Empyreal Environs

A man named Josh prevailed last night and it might not be the first one you think of. To be sure Beckett did respectably well against a potent lineup: 6 innings pitched, 6 hits, 1 earned run, 2 walks, and 5 strikeouts. The single run was an improbable home run off the bat of Eduardo Nunez with two outs in the fifth. Beckett got Eric Chavez and Russell Martin out easily with just five pitches. Martin’s hit was a hard liner to right but the Yankee catcher was hosed by Josh Reddick at second.

It was almost as if Beckett overlooked the nine-hole hitter Nunez, who knocked the ball of the base of the stanchion on the left field wall. The fly ball would have been an out to the warning track in other parks but in Fenway it tied the game.

Curt Schilling visited the ESPN team in the third inning. If it weren’t for his World Series rings one couldn’t tell he was a former professional athlete. It doesn’t appear that he went to San Diego this year to promote his wares at the Comic-Con as he looked as pale as a fan of one of his company’s games. The ESPN camera crew also got a close-up of him in the booth, providing ample evidence that the quietude of his retirement and the tight quarters were not flattering.

After decades of torture by Joe Morgan, Bobby Valentine’s well-meaning buffoonery should come as a relief. But Valentine’s clownishness is worsened when flanked by Dan Shulman’s crisp delivery and Orel Hershiser’s astute observations. He would make a good pre-game personality; he could have skits with his fake mustache or have segments on Japanese language, culture, and baseball. Replace Valentine with Barry Larkin and ESPN would have a perfect hitting complement to Hershiser’s pitching expertise.

The game spanned four and a quarter hours, or around the length of the extended version of “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” Just like it unfolded in that epic film, good prevailed at Fenway. In the ninth the Dark Lord Rivera was vanquished by an unlikely trio: Marco Scutaro (rather dwarfish) led off with a double, Jacoby Ellsbury (definitely elvish) sacrifice bunted Scutaro over, and Dustin Pedroia (hobbit, no doubt) lofted a sac fly to left to tie the game.

With one out in the tenth David Ortiz fired a ground-rule double to right. Terry Francona pinch ran Darnell McDonald for the designated hitter, a sign that his team must win in this inning or face more frames without a key clouter. Reddick took the intentional walk of Carl Crawford to get to him as a personal affront and sent the ball to the left field corner to plate McDonald.

As Jeff Albertson would say: “Best extra innings game ever.”

Game 113: August 7, 2011 ∙ 10 innings
New York Yankees 69-44	2	H: Rafael Soriano (11) H: David Robertson (24) BS: Mariano Rivera (5) L: Phil Hughes (2-4)
		HR: Eduardo Nunez (4), Brett Gardner (5)
Boston Red Sox 70-43	3	W: Daniel Bard (2-5)
		2B: Marco Scutaro (9), David Ortiz (29)