SOX SWEEP, YANKS SWEPT

Red Sox 6, Rangers 5

His Craziness, Julian Tavarez was terrific, I mean Cy Young caliber, for five innings. Then Francona sent him out for the sixth. Four runs later, including what Rangers broadcasters lisped was a 453 foot homer by Teixeira, the Red Sox were down 4-3. But, if there was a reoccurring theme through this series it would be that the Rangers' bullpen... how to put this kindly... is terrible. Tonight, even the 'good' pitchers weren't, uh, good.

The Sox went into the eighth down by a run and having to score off the excellent Okinori Otsuka and Eric Gagne, who sported a 0.00 ERA in nine innings so far this season. No problem. The Sox didn't just score off one of them, they scored off both, with two in the eighth off Otsuka and one in the ninth off Gagne. The one in the ninth was of particular beauty. Dustin Pedroia, who, with apologies to Alex Cora, should be playing every day now, worked a 11 pitch at-bat against Gagne. Pedroia fouled off pitch after pitch and finally, on the twelfth pitch of the at-bat, hit what looked to be a fastball over the wall in right field.

The solo homer was Pedroia's second on the season, and ended up providing the margin of victory for the Sox. Teixeira, who was pretty much unstoppable this game, singled in a run in the ninth, but Okajima got Sammy Sosa to fly out to Coco Crisp to end it.

AL East: The Orioles and Rays won, while the Blue Jays and Yankees lost. The Red Sox maintain their 11.5 game lead over Baltimore. Toronto is 12.0 games back, New York 12.5, and Tampa 13.5.

Tomorrow: The Red Sox return home to face the surging Cleveland Indians, and My Man, Trot Nixon. Curt Schilling tries to not get shelled for Boston, while Cliff Lee attempts the same for Cleveland. I hope and expect the Fenway faithful to show Trot some love.