Curt's Bloody Sock: Sox comeback to knock off plucky Birds

Sox 5, Baltimore 4
WP: Lopez (2-1)
LP: Parrish (2-2)
SV: Papelbon (24)
HRs: BAL-Markakis (11), Tejada (8)

New setup man Eric Gagne's arrival in the pen brought a standing O from the Fenway Faithful

SUMMARY
On a night Boston fans were introduced to its two newest stars, the Sox appeared to be headed to its third consecutive defeat until a four-run uprising in the bottom of the 7th catapulted the Sox to another come-from-behind victory.

#1 STUNNER Youk 1-4, 2RBI, 2B
He hasn't had a lot of hits lately, but boy has he made them count. For the third time in five games the chrome-domed first baseman ripped a run-scoring extra base hit that played an important part in a Boston win.

PAN's FAUN Chad Bradford 1IP, 2H, BB
Although he wasn't charged with a run the ex-Sox sidearmer allowed Youk's 2-run double that turned the game around and gave the Sox their first lead of the series.

RECAP
Yooooooooooouuuukkk!

That familiar serenade that echoes down from stadiums all over the Nation never sounded sweeter than in the seventh inning tonight when Boston's latest Dirt Dog turned a game full of frustration and missed opps into a cause for jubilation and celebration.

For six innings Baltimore stymied the suddenly slumbering Boston bats, holding the Sox to just five hits and one run a day after limiting the fifth best offense in the majors to a mere four hits and three runs in a disappointing 5-3 defeat.

And it's not like the Birds had a top-flite starter like Eric Bedard on the hill tonight, either.

Aging veteran Steve Trachsel held Boston to one run on five hits and five walks in six innings of work, his best outing in over two months, and despite the Sox racking up baserunners like Lindsay Lohan racks up DUIs, it wasn't until the 67-year-old righty left the game that Boston could put together a multi-run inning.

For the second straight night things got off to a bad start when an Oriole homered in the first inning. And even though Nick Markakis' Monster shot wasn't hit on the first pitch of the game, the fact that spot-starter Julian Tavarez allowed a run right from the get-go sent the message that it was gonna be an uphill battle against these blasted Birds yet again.

Boston went right to work filling the LOB category of the stat sheet in the bottom of the inning when Dustin Pedroia (3-4, R, BI, SF, SB) hit a one-out single and Papi followed with a walk but Manny killed the rally when he grounded into a double play.

As has been the case for the past few weeks (or is it months now?) that blown chance immediately came back to haunt Boston when Baltimore plated a couple more runs in the second on a single by Jay Gibbons and back-to-back doubles by Chris Gomez (1-2, R, BI) and Brian Roberts to push the lead to 3-0 after two.

The Sox finally cracked Trachsel in the third thanks to a walk by Coco Crisp (0-0, R, 4BBs!), an infield single by Lugo combined with a throwing error by Miggy Tejada, his second in two nights, that got Coco to third and a sac fly from Pedroia.

But after Ortiz walked again, Manny (0-4, R)flied out to right and another potential scoring chance went by the boards.

The game followed this maddening pattern for the next three innings; Boston would get a couple of men on base, then find a way NOT to get them home. Against Steve friggin' Trachsel, a guy the Devil Rays gave up on years ago.

Tavarez (5IP, 7H, 3ER, BB, 0K) exited after giving the team a decent start in place of traded Kason Gabbard, and after Kyle Snyder tossed a 1-2-3 sixth, Boston had another golden opportunity to seize control of the contest when Lowell singled off the Monster and Coco walked in the bottom of the inning.

Except Wily Mo Pena was up next, and after he hit a weak grounder to short it was beginning to look like another miserable night for the frustrated & silent Faithful.

And then Trachsel came out of the game, and suddenly it was as if a great weight had been lifted off Boston's shoulders.

Paul Shuey came on to begin the 7th and Lugo (1-4, R) led off with a four pitch walk, then Pedroia rapped his third knock of the game up the middle, and quickly the energy returned to the ballpark as the Big Boppers waited to take their licks against the weak Baltimore pen.

Shuey was replaced by John Parrish, and three pitches later Papi roped an opposite field double off the Wall that scored Lugo easily to cut the lead to 3-2 and set up a 2nd & 3rd situation with no outs, and with Manny coming up it soon became bases loaded and no outs as Ramirez drew his 12th intentional free pass of the season.

That brought Bradford into the game and Youk to the plate, and after a typical lengthy Youkilis at bat the Mr. Clean doppelganger sliced a double to deep center field that scored Pedroia and Ortiz and gave Boston its first lead since the 12th inning of Saturday night's game at Tampa Bay.
Jason Varitek added an RBI single to center to run the score to 5-3, and it was up to the new & improved (?) Boston bullpen to bring the win home.

With newly acquired set up man Eric Gagne already in the pen (he trotted out there between the 5th & 6th innings, to a rousing ovation of course), All Star Hideki Okajima came in for the eighth and surrendered his third longball of the year, a massive shot by Tejada (1-3) that cleared the Monster and landed on Lansdowne, before handing the game over to JP in the 9th.

Coming off his second blown save of the year (of course it was the game I went to), you could tell Paps had that extra determination in his menacing glare, and the All Star closer quickly dispatched the pesky Birds on a groundout and two Ks, the last one punctuated by his patented fist pump that closed the door on what could have been another disheartening loss.

Instead it went in the books as another comeback win.

And Boston didn't even need to trot out its new toy to get it.

NOTES:

Easy money: After relieving Snyder with two outs in the 7th, Javier Lopez came in and got Markakis to ground out to end the inning and earned the win for his two-pitch effort
Manny's 12th intentional walk places him third in the AL, behind Bad Vlad (20) and Pronk Hafner (14)
Coco's four-walk oddity was the first such game of his career, and the intentional pass was his first of the season
7th heaven: Baltimore used 3 pitchers who surrendered four hits, four runs and three walks (2 intentional) in the fateful 7th inning
NESN reported that J.D. Drew was not at the park due to a family emergency with his son; thus Whiffy Mo (0-4) got his second straight start in right, and he didn't even strike out
Heads up/heads down: when Ortiz walked in the first inning Pedroia was already in the process of stealing second, so when he saw the Papi Shift had left third base uncovered, Dusty raced all the way to the bag before anyone on Baltimore even knew what happened
Oki okay? After not allowing a home run since Opening Day, Okajima has now surrendered two dingers in his last 7 appearances. The solo shot raised his ERA over 1.00 (1.03) as well
After singling off the monster in the sixth Mike Lowell was nearly knocked off first base by an over-zealous Kevin Millar; Mike then playfully yet forcefully jabbed his former Marlins teammate in the ribcage
New Celtic Kevin Garnett threw out the first pitch, then watched the game from a luxury box