Red Sox Walk off With a Win!

Just kidding, Jere, I know it's the Rays who actually walked off. But, the Sox pulled it out!

It's weird. Halfway through the game, this post was going to be about Josh Beckett. After five innings, he had thrown something like 14 balls. Less than three an inning. then the Sox gave him the lead, and he was going to be cruising to a victory. Then he had that rough inning.

How great is it, by the way, that in his rough inning he gave up 2 runs. That's now a rough inning for Josh Beckett. Fantastic.

But, of course, I'm not talking about Beckett cruising to a victory. Rather, I'm talking about an amazing comeback. Once again, the Sox prove that no closer is invincible. They show the ability to come back in a game. They show that they apparently own the Rays.

The choice to play Adrian Gonzalez in right field made for an interesting decision in this game. I can't say I disapprove of any of the decisions. I was a little surprised that they had Adrian in right instead of left. But, I guess I understand not flipping him around all over the place. Play him where he's "used' to being. Then, when the Sox got the lead, there was a choice to make. Obviously, Gonzalez isn't the sharpest outfielder. So, you have a couple options. Replace him with a defensive star. That's what they did. They could have put the defensive outfielder in for Middlebrooks and shifted Youk over to third to make room for Gonzalez at first. The way Middlebrooks has been playing, and as rough as Gonzalez looked tonight I can't say that Will wasn't a better choice. It ended up being annoying when the Sox fell behind and ended up pinch hitting for their defensive replacement. Like I said, it didn't work out perfectly, but I can't say it was a bad call.

So, good for the Sox. A big win against a great opposing pitcher. They didn't waste a fantastic start from Beckett. Everything could have crumbled around them. Instead, everything ended up just the way you'd like it.

Back to .500!