Red Sox 07 Game 25 Recap

Final Bos 4 Oak 5

Hero - Buck, freaking Travis Buck who was 3 for 33 coming into this game and ended up a triple short of hitting for the Cycle. Big hit was the 2 run homer off of Papel-bot in the 9th which was bot's first blown save.

Goat - Donnelly for the back to back doubles from Piazza and Johnson which led to the winning run.

This was a game of firsts. The first runs off of Donnelly and Papelbon, the first stolen bases of the season for both Youkilis and Lowell, the first game the Sox were leading after six that they lost and the first home run of the year for Johnson. The Johnson home run was the sixth home run of the year given up by Schilling.

This game looked like it was going to be a typical 2007 game for the Sox. Seven strong innings by Schilling giving up eight hits and only two runs while striking out 7. The only innings where he really struggled were the fifth and the seventh. Curt got out of the fifth by striking out Chavez swinging (which led to A's manager Geren being ejected) and in the seventh he was helped out by a diving catch in center by Coco.

The catch by Coco was huge, first and third with no outs and it looked like there was going to be first and third with a run scored. As Curt said in his after game conference with the press, it was a game saving catch.

So, end of seven and you are thinking this is it, the game is in the hands of the bull pen and that is an automatic W, only to have it all fall apart in the ninth. Just goes to show that everybody is human, even Papel-bot.

Other idle thoughts.

• This was the third straight loss at home and the second time they have lost the first game after the Yankees series.
• The Sox are 13 and 3 against teams with winning records and 3 and 6 against losing records.
• In his first 10 games Coco was hitting .111 with a .179 OBA and .167 slugging percantage. Since then his numbers are .361/.405/.486.
• According to the globe, the courant and the herald blog sites it looks like Lester will be optioned to Pawtucket after he comes off the DL.
• Okajima is still the hero in the dark.