A Nerve-Wracking Game Five

Not long after falling asleep last night (more like very early this morning), I dreamt that it was the ninth inning again, Uehara was on the mound, and the Tigers had a couple men on base. I awoke in an anxious sweat, and had to look at the computer once more to make sure that the Sox had actually won Game Five. Then I had a scotch so I could calm down and get back to sleep. What a nerve-wracking game last night! The seventh inning, when Detroit had two men on, no outs, and Cabrera coming to the plate.  All I could envision was disaster, but once again the bullpen rallied, and after that one run scored on the double play, the Tigers never really threatened. Of course, that’s easy to say in retrospect. When it’s a one-run game, there’s a threat of a game tying hit every time someone comes to the plate. 

Fortunately, Uehara has continued his 2013 mastery of just about everyone in the AL. He has a post-season ERA of 1.13 but that’s only because he gave up a solo home run in the ALDS. That was his sole earned run.  An even better stat is his strikeout to walk  ratio, which at the present time is infinite. Eleven K’s and no walks. I’m glad he has a day off after last night’s five out save. 

And what about Mike Napoli these past two games? Two big hits, and two runs in last night’s one-run victory; two consecutive games when he homered off overpowering right handers. Not to mention that he has the greatest overall volume of whiskers among all the Sox. One thing that carried Boston through the regular season was the fact that almost any one of the bats could get hot at any one time, helping to carry the Sox on any given night. Napoli was on fire early in the season, but seemed to go quiet after the all-star break. Nice to see him heating up when it matters most. Not only that, but maybe the rest of the lineup will come to life as well. Jacoby has been hitting better the past couple games  -- four hits in the Game Four loss – and if we could just get one night when the lineup was hitting top to bottom, that would take some pressure off the pitching staff. 

It was a game of breaks, and close plays last night, and Game Five really could have gone either way. Early on, Sox were catching breaks: when Miggy ran through the stop sign and got thrown out at the plate; and then when he couldn’t field Gomes’ ground ball, which led to Boston’s second run. The luck seemed to change in the middle innings, after Iglesias had run down Papi’s blooper one at-bat before Napoli homered, the Tigers started getting a number of seeing eye hits – ground balls just beyond the reach of Drew and Pedroia, or soft line drives falling in front of the outfielders. In the end, however, Boston got just enough breaks to leave Comerica Park with another road win. 

I know the Sox are up 3-2, and that they get to play Games Six and Seven in the friendly confines of Fenway Park.  But they have to come home to face Scherzer and Verlander. And unless they can figure out one of those guys, as they seemed to have figured out Sanchez last night, they are going to have a tough time scratching out a win. Speaking of early season form, it would be nice to see Buckholz shutting down Detroit’s lineup, pitching the way he did in the first couple months of the season. 

Until this weekend, Go Sox; B Strong.