Thank God it's over. The streak that is, not necessarily our losing ways, but lets not dwell on the bad. Right from the get go I don't think anyone was overly confident about winning after seeing the line-up Jimy put out there for Schourek. Here's a guy who gets the least amount of run support, and Carl Everett is on the bench, Manny Alexander at third, and the pitcher hitting for himself? Up until recently everything Jimy seemed to do turned to gold, and even when he would make a move that I didn't necessarily agree with, i'd go along since it seemed to be working.

But you do have to quetion what the heck he's been doing with the line-up that last few days. Nomar was out on Sunday, he was named AL player of the week by the way, and Carl Everett started the game yesterday riding the pine. I don't want to hear the excuse, "well we have alot of games in a row here and we just played on turf." SO WHAT? This is why players are considered wimps these days, beacuse managers take them out when they don't need to be, and especially when the team most needs them.

Anyway it worked out for the best in the end, so lets get to some of the game highlights. Pete Scourek, other than one mistake in the first (2-run homer to Cliff Floydd), pitched a very strong game, and would have gone more than six innings had we not been playing the NL or if the offense mustered something for him. Unfortunately for his effot, Schourek got a no-decision, but I guess as long as the end result is a win, who cares?

The offense sputtered along again until the eigth when we had men on second and third with no outs. Mike Stanley pinch-hit for Trot Nixon beacuse the Marlins brought in a tough lefty. Stano proceded to pop out on the infield and then the struggling Daubach struck-out for the third time of the night. So now it was two outs, still men on second and third, and Nomar up. Well the Marlins weren't going to let the red hot Nomar beat them, so he drew the intentional walk.

That left it to Jason Varitek, who ended up taking a walk to tied the game at two. I gues we'll take the runs any way we can, as Manny Alexander followd Varitek with the bases still juiced, and poped-out to end the threat.

Then in the ninth our savior came thru again for us. Carl Everett, the second batter of the inning, hit an absolute bomb into the right field bleachers to put the Sox up for good 3-2. Everett has hit six homers on his last seven games, truly the savior.

Derek Lowe came on and pitched a perfect ninth for his eleventh save and the end to the Sox five game skid. One other person who definelty needs to be recognised is Tim Wakefield. Wakes has taken alot of flack from the fans this year, many still don't see how valuable he is, even though he may not be pitching all that great. Wakes, after starting two days ago, came into the game in the seventh inning. With the pen still banged up from the weekend series with the Phillies, Jimy needed the knuckler again to save the arms of the pen. Well Tim proceded to pitch two scoreless innings and picked up the win at the same time.

This was the perfect example of why Wakefield is so valuable to this team and why he should NOT be traded. He does more than just pitch, he keeps guys like Lowe and El Guapo fresh so they can do their job when needed.

Tonights game, scheduled for 7:05pm EST has Ramon Martinez scheduled to take the hill. Lets hope Ramon will shut down the Marlins like Schourek did and keep us on the winning track.