Hundreds of
years from now, after a nuclear conflagration, or a worldwide pandemic, or
global-warming-induced environmental catastrophe has wiped out most of mankind,
humanity’s survivors can venture to NESN’s Watertown headquarters and dig out a
DVD labeled boston red sox vs. new york
mets, june 29, 2006.
That film
will teach them how baseball is played.
Last
night’s game, in addition to being our twelfth
win in a row, our fourth straight series sweep, our 15th
straight errorless game, and a game that put us a season-high four games
above the Yankees, was a textbook case of perfectly-executed baseball fundamentals.
“An
instructional video,” the pitcher called it.
There was
the easy out in the first when Jose Reyes was caught stealing after Schilling
had done his damnedest to keep him close to the bag at first.
Schilling
did it himself in the fifth, picking of Julio Franco at second.
We had Alex
Gonzalez beating out a bunt-hit, then reaching second on the throwing error of
a rattled pitcher.
When the
Mets went up 2-0 on Beltran’s homer, Mark Loretta came right back out for the
sixth and immediately cut the lead in half with a homer over the Monster.
After Ortiz
doubled, Mike Lowell lofted a fly ball to center, and Big Papi busted ass to
get to third.
Then
Varitek scored him with a sac fly to tie it.
Schilling
held the line for the seventh, and then it was time to get back to work.
Speedy Coco
Crisp reached on another bunt.
Then he
stole second.
Then Gonzo
moved him to third.
Then
Youkilis, calm, cool, and collected, hit another sac fly out to left, and we
had a lead.
Then, with
Mike Timlin pitching, with two outs, and a man on first, with one of the best
hitters in the NL at the dish, came The Catch.
If you
happen see a more jaw-dropping play in a baseball outfield in the next two
decades, please let me know. On
eagles’ wings, he was.
Ortiz led
off the next inning with the coup de grâce, homering to deep center on
the third pitch.
It was the
200th of his career.
And that
was that. Jonathan Papelbon submitted another perfect inning, and notched his
24th save (tying Dick Radatz’s rookie record before we’ve even reached the
All-Star Break). It had been a fine pitchers duel for the first half of the
game, but in the end, ours was better than theirs.
Seven
innings, seven hits, six strikeouts, two runs. Curt Schilling is a good
pitcher.
So is
Timlin. So is Papelbon.
And our
lineup is full of good hitters. And our infield is jaw-dropping. And our
outfield defense can be pretty nifty when it wants to be too.
Beating NL
teams with NL small ball. I love it.
We’ve got
one more National League team to sweep this season. Let’s do it.