Standing O For Lugo

From me, after his catch in the third inning. Feel (/field) the love.

Ben: A fine catch indeed. But any Lugo-related post requires at least a tinge of negativity. Thus, a note of concern from Extra Bases: Neither Papbelon nor Okajima are available tonight.

Ben: Did Gammons just call Cashman and Epstein "courageous"? No, no, Dayton Moore is courageous. Cashman and Espstein are resourceful. And very smart. I suppose a modicum of courage is required to pay Carlo Pavano $40 million, but still.

Ben: My oh my, Gammons is on a roll tonight: "The Yankees are going to have a lot of money at the end of the season." I love ya, Peter, but that was silly.

Ben: By the way, at this point the Sox are up 7-1 in the fourth. Since Bryan might not be back (I turned his Lugo post into a game blog, which is almost definitely against protocol) I might as well add that Lugo did something else good! He took a pitch that got by Jose Molina and scored Sean Casey. Then he walked.

Bryan: Speaking of Gammons, he seems older and cheerier since the aneurysm, which makes sense, but it really shows how old he is. Between the always sunny joy about baseball and his love of rock 'n roll, I think that his age kind of got obscured; I get the sense now that he's soaking up every moment for what it's worth. I'll return the favor w/r/t Gammons himself. For every Boston sportswriter of a certain age, including this one, he is THE inspiration, and not just for the writing: for the TV, all of it.

Also, good God, this game is long.

Ben: That a Sox-Yanks game is inordinately long is about as surprising as David Aardsma not being able to throw a strike. Argh. There's nothing that can make a long game even longer quite like the soft underbelly of the Sox' bullpen.

Way to go, Aardsma! I knew you could do it.

So you get through Aardsma's two innings unscathed and you breath a sigh of relief. Then it's Timlin's turn in the eighth. Home run. Single. Single. And then it's Javier Lopez's turn to try and save our bacon with two on and nobody out in a two-run ballgame. Gulp.

Javier Lopez has saved our bacon.