Memorable Memorial Day propels Sox to 20 games over .500

Sox 5, Cleveland 3
WP: Schilling (5-2)
LP: Lee (2-2)
SV: Papelbon (13)
HRs: BOS-Manny (8), Youk (7)

Think Youk was pumped about his inside-the-parker?

RECAP:
On the day the country honored its fallen war heroes and the Sox honored the return of its prodigal Dirt Dog, Kevin Youkilis stole the show.

His 4th inning double extended his hitting streak to 20 games, but it was his inside-the-park home run in the 7th that electrified the crowd and provided one of the best highlights of the season.

Schilling bounced back with a terrific outing (7IP, 6H, 1R, 0BB, 10Ks), Boston is now 35-15 and enjoys it's largest ever division lead after 50 games. Nice.

HERO: Youk 2-5, 2R, RBI, 2B, HR
Forget the 20-game hit streak and the eight consecutive multi-hit games-did you see him fly around the bases on that inside-the-park homer?

The cult hero upgraded to legendary status tonight.

GOAT: Travis Hafner 0-5, 4Ks
The struggling slugger took home the rare & unwanted Golden Sombrero (4 Ks); as if that weren't bad enough, one of his whiffs came with two men on and two out to end the game. Yikes!
SUMMARY:
I thought we left all this zaniness behind in Texas?

For the 4th game in a row insanity ruled, awesome plays abounded, and I saw things I had never before seen on the baseball field.

But instead of magic mushrooms, triples by the catcher, and incredible diving catches, we were treated to the feel-good return of Trot Nixon, a near triple play executed by the Sox, an inside the park home run by one of the slowest players in the league, and a batter who was hit by a pitch get called out.

Yep it was another strange yet satisfying stop on the Magical Mystery Tour known as the 2007 Boston Red Sox, where one day Manny Ramirez is belly-flopping into third base and the next day Youk is doing a Michael Johnson impersonation around the base paths, carving an indelible image of arm pumping, leg churning fury that will forever be etched into the collective memory of Red Sox Nation.

Things started off interesting and got progressively entertaining from there. Curt Schilling was determined to rebound from his horrible outing in the Bronx last week, and when he struck out the side in the first, everyone knew he meant to do just that.

But business to a back seat to emotion when Trot Nixon came to the plate with one out in the second. As a thunderous applause roared from the stands and the eyes of most members of RSN got moist, Trot stepped into the box for the first time as an enemy, doffed his pine-tar laden helmet in a sign of appreciation, then promptly singled to right field off his old buddy Schill for the Indians' first hit.

Welcome back, Trotter.

Another harbinger of the hijinks to come happened in the top of the third, when Boston nearly pulled off another rare baseball feat. Cleveland put two men on with no outs thanks to a single and hit by pitch. Schilling got Casey Blake to ground sharply to third, and Lowell fielded the smash, stepped on third, spun and fired to second for the second out, but the relay from Pedroia was too late to get Blake at first to complete the play, but when a team almost turns a triple play, there's a sense that something special might be going on in the old ballyard.

By the end of four innings Schilling had allowed three hits, hit a batter, and struck out six, and you just knew if the offense could just get him a lead, he was going to bring this one home.

The Sox batters seemed to sense they needed to put some runs on the board to support Schill's effort, and in the bottom of the fourth, they did just that.

Youk started the charge (as he has been lately) with a double down the right field line that extended his hitting streak to 20 games. As the Fenway faithful roared with approval and anticipation, J.D. Drew continued his emergence from hitting Hades by lacing a double to center that easily scored "Wheels" Youkilis with the first run of the game.

When Mike Lowell followed with a double to left field, the Sox had hit for the deuce trifecta to take a 2-0 lead; although Boston had a chance to get more after Tek was hit by a pitch and Pedroia walked to load the bases, Lugo struck out swinging to end the rally at two runs.

Manny would up the ante to 3-0 with a guided missile into the Monster seats in the 5th, his 8th homer of the season, and with the way Schill was dealing it looked like the win was all but in the bag.

So when the Tribe finally touched Curt for a run in the 6th on an RBI single by Victor Martinez, it barely fazed anyone in the house. And by the time Youk blasted a drive high off the triangle that took a Fenway ricochet into center field and he motored around the bases like Borat on speed to push the lead to 4-1, everyone in the Nation had to be thinking this one was all but over.

Oh, BTW, the last guy to hit an inside the parker for the Sox? You guessed it, Trot in 2005.

Schilling was done after seven, but J.C. Romero came in and immediately surrendered back-to-back walks to liven things up. The combination of Lopez and Donnelly got out of the jam only allowing one run (a sac fly by who else-Trotman), and when Boston got the run back again on back-to-back doubles by Pedroia (3-3, 2-2Bs) and Lugo to make it 5-2 heading into the 9th, the MC was cuing up "Dirty Water".

But a funny thing happened on the way to closing the game out in a matter of minutes: Papelbon once again looked mortal, surrendering a walk, single and double to allow the 3rd run to score and send the celebrating masses back to their seats/sets.

Things really appeared dire when Paps hit Blake on the hand with a 2-2 fastball to apparently load the bases with one out, but in this season of love & karma, even that unfortunate occurrance turned in Boston's favor. Tito ran out and protested the play, and after the umps conferred, they ruled that since the hit occurred while Blake was in the act of swinging, the call was strike three and the batter was out.

Hmmm...okay, cool!

Before anyone knew what happened Papelbon struck out Hafner with a wicked heater and an emotional day & game came to an emotional and fiery conclusion.

So Trot returned to a grand hurrah, but so did the dominant Curt Schilling, and on one of the most memorable days in American history the Sox played a most memorable game.

We were treated to a rare homer, a near-triple play, saw a favoirite son return and gained anothr game in the standings with ace Josh Beckett headed back to the mound tomorrow.

Does it get any sweeter than that?

NOTES:

• Youk has raised his average from .286 to .354 during the streak
• Papi (hammy, flu) sat for the second straight game
• Pedroia continues to excel; his three hits raised his average to a sizzling .298
• Lugo had two hits and an RBI to break a 2-23 skid
• Manny's homer was career #478, good for 25th on the all-time list
• Drew continued his resurgence with another clutch RBI hit and a pair of walks
• Only human: in his last 5 outings/innings, Paps has allowed 6 hits and 2 runs while fanning 9

QUOTES:

"We're good." --Schill. 'Nuff said.

"It would have saved me a lot of time and effort." --Youk, responding to if he wished his homer had gone over the wall instead of off of it

RECORD: 35-15

AL EAST: Up 11.5 gms on BAL
(**NYY are 13.5 gms back, in last place**)
UP NEXT: Tue vs. CLE 7P