July 6th @ Twins
Won 8-7

  • Boston Herald: Pedro will not pitch in ASG
  • Providence Journal: Sox have four All-Stars
  • Boston Herald: Stanly goes on DL with phantom injury

  • Whew! I think it's safe to say that what almost happened last night would have been a complete disaster. It wasn't pretty but we got the win, which is what matters most.

    Rookie Paxton Crawford made his second major league start yesterday, and after a shaky beginning he settled in nicely and retired 13 of 14 at one point in the game. He finished up his outing with 7IP 6H 1ER 0BB 2K and his first major league win.

    Once again though Tim Young's inability to get hitters out (especially David Ortiz) allowed the Twins back into the game and forced Jimy Williams to bring an over-used Derek Lowe in to stop the bleeding in the ninth. Lowe got the final out just in time as the Twins stormed back to score five in the ninth gving the Sox a real scare and their fans heart attacks.

    The real downside to this is that it's pretty much a lock that Lowe won't be avalaible for tonight's game against the Braves. A game where the pen will probably play a big role in finishing things out. Well lets not dwell on the bad, who knows, maybe Pete Schourek will throw a gem tonight and we won't need the pen.

    The good news though, is that the offense continued to click, and against a very solid major league pitcher in Brad Radke. The Sox lit him up for eight runs, with the biggest stick belonging to Nomar Garciaparra who went 2-4, 2R 4RBI and two dingers. The rest of the offense was provided by Brian Daubach 2-4 R 4RBI and a homer of his own.

    Twinkies or not we won four straight on the road, and that speaks volumes the way things went in June. Remember the Twins aren't all bad, they did take two of three in Yankee Stadium earlier this year. So that speaks for something.

    As I mentioned before the Atlanta Braves come to town tonight to start a three game weekend series that will be followed by the All-Star break. If we can snag two of three from this series we'll be looking pretty good going into the second half. Both Trot Nixon and Pedro Martinez will be back with the team by then and we'll be looking more like the Sox in April, the roster will anyway.

    Tonight's game, of which I will be present, is slated for a 7:05pm EST start with the aforementioned Pete Schourek on the mound. Winning the first game of a series is usually pretty huge, lets hope Schourek has his "A" game going.