shift. this.

"I've never been so happy to get out of here with a win in my life," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. (Redsox.com) me too, Tito...me too. and the rest of RSN & everybody who suits up in a Red Sox uniform 162 times a year i would suspect.

they did it though. in the eleventh hour of this series, my boys came through by getting themselves on the board first & not relinquishing their lead, no way, no how. held on by claws...teeth...sheer will to come out on top...praying that Papelbon can make his entrance (errr...walk from the park bench "bullpen") on 3 days off & help them win with their measly one run lead...until...

Boston Dirt Dogs: (Frank Galasso, cartoonist)

...Big Papi knocks off his Big Crappy routine & seals the deal in the 9th, bases loaded, no one out. no one but the ball which is probably still sailing. oh. right. it can't still be sailing in a (stupid) dome. but it's embedded firmly in the wall at least. or dancing a merry jig with the long balls assisted from the park by Manny, Mirabelli & its older sibling, the Big Papi 2-run homer in the 5th. i know there will be some who are disenchanted by & critical of Ortiz watching his first home run of the game make its grand exit, calling him arrogant, but really? even though it bugs me too to see showboating of that nature, generally speaking, i can't help but think Papi had the right to do that, considering it was Joe Maddon's execution of the shift that has had some crippling effects on David's hitting this season. the little kid that still exists inside me almost wished he would look the Rays' manager in the eye & give him a big wet PPPPPFFFFTTTT!! before rounding the bags. almost. ;-)

"Pretty much what they're trying to do is get in my head," Ortiz said. "I've got to stay with the same approach. I just figured that hitting the ball up there, no way they can catch it. They've really been playing some extreme defense, so I've got to stay where the ball is and try to hit it as hard as I can." (FOXSports.com)

or as Jerry Remy put it: "The only way to make a successful shift against this guy is to put a position player in the third row of the bleachers." all i know is...man is it pretty to watch him go yard.

found this little tidbit & had to share before moving along to a few other non-Ortiz-centered thoughts:
After yet another monster night, David Ortiz, fresh out of the shower, looked to the chair next to him and saw a stack of $20 bills.

"Is that my money?" Ortiz, a little confused, asked multiple times.

Coco Crisp finally came over and solved the mystery, grabbing the stack of bills and putting them in his wallet. Ortiz then busted out laughing and told reporters, "You know how I knew that wasn't my money?"

He then opened a container filled with $100 bills and bellowed out, "This is how I roll!" (Redsox.com) LOL! well we don't pay him the big bucks for nothing. ;-)

wait! just one more! last one, i promise! i wonder if Duh-wayne & the Migraine think Carl Crawford qualifies for this too? Crawford, who can only dream of being Mr. Clutch the way that Ortiz is.

(Image: Brian G)

As usual with Wakefield, he never let on to outsiders how much he was hurting entering this start. (Redsox.com) between Wakey & Lowell, gritting their teeth & playing through the pain, i wonder where we'd be if these guys were playing healthy....all i know is that for someone pitching injured, i'll take 5 innings of what he had last night. the fluttery dancing of that knuckleball is something to behold when it's working its magic. i hope the 6-day rest is enough for Timmy to get back to feeling good though. we do NOT need to find him on the DL. our pitching woes are miserable enough with the likes of Johnson seemingly entrenched in the 5-spot of the rotation. the one *good* thing i can say about the relief though is that minus the EZs (need i even point that out??), we have a couple of guys in there that have been doing some work. and i don't mean the blatantly obvious "set-'em-up & shut-'em-down" team. Craig Hansen is starting to come around, enough so that i do not cringe when i see him warming in the pen (or the dirt at the side of the field as the case may be in *some* domes). and how about Lil' Manny?? he's stepped up nicely on several calls for help now and i actually feel a sense of...can it be?...confidence when they bring him in. at first, i thought it was just the relief of not seeing Julian (or Rudy. or Javier.), but now i am noticing that his appearances are looking better & better. nowhere near the feelings of resolve yet as when Timlin and/or Papelbon come in, but a far cry better than how i was feeling a few weeks ago when i saw Tito or The Nip reach for the bullpen phone, that knot of dread as my stomach sunk, knowing it was way too early to call in the only two guys i was willing to pin my hopes on at that point. but now there is consistency from the baby faces of Hansen & Delcarmen and my heart rate is returning a little closer to the range of "normal".

i think i am going to keep this next part in the back of my head for the sake of my sanity:
Bob Ryan gives us a pep talk:

I suppose you want to know what's going on. Baseball's going on. The Big 162. The ebb and the flow. ... You guys are supposed to be seasoned fans. That's what I keep hearing. ... I promise you they'll all be looking back at these three nights at some future date and laugh. ... [R]ight now the oppressor is baseball. But don't worry. There are 80 games left. ... They'll be just fine.

We know all this, of course, but it's maddening just the same. However, I also recall writing back on August 7, 2004 that "this summer hasn't been a whole lot of fun ... even the victories have left me pissed off" and asking is this "The Most Frustrating Red Sox Season Ever"?
(The Joy of Sox)
i guess i just got so used to seeing the Red Sox as the victors that this little post-euphoric slip in Tampa came as a bit of a shock to my system. they'll be ok. they will hit again. they showed me last night. BELIEVE.

and with that, done in the dome. onward to Chicago to take on the 2005 World Champs & their lunatic manager. should scare me but...i'm just happy we're getting the hell out of The Trop. Little Jon Lester gets the start tonight...and i'm nervous but not as nervous as i thought i would be. here's hoping we make this next series a winning one somehow & then a solid 3 day rest for the team with the 3rd best record in MLB.