Game 1 – Mets 6, Sea Dogs 4, 11 inn.

With the Red Sox on the road in Kansas City, Fenway Park played host to what is now an annual event, the Futures at Fenway minor league doubleheader.  It was my first time attending this event, and I was met by a friend and his 9- and 7-year-old sons, who were making their first trip to Fenway.  In a strange twist, it was a gorgeous, sunny day, but I’m sure that’s only because it was one of the few games where my seat was under cover.

Infielder Oscar Tejeda slides into second base. I was happy to see him in the game today, because he's a player I knew from Spring Training but he hadn't played in the Sea Dogs game I went to last month.

The first game pitted the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs against the Binghamton Mets.  Knuckleballer Charlie Haeger made the start, and despite allowing baserunners in every inning, he held the Mets scoreless through the first six frames.  The Sea Dogs were equally silent at the plate, with Alex Hassan’s two singles accounting for half his team’s hits in the first six innings.  Hassan, an outfielder, is originally from Milton, MA, and grew up a Red Sox fan.  We were sitting in left field, and I remarked to my friend how cool it must be for a kid who grew up outside of Boston to be here playing left field at Fenway.  No sooner had I made that comment, than a Binghamton player lined a hit off the Green Monster.  Hassan fielded it perfectly and got it back to the infield in time to hold the runner to a single.  My friend and I turned and almost in unison said, “And he knows how to play the Monster!”

Alex Hassan is outstanding in his field...

...and at the plate, where he reached base four times.

Haeger started to tire in the seventh when he issued three walks and a wild pitch, and he was further hurt by two errors.  That plated two runs for the Mets, and it brought Josh Fields in from the ‘pen.  Fields had been acquired at the trade deadline in the three-team deal that brought Erik Bedard to Boston.  He got out of the inning without any more damage, and stayed in to throw a scoreless eighth and ninth.

Phantom tag: Jonathan Hee is called "out" at second base, even though the stretching shortstop is about a foot away from the bag.

In the bottom of the eighth, Hassan continued his memorable afternoon by launching a two-run homer high over the wall in straightaway center field.  That tied the game at 2, and when the Sea Dogs couldn’t get anything done in the bottom of the ninth, the game headed to extra innings.  Neither team scored in the tenth, and I got to point out to the kids that the manual scoreboard on the Green Monster only has enough columns for 10 innings, and when they go beyond that they have to take all the numbers out and put the 11th inning linescore under the “1″.  (Both kids are so well-versed in Fenway history that this was the only new fact I was able to impart that day.)

Mitch Dening takes a big swing but comes up empty in his 7th inning at-bat.

With reliever Chris Martin into his second inning of work, the Mets ended up putting together three singles and a homer to score four runs in the top of the eleventh.  The Sea Dogs did finally get a rally going in the bottom of the eleventh, when Jonathan Hee’s single knocked in two runs, but it was too little, too late.

Game 2 – Chiefs 3, PawSox 1

Between innings we walked around the concourse to show the kids some of the historical displays, and then got something to eat.  Game 2 featured the Triple-A PawSox and the Washington Nationals’ affiliate, the Syracuse Chiefs.  Much to the 9-year-old’s chagrin, the Pawtucket starter was Kyle Weiland.  He’s been to several PawSox games this year, and almost all of them started with Weiland and all but one had ended in a loss.  This one started off on a much better note, with Daniel Nava lining a solo homer into the bullpen in the first inning.

Daniel Nava is congratulated by manager Arnie Beyeler after his first inning home run.

Besides Nava and Weiland, there were several other PawSox players whom I had seen play at Fenway before.  Lars Anderson and Ryan Kalish had seen time last year, with Jose Iglesias making his debut earlier this year.  Relievers Tommy Hottovy and Michael Bowden had also pitched in Boston before.

Weiland wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t exactly sharp either.  He had a lot of baserunners, and the Chiefs pushed across solo runs in the second, fifth, and sixth innings, before Jason Rice came on in relief.  At the plate, the PawSox couldn’t get anything going – or rather, every time they got something going, they got in their own way.  Three runners were caught stealing, and one was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.  They also hit into three double plays.

Jose Iglesias takes a lead off first base after his sixth-inning single. Careful, Jose...

Oops, he's picked off!

As the evening wore on, we stayed in our seats in left field, until eventually we were the only people left in that section.  The usher even came over and made a joke that we must have fogotten to shower this morning since no one was sitting near us.  But we stuck it out, enjoying 20 innings of baseball on a warm day at America’s Most Beloved Ballpark.  The 9-year-old kept score for both games, just like me (and I only had to cheat off his scorecard a couple of times).  The 7-year-old spent the whole second game with his father’s camera, and wound up with over 300 pictures, also just like me.  Despite the fact that the PawSox never did come up with any additional offense, ending the day with two losses, a good time was had by all.

Game 1 – Red Sox 3, Rays 1

The Red Sox went 3-3 on a road trip to Minnesota and Seattle, but they were home for a very strange two-day, three-game homestand before heading out on the road again.  There was a doubleheader on Tuesday with an afternoon “getaway day” game on Wednesday.  Tuesday’s night game was one that I’d had tickets to all along, but the day game was the makeup of a rainout in April, so I got to go to both games.  Of course, it wouldn’t be official if there wasn’t any rain in the forecast, and today was no exception.  I brought all my rain gear, because the last thing I wanted was to get soaked in the first game and then be uncomfortable for the whole second game.

Jon Lester had a strong outing in Game 1.

My full day of baseball began at noon.  For the first game we sat in our Tenth Man Plan seats behind the visitors’ dugout.  The matchup pitted the two teams’ aces – Jon Lester and James Shields – against each other, and both pitchers proved to be up to the task.  Lester ran into a little trouble in the first when the opening batter doubled and stole third, but he was able to minimize the damage and the Rays came away with just one run.  Shields set the Sox down in order in the first, and again in the second, though not without a little confusion.  I write down the lineups in my scorecard when they’re announced, and I had Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, and Carl Crawford due up in the second.  But when Youk lined to short to open the inning, Crawford came up next.  I know it can sometimes be distracting in the bleachers, but there was no way I had missed an entire at-bat, plus the scoreboard confirmed that there was one out and no one on.  Big Papi had apparently been scratched from the lineup, and it wasn’t until the next inning that I saw that Jed Lowrie had replaced him as DH and was hitting eighth, with everyone else moving up a spot.  My scorecard was now a mess from moving all the players’ names around, and it got even messier when the rain started in the bottom of the second.

Lester had given up two hits in the first, and a walk and hit-by-pitch in the second, but after that he went on cruise control, blowing through the 2-3-4 hitters in the third.  The Red Sox finally broke through against Shields in the third, when Josh Reddick and Mike Aviles singled.  Jacoby Ellsbury followed with his 21st home run of the year, a 3-run blast that landed in the narrow ramp area between the last section of bleachers and the first section of grandstand.  That’s right near where I was sitting, and my parents called to say they had seen me briefly on TV.  (They also said nothing had been announced about Papi’s apparent injury yet.)

With the Red Sox now on top 3-1, the game switched into pitchers’ duel mode.  Lester struck out the side in the fourth and pitched through the seventh, allowing only one more baserunner on a harmless single by Evan Longoria in the sixth.  Shields ended up pitching all eight innings for his team, and the three hits the Sox strung together in the third accounted for their only baserunners of the game.  Daniel Bard continued the trend with a 1-2-3 eighth, and Jonathan Papelbon breezed through the ninth.  The game ended in a brisk 2 hours and 23 minutes, leaving plenty of time to get everyone out and get the park cleaned up for the nightcap.

My friend and I decided to eat at Jerry Remy’s restaurant, just across the street from the park, between games.  It was still overcast when we left the park, but we started to see some breaks in the clouds.  We ended up getting a table outside, and while we ate the sun came out.  I looked on my phone and saw that Papi’s injury was bursitis in his heel, and that he’d be available in the second game if necessary.  After eating we had time to browse through a couple of nearby stores before heading back in when the gates opened for Game 2.

Fenway Park was very quiet in between games of the doubleheader.

Game 2 – Rays 6, Red Sox 2

Normally there’s a bustle of activity in front of the dugout before a game, but with everyone resting up for the nightcap, Fenway was quiet and still when we re-entered, with nary a player, coach, or grounds crew member to be spotted.  Our seats for the second game were in the same section of the bleachers as before, but all the way up in the very last row.  We waited until just before the start of the game to make the long trek up, because this was my first chance to see Erik Bedard since he had been acquired at the trading deadline last month, and I wanted to get some close-up pictures as he warmed in the bullpen.

Erik Bedard warms up before Game 2.

The Red Sox lineup was much the same as it had been for the first game, except that with Papi still out, Crawford was the DH.  Darnell McDonald took over in left, Jason Varitek was catching instead of Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and Jed Lowrie spelled Kevin Youkilis at third.  This was Bedard’s third start since joining the Red Sox.  He had pitched decently enough in the first two, but hadn’t received much run support and had no wins to show for it yet.  He started off with a 1-2-3 first, but then the first two batters of the second inning reached base.  I did what I almost always do when there are two on and no outs – I turned to my friend and said, “We need a triple play right now.”  But of course, I’m never actually right, and after Lowrie made an error, both runners ended up scoring.  Tek got the Sox on the board with a solo homer in the third.

The Captain came through with a homer in the nightcap.

With the score still 2-1 in favor of the Rays, B.J. Upton started the fourth inning with a single into shallow center, and Casey Kotchman lined a base hit into left.  Sean Rodriguez took ball one and then hit a grounder toward third.  Lowrie fielded the ball, took one step to his right to step on third base, and threw to Dustin Pedroia, who made the out at second, spun, and threw on to a stretching Adrian Gonzalez at first.  It took a second to sink in because it had happened so fast, but as the players all walked off the field, we realized that it was true – we had just seen a triple play!  The cheers started as typical “nice play” applause and then grew to a roar as everyone realized what they had just witnessed.  I quoted all the requisite trivia to my friend – how the last triple play turned by the Red Sox was John Valentin’s unassisted one in 1994, and how Scott Hatteberg had grounded into one in 2001 on the same night in which he had a grand slam.  A triple play has long been on my baseball “bucket list” and I was excited to be able to check that rare feat off.  (The triple play was thrilling, but my whole baseball life has been building up to predicting it and I whiffed.  Every time the leadoff guy gets on in an inning I’ll say, “They’re just setting up the double play.”  And then if the second guy also reaches I’ll say, “It’s OK, they’re just setting up the triple play.”  I even made the same comment in earlier in this game.  But then, the one time I didn’t say it, it happened!)

A beautiful sunset was the backdrop for a rare and exciting play.

The fun play energized the crowd, but it didn’t help the offense get going.  Jeff Niemann continued to shut down the Red Sox.  After the Rays had increased their lead to 3-1, Jacoby Ellsbury hit his second homer of the day (and his team-leading 22nd of the year) to pull the Sox to within a run.  Bedard pitched six innings and gave up three runs (only two of which were earned).  It was again a decent enough outing, but once again there wasn’t enough run support.  Jacoby’s homer was just the third Sox hit of the night (they had only picked up three hits in the afternoon game, too), and Niemann ended up retiring 12 straight to finish off the complete game.  Even though I was disappointed by the outcome of the night game, I was still excited by having seen the triple play, and, as I explained at work the next day, any time you can spend the whole day at Fenway it’s a beautiful thing!

Row 50 is a long way back!

After attending Saturday afternoon’s exciting win over the Yankees, I got home around 9:30.  But at 10:30, I was on my way out again, this time headed to work for a midnight implementation.  (I work in IT, so many of our projects have to go in overnight, when computer usage is lowest.)  We finished up a little after 4 am, and I finally got home and went to sleep around 5.  But at 7:30, my alarm was going off and it was up and at ‘em, because I had to get to Pawtucket for my annual trip to McCoy Stadium.

I had gotten my tickets for this game from a friend who couldn’t use them when she moved out-of-state, and I invited a (different) friend’s nine-year-old, who’s a total diehard Red Sox fan.  It was pouring when we left his house, but he had packed his scorecard and a rain poncho (just like me!) and we headed out.  In the car, we chatted about the other PawSox games he’s been to this season, how it’s almost always been Kyle Weiland starting the game, and how they’ve almost always lost.  As luck would have it, Weiland was scheduled to start again today.

The grounds crew uses rollers to try to push a giant lake out of the outfield.

It had rained hard all night, and was still pouring as we found our seats and got our lunch.  Luckily the seats were far back enough under cover that we weren’t getting rained on, and we waited out the delay.  While we waited, he showed me his scorecards from his previous games, including the one win he had seen, which had come courtesy of a walk-off walk.  I showed him my scorecards from all the rain delayed games I’ve been to this year.

The game was originally supposed to be at 1:00, and even though the forecast didn’t look good, this was the last trip that Buffalo made into town, so with the PawSox in contention for a playoff spot they really wanted to try to get the game in.  At 1:30, the grounds crew started to take the tarp off, which at Fenway would have meant a 2:00 start.  But the PawSox have a smaller grounds crew, and there really was a lot of water on the field, so an hour later they were still at it.  Taking the tarp off the infield had resulted in a giant puddle/mini-lake in right field, and they had two guys with rollers trying to push the water into foul territory.  The warning track and the dirt paths leading from the dugout to the plate were reduced to mud puddles, and they emptied a whole truckload of bags of drying agent in front of each dugout.  And every time someone walked across the grass, we could see water splashing up with each step.

Shortly after 2:30, Weiland and his teammates came out and started stretching, which was a good sign that the game was finally getting underway.  (And with only 2½ hours of sleep, the sooner the better for me.)  But at 3:00, the announcement was made that the game was rained out.  Since there was no make-up game scheduled, we could trade the tickets in for any remaining game.  I tried to console the nine-year-old by saying that at least we had gotten to spend the afternoon at the ballpark, and that maybe when we went back we’d see someone other than Kyle Weiland.

Red Sox 10, Yankees 4

After two exciting walkoff wins, the Red Sox dropped their final game against the Indians and the first game of the Yankees series.  Saturday’s matchup of John Lackey against C.C. Sabathia may have looked daunting on paper, but I was encouraged by the fact that the Red Sox had already beaten Sabathia three times this season.  I had gotten this ticket when the Red Sox had their lottery at the beginning of the year.  (While I lost out on the original drawing for Yankees and Cubs tickets, I did eventually get an invite to a “last chance” ticket sale a week later.  By then there were no Cubs tickets available, so I grabbed a single seat to this game against the Yankees, since I didn’t have a ticket for this series yet.)  It was actually a nice change to go to an afternoon game against the Yankees.  Usually I end up with the Sunday night games, which have the potential to go later than the subway runs.  But with a 4:00 game on Saturday, a four-hour game – even one with rain delays or extra innings – would still have me home at a reasonable hour.

My seat was perfect - in a row by itself in the corner, with space for my bag and even a ledge where I could keep my beverage from getting spilled.

Considering the fact that the “last chance” sale had only a small number of seats scattered around, I was impressed when I saw where I had ended up.  It was a single seat in the back row of section 33, the last section over up against the Green Monster.  While I was sitting there before the game, three different people walked past and commented that it was a cool seat, plus, as one guy said, “At least you know you’re not going to be sitting next to any jerks.”

I was even more impressed when Lackey shut down the Yankees over the first three innings, allowing only a walk in the second and a harmless single in the third.  In the bottom of the third, Carl Crawford got the fun started for the Red Sox when he led off with a double.  After Jarrod Saltalamacchia worked a walk, Marco Scutaro laid down a bunt to advance the runners.  Crawford was able to score easily when Jacoby Ellsbury hit a sac fly to right.

I don't care if it's out of focus, I love this picture of Crawford sliding in safely with the Red Sox' first run.

Salty was also able to tag up on the fly ball and advance to third, and when Dustin Pedroia banged a double off the Monster he scored the second run.  The play at second base was closer than I would have liked, because Pedey’s hand came off the bag at the same time as the ball arrived, but he managed to avoid the tag and get his other hand in safely.  It’s not often I attempt action shots at games, because normally I’m back in the bleachers, but today I was able to capture Pedroia’s slide into second.

Pedroia slides safely into second and avoids Robinson Cano's tag.

One of my pet peeves in baseball is when the Red Sox take a lead and then the pitcher gives it right back the next inning.  Sure enough, before we could feel too good about the 2-0 lead, the Yankees started the next inning by loading the bases with no outs.  A well-timed double play let one run in the proverbial back door – an exchange no one on the Red Sox could have minded – but Eric Chavez singled in the tying run before Lackey finally got out of the inning.  I wasn’t necessarily worried, because I figured they’d be able to get more off Sabathia, but it still did annoy me that the game had been tied up so quickly.

Looking straight across the face of the Green Monster, I watched the scorekeeper come out every inning and update the manual scoreboard. Above, he returns to his post, carrying an "8".

Luckily for me, Sabathia did to the Yankees what Lackey had just done to me, and let the Red Sox right back in it.  Kevin Youkilis led the next inning off with a double, and one out later Mike Aviles singled.  Crawford followed with his second hit of the day to give the Sox the lead, and Scutaro drove in another with a single of his own.  That brought it back to the top of the order, and Ellsbury put an exclamation point on the inning with a huge three-run homer into the bullpen.

I enjoyed the view from my seat in Section 33.

With the five-spot on the board, the game got much more enjoyable.  The Yankees did get one more run off Lackey in the fifth, but he ended up completing six innings and left with a 7-3 lead.  A solo homer off Daniel Bard in the eighth made it 7-4.  But in the bottom of the eighth the Red Sox were back at it again.  They loaded the bases with no outs, thanks to two walks and Crawford’s fourth hit of the day.  Then it was time for some more heroics by Jacoby Ellsbury – this time a two-run single that earned him his fifth and sixth RBI of the day.  After the tenth run came in on Pedroia’s sacrifice fly, Dan Wheeler nailed down the win, ending it with a fly ball to – who else – Ellsbury.

IronBirds 1, Spinners 0, 11 inn.

LeLacheur Park in Lowell was the setting for tonight's game between the Spinners and the IronBirds.

The day after Jacoby Ellsbury’s walkoff hit, I went to Lowell to watch the short-season Single A Spinners take on the Aberdeen IronBirds, an affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.  I’m pretty familiar with the higher levels of the Red Sox organization, but I didn’t know many of the Spinners players coming in.  I had heard of left fielder Seth Schwindenhammer (who, if he makes the majors, would beat out Jarrod Saltalamacchia for longest last name in franchise history) and the Moanaroa brothers – first baseman Boss and outfielder (DHing tonight) Moko.  (There are also three Garcias on the roster – shortstop Jose, second baseman Joantoni a.k.a. “J.T.”, and pitcher Jason – but they’re not related.)  But the player who intrigued me the most was Matt Gedman, son of former Red Sox catcher Rich Gedman.  Rich now serves as hitting coach for the Spinners, and Matt plays third base.

Matt Gedman played third base. I did see his father the hitting coach in the dugout, but couldn't get any good pictures.

Luis Diaz was the starting pitcher, and between him and IronBirds starter Parker Bridwell, we were treated to a nice pitchers’ duel.  Both starters threw six scoreless innings, and in the middle of the sixth it was 8:20, only an hour and 15 minutes into the game.

Luis Diaz allowed only one hit and one walk over 6 scoreless innings.

On the offesnsive side, Schwindenhammer picked up two hits, Moko Moanoaroa had one hit, and center fielder Keury De La Cruz had three.  Those were the only Spinners hits of the day, and De La Cruz’s sixth inning double was the only extra-base hit.

When Diaz had finished his strong outing, Brandon Kapteyn followed with two more scoreless frames.  Mike McCarthy came on for the ninth, and after a leadoff walk got two consecutive 1-6 fielder’s choices and then a groundout to second to escape unscathed.  Schwindenhammer led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, but he was erased on a double play and the game headed for extra innings.

Both teams went down in order in the tenth, and McCarthy was on for his third inning of work in the eleventh.  He hadn’t given up any hits yet – in fact the entire Aberdeen lineup had only one hit all night – but with one out (a strikeout of Connor Narron that wound up getting Narron ejected) he hit Austin Knight.  The next batter was the #9 hitter in the IronBirds’ lineup, right fielder Kyle Hoppy, who had picked up his team’s lone hit in the third (before being caught stealing).  Hoppy hit a triple deep to right, and Knight bowled over Spinners catcher Jayson Hernandez to score the first run of the night.  The next batter hit a fly ball to shallow center, and Hoppy tagged up.  I was focusing the camera on home plate, so I missed whether he hesitated a bit or tried to go back, but when the throw came in, he was out by a mile, and that ended the inning without any further damage.

Jayson Hernandez tags out Kyle Hoppy in a collision in front of home plate to end the top of the eleventh.

In the bottom of the eleventh, Keury De La Cruz picked up his third hit of the night with a two-out single, but Schwindenhammer, who had two hits himself, stranded him there and the rally fell short.

The Spinners players put on their rally caps for the bottom of the eleventh, but it didn't work.

Even with extra innings, the game was still finished before 10:00.  When I got back to my car, the Red Sox/Indians game was still in progress, and they were tied 3-3 going into the bottom of the ninth.  In the ninth, Jacoby Ellsbury launched a walkoff home run into the center field stands, giving him walkoff hits in two straight games.

Red Sox 3, Indians 2

After a brief three-game road trip to Chicago, where the Red Sox took two from the White Sox, they returned home to play the Indians.  It was raining as I drove in to Boston from work, and by the time I got to the Lechmere T station it was pouring and the parking lot was basically one giant puddle.  (With ongoing construction at the Science Park station, there’s no train service from Lechmere – we have to take a shuttle bus just down the street to North Station to get on the trains.  The shuttle is a regular city bus, and there’s a hatch on the roof that I suppose could be used for escape if the bus tipped over.  The hatch was closed, but it was leaking, and every time the bus went around a corner, it dripped on me.  I know I seem to get a lot of rain at my games, but seriously, I even got rained on inside a bus.)

The tarp was on the field when I got to Fenway. What a surprise!

Even though the rain had stopped by the time I got to Kenmore Square, when I entered the park the tarp was still on the field.  That meant I had time to head over to the outfield grandstand and visit with some friends who were vacationing from Seattle and taking their kids to their first game at Fenway.  The start of the game was announced as 7:30, and when Josh Beckett headed out to warm up in the bullpen, I left to walk around to my seat, which was out near the camera well in the center field bleachers.  On my way I stopped to pick up a slice of pizza, but as soon as I turned around from the concession stand it was raining again, and everyone who had been out in the bleachers was coming back in.  I met up with the friends I was sitting with that night, and we decided to wait out this delay on the walkway behind Section 1 which leads to the stairs to the right field roof.  It’s covered and it wasn’t crowded, so that was a good spot.

It may have been raining, but we still got to see a colorful sunset.

We thought it was going to be a brief delay, but we ended up hanging out there for over an hour.  We were even treated to a “rainy sunset,” if such a thing is possible, with a cool pink glow behind the Green Monster, before the rain finally let up for good.

The game finally started at 8:45, after a delay of an hour and 35 minutes.  But from that point on, there wasn’t any more rain, and it was actually a nice night.  And once we were done with the obligatory rain delay, we were treated to a good game.  Josh Beckett, who had already had to warm up twice, gave up a home run in the first.  The Red Sox loaded the bases with no outs in the second, but managed only one run (Big Papi scored on a passed ball as Jason Varitek struck out).

Beckett gave up another solo homer in the fourth, putting the Sox down 2-1.  The Red Sox might not have had a lot to show for it, but they had been grinding out some long at-bats, and by the end of the fifth, Cleveland’s starter David Huff had already topped 100 pitches.  Rafael Perez came in from the bullpen to start the sixth, and Kevin Youkilis greeted him with a towering shot over the Green Monster to tie the game.

This was my first chance to see new infielder Mike Aviles, who was acquired in a trade for Yamaico Navarro the day before the deadline.

I was surprised when Beckett didn’t come back out for the seventh, especially since he had only thrown 85 pitches and had given up just two runs through the first six.  My only guess was that having to warm up twice, thanks to the unexpected second part of the rain delay, had taken its toll.  Fortunately, Franklin Morales did a good job out of the ‘pen, pitching two scoreless innings, and Jonathan Papelbon took care of a 1-2-3 ninth.

It was closing in on midnight when the game headed into the bottom of the ninth with the bottom of the order due up.  Mike Aviles hit a fly to center for the first out.  Jason Varitek came to the plate and I yelled, “Hey Tek, it’s past your bedtime! Send us home happy!”  He did his part with a single, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia came in to pinch run for him.  (Salty may not have been much faster, but I suppose he was fresher.)  Josh Reddick followed with a bloop that somehow landed in between the Indians’ center fielder, right fielder, and second baseman as they all converged, and Salty moved up to second.

That meant it was back to the top of the order, and Jacoby Ellsbury stepped in.  He took ball one, and then lined a hit up the middle and into center field.  Salty raced around third and slid in safely just under the tag.  Red Sox win!

Jacoby Ellsbury is tackled - I mean "congratulated" - by his teammates after his walkoff hit.

Ellsbury’s teammates rushed out to meet him, and somehow he ended up getting tackled in all the excitement.  We stuck around to hear his postgame interview, which was shown on the video board.  It was after midnight as we departed (the Citgo sign had already been turned off) and it was 1:30 before I got home.  (But did I go straight to bed, knowing that I had to work the next day?  Nope, “Sox in 2″ was on, and I stayed up till the end to see the game-winning hit again.)

Red Sox 13, Royals 9

The Red Sox dropped their Monday night game to the Kansas City Royals, but Dustin Pedroia extended his hitting streak to 22 games.  I headed in for Tuesday night’s game, but it took longer than usual to get there when my Green Line train had to pause 20 minutes between two of the stops because of a disabled car up ahead.  I usually like to get to Fenway no later than 6:30 for a 7:10 game, but this was more like 6:50.  This was going to be the first time I got to see Andrew Miller pitch, and I had planned to go down behind the bullpen as he warmed up to get some pictures.  But now there wasn’t time.  I went straight to the ladies’ room, then got my soda and a slice of pizza, and headed to my seat.  As I walked along the tall center field wall, I saw that Miller was still warming up, right below me in the ‘pen.  I set down the beverage on the edge of the wall, and somehow managed to hold onto the pizza with one hand and get the camera out of my bag (and turned on and focused) with the other hand just in time for him to look up in my direction.  I was happy that I was able to get a good photo with just one shot – usually it takes me several attempts to get a decent picture.

Andrew Miller warms up in the bullpen before the game.

My seat was a cool one at the far end of Section 34 in the corner next to the center field camera well.  I was in the end of a row up against the wall, which meant there was space to stash my bag and beverage so they wouldn’t get knocked around.  Before I left work, I saw online that J.D. Drew had gone on the D.L., and Drew Sutton had been called back up (leaving, as I noted on my scorecard, the “same # of Drews”).  Josh Reddick was taking over for Drew  in right, but Jacoby Ellsbury was also given a rare night off, meaning Darnell McDonald was in center.  Jacoby had only missed one game all year, so Darnell hadn’t had a lot of chances to play center field recently.  I noticed as he took his position in the top of the first, that he pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket – presumably a “cheat sheet” on the Kansas City hitters – took a look, put it back in his pocket, and then took a couple of steps over toward right.

Darnell McDonald puts his "cheat sheet" back in his pocket on a rare night in center field.

Miller was shaky and allowed two runs in the first.  The Red Sox got them back in the home half, but in two totally different ways.  McDonald led off with a walk, stole second, moved up on a wild pitch, and scored on a sacrifice fly for the first run.  For the second, Dustin Pedroia – batting cleanup in place of the injured Kevin Youkilis – mashed a triple off the center field wall right in front of me to extend his hitting streak to 23 games, and Big Papi followed with a double to drive him in.

Hey, who's that dork in the blue shirt with her arms raised in the air? Oh, wait, that's me, as Pedroia's triple heads for the wall.

Miller hurt his own cause in the second with a throwing error, and two more Royals runs crossed the plate.  Finally a double play in the third helped him complete a scoreless inning in time for the offense to go back to work.  This time it was doubles from Marco Scutaro, Pedroia, and Ortiz that brought in three runs to give the Sox a 5-4 lead.  One of my pet peeves is when the Red Sox have just plated some runs and then the pitcher gives them right back, but that’s exactly what happened.  No sooner had they taken the lead than Miller gave up two home runs and found his team down 7-5.  The first of the homers was hit by Alex Gordon, and it was caught by a guy in row 3 of Section 34 – five rows down and a couple of people over from where I was sitting.

The Royals bat against Andrew Miller as the sun sets over Fenway Park.

The game was on a glacial pace, but with all the action it didn’t feel as long as it could have.  Still, the Red Sox were back at it again in the fourth, knocking Kansas City starter Danny Duffy from the game when he topped 100 pitches with one out in the inning.  Pedroia greeted the new pitcher with a single, leaving him a home run shy of the cycle with half the game left to play.  Later in the inning, a bases-loaded walk got the Red Sox to within a run.  While this was taking place, some people got the wave going (despite the efforts of the season ticket holders in the area who did their best to ignore it and, you know, actually watch the game) in the fourth inning, which has got to be some kind of a record.

The fifth took even longer, as the Red Sox sent 11 men to the plate, the first 8 of whom all reached safely before the first out was recorded.  One of them was Pedroia, but instead of completing the cycle he picked up a second single.  That loaded the bases, though, and Papi’s hit drove in two and gave him 5 RBI for the night.  By the end of the inning, the Sox had scored 6 more runs and taken a 12-7 lead.

With all the offense, it shouldn't be a surprise that the center field flag was blowing directly out for most of the night.

In the sixth, Pedroia came up again, already 4-for-4 but still looking for a homer to complete the cycle.  He’s certainly capable of getting ahold of one and the wind was blowing favorably out to left, so I thought he had a legitimate chance, but he ended up walking.  When the sixth inning ended, the game was already at the 3-hour mark, and we could hear the street performer who uses buckets for drums just on the other side of the wall from where I was sitting.  He’s normally out there at the end of the game, but he was already setting up in the bottom of the sixth and provided a festive beat for the final three innings of the game.

I like this picture because it's artistic, but it probably needs a little explanation. My seat was up against the back wall of the bleachers, where the wall is vented with wooden slats that look down on the street below. Looking through the chain-link fence and then through the slats, I could see the back of the three-dimensional BLEACHER BAR sign. (The picture of the flag above and the screen shot from TV also show the fence and slats.)

Alfredo Aceves again did an admirable job out of the ‘pen, holding the Royals scoreless for 3 1/3 innings.  (He did hit a batter, and warnings were issued after the Royals retaliated by plunking Gonzalez.)  After a Jason Varitek homer extended the Red Sox’ lead, Matt Albers pitched a 1-2-3 eighth.  As we started singing “Sweet Caroline” in the middle of the eighth, some idiot jumped over the short right field fence and onto the field.  That’s never a good move, but it’s even dumber during “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” in the seventh or “Sweet Caroline” in the eighth, because security guards come out and ring the warning track.  Before I could even decide whether to capture the moment with my video camera (which shoots in HD but doesn’t zoom very far) or my still camera (which has a good zoom), he had already been tackled by security and was being led off the field.  (Fenway moment of the day:  When the security guy who had tackled the trespasser returned to his spot in right field, he got a big ovation.)

Between the singing and the commotion on the field, I didn’t even notice the announcement that the Royals had sent outfielder Mitch Maier in to pitch the eighth.  The first batter he faced was Pedroia, who had one last chance to hit for the cycle.  He worked a full count and then launched one toward the Green Monster.  We all held our collective breath, but it didn’t have enough and ended up being caught just at the base of The Wall.  Pedey didn’t get the cycle, but he did get a standing-O for his efforts as he walked back to the dugout.

A 13-7 lead is supposed to mean a night off for the closer, but when Franklin Morales let the first three batters of the ninth reach base, Jonathan Papelbon did have to get up and start warming (”Paps is warming up (sigh),” I noted in my scorecard).  Morales gave up two runs, but finally managed to get a double play and a strikeout to end the game.  It lasted almost four hours, but it was entertainment-packed and certainly had some of everything!

Red Sox 12, Mariners 8

The Red Sox started out after the All-Star break the same way they had left off – on a roll.  They took two of three in Tampa Bay, including an epic Sunday night game that ended with a 1-0 win in the sixteenth inning in the wee hours of Monday morning.  Then they took two of three in Baltimore.  When they returned home, they won the first two against the Mariners, and when I headed in Sunday, they were going for the sweep.  I always like to park on the street for free at a meter on Sundays, but this time I got my best parking space ever, right in Kenmore Square itself.

Tim Wakefield, who has pitched for the Red Sox since 1995 and is closing in on his 200th win, warms up before the game.

I know not to expect to see batting practice on a Sunday, but when the gates opened we saw D’Angelo Ortiz and another kid playing catch in front of the dugout.  They were taking turns being the pitcher and the catcher, and when it was “Li’l Papi’s” turn to throw, he had a nice little wind-up.  I never did figure out who the other kid was – he was about the same age, but wearing a Dustin Pedroia t-shirt rather than a uniform jersey of whoever his father was.  Meanwhile, the big league pitchers were doing their long-tossing out in right field, but thanks to a new policy this year, fans can’t go anywhere other than the infield for the first half-hour after the gates open, or 12:05.  Of course, the pitchers came off the field at exactly 12:04, preventing me from getting the close-up pictures I used to like.

It was a hot, sunny day, so I stayed in the shade of the grandstand until just before the game.  On my way to my seat in center field, I stopped by the bullpen to watch as Tim Wakefield warmed up.

The game didn’t start out on a good note – Miguel Olivo hit a 2-run homer in the first inning, giving the Mariners an early lead – but the Red Sox offense had been so hot lately that it didn’t worry me.  It didn’t take long for my faith to be rewarded.  Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a double, and Adrian Gonzalez drove him in.  Kevin Youkilis followed with a home run, and later in the inning Jarrod Saltalamacchia singled in two more, for a final tally of five runs in the inning.

Josh Reddick was getting more and more playing time in right field, and he once again delivered with a 2-for-5 day with two runs scored and one batted in.

Wakefield settled down after that, and pitched like his usual dependable self.  The Mariners were able to sneak a third run across in the fifth inning (though the damage was limited to one run after Wake picked off a baserunner).  But the Red Sox offense got right back in gear and batted around (again) for a five-run inning (again).  This time the big blows were from Carl Crawford (two-run single), Josh Reddick (one-run double), and Salty’s second two-run single of the day.

In the sixth, Wake tossed a 1-2-3 inning, finishing up with a strikeout of Mike Carp.  As he walked off the field, the fans behind the dugout gave him a standing ovation that sounded louder than usual.  He only had 84 pitches at that point and was sure to come back for the seventh, so it wasn’t the standard end-of-a-good-outing applause.  When I turned around and looked at the scoreboard I saw the reason: that was Wakefield’s 2000th strikeout as a member of the Red Sox.  The ovation spread throughout the ballpark and lasted the whole time between innings, and it brought tears to my eyes as I thought back over Wake’s career.

The summer of 1995, when Wakefield first joined the team and got off to a 14-1 start, was the year I graduated from college and moved out.  He’s been on the team my whole adult life!  Before moving out that August, I got my first car, and my brother and I got tickets for a game in July.  We drove down from Maine, the first time I had made my way to Fenway without my parents or a school trip.  I remember stopping in the souvenir store before the game and buying a Mo Vaughn shirt.  Mo was my favorite, and I was instantly justified as he hit two homers that day.  But thinking back on it 16 years later, I wish I had bought a Wakefield shirt instead.  He was one of my favorites that year, but I guess I thought of him as more of a flash-in-the-pan, whereas Mo was a long-term sure thing (or so I thought back then), plus he didn’t actually pitch in the one game I got to attend that year.  But if I had, it would have outlasted not only the Vaughn shirt but all the Garciaparra, Martinez, Schilling, and Millar shirts that I would go on to accumulate in the years to come.

Tim Wakefield was called out for a curtain call after picking up his 2000th strikeout as a member of the Red Sox.

Our cheers grew as Wake walked off the field and was hugged and congratulated by his teammates, and we didn’t stop until he came back out to the top step for a curtain call.

After that special moment, the only drama left was Dustin Pedroia’s hitting streak.  He had hit in 20 straight games coming into today, but as of the fifth inning he was 0-for-3, one of only two Red Sox without a hit.  The “Muddy Chicken” (a new nickname bestowed on Pedroia by his teammates after his game-winning hit in the 16th inning last Sunday) put that to rest in the sixth, with a leadoff double that extended his streak to 21 games.  Gonzalez drove him in to make the score 11-3, and then Wakefield took the mound for the top of the seventh.

Wake got the first out on a fly ball to center, but then gave up three straight singles.  The next pitch was hammered over the Green Monster by Brendan Ryan, a grand slam that made the score 11-7.  That spelled the end of the day for Wakefield, and while Alfredo Aceves jogged in from the ‘pen, Wake got his second standing ovation as he walked off the field.  I thought it was a sweet Fenway moment that a guy who had just given up a grand slam was so well respected by the fans that he earned a standing ovation on his way out.

With the Red Sox holding a large lead, Yamaico Navarro got an at-bat in the eighth.

Aceves got out of the inning, and I used the seventh inning stretch to move out of the sun to the comfortably shaded seats in the Section 16 grandstand.  The Red Sox padded their lead with three hits in the seventh, including Ellsbury’s RBI single.  Aceves pitched the rest of the game, allowing only a harmless run in the ninth, but the day belonged to Wakefield.  He picked up the win, number 197 of his career and number 183 with the Red Sox, as he made progress toward two more milestones: 200 career wins and the all-time Red Sox record of 192 wins.

Rock Cats 5, Sea Dogs 4

While the Red Sox took on the Rays in their first series after the All-Star break, I traveled to Portland, Maine, for my annual look at the Double A affiliate Sea Dogs.  My family jokes that we know what day it’s going to rain based on when we have our Sea Dogs tickets, because it seems like every time I go there’s some sort of delay, if not an outright cancellation.  But this year surprised us all with beautiful weather, a perfect night for baseball.  I guess I was due for one eventually!

Chris Balcom-Miller went 6 innings and gave up 4 runs. And you wouldn't know it from looking at his uniform, but he plays for the Sea Dogs.

We were even more surprised when we saw the hideous special uniforms that the Sea Dogs were wearing that day.  It was “Shirts off their Backs” Night, where they raffle off their game-used uniforms afterward to benefit a charity.  Somehow I had managed to attend “Shirts off their Backs” Night last year too, but I’d much rather be watching – and photographing – them in their traditional garb.  I’m not a fan of alternate uniforms to start with, but I particularly didn’t like that they weren’t even in the team’s colors.  They still had their red shirts on underneath, and blue hats, so it just looked weird.  Making it even stranger was the fact that the New Britain Rock Cats, an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, were wearing red uniform tops.  It took us a few innings to adjust to cheering against a red-uniformed team in favor of a team wearing uniforms more suited for the Miami Dolphins.

Attention, internet image searchers of the future who find this picture of shortstop Heiker Meneses: This is not what Portland Sea Dogs uniforms look like.

Today’s starter, Chris Balcom-Miller, is the player the Red Sox obtained when they traded Manny Delcarmen to the Rockies last year.  He did fine in the first inning, but in the second, the Rock Cats got 3 runs on 4 hits, a walk, two wild pitches, and a passed ball.  From there he settled down, but there was at least one baserunner in every inning.  Balcom-Miller was helped by his defense too, with catcher Matt Spring throwing out an attempted base-stealer in the fourth, and center fielder Jeremy Hazelbaker making a diving catch in the fifth.

The Sea Dogs take on the Rock Cats on a sunny evening in Portland.

Given that we play the Twins a lot in Spring Training, and that my Sea Dogs game last year was also against the Rock Cats, a lot of the opposing players were familiar to me too.  One player I hadn’t heard of was New Britain’s starter, Deinys Suarez.  But Suarez made quick work of the Sea Dogs lineup, staying perfect through the first four innings.  Right fielder Chih-Hsien Chiang’s single leading off the fifth was the first  hit of the day for Portland.  Luckily it was followed by doubles from Matt Spring and Mitch Dening, the latter of which drove in two runs and made it a 3-2 score.

Left fielder Mitch Dening and center fielder Jeremy Hazelbaker jog in at the end of an inning.

The Rock Cats got another run off Balcom-Miller in the sixth, but seventh inning doubles by Chiang and third baseman Will Middlebrooks, and another big hit by Dening, tied the game at 4-4.  Right-handed reliever Michael Lee started the seventh, and when he ran into trouble in the eighth, he was bailed out by lefty Kyle Fernandes.

The tie continued into the ninth with Fernandes still on the mound.  A one-out hit batsman put a runner on, and then a single misplayed by Hazelbaker for an error resulted in runners at second and third.  Fernandes got out of the inning with two fly balls, but unfortunately one of them was a sac fly that plated the go-ahead run.  Chiang walked to lead off the bottom of the ninth, but New Britain reliever Matt Schuld struck out the side to end the game.

Red Sox 8, Orioles 6

When I went to Tuesday night’s game I was excited to be seeing Jon Lester.  I was also thinking ahead to my next game, five days later, when I was hoping to see him again.  But a lot had happened in those five days.  First, Lester went on the D.L. with a strained lat muscle.  Then Friday night’s game featured a bench-clearing brawl between the Red Sox, who had scored 8 runs in the first inning, and the Orioles, when Kevin Gregg threw inside to Papi and then taunted him after a flyout.  (After the game, Papi said that he regretted losing his cool, while Gregg maintained that it was not only intentional but justified because the Red Sox have a higher payroll and a better team.  Adding to the absurdity was the fact that Gregg himself makes a tidy sum of $4.2 million, and he was egged on in these comments by Orioles manager Buck Showalter, who for years had reaped the benefits of managing the high-payroll Yankees.)  The Red Sox had won the first three games of the series by a combined 24-7 score, and the hostility had the potential to spill over into Sunday’s contest.

Kyle Weiland enters the bullpen to warm up before his major league debut.

This was also the final game before the All-Star break, and while Alfredo Aceves had done well in a few spot starts earlier this year, his true value has been in his flexibility out of the ‘pen, and the Red Sox wanted to keep him in that role.  So for this start, Kyle Weiland was called up from Pawtucket to make his major league debut.

I’ve seen Weiland a couple of times in the past two years.  First I saw him at the 2010 PawSox Hot Stove Party.  Then he pitched the Portland Sea Dogs game I went to last year.  Because I knew what he looked like, I was able to call him over for an autograph in Spring Training this year.  And finally I saw him pitch in a Spring Training game this February.  I like seeing guys who I’ve followed through the minors make it to the big leagues, and I was excited to add Kyle Weiland to the list of debuts I’ve been present for – along with Jonathan Papelbon, Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson, and Felix Doubront.  Here’s a video of Weiland facing his first batter, J.J. Hardy, who popped up to Adrian Gonzalez at first:

Weiland pitched an impressive 1-2-3 first, including a strikeout of Nick Markakis, and the Red Sox put two runs on the board for him in the bottom of the inning.  (The inning ended when Jason Varitek hit a bouncer down the line that was fielded by the first baseman.  Tek and the two Red Sox baserunners thought it was foul and stayed on the field, while the Orioles fielders all believed it to be fair and walked off, before the Red Sox eventually relunctantly agreed.)

The second inning didn’t go as well.  The Orioles sent 11 men to the plate, and 6 of them scored.  Luckily for the Red Sox, they were facing Mitch Atkins, who was making only his second career start (and seventh appearance overall), and they took advantage.  Marco Scutaro and Dustin Pedroia hit solo homers into the Monster seats, and Kevin Youkilis belted a 2-run shot deep to straightaway center, where it bounced on the tarp that covers the Section 34 seats during the day.  Throw in a double by Adrian Gonzalez, and the Red Sox had four more runs and a 6-6 tie.

Adrian Gonzalez had a typical day: 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored.

From there, Weiland settled down.  He did hit a batter in the third, but the runner was erased on a double play.  He issued a walk in the fourth, but Tek caught him stealing.  While the game seemed to be settling down, it didn’t take much to stir it back up again.  With one out and two on in the fourth, Jeremy Guthrie (who had relieved Atkins) hit Youkilis.  The pitch was a change-up and it didn’t seem like a situation where they’d want to put another runner on base, but the umps were suspicious and issued warnings.  That didn’t seem necessary, and it didn’t leave the young Weiland with much room for error.  But it also loaded the bases, and David Ortiz walked to force in the go-ahead run for the Sox.

In the fifth, Weiland allowed a leadoff triple, and then came inside and hit Vladimir Guerrero.  Was it just an inexperienced rookie battling first-game butterflies and trying to overcome a six-run inning, who was getting a little rattled after giving up a triple?  Home plate umpire Marty Foster (whose official title in my scorecard was “Bum!”) didn’t think so, and he ejected both Weiland and Terry Francona.  I felt so bad for Weiland, who hadn’t even been with the team during Friday night’s altercation and was basically being given a one-game audition to show his future value to the team.  (”Weiland ejected – NOT FAIR! – Tito too,” reads my scorecard.)

But looking at it in retrospect, it may have been the best thing for the game.  It saved Tito from leaving Weiland in too long just to try to get him through the fifth to qualify for the win, and it allowed a more experienced reliver – Aceves, who was called in from the ‘pen – to try to get out of a first-and-third, no-out jam with his team up by just one run.  Aceves proved to be up to the challenge.  He struck out Matt Wieters and Derrek Lee, and got the third out on a flyout to left.  He stayed in the game for the sixth and seventh, and retired all nine batters he faced, saving the whole game for the Red Sox.

Fenway Park as seen from the shady seats on a hot afternoon.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and it was hot in the bleachers, so I waited until the seventh-inning stretch and walked around to the good seats on the third base side, which also happened to be in the shade.  As I settled into a seat in Section 25, Jacoby Ellsbury drove in an insurance run to put the Sox up 8-6.  Daniel Bard pitched a perfect eighth, and Jonathan Papelbon closed it out in the ninth.

Jonathan Papelbon nailed down the save.

That sent the Red Sox off on a high note for the All-Star break.  They completed a four-game sweep of the Orioles and were riding a six-game winning streak.  The best news of all was that they also held a one-game lead in the A.L. East, a goal that had seemed very distant when they started the season with six straight losses.