Sox-Jays Postgame: Night of the Living Red Sox

[Editor's Note: Randy also did a postgame story, see here. For my take, read on.]

Fresh off what should have been a three-game sweep in Arlington, TX, the Red Sox stormed into Toronto with all the energy of a horde of corpulent zombies. So who better to greet them than the Master of Terror himself - George Rick Romero?

The Sox got off to a fast start, scoring 4 in the 2nd, and by the bottom of the fifth, they'd cobbled together 7 runs and knocked Romero out of the game. With Josh Beckett on the mound that should have been more than enough. Unfortunately, Beckett and the Sox were under one or more evil influences (see attached poll), which allowed the Jays to come back and tie the game by the bottom of the 6th. Beckett gave up SE7EN runs in his 5.1 innings.

Luckily the Red Sox offense was up to the challenge. Aided by an error, they put up three runs against Casey Janssen in the top of the 8th, giving them the cushion to survive a 2-run uprising by the Jays in the bottom half of that inning. Papelbon was very shaky (2 hits, 3 BBs in 1.1 innings), allowing two inherited runners to score, but he stranded two runners in the 9th to record the save.

The offensive heroes of the night were Jason Bay (1-3, HR, 2 BB) and David Ortiz (2-3, 2B, HR, 2BB), who combined for ten total bases and five runs. However, the whole offense deserves credit, with every player getting at least one hit.

Calling this game an ugly win is an offense to ugliness, but it was a win nonetheless. The way they're playing now, the Sox have to win every start by Beckett and Lester, as well as some of the other starters' games, to stay in contention for the Wild Card.