Whew. It’s 11.30am, and I’m spent. That whole 12th inning was a heartstopper: 1st and 2nd, no outs, and then the HUGE double play. Then Orlando Cabrera makes himself a Boston folk hero - comes back from being with his wife in surgery, launches a walkoff shot. One thing I like about our ‘defensive’ team compared to what Francona had at the start of the season: Cabrera-Reese-Mientkiewicz is not just pure Gold Glove, but can occasionally, like today, hit some. Remember the hapless flailing of Reese-Gutierrez-McCarty? You need defense, but not at the expense of giving up 3 outs in the lineup. So Foulke blew the save, he’ll bounce back like he did from July. I was just freakin’ scared that Kim would come in and get eaten by the wolves if he flubbed it up. Francona, Francona - pinch-running Roberts, pinch-hitting Mirabelli, putting in Mientkiewicz for Millar. It may not all have worked, but he left the Sox in a position to win a tie game, which is more than one can say about some Sox managers past.
Is it weird that 4 AL games ended in 7-6 wins? Pure coincidence, but except for the Seattle-Anaheim blowing out now, every game tonight was a 1-run or 2-run game. So no one’s rolling over. The Jays get the Yankees, the ChiSox get the Twins, Texas beats the As. September baseball, gotta love it.