Boston Red Sox in an (almost embarrassing) slugfest

  I picked up on this one late; like into the 7th inning, and the Boston Red Sox were down 15-14. 15-14!???!!!. What the heck had I missed? Well, for one thing, a 10-run first inning for the Sox that included two homeruns by Ortiz, an 8-run 5th inning for Texas, followed by a 5-run 6th inning that put them ahead and set the stage for what could easily have been the most embarrasing Red Sox loss of the year. As it turned out, thanks to Kevin Youkilis, it was a 19-16 win that temporarily inched them one-half game closer to the Rays, who were in the process of a minor struggle versus Oakland when the Sox concluded their 4-hour marathon.

As it so happened, I was in attendance at the Minneapolis Metrodome on Monday night for the 4-0 Twins win that combined with the Red Sox victory over the White Sox gave the Twins a half-game edge in the American League Central. Interesting, the way these two games differed in character. I saw only the last couple of innings of the Sox-Rangers game and yet it packed more 'wallop' than the entire 9 innings of Twins-Yankees. On the other hand, both pitchers in the Twins-Yankees game pitched into the eighth inning and both would have had complete games had Twins' manager Ron Gardenhire not wisely brought in their closer, Joe Nathan to finish it in the top of the ninth. With the heart of the Yankee order up, which included A-Rod and the recently-acquired and hot-hitting Xavier Nady, Gardenhire took no chances. Nathan completed the shutout.

And tonight, the Twins took the Yankees into extra innings. Interesting ball club, those Twins. No real 'names,' unless you count the Home Run Derby winning Justin Morneau, and yet, there they are, dancing around the top of the American League Central with the White Sox. The Twins are a team to watch as playoffs approach. Pitcher Glenn Perkins' shutout of the Yankees put him at 9-3 on the season, with a somewhat less than impressive ERA of 4.07, but if memory serves, all but about 5 of the 27 outs were ground ball outs.

Sidney Ponson, who did pitch a complete game for the Yankees, was pretty impressive, too, with more or less the same ground ball to fly ball ratio in the game. In all, a fairly ho-hum game under the soon-to-be-history Metrodome (which no one in Minneapolis is going to miss).

Gettin' down to the wire here, folks. We're not quite into the home stretch but that final bend is in sight and certain mundane games will start to loom large. Like the Twins shutting out the Yankees, as the BoSox handled the White Sox, which widened the Sox/Yankees gap to almost 6 games. Like an otherwise ho-hum situation out in Oakland, where if the score holds up, the Rays will have lost what could prove to be a critical 1/2 game in their struggle to stay ahead of the Sox. Like an incredible 19-17 (Hideki Okajima) victory for the Sox on Aug. 12.

It's the little things. . . .