Game 13

Final Score:

Boston Red Sox 12, Toronto Blue Jays 7

Marathon game on Marathon Day. It took 117 pitches for Schilling to get through five innings in a game that took three hours and forty-one minutes to play, with the ace racking up 10 strikeouts and later the win. Manny made the biggest bid ever to be the team's DH, making two errors (one of which was later ruled a hit) in one inning and belting two more homeruns. Renteria, Millar, Mueller and Bellhorn all hit doubles in the 15 hit effort and the Sox improved to eight and five, extending their win streak to five games and pulling to half a game behind the first place Orioles. The defense improved as the day went on too (Jerry Troupiano blamed Manny's bungles on the early start and he might be right - like rockstars, baseball players are not meant to function professionally before noon), as Nixon made a homerun-robbing leaping catch near the Penske poll, which I really wish they'd post on MLB.com already. I just went and looked and they had two of Schilling's strikeouts and Manny's first homerun, which like the one from two days ago went over the Monster streets and onto Lansdowne. Seems like people down there will really need their glass insurance this year - that's the third Lansdowne Bomb the Sox have hit on this homestand.

To be fair, the Jays didn't give up their portion of 2nd place easily; 17 hits and seven runs are generally enough to win most ballgames and it probably wasn't the most pleasant day to be a Red Sox pitcher. Tomorrow night the Sox finish out their first set of home games with a Halladay/Aroyo matchup at 7:05. GO SOX!!!