Angels: Welcome To Fenway

First of all, I will admit right up front that I did not see the first five innings of the game. I was out having fun and getting score updates on my cell phone. The last update I got via cell phone (and mind you, I don't have none of them fancy interwebs on the cell... this was all text message updates), told me the score was 7-4 Sox heading into the fifth. I imagined that Dahmer was working relatively effectively. I couldn't get a pitch count, or a walk total, but I was at least happy enough with the results. I thought 'hey, this would be a nice little win if we can hang in there,' and I shut my phone and got in my car to turn on the radio.

The fifth was quiet. The radio guys didn't give me much information pertaining to what had already happened. I knew I was going to look it up anyway. Well, I missed an Asshat homer, Bill Hall's first home run as a member of the Sox, and a Mikey Doubles two- RBI special. In the third, the league's favorite target got hit by a pitch. What's that give Youk this year in HBP's? After the magic of internet research, I can see he's been hit 3 times on the year, but I'm not sure if baseball-reference.com has updated itself yet this morning, so it may be four. Back to the scoring... In the 4th, JD hits a bases-loaded single to score Scutaro and VMart. There you have it, 7-4. What a game, right?

Well, sort of. They exploded in the 6th for 7 runs. I know, I can't believe it either. The team who couldn't score three little runs against the last place O's unloaded on the Angels. The ones from Anaheim. Or Los Angeles. Or Orange County. Listen, I don't need to know where they're from. THEY don't even know where they're from. Just to give a quick breakdown... ground out, double, single, double, home run, line-out, walk, single, home run, single, ground out. Seven runs. Home runs for Beltre (holy hell, he can do that?!) and Munchkin. Early night for the relief pitcher, Palmer. Six runs were charged to him. But don't feel too bad, we saved four ER for Stokes, adding three more runs in the 7th inning. Three consecutive doubles and a single all before the first out in the 7th. Man... wow. That's all I can say.

Overall, our offense finished with an intentional walk, a hit-by-pitch, seven doubles, four home runs, twenty hits over all, and six walks. The offensive onslaught did absolute wonders for a lot of individual stats. Hell, JD and Mikey both had four hits on the night. You know they were feeling good. And this game was exactly what a lot of people needed, including the team. Everyone felt like garbage after this weekend. Fans just needed to know there was some fight in this team. We finally caught a glimpse of it. It makes believing in them that much easier.

As for our pitching, decent work from Dahmer. Three walks and four hits in 5.2 innings gives him the win. Would have liked to see him work a little deeper into the game, but he was over a hundred pitches (and pitchers are babied, of course), and he had a three run lead, the best decision was probably to avoid letting him blow it. Delcarmen finished the inning and pitched a clean 7th, which is just awesome. I don't know what he's changed, but he's been reliable and I appreciate that, especially since I rip on him often. Rambo, getting himself back on track also, pitched a perfect 8th. Schoe was a little frustrating. I'm still not sure that the double wasn't a foul ball, but it really doesn't matter. He's kind of a mop-up guy. I want to see better from him, but in the 9th inning of a game we're winning by 13 runs, I sort of don't care if we give four away. We still win by a large margin.

Good all around last night. A much-needed, pile-on type win by the Sox, a beating of the Cavs by the Celtics, and another exciting Bruins win over the Flyers. Boston sports fans can feel really good about the way our teams played last night. Now we just need to keep it up!