Boston Red Sox 6, Minnesota Twins 0
Well, that was unexpected. If you had come to me before the start of the season and said, on September 21st, Josh Beckett and Johan Santana will face off in the last game of the season between the Twins and Red Sox, I would have predicted a pitcher’s duel. If you had come to me a few weeks ago and said the same thing, I would have expected a good game…if Beckett pitched smart. I would not have picked Santana to be by far the losing party in a head-to-head contest and I don’t think I would have expected Beckett to go solid innings and give no runs on six hits. But that’s just what they did.
Then again, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Tonight was one of those magic nights at Fenway, a night where the baseball gods of old seemed to speak from on high with the thunder and the fury that’s made this team great in the past – the team we keep coming back year after year to see. If Josh Beckett can come out with all guns firing, then of course: David Ortiz should take the first pitch he sees from Johan Santana into the Boston night, a middle-in fastball that should never have lingered in the danger zone and deposit it into the right field grandstands like God’s own slugger, further enshrining the legend of Big Papi with the new Boston single season record. And being Big Papi, there’s always room for more: how number 52, in the seventh inning, off Matt Guerrier. The season might literally be over tomorrow; this game might have been the last blast of Indian summer before the harsh reality of October sets in, but we always have these moments to savor as we wait for the spring and for that we are fortunate.
Tomorrow night it’s the final games against the Jays: a four game set in Toronto, with Hulian against former Sox nemesis Ted Lilly. The homestretch awaits, dear friends. Let’s go out with a bang. GO SOX!!!
Posts
