Inundate
| Game 11: April 16, 2007 | |||
| Angels | 2 | L: Ervin Santana (1-2) | 6-7, 4 game losing streak 1-1-1 series record |
 Red Sox |
7 | W: Josh Beckett (3-0) | 7-4, 3 game winning streak 1-1-0 series record |
| Highlights: Julio Lugo played like Derek Jeter’s over-hyped defensive reputation. Beckett gave up his first home run of the season to old friend Orlando Cabrera in the first inning; the wind was kind to the Angels shortstop. Wally donned a slicker to protect himself from the nor’easter. | |||
I abhor when people come late to games. I am a long-time heckler of these shirkers and ne’er-do-wells who typically appear in the fourth inning after having spent innings the first third of the game at an area watering hole and yet still somehow managed to stumble through the turnstiles and make their way to a seat near enough to me for me to wonder if there’s such a thing as sidestream drunkenness.
So imagine my embarrassment when it was me who entered the game just as David Ortiz hit his fourth homer of the season. Yesterday my street was flooded because of the storm and it didn’t help that my departure time coincided with high tide. My first attempt to leave my block was foiled by rushing water. I felt my car float as I desperately tried to navigate to the nearest T station.
I decided to wait until the tide had abated, and even then I was less than comfortable driving around and over the softball-sized rocks that the ocean had carried onto my street. Two street detours later I finally made it to the Blue Line.
Is it worth it? It’s always worth it. My friend and I emerged from the tunnel near Gate E just as Papi jacked a souvenir into the the center field camera hut. We ran along the aisle between the field and loge boxes with him as he rounded the horn. As Ortiz high-fived his teammates in the dugout we arrived our seats in the right field grandstand.
Matt (who feels mojo has run its course, unfortunately) was there and he gave a concise update of the scoring fit in the first inning. We had cheered the anti-Bartman in the seventh but we were oblivious to the pizza incident as it happened. Only when I watched the replay on NESN and read about the sideshow in the Boston Herald would the details become clear.
I promise even clearer details tonight when I post the picture I snapped of the hometown hero who thwarted Garret Anderson’s catch, along with other photos from my first Patriots’ Day game.
Until then, I have a question. If three games out of a four-game series are played, does that count as a series? Or is the result of that series held in abeyance until the makeup game is played? According to the official Red Sox pre-game notes, the two games of the Seattle series did not constitute a series. I’m holding off on labeling this as a series sweep until the April 15 game is played on August 17.
