Empyreal Environs

Game 27: May 3, 2006
Blue Jays (14-12), 7
Red Sox (15-12), 6
H: Justin Speier (4)
H: Scott Schoeneweis (3)
BS, W: Dustin McGowan (1, 1-0)
S: B.J. Ryan (6)
L: Jonathan Papelbon (0-1)

“Joanna, we understand you really have a passion for baseball and that you have this...hobby where you write a [quote mark gesture] web log, but we have a deadline on this project.”

“But I really want to write about how the Blue Jays are the threat du jour in the AL East and how all the Yankee hysteria is passé. Did you know that Toronto scored three times in the top of the second and forced Josh Beckett to throw 32 pitches while walking two hitters and hitting Shea Hillenbrand with a pitch? Two of those runs were generated by Aaron Hill’s double to right. Did you realize that just the inning before the Blue Jay second baseman was nailed in the face by a Kevin Youkilis liner that he still managed to toss over to Lyle Overbay for the assist?”

“That sounds fascinating and all, but....”

“The Red Sox later waged a comeback in the bottom of the second. Manny led off with a wall ball single and advanced to third on Trot Nixon’s blooper over Troy Glaus’s head. Ramirez was nearly thrown at third, but DeMarlo Hale’s record is still clean.”

“DeMarlo who?”

“Hale. Boston’s third base coach. Anyway, Roy Halladay wasn’t very sharp in the second. He gave up five straight singles, two of them off the first pitch thrown. The Red Sox had the bases loaded with one out and looked to wrest the lead from Toronto, but Mark Loretta grounded into a double play.”

“Well, they came back to win, didn’t they?”

“Unfortunately, no. Josh Beckett only lasted five innings because of the weather and his high pitch count; he left the game with 101. The teams switched leads three times until the Red Sox tied the score at six in the bottom of the eighth.”

“I bet it was Foulke that gave up the run to lose the game, huh? No way that Papelbon could blow a game.”

“Well, despite Papelbon being named American League Rookie of the Month for April, he finally did give up a run. In the ninth Russ Adams managed an RBI double to score John McDonald. Actually, without Dustan Mohr’s stupendous catch of a Hillenbrand liner, Papelbon could have been touched up for more than a single run. Foulke certainly didn’t help matters when he let Hillenbrand tattoo him for a two-run, two-out jack in the seventh.”

“Huh. That all sounds pretty interesting.”

“I’d also write about how Peña takes odd routes to balls hit to center, but compensates with his speed to nab fly balls, like he did Gregg Zaun’s in the fourth inning. There was a sweet hose by the captain in the fifth of Alex Rios, who was trying to swipe third.”

“Sweet!”

“Yep. For a while, luck was on the Red Sox’s side. Manny got a double despite fan interference in the sixth inning. Lowell lined a two-out RBI single that landed in the mud of the warning track near Pesky Pole to score Ramirez. Next Peña rocketed a hit into right for what turned out to be a double because Rios kicked it as he went into his backhanded slide. Vernon Wells eventually recovered the ball, but not in time to get Lowell before he scored.”

“Sometimes you need those breaks to come away with a win.”

“And the Red Sox almost benefited from enough Toronto miscues to get the victory. In the ninth Ortiz and Manny showed nothing for their efforts and Mohr struck out for what should have been the end of the game save for Zaun’s mishandling of strike three.”

“No way!”

“Way. Willie Harris pinch ran for Mohr and stole second with Varitek at the dish. And yet again Zaun, the Red Sox killer, harmed his own team by launching the throw into center field, allowing Harris to take third.”

“Oh, man!”

“But then B.J. Ryan punched out Varitek to end the game.”

“Damn. [pause] Well, I guess it’s okay that you do that blog thing. Just keep it low key and don’t miss any deadlines.”

“No problem, boss.”