With Ramirez enjoying his latest outburst against his favorite foe, New York reliever Kyle Farnsworth threw a 97 mph fastball behind the slugger's neck on the first pitch of the seventh inning, drawing cheers from the sellout crowd of 55,088.
"It just slipped. I was trying to be aggressive and go in on him," Farnsworth said.
Boston manager Terry Francona said "it's just part of the game,"
All right. Am I the only one who found DP to be the most reasonable individual about tonight's near-misshit?
"He throws 100 mph. That's career-ending if it hits him," Boston's Dustin Pedroia said.
As you might imagine, I was not impressed by that BS this evening. I think it was intentional. I don't know that I'm right about that, and I'll never know. But I'll say this. If you're "trying to be aggressive", you better be damn sure you can control what you're throwing. I could understand and better dismiss an actual hit on his thigh, back, or ribs or something. And on the 25-man roster of the Yankees, there's no player with less credibility in my book than Kyle L. Farnsworth. I'm not the kind of Sox fan who thinks everything the Yankees do is dirty, but this just pissed me off to all hell.
...moving on.
Summary:
Too bad this episode had to sour (for me) an otherwise sweet victory. Vintage Becks, though not quite a "Vintage Papelbon Performance". A 4-run lead with Giambi-Posada-Cano in order? Oki would have sufficed, and has actually thrown a 1/3 less total innings than Paps to this point. The key, for Becks at least, was being the kind of pitcher who can throw multiple strikes to a single hitter (were you watching, Jon Lester?).
"Being" is one bad MF. He took care of business like we needed him to tonight, with two HRs off of personal whipping boy Mike Mussina. Jacoby "Slowpoke" Ellsbury was able to take 2 bases tonight, with a bonus base on a Chad Moeller throwing error. JD Drew continues to just make good things happen at the plate. 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI. That's what I like to see out of my completely non-disappointing RF. Youks, DP and El Capitan all had 2 hits apiece as well.
Player of the Game:
via d.yimg.com
Comment of the Game:
Sorry, kids. No one in the gamethread beat Becks today. On Manny:
"He's pretty good, huh?" Beckett said. "Hopefully, he'll invite me to his Hall of Fame speech."
Next up: Four at home against the Rangers. Daisuke, Lester, Wake and Buch for us. Kason makes his first appearance as an opposing starter: Mendoza, Jennings, Millwood, Gabbard.