Hometown hero

A walk-off win? A genuine, bona fide, extra-inning, come-from-behind,
walk-off-homer-from-the-local-guy win? Yup, we'll take one of those any day of the week.

Those who might have doubted how the rest of the Sox season will play out only had to look at the faces of David Ortiz and Trot Nixon as they sat in the dugout during the 9th and 10th innings to see that the Red Sox were not giving up on the game or on the season. They wanted this win as badly as the fans in the stands, and thanks to Carlos Pena they got it.

Due to the vagaries of baseball's scoring system, Mike Timlin got the win, but it ought to go to Tavarez who pitched a great game. He was not, however, quite ready to tip his cap to the fans. In most cases this would get a "WTF?" from me, but Tavarez has a point:

"I love our fans but I’ve never played for a city that booed the players when you’re five or six games ahead and in first place."

There are times in the season when he - and others - have sucked mightily, but I will never understand the booing:

“I don’t think it is right,” he said. “We all go out there, try to do the best we can for our career, for our job, for this city, for the fans. We want to do good for them. I just wish they understood a little bit about that, that we try really hard out there to bring the ‘W,’ to bring the World Series to the city.”

Last night the trying hard paid off with a 'W', and I hope the Sox have a few more of them in their bag between now and the end of the season. Because, as Denton said:

I try to just watch for some good baseball over the next few weeks, but that little something inside me can't stop thinking that good baseball turns into wins and wins turn into hot streaks and hot streaks get teams back in the hunt. I guess that is the part that makes me a Red Sox fan.

You never know - stranger things have happened.