Manny might get to 600 by August

Joaquin Benoit? Please. It's disrespectful, having Benoit face one of the best all-time hitters with a man on in the eighth inning of a 3-3 game. Manny took his displeasure out on a pitch low and in and cranked it over everything in left. A no doubter the second he stepped in the batters box. Really, I started composing this paragraph before a single pitch was thrown.

That's three late-inning wins this week by my count. Moxie! The lifelessness of the first few weeks of the season is but a distant memory.

Of Lester's start we can say that he threw strikes and he battled. Making it into the seventh inning was great to see and although he allowed 10 hits he was able to limit the Rangers to three runs. Lester came up large in the third with two runners in scoring position when he struck out Murphy and Laird to end the inning. All in all, a step in the right direction.

We must also give some reluctant praise to Javier Lopez, who in the eighth inherited two men in scoring position and got Josh Hamilton to line out (on a screamer) to Ellsbury, ending the inning and keeping the deficit at one. He picked up the win for his one pitch of work.

Pedroia double. Ortiz single. Tie game. Manny. Game over.

Congrats to German Duran for collecting his first big league hit, a single in the second inning.

Jason Jennings kept the Boston bats very quiet in the middle innings. After an awful start to the season, and an ugly start to this game, he cruised.

Lugo extended his hitting streak to five games, but geez, he really is atrocious. He ended a budding rally in the seventh by hitting into an easy double play on the first pitch he saw.

Millwood and Wake tomorrow.