Little Man. Big Bat. Asses Kicked.

Dustin Pedroia singlehandedly said with his bat last night, "We are not losing this game."

No matter how much Jonathan Papelbon was determined to give it away. Again.

Pedroia blasted three home runs in a marathon game against the Colorado Rockies last night, two in last two at-bats. 13-11 Red Sox in 10 innings. Pedey had the night of his life, and went 5-for-5 with 4 runs scored and 5 RBI.

You knew this was going to be a long one when Daisuke Matsuzaka, in his return from the DL, allowed two runs and had the bases loaded with no outs. But he did his patented escape routine, getting out with no further damage, and loaded the bases again, but got out of jail again with no damage.

Dice-K amazingly left with a 6-2 lead after five, courtesy of home runs by Pedroia and Adrian Beltre. But the bullpen was truly awful last night (with the exception of Scott Atchison) as Colorado came from behind twice, including Papelbon coughing up a two-run lead in the ninth for the second straight night.

Pedroia saved Pap's bacon with his two-run blast in the tenth, and the old Papelbon was back in the bottom of that innings, getting Colorado 1-2-3. Papelbon got the vulture win, and the Red Sox gained a half-game on idle New York, and are now 2 back in second.

Pedroia's laser show was the first Sox player to blast three homers in a game since the guy who wore 15 before him, Kevin Millar, did the hat trick on July 23, 2004 against New York, on the night before Jason Varitek had Alex Rodriguez taste his catcher's mitt.

Now it's off to San Francisco and a series with the Giants at AT&T Park, with Tim Wakefield on the mound tonight.