12eight

TOP 1st: 2-0 BOS (in progress)
Well!  That didn't take long.  Ortiz nails a 3-2 pitch from Mays off the Stupid Fucking Plastic Bag Wall^TM for a 2 run double, scoring Graffanino and Renteria (each reached via single).

TOP 1st: 3-0 BOS (in progress)
And Manny adds a double.  If the pattern holds, Millar and Petagine will each hit triples, and Mirabelli and Cora will go back-to-back.

TOP 1st: 5-0 BOS
Oh man, my favorite play in the world.  Millar singled, driving in Manny.  Petagine blooped out, but Mirabelli came back and lied a single.  Then Cora flew out to Stewart...except Stewart forgot how to count to three, and flipped the ball into the stands.  Millar was awarded home, Mirabelli to third.  Kapler ended the 9-batter 1st with a strikeout looking.

I love that play.  Even when it happens to us, it never fails to be preposterously funny.  I mean, for god's sake, infielders hold up one or two fingers after outs specifically to tell the OF's not to do that.  Oops.

BOTTOM 1st: 5-0 BOS
The Anti-Mays.  Wake jogs through the first, getting Stewart to fly out to Millar (who astutely noted that Stewart represented the first out, and returned the ball to the pitcher), Punto K'd on three pitches, and Lew Ford grounded out, 5-3 (Cora to Petagine.  How odd.)  11 pitches for Wake, 8 of them strikes.

TOP 2nd: 5-0 BOS
Graffanino K'd, but Edgar followed it up with his second single in two innings.  Papi then lined a shot right back at Mays, who snagged it and threw out Renteria; sounded pretty unavoidable, as Mays had to have a superhuman reaction time to get Ortiz's liner.  End o' inning.  Mays is now at 40 pitches, 10 of them coming in the second.

BOTTOM 2nd: 5-0 BOS
Wake cruises through the 2nd, getting the first two batters on K's and inducing a pop-out to Graffanino from Mike Cuddyer.  10 pitches in the inning, 21 on the day.

TOP 3rd: 5-0 BOS
Almost two innings in a row.  Manny and Millar led off with singles, and then Petagine lined a shot back to Mays, who almost doubled up Millar at first.  Turned out not to matter, as Mirabelli added a conventional DP in his AB, 6-4-3.  The Sox have now collected 9 hits off Mays in 3 innings, while seeing 51 pitches.

BOTTOM 3rd: 5-0 BOS (in progress)
Wake in a jam now.  He retired the first batter Redmond on a K, but three straight singles have followed, loading the bases with one out.  Nice get by Mirabelli on a potential run-scoring pitch that got away.

BOTTOM 3rd: 5-3 BOS (in progress)
Nick Punto lined a ball just past Renteria and into left center, scoring Castro and Bartlett, and giving Wake his first dent. His second jus appeared, on a grounder to Cora that he thre away going for a force at second.  The Sox managed to catch Punto in a rundown, but Stewart scored as Graffanino failed to notice his advance.

BOTTOM 3rd: 5-3 BOS
Some ugliness capped the last inning, but Wake finally recorded a K on LeCroy to end it.  Putting up some numbers against Mays here would feel real good now.  We've had at least one hit in every inning, and the one in the scond was cut short on a nice play, we can definitely string some together.

TOP 4th: 5-3 BOS
This is turning into a very bizarre game.  After Cora lined out to Stewart (who can, apparently, count to one), Kapler singled into center.  Grafanino worked a decent AB, but was caught loking as Kapler took off for 2nd on the full count.  The throw was off-line and Kapler reached without a tag... but Chuck Merriwether ruled that Graffanino had interefered with the catcher by walking over the plate towards first, as he thought the pitch was a ball.  Kapler was called out on the Batter's Interference.  That's three DP's for the Sox, all three a different type.

BOTTOM 4th: 5-3 BOS
Did you blink and miss that?  Wake retires the side on 7 pitches, including a K.  His issues in the third aside, Wake has been perfect.  Unfortunately, he doesn't get a mulligan.

TOP 5th: 8-3 BOS (in progress)
Pet A Genie!  Mays is out of the ballgame, but not before letting the Sox regain their 5 run lead.  Renteria led off with a first-pitch double down the LF line.  Ortiz walked on 5 pitches, and Manny lined a ball through the 2B (with Ortiz nearly getting nailed at 2nd, leading to Joe and Jerry chuckling over Sox baserunning).  Kevin Millar popped out foul to first, but Petagine came up big for his first Red Sox hit, a double into the gap, clearing the bags.  Petagine, for some reason, tried for 3rd on the play and was gunned out, but the damage be done.

TOP 5th: 8-3 BOS
Mirabelli followed the above with a swinging K to end the inning, against new Minnesota pitcher Matt Guerrier.  Mays' final line: 4.2 IP, 8 runs (7 earned) on 13 hits and a walk.  77 pitches, 48 for strikes.

BOTTOM 5th: 8-3 BOS
Another nice little inning from Wake, who despite the rough third inning has only thrown 60 pitches through 5.  Castro grounded out 1-3, Bartlett flew out to Kapler in center, and Stewart grounded out, 5-3.  THAT'S the third out, Shannon (no, I'm not going to let it go).

TOP 6th: 8-3 BOS
The Sox have still not suffered a 1-2-3 inning today.  Kapler's hit this inning was out only, as Cora and Graffanino flew out, and Redgar grounded out, 6-3.

BOTTOM 6th: 8-3 BOS
More of the same.  Ground out, fly out, strike out from Punto, Ford and LeCroy in the 6th, though Ford put a 9 pitch AB on Wake.  Tim's at 82 pitches, 58 for strikes.

TOP 7th: 10-3 BOS (in progress)

MAN WELL

10-3

After a brief delay, in which a foul tip hit catcher Mike Redmond in a sensitive area that Jery called "high on the leg", Manny drives a J.C. Romero offering deep and gone, scoring Ortiz, who had walked to open the inning (extending his AL BB lead to 69).  Millar follows with a single, and Joe and Jerry are inexplicably cracking up in the booth.

TOP 7th: 10-3 BOS
After the Manny dinger and Mllar single, Petagine K'd for the first out.  Mirablli walked, moving Millar to second, but Cora grounded into a 4-3 DP, with Punto applyingthe tag on a slow Mirabelli between first and second then tossing to frst to get Cora.

Wake should be good for a couple more innings, and I have n doubt he'll do so, as he's shown a willingness this year to pick up the pen.

BOTTOM 7th: 10-4 BOS
Wake turned in another solid inning, spoiled by a miscue from Renteria.  After the Twins' first hit since the third inning (a single by Cuddyer), Renteria booted a potential DP ball, then threw th ball away, allowing Cuddyer to score and Castro - who hit the ball Renteria muffed - to third.  Wake got out of the inning on the next batter.  The Sox have now given up 8 unearned runs this series.

TOP 8th: 11-4 BOS (in progress)

FOR THE LADIES

11-3

Kapler drives one out along the line, putting the Sox up 11-3.

TOP 8th:11-4 BOS
After the Kapler dinger, Graffanino K'd, and Renteria reached on an error by the Twins' SS (and how wonderfully appropriate).  Ortiz K'd, and Stern - hitting for Manny - flew out to center to end the inning.

BOTTOM 8th: 11-4 BOS
Tim Wakefield has set his career high single-game K total with his 11th K of the day, a swinging K to Jacques Jones with 2 on and 2 out.  The K ended the eighth, and with Manny Delcarmen warming in th pen, it appears Wake's day will end.

TOP 9th: 11-4 BOS
The 85 year old Terry Mulholland sets the Sox down 1-2-3, the first time they've been retired in order this afternoon.  Now, Manny Delcarmen will come in to try to polish this one off.

BOTTOM 9th: 11-6 BOS (in progress)
Ugh.  Just finish this, would you?

The inning started well, with a Tiffee fly out and a Redmond K, but then started to unravel, as Delcarmen walked Castro, then gave up a single to Bartlett - which could have been an out, but Cora threw it away, sending Castro to third and Bartlett to second.  Shannon Stewart then doubled, driving in both.  The next batter Punto singled, putting Stewart on third, and now there's action in the Sox pen, as the tying run is in the hole.

BOTTOM 9th: 11-6 BOS (in progress)
Delcarmen is out after walking Lew Ford, and Schilling is coming in to try to get an out with the bases loaded and Matt LeCroy coming to the plate.  Please don't let this get any uglier.  It is, amazingly, a save opportunity.

BOTTOM 9th: 11-7 BOS (in progress)
Schilling walks in a run.  For the love of christ and small cute puppies everywhere, END IT.

FINAL: 11-7 BOS
Thank you!  Good lord.  Schilling comes back to get Jacques Jones on three straight strikes.

So, let's start with the good: thanks to Joe Mays and one massive brain fart, not to mention a couple of later inning bombs by Manny and Kapler, this one looked to be out of reach with two outs in the ninth.  In the starting lineup, only Alex Cora didn't collect a base hit, Millar and Renteria each went 3-5, and Kaper went 3-4.  Roberto Petagine got a hold of one for a key 3 run double.  Wakefield went a strong 8, with the only real hiccup coming in the third after a collection of hits and a key error.  Aside from that inning, Wake allowed only one run, on 5 hits.  He walked only one, while striking out a career-high 11.

The bad: Everything else.  Three errors, some suspect baserunning, a bizarre batter's interference call, and some combustion from the pen and Manny Delcarmen.  The sox really played some horrible fundamental baseball this series, in the field and on the bases.  They allowed a grand total of 8 earned runs, despite coing into the series having allowed the fewest in the AL.

But, bottom line, we won, and maintained out 3.5 game lead over the Yanks (who beat up on Toronto today). Unfortunately, there's no rest for the weary, as the Sox return to Boston to fce the Rangers for a three game set.

Next week, as mentioned at the top of this post, there will be no Game Blogging, as 'll be in Baltimore for a family function.  By then, hopefully, I'll be entirely done with school work, and can focus on packing, drinking, and generally saying goodbye to this city in which I've lived for the last year.  For those of you that don't know, I'll be moving back to Boston at the end of the month, which means - among other things - that I'll get to actually attend several Sox games in September, and be home for whaever may happen in the playoffs (assuming we get there).