Homecoming
| Game 119: August 14, 2007 | |||
| Devil Rays | 1 | H: Gary Glover (6) H: Dan Wheeler (8) BS, L: Al Reyes (2, 1-2) |
45-74, 3 game losing streak 10-24-5 series record |
 Red Sox |
2 | W: Eric Gagne (3-0) | 72-47, 2 game winning streak 25-11-4 series record |
| Highlights: Of all people to get the win instead of Jon Lester it had to be Gagne? | |||
Couldn’t an honorary win be granted to Lester instead? Or to Mike Lowell for his game-tying circuit clout into the Monster seats in the ninth? Jason Varitek for his ground-rule double over the wall in the right field’s curve and Coco Crisp for his game-winning liner into center both deserve consideration to be sure. And we wouldn’t even be talking about these offensive heroics without Mike Timlin tidying up the bases loaded mess Manny Delcarmen got himself into in the eighth.
But the “W” will hopefully buoy Eric Gagne’s flagging spirits. He did, after all, strike out the side in the top of the ninth. Just ignore Brendan Harris’s fly ball double and it was almost a return to form.
Jon Lester’s Fenway homecoming was powerful, riveting... all those puny words one uses to try and conjure emotion that you feel in the corners of your soul. To the television audience his every gesture seemed fraught with significance: the restrained hand pounds with the bullpen pitchers as they crossed paths, the warm, firm handshakes with the coaches, the hugs with teammates in the dugout. To Lester, however, it was the return to the norm, the resumption of his life as a major leaguer, that held the most meaning.
Not that fan appreciation didn’t inspire Lester. It elevated him high enough to snag Delmon Young’s comebacker in the seventh.
I installed and enabled high definition just in time for the game so perhaps I was merely enthralled by the novelty of seeing every pore on players’ faces, the stitching of the logos embroidered on their caps, and Pedroia’s dental work as the cameras documented the opened/closed mouth middle infielder sign system.
The Red Sox batters were equally entranced but their siren was Scott Kazmir’s delivery. They mustered just four hits over six innings and struck out eight times. Only Dustin Pedroia managed an extra base hit with his double in the first. In the third Manny Ramirez thought he could sneak to second since B.J. Upton fielded the left fielder’s liner and attempted to hose Mike Lowell at third.
Unfortunately for Ramirez, Akinori Iwamura quickly relayed the ball to the keystone bag into the waiting glove of Brendan Harris for the final out of the frame.
But that slip-up will fade from the memory, effaced by the walk-off win and the promise of future match-ups between these two outstanding young left-handed pitchers.
