Winning a game while playing poorly can work two ways. The attitude could be “it was just a lucky win”. In the case of Terry Francona’s Red Sox, it seems to be “we didn’t fold when we could have”. The second attitude probably began the recent winning streak.
The game of a week ago Saturday was one in which the Sox blew a big lead late in a game, committed a crucial error, had a pitcher and catcher ejected in the same inning (when was the last time that happened?) and still came back to beat the A’s in 14 innings on a walkoff hit by JD Drew, who had struck out 4 times.
When a potential game-ending double play grounder got through Dustin Pedroia for a rare error, and Oakland came back with 4 runs to tie the game at 7, it looked bad. However, Bobby Jenks got the last two outs after John Papelbon’s ejection, to keep the contest tied. After Oakland scored in the 11th, the cause again appeared lost. But doubles by Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Jacoby Ellsbury got the run back, setting the stage for Drew’s heroics. After 5 hours and 17 minutes, the Sox prevailed 9-8.
The Sox ablility to snatch victory from the jaws of you-know-what, so lacking early in the season, seemed to establish some energy in the team, leading to sweeps of the A’s, Yankees, and Blue Jays. The hitting has finally blossomed, and the pitching has been more than adequate. But in spite of all this, after last night’s loss in Tampa, the Bosox are only 1 1/2 games ahead of the Evil Empire. There is still a lot of baseball to be played.
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