return of the walk-off

i want to say that was an unlikely pitchers' duel, but i have to tell you, i am a fantasy baseball pitching curse. every one of my fantasy picthers has faced his share of struggles this season. forced to make some adjustments, i let some pitchers go & picked up some new ones. one of the pitchers i released: Jon Lester. who proceeded to pitch eight innings of one-hit ball. sure he walked four, but he struck out six & gave up only that one hit in a no-decision outing, amd in fantasy land that translates to being worth positive points for a switch. bottom line is Lestah pitched a strong game -- not that i am complaining *too* much about the way this affects my fantasy baseball team, mind you, if dropping him translates to more wins for the Sox. Papelbon pitched the top of the ninth, giving up a hit but not a run, and was awarded the third out on a highlight reel grab by Pedroia. and with two outs in the home half, Papi walked, Manny singled, and Youk drove Papi in with the walk-off RBI single.

i feel like i just watched a Sox classic. part of me feels bad for Halladay getting a loss for a complete game that would have been quite the start in almost any other circumstances. it's hard, as a fan of the game, to see a start like that not result in a win. but my boys *needed* that win to halt the downward spiral they'd been trapped in over the last week.

just like that, the ship rights itself. the Rays & Yankees lost, Boston & Baltimore are tied for first place in the division, Lowell is back at the hot corner, and the Sox are pulling off ninth inning victories like it was the game plan all along. (if it's ok with you, i'm going to pretend not to know that Pedroia, JD & Jacoby are not feeling 100% for various reasons...)

anyone else remember the past week? yeah, me neither.

(photos from Yahoo! Sports)