And They're OFF!!!

Brandon Moss just hit his first major league home run to tie the game 4-4 in the top of the 9th. It doesn't get much more exciting than this. Unfortunately, we couldn't get any more across, so we go to the bottom and hope for extra innings.

It's been a pretty rough ride this morning (is it actually tonight in Japan??), as Dice-K was pretty much all over the place this morning. He got behind early, but then the Sox got the lead back while I was driving home from work. But by the time I got in the house, used the bathroom, and came back out to the living room, they were behind again.

Okajima is pitching now in the bottom of the ninth.

Our boy, Jacoby made an amazing catch out in centerfield in the bottom of the 8th. Looks like it hurt a little as his back slammed against the fence, but he came up to bat in the 9th.

And he pulls in another one in the bottom of the ninth.

We have two outs in the bottom of the ninth, a 2-2 count to Ellis, who hit a home run off of Dice-K in the first. He chops back to Okajima, who tosses to first to send us into extra innings.

Top of the 10th. Lugo outruns a ground ball to third. Pedroia's up. Dustin gives up a good sac bunt. Almost bunted it too hard, but it worked. Youk is up. Youk strikes out. Here's Papi, with Lugo on second and two out. Oh, my God. They're walking Papi to get to Manny. The last team that did that was the Angels in the Division Championship Series of '07. And we all remember how that worked out. MANNY GETS A DOUBLE OFF THE TOP OF THE CENTER FIELD WALL!!!! WOOHOO! A four RBI game for Manny, and the Sox are up 6-4!

Huston Street comes out of the game, after blowing a save and possibly losing the game. Hah! That'll teach Sports Illustrated to put him ahead of Papelbon in the Relief Pitcher category! And while we're talking about that...SI didn't even list Beckett in the top three pitchers for fantasy baseball! What is up with THAT??

Commercials, commercials, commercials...

Ahahaha...now they're walking Mike Lowell. They brought in a new pitcher to throw balls. What strategy! And they walked Lowell to get to the guy who is responsible for the 10th inning, to begin with. Moss flies out to center.

Here comes Papelbon! Woot!! Can we say "game over?"

Ouch. Paps walks the leadoff batter. And one strike-out. Well...Brown lines one into the gap, scoring one, but he gets caught in a run down between second and third. So there are two out, now. Bad, bad base running. Good for us, too, because the next batter lines one up the middle. Dang...another hit.

Ok. Runners at first and second, 2 outs, bottom of the tenth. Pitching coach is having a friendly visit with Mr. Papelbon. I think he said, "Jonathan, get this next guy out, k?"

WOOT!!! Ground ball to first, toss to Papelbon, game over. Okajima gets the win!

The Red Sox are perfect in '08!

Hahaha...