It wasn’t a monster shot, but David Ortiz picked up his first game winning walk off home run of the season last night off Devil Ray’s reliever Al Reyes.
Ortiz’s shot in the bottom of the ninth sealed the series in Boston's favor against the D-Rays and was the final two of all five runs batted in by Ortiz on home runs in the 5-4 victory.
Mr. Clutch’s shot last night was the ninth walk-off of his career.
If Big Papi hadn’t picked up his 30th and 31st on the season last night the Sox would be looking at possibly bringing only a 3 ½ game lead into this weekend’s series with New York. Good thing for Boston Ortiz’s day off earlier in the week helped them out quite a bit. More than quite a bit, he was the only pulse in an otherwise anemic offensive performance last night.
Jon Lester was the second Boston starter in a row to get roughed up by the Devil Rays bats. He made it only two outs into the fourth inning giving up eight hits, walking four and surrendering all four earned runs on the evening. The bullpen came in and preserved any hope for the Sox to come back late in the game, with Julian Tavarez pitching three scoreless (shocking) and closer Jonathan Papelbon picking up his first win on the year. His streak of scoreless appearances is now at 16.
Stealing bases has been virtually non-existent in Boston’s game plan for almost 100 years, at least when it comes to having more than one base-stealing threat on the team. Coco Crisp stole his 25th base last night in the sixth. Julio Lugo currently has 29 on the year. It’s helped Boston move runners over into scoring position without having to rely on constant hitting. Having either guy score from first on a double or well placed single doesn’t hurt much either. I wrote back in May that the new found speed would help to win games that in the past Boston would have struggled to capture. So far, it’s helped them out in about five or six situations I can count in games I’ve watched. It’s hard to say how much that component has actually helped in the wins and losses column, it’s just good that it’s there. I’ll leave it at that.
Boston’s off for the night and the Yankees will try to go for the sweep up at the Rogers Center tonight in Toronto and will start rookie Ian Kennedy. If the Yanks win they’ll pull within 4 ½ of the AL East lead. In a KC Bean Boy note to the Jays, try winning a game goddamnit.
Oh yeah, that's Sir Paul McCartney cheering on the Yankees in New York. I always fucking hated Paul.
It wasn’t a monster shot, but David Ortiz picked up his first game winning walk off home run of the season last night off Devil Ray’s reliever Al Reyes. Ortiz’s shot in the bottom of the ninth sealed the series in Boston's favor against the D-Rays and was the final two of all five runs batted in by Ortiz on home runs in the 5-4 victory. Mr. Clutch’s shot last night was the ninth walk-off of his career. 
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