Games 49 and 50: Boomerville and the Return of the Lopez

Final Scores:

Game 49: Boston Red Sox 7, New York Yankees 2
Game 50: Boston Red Sox 1, Baltimore Orioles 8

Good recaps of both games at Joy of Sox and Surviving Grady. I was in exhausted transit back from Massachusetts yesterday, but clearly I didn't miss anything enjoyable; any time the namesake of the Rodrigo Lopez Club pitches up to his reputation isn't a good day for Red Sox bats. Poor Bronson Arroyo, on the other hand, seems to have lost his pitching groove. Seven runs in two and two-thirds innings? Ouch. I have confidence he'll get back on track shortly though.

Sunday, on the other hand, was like confidence run in full swing. 8:05 game time, with a TV and NESN indoors while the party was outside. Robin, myself and a few others came in at around 8:20 to find Edgah on base and Big Papi at the plate. Mussina throws a low, inside pitch that Ortiz crushes...just foul. 'He's not gonna throw that again,' I think and then watch as Moose does, in fact, throw another inside fastball, which Papi obligingly smashes into the third deck in right field. 2 - 0, Red Sox. I go back outside.

Boomer comes out and promptly gives up solo homeruns to Jeter and Sheffield. The news is reported to those of us outside, much to the dismay of Red Sox fans; I start yelling incoherent things about Donut and Robin begins to worry he'll have to go into baseball isolation.* Wells gives up single to A-Rod...then gets Posada to end the inning in a double play and doesn't look back, becoming pretty much the unhittable beast he should be on regular occasions. Mussina, meanwhile, is struggling and the Sox knock him out in the third after he's given up five runs. All is jubilation out in the yard.

An interesting tidbit that occured before Sunday's start: Edgar Renteria gave David Wells a check (supposedly in the range of five figures) to switch uniform numbers. Boomer is now number 16 and Edgah number three. The two switched in the hopes of improving respective performance (i.e., superstition) and clearly it worked, at least for that night: Wells won his game and Renteria extended his hot streak by going four for five. The odd thing, of course, is that Renteria was wearing number three (Babe Ruth's number on the Yankees) when he hit the final out of the World Series last year...a number that Wells grabbed when he came to the Red Sox because he idolizes the Babe. Numbers are fun.

Golden boy Wade Miller goes up against Daniel Cabrera tonight in game two of the three game series against Baltimore. This series is pretty important for obvious reasons; winning the next two games could help break the Orioles' hold on the AL East, or at least weaken it. Last night's game was Baltimore's first win after losing three straight to Detroit, so there's hope yet for the Sox to take the series. Besides, they're at Fenway (and will be for an incredible two straight series!) and have already faced Lopez...Danield Cabrera who? GO SOX!!!

* - Before the Yankees series, Robin told me that if the Sox did not take two out of three in New York, he was going to stop talking about baseball all together for some open-ended period. I'm not sure how long his will would have lasted, but I suppose it's better for all humanity (or at least the humanity who read this blog) that he didn't - where would we be without the examples of his sparkling wit to top my posts?