Manny, Tavarez power Sox past Stanks

Sox 7, New York 3
WP: Tavarez (3-4)
LP: Mussina (2-3)
HRs: BOS-Manny (7), Lowell (9)

RECAP:
The Sox beat back all those stupid "1978" remarks from rose-colored Stankee fans-at least for one day-with an emphatic victory over the artist formerly known as Mike Mussina.

With a fastball that barely reached the low-90s the Sox batters, namely Manny, Lowell, Papi and Youk, teed off on the stumbling Stankee starter, and Julian Tavarez pitched his second solid start in a row to restore the Sox 10.5-game bulge on the Bummers.

HERO: Manny 1-4, R, 3-run HR
As bad as Manny looked at the plate last night his first inning blast off Mussina not only set the tone for the game, but served notice to the rest of the league that the reports of ManRam's demise have been greatly exaggerrated.

GOAT: Mussina 6.2IP, 10H, 7ER, BB, 2K, 2HRs
What the fuck happened to this guy? He once was one of the meanest, filthiest, rudest pitchers in MLB, and now he's got a tepid heater and an ERA over 6 1/2.

With a chance to help the Stanks sweep the Sox and jump start any of possible postseason aspirations, Mussina wilted like a bad perm in the Florida heat, and any hope New York fans had that he might get back to what he once was could be lost.

SUMMARY:
It's amazing how one loss can have everyone believing that the roof is about to cave in.

After dropping last night's opener Boston's 10 1/2 game lead was under double-digits, the Stanks still had their best pitchers set up to face the Sox while Boston was tossing starters #5 & #2, and suddenly talk of that fateful Season of '78 began creeping into the sports fan's vernacular.

Not so fast there, fuzznuts.

Thanks to a couple of thunderous home runs and another excellent start from the birthday boy, Julian Tavarez, the Sox squelched talks of a New York comeback in the East as once again Boston proved that it doesn't matter who lines up opposite them or who takes the mound against them, every time they play they believe they can win.

Never was that more evident than in the first inning tonight. After a horrific opener in which Manny, despite notching a single, looked lost & helpless at the dish when he struck out once swinging at an obvious ball and the next time looking at an obvious strike, Ramirez did what he does best.

Meaning he put all thoughts of the previous night behind him, forgot about the fact that he hadn't hit a home run in 12 games and that he had trouble hitting Mussina in his career (.244, 5HRs in 90 ABs) and launched a blast high & deep into the New York night for a statement-making 3-run homer.

See Manny doesn't slump. He just waits for the right time to unleash his fury.

As big as that shot was soon it was beginning to look like missed opps were going to bite the Sox again. Boston grounded into double plays in the second and third innings, and other than Lowell's fourth inning solo shot, were not able to crack the fading Mussina.

On his 34th b-day Tavarez cruised through the first three innings, but the wheels fell off a bit in the fourth & fifth. In the 4th Hideki Matsui and Georgie Posada singled and Matsui scored on a wild pitch by Julie; in the 5th the Stanks loaded the bases with one out on a double by Cano and walks to Ball Stealer & Demon but could only get one run home on a groundout by Jeter.

So with the Sox nursing just a 4-2 lead after six innings combined with Boston's failed scoring chances and Tavarez starting to falter, the result of the game was very much in doubt. In fact even the great Rem Dog himself couldn't help but declare "I don't like the way this one's going right now."

Perhaps the team heard the worries of everyone's favorite analyst because the Sox would put together a terrific two-out rally in the seventh that would all but end the game.

Tek (1-2, 2BBs) began the rally with a leadoff walk but was erased on a FC grounder by Coco Crisp. After Pedroia flied out, Coco stole second and Julio Lugo (1-5) singled to center to knock in Crisp with the key 5th run, allowing Boston to enjoy some breathing room heading into the late innings.

Youk followed with a double to deep right center that scored Lugo easliy from first, and the noose began to tighten around the Stanks' throats. When Ortiz followed with a rope double to right off "Papi specialist" Mike Myers to push the lead to 7-2, the crowd began to file out of the Stadium and the chants of "1978" fell silent.

Turns out those fairweathers who left the building missed a near-comeback by their boys, courtesy of some shoddy relieving by the Boston staff's most reliable pen men, Okajima and Papelbon.

Okajima came on in the 8th and did the unthinkable: he allowed a run for the first time since opening day, breaking a streak of 20.2 scoreless innings. He allowed a single to Jeter and walked Matsui & A-Rod (0-2, 2BBs) before surrendering a fielder's choice grounder to Posada that scored Jeter and broke the streak.

As if that little piece of buzz kill wasn't bad enough, Papelbon came on in the 9th inning of a non-save game and couldn't find the plate for a while. He gave up back-to-back walks to Giambi & Cano to open the frame then battled through a seven pitch at bat with Melky Cabrera before getting the pinch hitter on a foul tip strike three.

Order was quickly restored when he induced Demon (0-4) into a groundout, then the mastery of the man known as Paps came into full view with an exquisite "three-pitches, just looking" freeze frame of Captain Jeter to end the game.

Now the worst that could happen is the Sox leave the Bronx losing 2-of-3, and even so would still retain a sizeable 9.5 game lead over the Stanks. But with Schill pitching tomorrow, New York's pre-series hope of taking 2-0f-3 is in serious jeopardy.

Make no mistake the Stanks needed to sweep this series, both for numerological and psychological reasons, and with one of their top pitchers going up against Boston's 5th starter, the Sox got the better of them.

The better teams usually do.

NOTES:

• Ramirez homer facts: it was #477 of his career, passing Stan the Man for 24th on the all-time list; his 51st against the Yankees, 5th-most all time against the Bombers; and his 26th at Yankee Stadium, his most at any visiting stadium except Toronto's Rogers Centre/SkyDome (27)
• Youk extended his hitting streak to 15 games with his first innig single; he is batting .400 in May, has had 11 multi-hit games during the streak, and has knocked in a run in 12 out of the last 14 games; Freaking. Amazing.
• Ortiz had his third 3+ hit game of the season but still hasn't hit a homer in 14 games
• J.D. Who? Drew dropped another 0-4 on us as his average (.237) continues to sink lower than Dustin Diamond
• Boston pitchers allowed only 4 hits but walked 8 New York batters-yikes!
• Javier Lopez pitched a great 1 1/3 in relief of Tavarez (oH, 2K)
• Jason Giambi (0-2; 2-30) and Bobby Abreu (0-4; 8-40 ) continue to be mired in Drew-like slumps
• Lowell continues to blaze: he has hit safely in 12 of the last 14 games with 5 homers and 15 RBIs

QUOTES:

• "You really have to think in terms of winning series, and certainly the pressure is on us to do that tomorrow." -- Torre sounding the sad signal of failure
• "Once I saw Manny hit the three-run homer, I knew it was going to be a good night." --birthday boy Tavarez on his buddy's bomb
• "It's almost June and I don't feel like I've done anything as far as contributing, up to this point."--Mussina. Cheer up, asshole-maybe you'll get hurt
• "He went in late and threw an elbow, but it's no big deal." --Pedroia on a slide by A-Rod. Hmmm...stay tuned...

RECORD: 31-14

AL EAST: Up 10.5 on TOR & NYY

UP NEXT: Wed @ NYY 7P ESPN HD