No "No No"

What a game. What a performance. Man did the Sox need yesterday's win. Driving through Boston after Wednesday night's fourth straight heart-breaker, I could swear I saw a few Red Sox fans teetering on the top of the Pru.

Speaking of heart breaking, I can't believe that Curt got within one out of the "no no" yesterday. I watched the last three innings of the game from the hospital (my third child, Audrey Catherine" was born last night). I joked with my wife as she lay her hospital bed dealing with the pain of contractions every fifteen minutes, "Honey, if Curt gets a no hitter today, we're going to have to go with 'Schilling' or 'Curtwina' for our daughter's middle name." Surprisingly, my wife was not amused by this notion.

Fortunately for my wife -- and daughter -- Shannon Stewart ended Schilling's bid for history with two outs in the ninth. In some ways, this was a blessing in disguise. Can you imagine the guilt Lugo would have felt knowing that he was the reason that Curt missed pitching the 18th perfect game in the history of Major League Baseball? Why has nobody mentioned this by the way? I know it's a moot point but when Lugo made his error in the seventh, all I could think was, "Lugo just blew Schilling's perfect game."

Being a glass half full kind of guy, I'll look at the fact that Schilling came up huge yesterday in spite of missing out on the "no no." He did what a stopper is supposed to do -- he won. That in the face of another anemic offensive performance. Can you imagine the pressure of pitching with a one run lead in a game knowing that a) you had to win and b) you really needed to go at least seven if not eight innings in order to spare your overworked bullpen?

Let's hope things turn around for the Sox bats this weekend. I guess at this point, they can't get much worse. One strategy they might employ is when they have a runner on first is to ALWAYS lay down a sacrifice bunt. Yes, I'm recommending this even if Ortiz or Manny is at the plate. How many double plays have they hit into in the last three games. Seven?

On that note, let's play ball!