Continuation

When I was a kid playing punchball and stickball in Brooklyn, we'd play for hours on end, until our parents would call us in for dinner. When we had to stop in the middle of a game, someone would call out, "continuation." We'd get together again and pick it up from where we left off.

It was Mother Nature who called out "continuation" at Fenway Park last night, as the rain came down and wouldn't let up. By the ninth inning the tarp rolled out as the game was tied 1-1, and you knew they wouldn't get it going again.

So they will pick up from where they left off at 7 PM tonight in the bottom of the ninth.

The game really should have ended with a Red Sox win. Red Sox fans now know the name of third base coach Tim Bogar, because for whatever reason, he sent in Kevin Youkilis all the way from first on David Ortiz' double in the fifth with nobody out, and the Rays gunned him down. And naturally, the Red Sox didn't score in that inning.

Their only run of the night was an opposite field home run by Jason Varitek.

Josh Beckett was terrific and deserved a win. He went seven strong innings, struck out eight and was victimized by some shoddy defense that allowed Tampa Bay's only run. A Marco Scutaro error and Adrian Beltre losing a chopper in the lights (you don't see that every night) got them their run in the third.

Last night's suspended game was the first one for the Red Sox since 1996, and the first ever for Tampa Bay. They will try to finish the game tonight before the regularly scheduled one, but the forecast is for even more rain.