Sox hang on to win 2 of 3 from Stanks

Sox 8, New York 5
WP: Matsuzaka (3-0)
LP: Hughes (0-1)
SV: None
HRs: BOS-None; NYY-Giambi (2)

SUMMARY:
The Sox survived a long and arduous rubber match against the Stanks, hanging on for a close victory after jumping out to a 7-1 lead after three innings. Daisuke Matsuzaka picked up his third win of the season, although he wasn't sharp at all, and 5 Boston batter notched two hits apiece while battering New York wunderkind Phillip Hughes.

Superstar: Sean Casey 2-3, 2B, R, BI
The Mayor continues to prove he could be one of the most invaluable pickups of the offseason for any of the contenders as he rapped two more hits, raising his average to .318, drove in a pair of runs and made a number of nice hustle plays at first base.

The Biggest Loser: Hughes 2IP, 6H, 7R, 6ER, 3BB, 3K, WP
The kid was not hot tonight as the young right hander struggled with his control early and often, resulting in a messy 2 innings of work. he exited the game with his team down 7-1, and he found out the hard way what the Rivalry is really like.

RECAP:
Well, so much for a quick game.

Thanks to an excruciating amount of walks (14) and pitches (336), this game just ended at a few minutes past midnight, and thankfully the Sox pen had enough to save what could have been a horrible loss.

Dice-K again made us wonder when, or if, he will ever completely dominate the league for a long period of time like he is supposed to, yet somehow he was not bad enough to lose it.

I can already tell I am not making coherent sentences, a result of spending the afternoon at Tropicana Field with a stadium full of Little Leaguers, so I think I'm gonna hit the hay and wrap this one in the morning.

In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves. Goodnight.
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And good morning.

Now that I've put my 8+ hours of baseball Sunday behind me, I feel like I can finally put together a few paragraphs and wrap this game up.

If I could just remember what happened.

The first few innings are pretty clear, but everything gets pretty hazy after that. I remember Boston jumped all over 22-year-old Phil Hughes like a Jack Russell on a fresh leg, scoring three in the first inning on 2 hits, 2 walks, a sac fly, a passed ball and an error, but the fact that the inning took nearly an hour to play was a bad sign of things to come.

After Dice-K (5IP, 5H, 4ER, 6BB, 2K, 116P) managed to toss a fairly quick second inning, he gave a run back in the third when he walked Judas Demon (for the 2nd time) and then after Demon stole second (also for the 2nd time, New York's first two steals of the season) gave up a deep double off the top of the scoreboard to Bobby Abreu to slice the lead to 3-1.

But when Boston drop-kicked Hughes in the bottom of the frame, scoring four more times and sending the kid to the showers before he even had time to get a feel for the mound, it looked as if the game was as good as over.

Except it wasn't nearly over. Not by a longshot.

The rally that got Hughes out of the game began innocently enough, with a walk to hot-hitting JD Drew (0-2, 2BB, 2R), who was hitting in Papi's 3-hole as Tito decided to give Ortiz the night off to clear his head. That pass was followed by a single to deep short by Manny, and when Youk and Casey both lined RBI singles to bulge the lead to 5-1 and drive Hughes from the game, it should have been easy sailing from then on.

Especially after the Sox tacked on two more off rookie reliever Ross Ohlendorf, the first on a wild pitch (the second gift run the Stanks allowed that way in three innings) and the 7th run on a clutch 2-out RBI single to right by Jacoby Ellsbury.

7-1 after three and the game was nearly 2 hours old. Time for Dice-K to bear down and get this game over with, right?

Unfortunately Matsuzaka was in his "every other game I'm good" mode, and since he was terrific in his lat outing, he was contractually obligated to be horrible tonight. As Dice got behind batter after batter and the pitch count piled up, it became quite apparent that this game wasn't going to be a slam dunk win by any means.

Sure enough Dice let New York right back in the game in the 4th when he allowed 2 doubles, a single, a walk, a wild pitch and a sac fly to Demon, and next thing you know it's 10:00, the Stanks had cut the lead to 7-4, and the Sox bullpen was going to have to be called on before Matsuzaka's pitch count reached 200.

This is where I started to lose it, seeing the time and the game drag on and knowing that by the time the game got over I was going to be either bored to death or incredibly upset, neither of which option did my mindset any good.

So to wrap it up quicker than they did, David Aardsma pitched 2 solid innings in relief of Dice, Mike Timlin came in to start the 8th and immediately had a case of deja vu when he surrendered a solo shot to Jason Giambi for the second time in three nights, and Boston put a key insurance run on the board when Ellsbury (1-3, R, BB, 2BI) knocked in Coco with a sac fly that capped the scoring and gave manny Delcarmen some breathing room in the 9th.

Luckily Delcarmen didn't even need it as he fanned A-Rod for the second out and then got Matsui to ground out to mercifully end the series, and at just past midnight eastern Standard time the first Sox/Stanks series of 2008 was in the books.

And just think, they get to play again on Wednesday!

Rest up.

NOTES:
-Papi off: citing the always helpful "mental day off", Tito decided that rather than have Ortiz try to break out of his 3-44 slump against the hated Stanks, he would let him rest and give it a go on Monday against the Tribe. That put Manny in the DH spot and gave the Sox the rare outfield look of Coco in center and Ellsbury in left; the duo combined for 3 hits, 3 runs and 2 RBIs while Manny had a pair of hits and runs and knocked in a run

-Hit parade: five Sox had two hits apiece (Pedroia, Manny, Youk, Casey, Coco), four drove in runs (Ellsbury, Manny, Youk, Casey) and six Sox scored at least one run (Ellsbury, Drew, Manny, Youk, Casey, Coco)

RECORD: 7-6
AL EAST: 1/2 GB
STREAK: W2
UP NEXT: Mon @ CLE, 7PM ESPN Lester vs. Westbrook