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Victor-y Martinez by Jared Carrabis
V-Mart clears the bags coming off the bench for win

So much for that day off, Tito.

"I told him [Tuesday] night in about the eighth inning [that he wasn't starting on Wednesday]," Francona said of Victor Martinez. "I told him I wasn't going to answer my phone. I said, 'Don't even try.' He fought me a little bit, which I actually really like, but I thought it was in his best interest not to play [Wednesday]."

Before Martinez could have his moment in the sun, Paul Byrd made his third start for Boston since rejoining the club. Coming off an abysmal outing in which the right-hander got shelled for seven runs by the Chicago White Sox in less than three innings, Byrd returned to the pitcher he was in his first outing with the Red Sox this season.

The Sox jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first when Jason Bay came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded. On a 2-1 pitch, Bay hammered a 93 MPH fastball into left field that brought home RBIs number 99 and 100 for the Canadian-born outfielder.

The Orioles would grab a run back in the top of the second, but Boston would take the one run for two outs exchange, as Byrd had been battling in a bases loaded with no outs situation. No further damage would be inflicted.

In the bottom of the fourth, Jason Varitek drove in Mike Lowell after sending an RBI double into the gap in left-center. With a 3-1 lead, Baltimore brought themselves within a run after Brian Roberts sent his 50th double of the season off the wall in left. After stealing third, Roberts came in to score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Nolan Reimold.

After 83 pitches, Byrd made his exit after logging five innings of work, holding the O's to two runs on six hits.

In the top of the sixth, Manny Delcarmen was the first to emerge out of Boston's bullpen. Delcarmen allowed two singles with an error of his own mixed in to load the bases with one out. From there, Delcarmen walked Roberts on four straight balls to pick up his third blown save of 2009.

Ramon Ramirez picked up where Delcarmen left off by allowing an RBI single to Felix Pie that gave the Orioles a 4-3 lead. He would recover from there to retire the next two batters on strikeouts swinging.

Trailing by a run in the bottom half of the sixth, reigning AL MVP Dustin Pedroia came to the plate with two outs and a man on third. After a seven-pitch at bat, Pedroia laced a 94 MPH fastball off of pitcher Matt Albers that brought Joey Gathright in to tie the game at four.

To keep the score tied, Francona unleashed Billy Wagner in the top of the seventh. Wagner retired all three batters he faced, including back-to-back swinging strikeouts to conclude his sixteen-pitch inning of work.

In the bottom half of the same inning, Kevin Youkilis started the rally with one of his two hits in the night (he also walked twice). After one of six pitching changes made by Baltimore (two in this inning), Bay singled on a soft liner into left field to put two men on.

After a four-pitch walk to Mike Lowell, Francona called on deck hitter George Kottaras back to the dugout and sent Victor Martinez to the plate with one out and the bases loaded. On the first pitch of the at bat, Martinez smoked a 95 MPH fastball into the gap in left-center that cleared the bases.

"I'll take it," said Martinez. "Any time you help your team get a really important win, it's nice."

As Martinez smacked his hands together and yelled to the sky, his 30th double of the season had put Boston ahead by a 7-4 score.

"I told myself, 'He's going to throw a strike right here,'" Martinez explained. "I just looked for a good pitch to hit, didn't try to do too much and put a good swing on the ball. That's what I did. When you put a good swing on the ball, anything can happen."

Daniel Bard took the mound in the eighth and added two more strikeouts to his '09 total, before giving way to Jonathan Papelbon for the four-out save. Papelbon got the inning's final out on one pitch, as the closer looked towards the ninth.

In the game's final inning, Papelbon allowed two singles and an earned run on a sacrifice fly, but got Ty Wigginton to pop out to Pedroia to secure his 35th save of the season.

The win for Boston only fueled the enthusiasm that Martinez has for playing in a Red Sox uniform, "When you're in the middle of a race, it's always interesting," Martinez said. "Every game means something. You go to the ballpark every day and know that you're playing for something. That's a good feeling."

Final Score: Orioles 5, Red Sox 7

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

On Wednesday night, Alex Gonzalez was 0-for-2 with two sacrifice bunts. The last Red Sox batter who had two sacrifice bunts in a single game was Ramon Vazquez back in August of 2005.

24 hours after Dustin Pedroia went deep twice for Boston on Tuesday night, the Boston second baseman had the game-tying single in the bottom of the sixth. The last Red Sox second baseman to homer twice in the same game was Todd Walker in August of 2003.

In two pinch-hit at bats for Victor Martinez in 2009, the switch-hitter has 4 RBI. Prior to joining the Red Sox, Martinez had just one RBI in his entire career as a pinch-hitter back in 2005.

While Martinez is to be paid $5.7 million in 2009 from the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox, FanGraphs.com has his 2009 value set as an $18.4 million dollar man. Since joining the Red Sox, he's batting .326 with 6 HR and 28 RBI in 36 games. He will be under contract with Boston in 2010 for just $7 million; talk about a bargain.

After pitching a perfect inning in relief, Billy Wagner earned his first win in a Red Sox uniform.

After striking out two batters in the eighth inning, Daniel Bard now has 59 strikeouts in 43.1 innings of work. He's averaging 1.4 strikeouts per inning.

After knocking in his 100th run of the season, Jason Bay now has four seasons of 30+ HR and 100 RBI since his first full season in 2004. Bay finished 2008 with 31 HR and 101 RBI, but with 31 HR and 100 RBI thus far in 2009, he will more than likely eclipse his numbers of a year ago.

Friday's pitching match-up:

There isn't one. The Red Sox, Yankees and Rangers all have Thursday off, which means that you can dedicate your Thursday night to the very first game of the NFL season between the Tennessee Titans and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Kickoff is at 8:30pm at Heinz Field on NBC!

Eye on the scoreboard:

With 23 games left to go, trailing the Yankees by nine games in the AL East, I think it's time we can all be realistic and say "Wild Card or bust." We're talking about a team who is 40-13 since the All Star break. Come October, their regular season record means nothing other than what games are played where and against who. Against the 100-win 2008 Angels how much their regular season record meant in October last year. Anyway, the Texas Rangers clubbed the Cleveland Indians 10-0, which keeps them, a very close, two games out in the Wild Card lead.

-Jared Carrabis

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