Tazawa Tames Bombers As Wakes Will Be Back In The Rotation Wednesday...Bye Bye Penny...Boston Red Sox 14 NY Yankees 1

Junichi Tazawa, the young Red Sox righthander who just one year ago was pitching in the Industrial League of Japan, did what no Boston pitcher could do Friday night...he utterly and completely shut down the pinstripers for six full innings. The beautiful final score was Boston 14, Yankees 1. In all, he was unscored upon and allowed 8 hits (of the scattered variety) while walking two and striking out two. He showed poise and made the big pressure pitch when he needed to. Here is the Red Sox pitching coach, John Farrell, with well-deserved words of praise...

“The challenges that he’s faced in a very short period of time, he’s met them with the same mentality, the same body language that he showed in spring training,’’ pitching coach John Farrell said, after Tazawa had earned the win in a 14-1 clobbering of the Yankees at Fenway. “Again, the last time he pitched against Detroit here, we were saying less than a year ago he was pitching in the Industrial League in Japan. What he’s done in a very short period of time is impressive. The mound presence and the poise that he has, we knew that would be something he would take to the mound today,’’ Farrell said. “It further played out with some key pitches in some tight situations, particularly with two outs, some not only big-name hitters, but some very productive hitters at the plate. He did a great job for us.’’

I watched every one of his pitches and was pleased, especially after the Brad Penny abortion the night before. The bullpen, in the form of Bard for one inning and Gonzales the last two, held New York to their sole run. The hitting star for Boston? Kevin Youkilis, by far. He drove in 6 runs on the strength of 2 (count 'em) taters. Big Papi continued his long ball habit with a homer, as did our new shortstop, Alex Gonzalez. Put it this way...the score was 7-0 Good Guys after only two frames. It was over by then, much to my jumping glee. The teams have split two games and our Sox are where they were when the series started, but tonight's nationally televised tonight should be a good one. CC Sabathia will take on a guy named Josh Beckett. Josh had an off-par outing last time so watch out, pinstripers. BEWARE. The game will be an ESPN and ESPN HD one. A BoSox win is a MUST. GO SOX.

Timmy Wakefield will be back on the Boston mound Wednesday night, so for now, it's goodbye Brad Penny. He didn't pitch well enough for Boston manager Terry Francona to do anything else. Great job, Tito.

Thank you for taking a few minutes of your Sunday to stop by my little corner of the "blue nowhere." I appreciate it more than you'll ever know. Enjoy the last day of this weekend and if you'd like to leave a comment about anything, go right ahead. I''ll read 'em and respond. Promise. As always, BE WELL.

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