A Wild Night At Fenway...Lowell Lost...Byrd Acquired...Boston 19 Texas 17

WOW! There was no other way to begin this post without shouting (well, typing, but I shouted it last night plenty of times) that word. WOW. 400 pitches, 37 hits, 36 runs, and all that in 3 hours and 53 minutes. The Boston Red Sox defeated the AL leaders in team hitting Texas Rangers by a score of 19-17, leaving 37,000 plus fans stunned and hoarse and finally happy at Fenway. I was hoarse and I was only watching the game on NESNHD. Here's how it all started, and ended...

Boston scored 10 runs in the bottom of the first, including two 3 run shots by Big Papi. Game over, right? Noooo. The Rangers, who can hit the you-know-what out of the ball, scored 8 runs in the 5th inning and 5 more in the 6th to make the score 15-14. Unthinkable? At the time, YES! All those runs were the responsibilty of one-time-only starter Charlie Zink, Javie Lopez, David Aardsma and the frustrating Manny Delcarmen, who has the "stuff" but obviously does not know how to use it. The Sox rallied, much to the delight of the Fenway Faithful, with a run in the seventh and 4 more in the 8th. The biggest blow was Kevin Youkilis' second home run of the night in the 8th inning. He joined teammate Big Papi David Ortiz with two taters, although both of Papi's shots came in one inning, the first. He joined Bill Regan, Ellie Burks and Nomar in the "two home runs in one inning" club. So the night ended well after the good (10 Sox runs in the first), the bad (the Rangers' 8 runs in the fifth), the ugly (the Rangers five more runs in the sixth) and the great (the Red Sox eventual comeback and victory). WHAT A NIGHT! And how bad would it have been if the Red Sox had gone down in defeat Tuesday night? I don't even want to think about it! Boston crept to within three games of the Rays, so the stretch run is on, baby, on! Here's part of what Youk and Mikey Lowell had to say after the Fenway slugfest...

“This was a game that potentially could have really been a major downer for us and we actually turned it around and made it a great win,” said third baseman Mike Lowell...
“It was definitely a huge game for us to pull it out in the end and get the win,” Youkilis said.

And now for more news, bad AND good. Mike Lowell strained an oblique muscle in a 7th inning at bat, and his status will be reevaluated today. Obliques are notoriously slow to heal, so it looks like he'll be headed to the disabled list. Expect to see much more of Sean Casey, who is a great replacement. Of course, Youk will move over to third. And Boston acquired the services of Cleveland Indians' pitcher Paul Byrd, whose overall record is 7-10 with an ERA of 4.53. But since the All Star break, he has corrected a couple flaws in his delivery and stopped "tipping" his pitches. The result has been a spectacular record of 4-0 and an ERA of 1.24! WELCOME PAUL. You'll be starting in place of Clay Buchholz on Friday night at Friendly Fenway.

OK, I've gone on long enough...click on the title of this post for more on last night's unbelievableness and for the latest on Mike Lowell and Paul Byrd. And as always, BE WELL.