A beautiful night at The Ballpark

After having attended both games of a double-header last August during the Boston Massacre, I was absolutely itching to get back to Fenway Park to see my Sox in action. So my friend Steve Daniels and I got some tickets to Tuesday night's game versus Oakland and drove down to Boston to catch some of the last regular season action at Fenway this season.

I've actually only been to Fenway 6 times now, but it will never get old. The weather was ungodly good - gametime temps at 7:10pm were over 80F and when the game finished just short of 11pm it was still over 70F. Not a cloud in the sky and a gentle warm breeze blowing out to centerfield.

Upon entering the ballpark, I was hoping for a couple of specific things during the matchup with the Oakland Athletics, apart from us winning the game:

1. I wanted to see David Ortiz hit a home run
2. I wanted to see JD Drew continue his recent hot hitting - just so Red Sox Nation could get off his case and he could smoke right into the ALDS
3. I wanted to see Jonathan Papelbon pitch
4. I did NOT want to see Eric Gagne pitch
5. I wanted either Manny Ramirez or Kevin Youkilis to play at least a little - both had been out for significant time (Manny for about a month, Youk for almost 2 weeks)

Well - I got almost all my wishes. Ortiz hit a 2-run HR in the 8th inning, JD Drew had 3 hits, Pap pitched (1 pitch - 1 out in the 8th with the tying run at the plate), and BOTH Manny and Youk played siginificant time in the game despite Tito saying Youk was likely a scratch and giving ZERO indication in regards to Manny's status.

Unfortunately - Eric Gagne also pitched and despite his shaky performance he did not have a meltdown and in fact, during his stint on the mound the AL scoreboard flashed up that the Tampa Bay Ray had scored 6 runs in the 6th inning of their ballgame versus the yankees to take a 6-5 lead - The Park erupted and I think Gagne almost fainted as he'd never heard that kind of applause during his stay in Boston.

Fortunately, the best laugh of the day came before we even got to the ballpark and also came at the expense of Monseuir Gagne - the guys selling the unofficial Red Sox programs outside the ballpark were giving away free bumper stickers with each program that read,

"Gagne is a yankee spy"

Too funny...

Curt Schilling started and despite a solo home run given up to the #2 hitter of the game, he was brilliant over 6 innings - 6H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 6K, 6.0IP. Brian Corey pitched a shaky 9th inning giving up his first 2 runs of the year since his late summer call-up but likely AL Rookie of the Year 2B Dustin Pedroia made a great over-the-shoulder catch and doubled a man off second to end the ballgame.

And just to top things off, I find out from another fan while in the MBTA (subway) station that the Red Sox's magic number had dropped to 3 when New York lost in extra innings when ex-yankee Dioner Navarro homered leading off the 10th in Tampa Bay.

Aaahhh...