace. We need him, he needs us. What could be better? As always, BE WELL, and any and all comments will be answered post haste (whatever that means).