As Jose Valverde walked off the mound today, I'm sure he thought to himself, "That's it... Ortiz isn't getting a Christmas card this year." Two at-bats, two home runs, five RBI's. Papi, coming off an afternoon on the bench, stepped up to the plate in a tied game and launched one off of Valverde giving the Sox the winning run that we so desperately needed. Salty had already come out of the game, meaning Varitek was going in. Knowing that Tek there was just about 100% certainty that Jason would be catching the night game for Beckett, we ran the risk of tiring out our veteran catcher if we couldn't score in the ninth. Papi is very considerate of his team mates, though, and he ensured that Tek wouldn't get too worn down before the nightcap. Yessir, Papi was all we needed.
Dahmer wasn't fantastic, in my opinion. He was good, but he found himself struggling and seemingly overthinking. Two solo home runs took away his lead, and he ended up with a ND for the game. It's ok, though, because unless you're Beckett or Lester, I don't really care about individual wins. As long as the team wins, it doesn't matter to me who gets the win. So Dahmer went six and gave up three runs, which is the dictionary definition of a quality start. Matt Albers pitched in for two innings, allowing no one to reach base. I guess that's the dictionary definition of relief pitching... and if it's not, it should be.
Off-topic... the guy on NESN just said he was the Mark Bellhorn of broadcasting. It made me remember how much I miss Mark Bellhorn. I'm ending the tangent, but I'll never stop loving old number 12.
Other equally-as-important runs in the game came off the bats of Ernie, with a sac fly in the first, Cameron, with a solo shot in the second, and Munchkin, with a solo shot in the 3rd. This wasn't the offensive explosion that we've been getting used to, but it was just enough for a win. For the moment, we have a two-run lead in the east. Yankees are currently winning, but we've got another game to go tonight. It's very realistic that we could finish the evening with that same two-game lead. Love it. As good as 'five wins in a row' sounds, I think six wins in a row sounds better. Let's get it done.
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