Regardless, Saturday was a fun day for Sox fans and lets all hope that this was the jumpstart we've all been waiting for to get things going in the right direction.

The great thing about yesterday was that there were contributions from several players, hopefully I won't miss anyone who is deserving of mention.

Oh, forgot to mention, I'm going to recap both games on this page instead of doing two separate write-ups. But you can still see the other game's numbers in the boxscores section.

David Cone (5.2IP 9H 3R 3ER 1BB 8K W): Got himself into several jams in game one (as you can see from the high hit count), but was able to pitch out of just about every one. This was one of those games, where if you were a Ranger fan, it drove you nuts at the amount of runners left in scoring position by the team. Nice to be on the opposite end once in a while.

So what does that make us, 12-1 in Cone starts this year, 12-0 in the last 12? I know it's getting old, but who the heck would have thought?

Homerun Barrage: Two for Trot (2-4 2R 2RBI), two for Troy (3-4 2R 3RBI Happy 33rd), one for Dauber (1-4 R RBI), and one for Mad Carl (3-5 2R 3RBI). Just imagine if there were a few more base runners on for them, four of the six were solo shots.

Tim Wakefield (7IP 4H 2R 2ER 4BB 6K W): I had mentioned on the message board on Friday that if Wakes could keep the walk total down (been averaging 6/game in his last 4 starts), he'd probably get himself back on track.

Though I meant more like 1 or 2, cutting it to 4 was an improvement, especially when you only allow 4 hits. Wakes was able to stay away from the big inning and gave the team a huge boost with the sweep of the double dip. Even with the win though I'm sure he's headed for a trip back to the pen when Castillo is activated (later this week I believe). I just hope Wakes takes it in stride and realizes the team needs him out there.

Mike Lansing (2-4 2R 3RBI 2HR): I hate to say it, but as much as we moaned and groaned about him early in the season, without him this past month, we'd be much worse off than we are. Had two of the biggest hits of the game with his game tying blast in the 6th, and then the absolute bomb he hit (2-run) in the 8th to seal the victory.

Who needs Nomar right? :)

The only real bad part of the day was that Manny went a combined 1-8 for the two games. Obviously we'd rather him hit in games where the rest of the team doesn't and needs to jump on his back, but this slump he's in is starting to get rather lengthy. I know he's capable of changing the complexion of the game with one swing, slump or no slump. But we really need him to get going as well if we're going to catch the Empire.

Hopefully Everett's 3-5 in game one is the spark he needed to get going, because we need to start hitting like we hoped this line-up would. With the starters still only managing to get to the 6th on most occasions the pen is going to continue to be taxed. With the pen not as strong as it would be with proper rest we're going to have to out-slug some teams, and in order to do so guys like Manny and Mad Carl need to hit. As much as I'm loving the fact that guys like Lansing are stepping it up, we really can't rely on them to do it all the time. In fact we shouldn't rely on them at all and just consider it a bonus when he and guys like Shea and Hatteberg do contribute.

We may be headed into unchartered territory today as the Sox will be going for their third straight win. A streak of three wins has not been accomplished since before July (I'd say 'since June' but I'm really not sure if we won three in a row then either). A nice 5-6 game run would be nice, not to mention fun.

paul@redsox2000.com