Papi powers Sox to another victory over Stanks

Red Sox win, Red Sox win....daaaaaaaa....RED...SOX...WIN!!!!!
Sox 7, New York 5

WP: Beckett (4-0)
LP: Karstens (0-1)
SV: Papelbon (5)
HRs: BOS- Big Papi (6)
Sox box

Julio, Since we all couldn't be there please hug him for us, too- Red Sox Nation

SUMMARY:
Boston overcame a shaky start by Josh Beckett and used a huge game from Big Papi to overcome two early deficits and post its second-consecutive come-from-behind victory over the hated Stanks.

HEROES:
1.) Big Papi: 2-5, 2B, HR, 4 RBI- the weather is warming up and so is Big Papi; move over A-Rod, this is a 2-man MVP race-again
2.) Hideki Okijima: 2/3, 0H, 0R, 1K, H- his 3rd straight clutch performance has people saying "Dice who?"

3.) The Top Three: 6-13, 2BB, 4R, 7RBI-Lugo, Youk and Papi were able to do a lot of damage, thanks to...
4.) The Bottom Three: 5-10, BB, SB, 3R- Tek, Coco & Cora set the table all day long

GOATS:
1.) Karstens: 4 1/3, 9H, 7ER, 2BB, 1K- not that he wanted to come off the disabled list and into the fryer...
2.) Beckett: 6 2/3, 9H, 5R (4ER), 2BB, 7K- I know he got the win, but put it this way, he's buying Papi dinner tonight
3.) J.D. Drew: 0-4, 1BB, 4LOB- the only member of the lineup without a base hit

KEY MOMENT: Top 7, 7-5 BOS, 2 on, 2 out

After Josh Beckett had surrendered an RBI single to A-Rod to cut the Sox lead to 7-5, Tito called on his new stopper, Hideki Okijima, to face Giambi. With runners on 1st & 2nd and 2 outs, Oki fanned the Giambino to preserve the lead and earn the 'hold'

RECAP:

The question hung in the air like a cloud: how will Boston and New York follow up last night's comeback classic?

The answer was with a long, knock-down, drag-out slugfest as each team scored two early rounds before Boston prevailed on a TKO by David Ortiz in the 4th round. Even with that "Pesky" little shot from Papi, Boston still had to withstand a late-inning threat that left everyone on the edges of their seats, but the end result has left no doubt about which is the better team- right now.

Contrary to Friday night's game this one started out with both teams coming out swinging. Before Joe Buck had even finished his pregame soliloquy on the joys of A-Rod, New York plated two runs on 3 soft singles and a walk, which was disheartening because Beckett got A-Rod to strike out looking in the middle of all that. Not to be outdone, Boston answered with 2 of their own in the bottom half of the 1st when Lugo and Youk singled and Papi doubled them in with a rope into the rightfield corner.

The second inning was more of the same. New York parlayed a double, an error by Mike Lowell (his 5th), a single and a double play grounder by Jeter into 2 more runs, and just like that New York had re-taken the lead, 4-2, and Beckett was looking more like the Beckett of the second half of 2006, not the first 3 weeks of 2007.

But let's not forget who was on the hill for New York- the immortal Jeff Karstens, he of the 7 career starts, 2 career wins, and fresh off a stint on the DL for a shoulder injury. The Boston hitters sure didn't forget as they immediately scratched right back to even the score, keyed by back-to-back bunt singles by Coco Crisp and Alex Cora, who were then knocked in on a groundout by Julio Lugo and a single by Youk (2-4, R, 2RBI); tie ballgame again.

After an uneventful 3rd inning, the biggest play of the game came in the Red Sox half of the 4th. Coco started it again with a single to left, and he immediately stole 2nd base. Cora then sacrificed him over to third and once again Lugo drove him in on a groundout, and Boston had its first lead of the day at 5-4. But they weren't done yet.

The Greek God of Walks drew, well, a walk, and that set up Big Papi in a perfect situation- 2 outs, man on first and Manny up next so Karstens can't pitch around him, and those are the kind of situations Papi feasts on. And feast he did. Ortiz fouled off the first pitch, took the second for a ball, then took the third for a ride around Pesky's Pole for a demoralizing (for NY) 2-run homer and a 3-run Boston advantage, 7-4.

And my thought to this point was "it's only the freaking 4th inning!?"

Luckily things calmed down for a while as both teams traded scoreless frames in the 5th & 6th innings. In the 7th things got interesting again after New York mounted a 2-out rally.
Beckett had settled down at this point, retiring 13 out of the last 14 Stankee batters before allowing a single to Jeter and a walk to Abreu. With A-Rod coming up, Francona elected to let a tiring Beckett face the hottest hitter in the league, and Rodriguez came through with an RBI single that cut the Sox leads to two, 7-5.

That was the end of the day for Beckett, and though his numbers were not spectacular, he was in line for the win and got a standing "O" from the appreciative Fenway crowd. That one I couldn't figure out, because the guy got battered around like a buoy in the Bering Sea early and benefitted from Papi's big bat later. I could tell he wasn't pleased with his performance, either, because he slammed his water battle into the fence and then stomped & muttered like my 10-year-old when he gets grounded.

Anyway, Okijima came in to put out the fire, striking out Giambi on a nasty breaker, and Timlin came in to get the last 2 outs of the 8th. Then the only thing standing between another Boston victory and a heartbreaking loss was Jonathan Papelbon, and unlike New York's closer the night before, he did not disappoint. Pinch-hitter Judas Demon weakly grounded to shortstop, and even though Melky Cabrera drew a walk, Paps quickly dispatched with Jeter and Abreu, leaving a dejected A-Rod in the on-deck circle, pondering "what if"...

Just like that the Sox have turned the prospect of a bleak series into a potential feel-good sweep, and with Dice-K on the mound tomorrow night for his first taste of the NY/BOS rivalry, you can bet the fans at Fenway will be expecting that sweeping win tomorrow night.

As long as they score some runs for him.

NOTES:

-Demon (wussbag) and Georgie Posada (thumb) did not play; Cabrera and Will Nieves started in their place

-
Papi's homer was his 179th with the Sox, moving him into 10th on the team's all-time list

-Drew didn't get a hit but did draw a walk to extend his streak of reaching base in every game this season

-Jeter (2-5) has a 12-game hitting streak, while A-Rod's 4 game homer streak was snapped.

-Although Manny (.193) went just 1-4 with a single he did draw a walk and crushed two balls to the track

-Lowell made his 5th error of the season on a boneheaded throw to second base; he made 6 errors all of last year

-Coco posted his third straight 2-hit game and 4th in the last 5 to raise his average from .136 to .214; he has 3 bunt singles, a double and a triple in that time

QUOTES:

-"A-Rod is off to the best start of his Hall of Fame career"- Buck; thank you for already enshrining an active player

-"There have been torrid paces in baseball, none more so than the one A-Rod is on right now"-Tim McCarver, getting in on the new craze that's sweeping the nation, Slurping A-Rod (yes, it has a double-meaning)

-"It's the Yankees vs. the Red Sox. We don't sit up at night to see who they're pitching."- Torre referring to Dice-K

RECORD: 11-5

AL EAST: Up 1 1/2 on BAL

UP NEXT: SUN vs. NYY 8P, ESPN

Wright (1-0) vs. Matsuzaka (1-2, 2.70)