1st ND for Wake but Tek helps beat Birds

Sox 7, Baltimore 6
WP: Buchholz (3-0)
LP: Baez (0-6)
SV: Papelbon (34)
HRs: BOS-Coco (6), Papi (27); BAL-Millar (15)

SUMMARY
One night after a bullpen collapse led to a heartbreaking loss the Sox rallied from three separate deficits and then pulled the rug out from under the reeling Birds when Jason Varitek knocked in the winning run in the 9th and Jonathan Papelbon closed it out in style to earn his 34th save.

#1 STUNNER Varitek 1-1, 2B, RBI
The Captain keeps getting clutcher and clutcher. For the second night in a row the ballsy backstop had a big hit to give the Sox a late lead, but this time his pinch hit RBI double wasn't wasted like last night's 2-run 6th inning blast.

PAN's FAUN Kevin Millar 1-5, HR
The original idiot did hit another homer off his former team, but other than that the king of Cowboy Up choked like a chicken; he struck out to end three innings, none worse than when he watched a Papelbon heater bisect the plate to end the game.

RECAP
I don't know about the rest of you but I'm sick and tired of playing these pluckin' Birds.

This is the fourth series between the two AL East competitors in the last six weeks, and even though the Sox own a 10-5 advantage over these foul fowls, the majority of the games have been close.

Aggravatingly, gratingly, keep-sedating-me close.

Yesterday Baltimore surrendered 17 runs to the Devils Rays and lost by 15.

Today they took the Sox to the brink again as the game was a one-run affair for the 6th time in the 15 meetings this season.

These teams are 40 friggin games apart in the standings and aside from the occasional blow out and no-hitter, the Sox can't seem to shed this shitty, sorry excuse for a team.

Which is exactly why I'm dreading these next three games.

Tonight the Sox and Birds played a cute little game of "which starter sucks worse?" While Boston was sending 16-game winner Tim Wakefield to the mound for the first time since his back spasms forced him to miss a start which indirectly led to Buchholz's no hitter, Baltimore was relying on shaky young lefty Garrett Olson, the O's hard-luck starter in the no-no, to right a sinking ship.

Hmmm, anyone else smell a slugfest?

To say Wake didn't have his best knuckler working would be a more than adequate statement as the Birds touched him for six runs and nine hits in just 3 2/3 innings, his shortest stint in three months and the most hits he'd given up since July 17th against Kansas City.

Christ he hadn't even allowed a run in his last 22 innings coming into this game, a streak that ended in a hurry when Baltimore pushed a run across in the first inning tonight.

But it wouldn't take long for Boston to jump on the beleaguered Olson, who in between rides on the minor league shuttle has gotten hammered like a Lohan in five of his seven his MLB appearances.

The Sox tied the game when Coco, Mirablli and Julio Lugo hit consecutive singles to start the third, then took the lead on an RBI groundout by Big Papi one out later.

One negative to come out of the inning was that Mirabelli, in his first start since coming off the DL for a pulled quad, apparently pulled a hammy running the bases and was replaced by pinch runner Royce Clayton. Let's just say Kevin Cash better practice catching the knuckler a lot in the offseason.

With Wake's flutterball looking more like a dead fish than a lively sprite it didn't take long for the Birds to strike back, and of course it was everyone's favorite idiot Kevin Millar who was right there to provide the punishment.

After allowing a one-out double to Nick Markakis in the bottom of the thitd, Millar ripped a lazy offering from his former teammate into the left field seats to give Baltimore a 3-2 lead, and when Audrey Huff followed that blast with a deep double and then scored on a single by Melvin Mora, it was obvious that Wakefield was either still hurt or just incredibly rusty.

Olson upped the ante in the fourth when he walked J.D. Boo and Youk and then surrendered a three-run jack to Crisp (3-4, 3R, 3BI), his first homer in two months since his Coke bottles grand slam on July 5th against the Rays, and suddenly the score was in Boston's favor again, 5-4.

But Wake (3.2IP, 9H, 6ER, 2BB, 0K) topped him when he handed the lead right back to the bloody Birds in the bottom of the inning on RBI hits by Miguel Tejada and Markakis, and with the score now 6-5 I was starting to feel like I was watching a match at the US Open.

Baltimore manager Dave Trembley had to remove Olson after he injured a muscle following Coco's homer (how conveeenient), and replacement Rocky Cherry (actual name) joined right in on the action when he gave up a solo homer to Ortiz with one out in the fifth.

Not only was Papi's 27th longball of the season his 8th in his last 20 games, but the classic Papi shot was his 200th as a member of the Sox, and does it surprise anyone that it tied the game at six?

After a scoreless inning from Kyle Snyder Tito brought Buchholz in for his first relief appearance against the team who provided him with his best starting memory ever, and although he didn't hold them hitless, he did prevent the Birds from taking the lead in the sixth.

Two walks and a single loaded the bases for B'More, but then Buchholz got Tejada to ground into your classic 5-2-3 double play, and when he whiffed Millar to end the threat you got the feeling this team could turn out to be Buchholz' special bitch.

Just like last night Boston blew another late-inning bases loaded situation when a walk to Lowell and consecutive singles by Youk and pinch hitter Jacoby Ellsbury went to waste when Boo needed just one pitch to ground into a double play to end the 8th, and when Buchholz tossed a 1-2-3 bottom of the inning it looked like this one could be headed into extra innings.

Wait a minute, I forgot how bad the Baltimore bullpen is.

D-Rays reject Denys Baez came on for the 9th and wasted no time in reminding me when Coco reached on a swinging bunt to lead off stole second, and then Varitek, the man who has come up with more clutch hits than anyone on the team this year save for Mike Lowell, came in cold and laced an RBI double to left that gave his team its 3rd and final lead of the night, 7-6.

Last night Varitek's two-run homer in the sixth could have been the game-winner if not for the shoddy relief work, but with Papelbon available tonight and as dominant as he has been lately, this one was as good as in the bag even though the Sox failed to tack on an insurance run.

Didn't matter as Paps wrapped up his 14th straight scoreless outing in style, freezing the ever-smirking Millar with a filthy fastball to end the game, then punctuating his 34th save with a primal scream and glove smack as if to say "not tonight you dirty frigging birds!"

Not it wasn't meant to be for Baltimore tonight, but something tells me the last three games of this season series aren't going to be so easy.

NOTES: Wakefield's streak of 26 consecutive starts with a decison came to an end...Ellsbury's pich hit single was his first of his career and extended his hitting streak to all six games he's played in since his recall...Mike Lowell (0-4) and Dustin pedroia (0-5) had rare off-nights...