Boston Red Sox 15, Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2
“Maybe they ought to put out a public address announcement to tell those children out there to be careful.”
- John Olerud after Ortiz’s second home run
Reactions of die-hard Rays’ fan Rob the Heckler to selective events from last night:
David Ortiz’s 45th home run: “But…! But…! I was heckling him! Heckling is supposed to make the hitter do badly, not crush rockets into the right field bleachers!”
Manny Ramirez’s 37th home run, coming back to back with a Big Papi blast for the first time this season: “Ouch, that’s not pretty. Of course, Manny does own us almost as bad as that Wakefield guy…who I see is pitching tomorrow night. Crap. But hey, we can get the runs back.”
Jorge Cantu’s home run in the bottom of the first: “Yeah baby! That’s the way to rock Schilling! Now we can have a rally of our own…son of a *****!…never mind.”
David Ortiz’s 46th home run, marking his 8th multiple home run game of the year: “What, is McClung just handing Ortiz the ball and saying ‘I want you to smack this like A-fraud and Vlad in that Pepsi commercial? I think that ball hit the frickin’ back of the stadium!”
Jorge Cantu’s sacrifice fly to deep center that scored Carl Crawford from second, giving Cantu a franchise-record 109 RBI: “That may be the weirdest sacrifice fly ever scored in baseball. Man, is Carl Crawford fast and man, does Johnny Damon’s arm suck. Too bad it’s 7 – 2 Boston and Curt’s dealing like he’s got a personal vendetta against every man to ever wear a Tampa Bay uniform…”
On the combined 16 for 20, 12 run, 12 RBI, 5 home run night by Ortiz, Ramirez, Nixon and Varitek, where Nixon went a double shy of the cycle: “Oh sweet merciful GOD, why must you torture this team so? Why were we forced to be the brunt of such an offensive explosion, especially on a night when anyone not named Cantu can’t buy a run? I think my brain is bleeding from the beating…”
It was a damn satisfying game, a breakout of magnificent proportions on a night when the Sox needed to win. With the Thursday day off looming, the Sox shook off the offensive gloom that’s hung over them for the past week or two and dominated the Rays offensively from the very first inning. Schilling pitched a solid 7 innings, giving up two runs on six hits, walking one and striking out 7, ending the streak of bad starting pitching from the past two days. Mini-Manny and DiNardo were perfect in the eighth and ninth; Delcarmen struck out the side. New York may have kept pace, but if Boston can build on last night’s success in the final game of the series, they can go into their first day off in 30 days with confidence.
Tim Wakefield, owner of a perfect 6 and 0 record with a 1.89 ERA against Tampa Bay, starts tonight against Tampa Bay’s best pitcher, Scott Kazmir, who’s had his own success against Boston. Hopefully the Red Sox offensive juggernaut will continue to ride over all attempts at opposition. GO SOX!!!
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