Not So Home Free
The Red Sox ran themselves out of this game. In the first inning Daniel Nava was thrown out at home by Vernon Wells on David Ortiz’s opposite field single. In the bottom of the fifth Mike Carp aggressively tried to score from third on a wild pitch to Jose Iglesias. He did score in the seventh on such a play, however. After he made the splits at the keystone sack to double in that frame there was no way he wasn’t going to convert the hit into a run.
At the San Diego Comic-Con zombies were all the rage and the trend as permeated the nation. On the East Coast the Yankees represent reanimated cadavers well with Wells, Lyle Overbay, Ichiro Suzuki, and Travis Hafner.
There were zombified fans in the first row behind home plate. Only one fan attempted to distract Chris Stewart from Dustin Pedroia’s foul ball; the others were transfixed with attempting to catch the ball themselves. Stewart made the catch and doubled over the wall but still had time to compose himself and throw out Nava at second base for an improbable double play.
I didn’t include Mariano Rivera on the Yankee zombie list because he truly is the epitome of class in his last season in the majors. He didn’t flee to join a divisional opponent in his twilight years. And if he did happen to join another team and win a championship I don’t think he would get up on a mounted policeman’s steed.
Before the game Rivera had a gathering with long-time Fenway employees and Red Sox fans, like 46-year employees Ken Greenwood and John Basmanian and brothers J. P. and Paul Norden from Stoneham who both lost legs in the Boston Marathon bombing. He received a standing ovation when he took the mound in the final frame. Undoubtedly the Fenway faithful were devoutly rooting for a blown save after paying their respects, but Carp’s one-out single was for naught. Rivera tallied his 639th career save.
| Game 99: July 20, 2013 | ||
 New York Yankees52-45 |
5 | W: Hiroki Kuroda (9-6) H: David Robertson (23) S: Mariano Rivera (31) |
| 2B: Eduardo Nunez – 2 (6), Lyle Overbay – 2 (21) | ||
| Boston Red Sox 59-40 |
2 | L: John Lackey (7-7) |
| 2B: Mike Carp (13) | ||
