Hardball Heaven

The Red Sox escaped Toronto with a hard-earned victory today, 6-3 over the hot Jays. After going down without much fight the night before -- DiNardo was not impressive in an 8-1 shellacking -- it was nice to see the response today. Clement was steady if unspectacular. Papi staked him to an early 2-0 lead on an opposite-field homer (the big man also laid down a perfect bunt during the Ortiz Shift), and Mike Lowell - who alternates between looking like my grandfather and the greatest doubles hitter of all time - had two big ribbies to seal the deal. Jonathan Papelbon pitched another scoreless inning, recording his 8th straight save. Pap still hasn't been scored upon this year -- a feat that helped him win (lose?) a strange bet with Kevin Youkilis. Whichever accomplishment came first - Youkilis hitting .350 with five home runs, or Pap with 10 consecutive scoreless innings - the guy who did it would have to do something ridiculous. Papelbon has now gone 11 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run, and he showed up at the ballpark yesterday with a mohawk. Not just any mohawk, mind you, but one of the most god-awful hatchet jobs you've ever seen. Downright brutal. And he won the bet...

The weekend series against Toronto brought three glaring weaknesses to light -- the bottom of the order ain't what it used to be (some combination of Mohr, Gonzalez, Harris, Cora, etc.), the middle relief corps (Seanez, Tavarez, Riske) stinks, and the starting pitching depth isn't very deep.

Sox are now 12-7 on the season, still a game and a half up on the Orioles. Day off tomorrow and then back in action against Cleveland Tuesday night. Schilling goes for five in a row against Jake Westbrook.