Another Big Inning, Another Big Night

It was another night when the Red Sox feasted on Texas Rangers pitching. Texas sent out a young pitcher named Tommy Hunter, who was making his third MLB appearance. His ERA was over 11.00 coming in, so you know the Red Sox had to be licking their chops over the prospect of facing him.

And Hunter turned into the Hunted in the second inning. After Hunter got the Sox 1-2-3 in the first, they exploded for nine runs in the next inning, capped by a David Ortiz three-run shot that just made it into the seats down the rightfield line. (I guess those worries about his wrist have subsided just a bit, no?)

Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched seven scoreless innings, although he walked five and got into a bases loaded jam early in the game. And once again Dice-K Houdini got himself out of it unscathed. The Red Sox went on to win, 10-0 to the sweep the series, as they scored 37 runs in battering the team with the highest ERA in baseball.

It was also a special night at Professor Thom's last night, as The Jimmy Fund Radiothon was going on during the Red Sox game, and the bar was taking collections for it. (And we even saw a thank you to Thom's on the crawl during the game.) Yours Truly gave a generous donation, as did many of the fans in attendance. If you'd like to make a donation, please go here.

My pal Alex and his Trio did a jazz gig in the Loft last night and sounded great. And while that was going on, we were all watching later as Michael Phelps won his sixth gold medal at Beijing. Like on Tuesday night, the bar stopped to watch his race and was rooting him on. (He goes for number seven tonight, and number eight on Saturday.)

Tonight, Paul Byrd makes his Red Sox debut against the Toronto Blue Jays. He's wearing number 36, as Kevin Cash has graciously given it to him, and will now wear number 30. (I'm sure they cut some kind of deal somewhere.)