My coworkers know when the Red Sox are pulling a west coast trip. That’s when they find my head in the fish tank. Or under the spigot of the coffee machine. Or closing the elevator doors on my tongue just to keep myself conscious. Bottom line is I can’t stay up like I used to and as much as I wanted to go to bed last night, close the book on this game and take comfort in the NESN morning rebroadcast, I just couldn’t walk away. A spectacular nailbiter of a game with a number of highlights that are still swimming around my three-hours-of REM-sleep impaired noggin:
1) Beckett Lives. He does, see? He came back last night. That guy on the mound. It was him. The one I thought we’d be getting in April. He even left the game with a finger malady, the sorta thing we figured he’d be plagued with when we signed him. Four hits over six innings. Nicely done, and let’s just hope the evil Josh Beckett clone who started in last week’s Yankees series has been sent back to the Skrull World.
2) Tenacious D! In the bottom of the seventh, all hell was set to break loose. But in one magical hurl from left field, Our Man Mo was able to cut down at the plate what would have been the tying run. It was a great play that was bested by that whuzzat maneuver pulled by Cabby in the ninth, in which he snared a ball that Adam Kennedy booted, then proceeded to execute the twin killing. I tip my cap to Cab.
3) The Three Amigos: Watching Manny, Papi and Wily Mo frolicking in the dugout, even when they’re just hanging over the railing taking in the game or sizing up the ladies, has become an important part of my NESN viewing experience. I can totally see these guys starring in a series of Miller Lite commercials [a la those old John Madden/Bob uecker gems in the early 80s] in which the three go off on a series of adventures — bear hunting, spelunking, filling out a change of address form at the Mission Hill post office — that culminate in some sort of wacky hijinks.
4) One word: Ortiz.
5) Yanks lose! The comeback has begun…
