Team effort

A good win for the Sox last night, despite Keith Foulke's ninth-inning attempts to make it interesting.

Schilling was masterful - outside of a shaky third inning - the defense was tight, and the bats came up big when they needed to. Alex Cora had a great game at the plate and began a sweet double play in the top of the fifth to cut down a potential Yankee rally. He looked like he got rid of the ball almost before it was in his glove - one of those baseball plays that just makes you go "Wow!"

As far as Foulke's outing is concerned, is it too simplistic of me to think that he just doesn't seem to have the focus when he's given a big lead? It could be that he's just one of those guys who needs to have some pressure on him to perform properly. I know that I work much better with a deadline looming than I do when I have weeks to do the job, so I'm going to give Foulke the benefit of the doubt. In any case, the bigger picture tells me that the Sox won with runs to spare against the Yankees, so at the end of the day it's fine, as long as Foulke doesn't plan to make a habit of it.

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After two weeks of other teams' broadcasts it was great to be back with NESN. The highlight of the night was seeing Schilling in deep conversation with Papi over his pitching chart. I would love to have been a fly on the wall in that conversation - Schilling's game preparation is legendary, and I'm sure it would have been fascinating to hear one of the game's premier pitchers talk pitching with one of the game's best hitters.