Did That Really Just Happen?

Victor Martinez, Kevin Youkilis, and Jonathan Papelbon are unavailable tonight. Paul Byrd is on the mound. The lineup ends with Baldelli, Varitek, Kotchman, and Gonzalez. The bullpen gives up five runs, four of them unearned after Tek drops strike three with two outs and allows the Angels to keep circling the bases. The Sox are down in the bottom of the 9th with two outs and no one on. They end up pinch hitting both Jed Lowrie and Nick Green because those were UPGRADES over who was due up. Oh... and Nick Green took strike three and Alex Gonzalez ended the game by hitting a ball 175ft....

So we got blown out and we'll get 'em tomorrow with Beckett on the mound. Wait. What's that? We won that game? No way! Yeah, believe it. The Sox came from behind three times tonight, the last of which was a walkoff in the 9th. The Angels had a chance to put the game away early, but the winds blowing in from center kept a couple home run balls in play for Paul Byrd and Anaheim failed to turn a couple of double plays.

As mentioned, the Angels were able to regain the lead after Saunders fell apart in the 6th thanks to Varitek dropping strike three. It became 7-5 Angels, then a few bloops and walks helped Boston tie it up in the 8th. Bard had no one on and two outs in the 9th, then gave up three straight hits to give Brian Fuentes a chance to close out the win.

In the bottom of the 9th, Fuentes also had no one on and two out. Then he walks Ortiz, Drew bloops to center, and Lowrie hits what looks like the game-tying double down the line, only to see Figgins dive and keep the ball on the infield. Then Nick Green comes to bat. I love the guy, but it was tough to watch. He defensively fouled off a few 90 mph fastballs, then takes a high strike, remembers he's not required to swing, then takes ball three, and takes strike three down the middle...except that last pitch was called a ball and Green walks, allowing Drew to score the tying run. Gonzalez followed with a 175ft bloop off the end of the end of the bat and it's a walkoff. Gut-wrenching game to watch, but a win is a win I guess. Hopefully Beckett makes it an easy 6-0 win in two hours and we can all have a night off from worrying.

NOTES:

-Boston has now won 7 games in a row, and with a Texas loss tonight, have reduced their magic number to 11.

-Victor Martinez will reportedly be back in the lineup tomorrow.

-Jacoby Ellsbury had two hits tonight, his 54th game this year with two hits, 4th most in the AL.

-Papelbon's sore back isn't serious and we could see him tomorrow.

-Wakefield is scheduled to start on Monday.

-Alex Gonzalez took his first walk as a Red Sox tonight.