Manny's return, plus 10 walks, spark Sox to win

Sox 7, Oakland 3
WP: Schilling (9-8)
LP: Gaudin (11-13)
HRs: BOS-Papi (33); OAK-Barton (3)

Manny Being Manny: after missing the last 25 games, Ramirez stepped in a knocked a single in his first at bat.

SUMMARY
Boston inched one step closer to wrapping up the division title when it handled its bidness against the fading As.

Curt Schilling had his best outing since he no-hit Oakland back in June, holding the As to six hits and a single run in six innings of work, and coupled with the Stanks' extra-inning loss in Tampa Bay, the Sox magic number to clinch the East is now 3 games.

#1 STUNNER Schilling 6IP, 6H, 1ER, 0BB, 6K, HR
When Curt allowed a first-inning homer to some nobody named Daric Barton, the whole Nation had that "here we go again" feeling. But after that mistake, Schill settled in and pitched a whale of a game when his team needed him most, just for old time's sake.

GAGME Chad Gaudin 4IP, 3H, 3ER, 7BB, 3K
The former D-Rays hurler had a Tampa Bay kind of night, surrendering just three hits but issuing a staggering seven walks in four+ innings, including a horrendous sequence in which he walked the first four batters of the fifth inning.

Three relievers also chipped in with a freebie each to round the total off at an even 10.

RECAP
Manny made his long-awaited return.

Schill looked playoff-ready.

Youk made a cameo appearance.

Lowell notched another RBI.

Papi hit another home run.

J.D. Drew had three more hits.

Ellsbury had another big night.

The Stanks lost to the Rays.

The division lead is up to three with five to play.

Is it okay to come off the ledge now?

After weeks filled with agita, anger and utter amazement for the team and the Nation over the second half swoon which nearly led to another entry in the "embarrassing, historical collapse" file, it looks as if we can finally breathe a little easier now that the 1 1/2 game division lead has swelled to 3 games in the past two days.

How good are things looking right now?

Boston gained a half game yesterday without even playing, and tonight New York blew a 5-0 lead and wasted an A-Rod grand slam in coming from ahead to lose to the baby Rays in extra innings.

That's how good.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting this thing is all sewn up. Hardly. We're just a three-game losing streak (unlikely, given the competition, but possible) and a three-game Stankee winning streak (likely, considering their competition) away from a final weekend shootout to see who takes home the division crown.

I'm just saying I like our chances a lot more tonight than I did after the Sox lost to Tampa Bay in miserable fashion on Sunday afternoon.

As you can tell by my lazy list above there were plenty of reasons to be happy about tonight's game, not the least of which was the return of mercurial slugger Manny Ramirez to the Boston lineup after a 25 game absence. As odd as it may have been to see him hitting in the two-hole for the first time in his career, just having his bat back in the lineup meant wonders for the psyche of the team.

It also didn't hurt that he lined a single in his first at bat and also drew a walk and scored a run in his first game action since August 28th.

But Manny's return wasn't the end of the good news for Boston. Starting pitcher Curt Schilling continued to look impressive in his return from shoulder fatigue with another solid outing, allowing just one earned run for the third time in his last six starts, and this time his teammates got him some runs to work with, albeit not many while he was in there.

In fact despite the addition of Ramirez, the late addition of Ellsbury as a replacement for Coco Crisp, and a ton of baserunners, Boston once again had to make the most out of a small amount of runs in what could have been a Sox blowout had the been able to cash in on some golden opportunities.

See, some things haven't changed for the better.

I'm not going to bother going into in depth detail on what went on in this one; it's too late in the season for that, and besides the how isn't important right now.

In brief summary Schill surrendered a solo shot in the first, and the Sox answered back on a RBI double by Mike Lowell in the bottom of the inning. Then they scored a pair in the fifth on the quartet of walks and a sac fly by Ellsbury (), another run in the seventh on an single by Ellsbury (can you say "spark plug"?), and finally they tacked on three in the eighth on a Kielty sac fly and Papi's 33rd homer of the season.

After Schill left, Manny D. pitched a scoreless seventh, then Tito (foolishly)brought on Gagme to pitch the eighth inning of a 4-1 contest. Bad idea. The hapless reliever allowed two more baserunners, forcing Francona to go to his close in the 8th again, and Paps came in and showed Gagme how it's done by ending the inning with one pitch.

Oakland added a couple of runs in the 9th when Bryan Corey couldn't close the game out the right way, but in the end the final score didn't matter.

All that mattered was Boston won, New York lost, Manny's back, the lead is comfy, and the end is almost near.

Fingers crossed this one is a happy ending.