The Coco Show: Absolutely Spectacular

The Red Sox completed an amazing three game sweep over the Mets at Fenway Park in spectacular style. Curt Schilling pitched seven strong innings for his 10th victory of the season and David Ortiz hit another mammoth home run in the eighth, which was his 200th career home run.

I missed the first inning and a half due to the satellite going at Professor Thom's last night due to a passing storm that knocked them out all over Manhattan. Fortunately, I had my walkman with me, and we hooked it up to the bar's sound system and we listened to the game on the radio before the TV reception came back on. Old Time Baseball!!

Despite getting swept, the Mets remain 11 games in front in the NL East. When the game ended, many of the Red Sox fans in the bar started a chant of "Let's Go Mets, " as the Mets begin a weekend series today against Those Guys From The Bronx. (Everyone at Fenway and Professor Thom's last night is a Mets fan today!)

But last night will be remembered mostly for an absolutely sensational catch that Coco Crisp made off the bat of David Wright with two outs in the eighth. With a man on first and two outs, Wright hit a ball that I thought for sure was going to go all the way to the wall. But Coco dove all out, and caught the ball when it was actually behind him. It kept the game 3-2, and it was definitely one of the catches of the season. The patrons at PT's were abuzz about it the rest of the game.

Coco also got the Sox ahead in the seventh. He bunted for a hit leading off the inning, stole second and was bunted over to third by Alex Gonzalez. Kevin Youkilis hit a long fly to left to send Crisp home with the tie-breaking run.

Jonathan Papelbon pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 24th save, tying him with Bobby Jenks for the major league lead. The Red Sox now have won 12 in a row, and have swept the last four series, all from NL East teams. Their lead in the AL East is now at a season-high 4 games.

Burning hot? That's an understatement.

The Red Sox also tied the all-time record for consecutive errorless games at 16, which was held by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1992. The last error they made was by Kevin Youkilis on June 11 against Texas. Right now, they have a good chance at breaking the all-time record for fewest errors by a team which is held by the Seattle Mariners of 2003, who made just 65. With 76 games played, they've made just 23 errors. You have to start talking about the 2006 Red Sox as one of the greatest fielding teams of all-time.

I never thought I'd ever use the words "Red Sox" and "greatest fielding teams" in a same sentence. Ever.