Game 14

Final Score:

Boston Red Sox 3, Toronto Blue Jays 4

Well, I was going to start by saying that even though they lost a tough one, it's been a good homestand. Which is has been. A hell of a good one, in fact. However, I'll start instead by asking why, on a night when Manny Ramirez hits a ball that landed on the train tracks beyond Lansdowne, if not on the Mass Pike itself, his homerun doesn't end up on the Plays of the Game reel that MLB.com produced. Yes, it's all well and good that Russ Adams made two excellent stops at short to get Boston runners, but I kinda want to see Manny's homerun. Ortiz's too.

As mentioned, Manny hit another Lansdowne Bomb, the first time he was up against Halladay. It was one you knew from the voice on the radio was gone as soon as it left the bat and of course, it was right after Joe and Jerry were talking about how Halladay doesn't give up a lot of homeruns. Love it when that happens. Unfortunately for Arroyo, who had a pretty good start, gave up one homerun and seven other hits, plus a walk, while garnering three strikeouts. As has been the case in the past though, he didn't get a lot of run support and the bullpen picked tonight to have a bad night: two runs from Embree in the eighth to tie in, one run from Foulke in the ninth to give the lead to the Jays and it all came down to the last out...and Ramon Vasquez (playing for a sick Bill Mueller) couldn't pull it off, hitting a pop fly to center field to end it. I told you those Blue Jays didn't give up easily. Still, even though I missed the middle innings by going out to dinner,* it was a pretty exciting game.

On the contract front, Tim Wakefield has signed a contract extension that not only gives him $4 million next year, but gives the Sox an option on his contract in '07 and any year beyond that. Since Wakefield qualifies for the "Jason-Varitek-Do-Not-Trade-Clause" and because he's said several times he doesn't want to leave Boston, this means that Wakefield will almost definately stay with the Sox until he retires, presumably seven years or so from now, at around age 45. I think this is great; the man is a fixture in Boston (as I think I've gushed before) and the sort of no-ego guy you can feel good about having on a team, especially when your team is the defending champs.** Knowing that this is one part of the '04 team we're not going to lose for a while feels pretty good.

Tomorrow night the Sox are in Baltimore, with the Embedded Yankee going up against the first place Orioles and Bruce Chen, who's had a surprisingly good start for a Baltimore pitcher. Ok, good for any pitcher. The guy makes me nervous, as does the Baltimore lineup. Should be a good match, although I may miss all of it. GO SOX!!!

* - A part of the Dining in Brooklyn thing a bunch of restaurants run every year. Basically a prix-fixe deal, but because it's the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers winning the World Series, the price was $19.55. I'm capping off the evening with a Brooklyn Brewery "Brooklyn Pennant Ale '55" and feeling very cultured.
** - Nikki's brother Steven said it best: "when your team is the champs, you gotta deal with a bunch of asshole players." Or something to that effect. The less assholes to deal with, the better, I say.