‘08 Sahx sweep ‘91 Twinkies

8/29-8/30 - Fenway Park
GAME 1 - '08-Red Sox 6, '91-Twins 0
Jon Lester tossed 3 hit shutout ball for 7 innings, but wasn't allowed back out for the 8th because he had thrown 124 pitches.  Mike Timlin picked up right where Lester left off and blanked the Twinkies for the final 2 innings.  Boston jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st when Big Papi', David Ortiz, hit a 2 out 2 run shot into the bullpen in right center.  Anderson fully imploded when he gave up 4 runs to the Bosox in the bottom of the 5th.  With 1 out Manny Ramirez singled home Dustin Pedroia.  Captain Jason Veritek followed with an RBI single of his own plating Big Papi'.  JD Drew doubled home Manny and Varitek scored the 4th run of the inning on a sac fly by Coco Crisp.  The injury bug hit the Twin bullpen when "Bedrock", Steve Bedrosian left the game after getting 2 outs in the 7th.  He will be unavailable for at least 2-3 days pending examination.

GAME 2 - Red Sox 6, Twins 3
Jack Morris battled hard for 6 innings in a game where he did not have anything.  To his credit Morris used all the guts and guile he could muster to keep his team in the game.  When he exited the Twins were down 4-3, but their depleted bullpen caused then to use Terry Leach who got knocked around for 2 runs in 2 innings, which basically put the game away for Boston.  Tim Wakefield started for the Sahx and gave up 3 runs before leaving with 1 out in the 7th.  Hideki Okajima threw 2 spotless innings of relief and Jonathan Papelbon closed it out by getting the final 2 outs in the 9th for his 4th save of the season.  With Minnesota up 3-2 the Bosox posted 2 runs to take the lead for good in the bottom of the 5th.  With one out Mike Lowell tripled to right center and Big Papi' doubled him in off a sky shot that hit the Monstah'.  Manny singled Papi' home, but the fans were not happy with the fact that he didn't take 2nd on the throw to the plate that narrowly missed getting Papi'.  Boston's 2 runs in the 8th came with 2 out when Crisp singled Varitek (who doubled) in and Juli Lugo doubled home Crisp on a perfectly executed hit and run.

8/31 - HHH Metrodome
GAME 3 - Red Sox 5, Twins 4
Curt Schilling left his ketchup packets home, but still brought his veteran guts and guile.  Shill struck out only 1 batter in 8 innings of work, which verifies that his velocity was not there.  He still found a way to keep the Twin bats off stride by only giving up 3 earned runs while throwing 133 pitches.  Conversely his opposing number Kevin Tapani was downright awful.  "Taps" put his team behind the 8 ball in the top of the first by yielding 4 runs to the Bosox.  Three hits + three walks = 4 runs against.  To their credit the Twin offense came alive and cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the 1st with 2 runs.  A 2 out double by Brian Harper scored Kirby Puckett and a rare error by Pedroia on a Gene Larking hump back liner allowed Harper to score.  Tapani was gone before the 3rd inning was over, which taxed the depleted Twin pen even further.  Abbott came on to pitch 3 1/3 innings and give up just a solo run in the 4th without Boston notching a hit.  Before Abbott finally settled down he walked 4 consecutive batters to allow a run.  Once he settled down he was able to get 3 outs in a row and minimized the damage.  Striking out Manny and Youk to end the inning was big time clutch.  Rick Aguilera, who usually closes, was forced to pitch the final 3 innings for the Twins.  "Aggie", who spent 5 seasons starting for the Mets, knows how to pace himself and he was perfect over those 3 innings, which allowed his offense a chance to get back into it.  That chance occurred in the bottom of the 8th when Gene Larkin hit a 2 run homer to make the score 5-4 Boston.  By that point Schilling was running on fumes.  Mike Pagliarulo followed  Larkin and hit a floater to the right center gap.  Trying to make something happen, "Pags" turned and went to second only to get thrown out by a hair by Coco Crisp, who hustled his butt off to cut the ball off in the alley.  Greg Gagne grounded out sharply to Lugo at short to end the inning and Schilling's day.  Jonathan Papelbon came on for a perfect 9th to notch his 5th save and the sweep for the surging Bosox.