A TEAM "FIT TO BE TIED"
The Sox come back to win in the 10th inning
on a wild night in Tampa that saw
Matt Clement get hit in the head

July 26, 2005 ... After seeing their top starting pitcher, Matt Clement, taken off the field on a stretcher when he was struck in the head by a line drive, the Sox played one of their wilder games of the season, with Johnny Damon providing the heroics.

Damon saved the game with a leaping catch at the wall in deepest center field in the bottom of the ninth, then put the Sox on top with a leadoff homer in the 10th. Boston escaped further drama in the bottom of the 10th and pulled out a 10-9 victory over the Devil Rays at Tropicana Field.

After the Sox tied it, 8-8, with two runs in the top of the ninth, Tampa Bay had a chance to win in the bottom off Curt Schilling, who got the first two outs. He then gave up a single to Julio Lugo, and Jorge Cantu nailed a long drive to center that would have ended it if not for Damon's acrobatic grab.

Earlier in the night, the outcome of the game was the last thing on anyone's mind. In the bottom of the third, Bill Mueller was kneeling, his glove clasped near his heart, presumably in prayer. The Sox were leading, 5-1, with one out, but that couldn't have been more immaterial to Mueller.

Clement, who calls Mueller one of his best friends on the team, was lying on the field, struck moments earlier near his right ear by a line drive off the bat of Carl Crawford. The ball had hit him squarely, then ricocheted into left field for an RBI single. Clement left the field on a stretcher, his arms strapped and neck braced. A few innings later a CT scan had come back negative and he was in good spirits, according to Sox medical director Thomas Gill. Clement was to be kept overnight at Bayfront Medical Center for precautionary reasons and will be reevaluated this morning. Crawford's single that hit Clement scored a run, pulling the Devil Rays within 5-1. Clement had thrown just 38 pitches over 2 1/ 3 innings.

Chad Bradford, generally a late-inning right-handed specialist, relieved Clement, inheriting two runners. The next batter, Julio Lugo, singled to Bill Mueller at third, loading the bases for Jorge Cantu. Bradford fanned Cantu, a right-handed hitter, and up came left-handed-hitting Aubrey Huff. Bradford, in his brief stint with the Sox, had faced only six batters before last night, and five were right-handed. Huff hit a 1- and-0 ceiling scraper just over the wall in right for a grand slam, tying the game at 5-5. The slam was the second of Huff's career and his second in less than a week he clubbed one here Friday off Orioles lefthander Bruce Chen.

The Sox sent eight men to the plate in the three-run third, which began with a Johnny Damon double. Damon scored on a single by Doug Mirabelli, who hit in the third spot on a rare night off for David Ortiz, who's mired in an 11-for-59 (.193) drought.

Kevin Millar knocked in Mirabelli for the fourth Sox run with an RBI single, and Ramirez who'd singled earlier in the inning scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-0.

Tampa Bay entering the third, vaulted ahead, 6-5, in the sixth on Jonny Gomes's sacrifice fly to deep center, plating Huff, who'd led off the inning with a double off Mike Myers. The double ended Myers's lengthy contribution (he pitched two innings plus one batter, a notably long appearance for a pitcher who had thrown only 19 2/3 innings this season over 36 appearances).

Tampa scored six unanswered runs before Mueller, one of Clement's best friends on the team, delivered Jason Varitek to the plate in the seventh with a single to left, tying the game at 6-6.

By the time the ninth inning rolled around, the teams had combined to use 10 pitchers and the Sox trailed, 8-6, despite leading, 5-0, after three innings.

Jason Varitek homered to straightaway center of All-Star closer Danys Baez with one out in the ninth. The homer, Varitek's third of this road trip and 16th of the season, pulled the Sox within, 8-7. Kevin Millar then lined a Baez offering to center that fell in front of center fielder Joey Gathright. John Olerud, despite a 3- for-32 beginning to July, put his smooth swing on a Baez pitch that he lined to left center, giving the Sox first and second with one out. Mueller, on 2-and-0 pitch, crushed a single over first base that went all the way to the right-field corner, easily scoring Adam Stern, who had pinch run for Millar. Olerud, who has two screws in his foot from off-season surgery who doesn't run well, was waved home but thrown out at the plate.

That left the game tied at 8-8, with Mueller at third and Tony Graffanino at bat. Baez fell behind Graffanino, 3 and 0, but came back to strike him out on a high fastball, pumping his fist after he did.

The Sox offense was all but absent in the innings that followed Clement's terrifying ordeal, despite having cranked out five runs of support while he was in the game.

Right fielder Trot Nixon left the game after swinging and missing forcefully at a 2-and-0 fastball in the top of the third. He has a strained oblique muscle on his left side. Nixon immediately reached for the left side of his lower back, clearly in pain. He talked briefly with trainer Jim Rowe and manager Terry Francona at home plate before leaving the game. Nixon missed all but 48 games last season with a slight disk herniation and strained left quadriceps.

In his first at-bat last night, Manny Ramirez knocked in runs 91 and 92 on a two-run homer to left. Those 92 RBIs have come in the Sox' 100 games, setting Ramirez's 162-game pace at 149.