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THE "IDIOTS" REVERSE THE CURSE
Mike Timlin helps the Sox win one
August 24, 2004 ... Some thump back in their bats, mixed with some timely relief from Mike Timlin, the
Red Sox took a 5-4 victory over the Blue Jays tonight in front of a crowd of 22,217 at SkyDome.
Catcher Doug Mirabelli drilled a three-run homer and Manny Ramirez picked up his 99th and 100th RBIs as the Sox, after being stifled, 3-0, by Ted Lilly the night before, rebounded from a 3-0 deficit and won for the 15th time in their last 21 outings.
Timlin, who turned in a masterful performance Sunday night in Chicago, entered a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the sixth and picked up struggling starter Tim Wakefield (10-7). The 6-foot-4-inch righthander quickly dismissed Reed Johnson and Orlando Hudson with strikeouts and ended the threat on an Alex Rios grounder.
Trailing, 3-0, after four innings, the Sox finally shook their Ontario doldrums in the fifth and sixth, and handed over a 5-3 lead to Wakefield. Boston's biggest blow came from Mirabelli, who came to the plate with runners at first and second in the sixth and sent a Miguel Batista 2-0 pitch soaring deep into the night for the
three-run shot. The blast, estimated at 421 feet, smashed off the scoreboard high above left field. Back home in the emerald bandbox of the Back Bay, Mirabelli's shot easily would have cleared the Monster seats, just before it cleared Canadian customs. In the word of the late, great Sox broadcaster Ned Martin: Mercy!
Identical to the night before, the Sox looked up after three innings to see the Blue Jays holding a 2-0 lead. Hadn't word of Boston's offensive supremacy made its way north of the border? |
