Chowdaheads - Sitting on Frog One: Escape from New York

What a difference a day makes. Going into last night's game the Red Sox had lost 4 in a row to the Yankoffs and were in danger of going 3-6 on the 9 game road trip. The Sox bats were asleep and the pitching was in even worse shape. Instead Thursday night's game in the Bronx helped stop the bleeding, for now, with an 8 inning performance from Curt Schilling and some timely hitting and the Sox escaped with a 9-3 win.

Schilling gave up only 4 hits in the 8 innings, however, three of them were home runs. In the first inning, after a non-strike 3 call robbed Curt of out number one, Johnny Damon slapped one off the foul poll to give the Yankoffs the 1-0 lead. Schilling, who threw 96 pitches, gave up a two out home run to Bernie Williams (who played out of his 60 year old ass this series) and another solo shot to Robinson Cano in the 5th. A base running blunder by Johnny Damon in the 3rd help Curt escape some early control issues with limited damage done.
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The Sox bats continued to be ice cold, especially from Captain Jason Varitek, who hit into a 1-2-3 double play with bases loaded in the top of the 2nd that made him 1 for 25 on the year against New York. Tek made up for some of that with an RBI hit in the 6th then put the game away with a 3 run home run in the 7th.

The biggest at bat of the night came from Alex Gonzalez in the 6th inning as Gonzo, who was behind 0 and 2, fouling off 4 more pitches from a now struggling Jaret Wright before hitting a hard grounder to 3rd...

...which E-Rod muffed. Now the official scorer gave Gonzo a hit and an RBI later, but E-Rod looked foolish trying to make that play. Dropping to his knees like Jeter walked onto the field then pulling a Roger Dorn "o'ley" move as the ball buzzed passed him. UB can still hear the Yankoff fans yelling "GET IN FRONT OF THE BALL!"

From there Wright was pulled and the Sox would tack on 5 more runs as Schilling got stronger. From there the Sox gave the ball to Jonathan Papelbon who ended the game...

By striking out KK-Rod. So now the Sox return home for a 4 game series with Texas that includes a double header on Saturday. Rookie John Lester gets his 1st big league start in the day game while Josh Beckett tries to improve on his 17.00 ERA the last two games in the nightcap. David Pauley was moved to the bullpen and will most likely be used for long relief if Lester or Beckett get pulled early.