Kick Save and a Beauty by Jared Carrabis
"That was the play of the game if you ask me."


Tonight, around 1:10am on Saturday morning, my Nana passed away.

As hard as it is for me to write about this game tonight, she was one of the strongest people I ever knew, and I know deep down that she wouldn't want me to take a night off from doing what I love to do. She had been waiting for my book to come out since I first started writing it back in December of 2007. Tonight, she passed away with one of the first copies by her pillow. Inside I wrote, "I hope I made you proud, I'll love you always." She lived a long and very happy life, leaving us at the age of 98, and would have turned 99 next month.

She never gave up, and neither will I. So, for her, I will write tonight.

As the Red Sox came off a convincing series, taking three of four from Chicago, Boston now turned their focus to a three-game set with the Toronto Blue Jays with September just four days away.

Josh Beckett took the mound, looking to recover from an abysmal outing, which saw five Yankee home runs leave Fenway Park as a result of a poor pitch from the right-hander. Beckett recorded the first two outs of the second inning with ease, but then ran into some trouble.

After issuing back-to-back walks to Jose Bautista and Marco Scutaro, Aaron Hill smashed a hanging 1-2 curveball into the Monster seats for a three-run poke. When hill touched home, he added HR number 31 on the season to his stat sheet, and provided an early 3-0 lead for the Jays.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Red Sox retaliated with back-to-back singles by Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz to start the frame. Two batters later, JD Drew ripped a liner into right field to bring in Youkilis. The very next batter, Jason Varitek, drove a sacrifice fly out to the right field corner to bring in Boston's second run with two outs.

Alex Gonzalez, who has been holding his weight and then some offensively on this home stand, kept the inning alive with a rip into left field that advanced Drew into scoring position. After battling for eight pitches, Jacoby Ellsbury, who returned to the lineup on Friday after being removed from the action on Thursday following a hard slide into home plate, drove a slider deep towards the 420 marker in the center field triangle. The blast split the outfielders, pounded the dirt that makes the warning track and hopped up into the stands for an RBI ground-rule double.

Ellsbury's double capped a three-run inning for Boston that tied the game up at three. After recording two scoreless innings since Hill's three-run homer in the second, Beckett relinquished the lead by allowing a leadoff double to Lyle Overbay and three batters later, serving up a two-run blast to Rod Barajas on a first-pitch fastball.

Trailing 5-3 in the bottom half of the fifth, Victor Martinez battled back from falling behind in the count 0-2, to ripping pitch number six back up the middle for a base hit. Two consecutive outs would follow Martinez's lone hit of the night, but Jason Bay would not leave the Sox's first baseman stranded.

Much like Bay had done for the first two months of the season, when he came to the plate in a clutch situation, Red Sox Nation knew where the ball was going. Behind in the count, 0-2, Bay got a hanging slider and smashed the stitches off the ball. Right on contact, NESN's cameras had to pan out so fast to record how high the ball went, and how fast it exited Fenway Park. After Bay's Monster shot smashed off the Sports Authority sign, the game had been tied.

After five innings, Beckett was done. It took the right-hander 108 pitches to make it through five frames, which you can point to his five walks on the night as the culprit for his short outing. However, on the bright side, Beckett racked up nine strikeouts before departing. He gave up five hits in his outing, but the only two mistakes that did significant damage were the two home runs that Beckett watched leave the yard.

"I was happy we won," said Beckett. "Besides that, I'm obviously not that impressed by myself. We ended up pulling it out, and that's the good thing about being on a good team."

Daniel Bard, who had been on the bump since the seventh inning, walked Travis Snider to open the eighth. With Snider aboard at first with one out, John McDonald pulled his hands inside and turned on a 96 MPH heater and laced a double into the left field corner. Snider began hauling his way around third base, heading for home, as Jason Bay hit his cutoff man and Alex Gonzalez threw a strike to Jason Varitek at home plate.

In a play similar to the one when Varitek stuck out his tree trunk leg and blocked Eric Byrnes from scoring in the 2003 ALDS between Boston and Oakland, the Sox backstop again blocked the plate with his leg and prevented Snider from sliding in safely. After the ball hit Tek's mitt, all he had to do was simply apply the tag on Snider, who had been catapulted a good four feet from home after attempting to slide through Varitek's legs of steel.

"It looked like Snider could have broken his shin on that -- that was impressive," said Bard. "That's how they teach it. That was impressive. I'm not going to lie, especially since you know that ball was wet. The rain was coming down pretty good for like three pitches before that. That ball bounced around the corner and they got it in, and that was the play of the game if you ask me."

Instead of pulling a Byrnes move and shoving Varitek aside, Snider simply just picked himself out of the mud and walked back to the visiting dugout with his head hanging in shame. Varitek's leg: 1, Snider's slide attempt: 0.

"He's a warrior, man," Bard said of Varitek. "He's intimidating when you see him walking out in his full gear, and that's exactly why. He's a competitor, and that's the reason the Red Sox still want him here, because he does stuff like that for the team. That's not going to show up in the stats or it's not going to be in the box score tomorrow, but that's as big a play as you could ask for on a night like tonight."

After a long and crowd-depleting rain delay, David Ortiz kicked off the bottom of the eighth by working a seven-pitch walk. Two batters later, JD Drew split the gap out in center for his 26th double of the season to put men at second and third.

Pinch-hitting for Alex Gonzalez, Casey Kotchman grounded into a fielder's choice, which allowed Ortiz to come in from the back door and score Boston's go-ahead run in the eighth.

Clinging to a one-run lead in the ninth, Terry Francona dialed up Jonathan Papelbon from the bullpen. Papelbon struck out Adam Lind to open the inning, but then began to struggle a bit. Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells strung together a pair of hits, as Papelbon proceeded graze Randy Ruiz with a 96 MPH fastball, who was awarded a HBP to load the bases with one out. With the pressure on, the Boston closer struck out Rod Barajas on three pitches, blowing 96 MPH heat by the catcher's bat. The next victim, Travis Snider (again), lasted a little bit longer, but would strike out swinging on another 96 MPH fastball. Poor Snider, tough night, pal.

For Papelbon, it was his 31st save of the season, which was crucial on a night where Boston could gain some ground in their hunt for October.

Final Score: Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 6

Things you'll need to know to impress your friends:

In the month of August, JD Drew is batting .317 with 6 HR (two multi-HR games), 12 RBI and a 1.108 OPS.

If you're alarmed by Josh Beckett's recent struggles, don't be. His numbers in the month of August since joining the Red Sox aren't pretty. He's 8-8 with an ERA of 4.93 and has give up 19 long balls in 127.1 innings pitched.

As the month of August draws to a close, let's hope Jason Bay stays as hot as the weather was this month. In the month of August, Bay has batted .296 with 8 HR, 16 RBI and a 1.080 OPS. He must have remembered that it was a contract year.

As of 3:35am, the Jimmy Fund Telethon helped raise $4,550,786 for cancer research. Thank you to all of Red Sox Nation for helping achieve this giant donation to a great, great cause.

Saturday's pitching match-up:

At 7:10 on Saturday night, Clay Buchholz will get his chance to get back on the right track. Buchholz had turned in three great outings in a row before running into a seven earned run beat-down at the hands of the Chicago White Sox in his last start. However, Buchholz has manhandled the Jays this season. He's 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA against the blue birds in '09, while holding an 0-3 record against all other teams. His opponent, Ricky Romero, has struggled mightily against Boston this year. In three starts, he's 0-2 with a 10.50 ERA and will be pitching for the first time at Fenway Park in his career.

Eye on the scoreboard:

Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 6
White Sox 2, Yankees 5
Rangers 2, Twins 3
Rays 2, Tigers 6

Result: With the Red Sox hanging on to defeat Toronto by a run and Robinson Cano hitting a three-run walk-off blast in the tenth, the Red Sox remain six games behind New York in the AL East. Tampa Bay's defeat at the hands of Detroit force them 10.5 games back in the East and 4.5 games behind Boston in the Wild Card. The Texas Rangers came up just short in Minnesota, which drops them to 2.5 games behind the Red Sox in the Wild Card standings.

Rest in peace, Nana. I love you.



To order my debut book, One Fan's Story: If This Hat Could Talk, click here.

-Jared Carrabis





Published on August 29, 2009

---