A TEAM "FIT TO BE TIED"
Edgar Renteria comes thru
in a must win game

September 24, 2005 ... Edgar Renteria flashed the cosmic ability that he's struggled to unveil all year, beating B.J. Ryan for a two-run single and the Orioles for a 4-3 win. Coupled with the Yankees' 7-4 loss to Toronto earlier in the day, the last-inning victory pulled the Sox even with New York for the division lead with eight games to play, and did so in the most dramatic of ways.

The Sox led, 2-0, after the first inning and until the bottom of the seventh, when 21-year-old Craig Hansen surrendered a two-run homer to Melvin Mora. But, in the ninth, the Sox rallied against the towering left-handed Ryan. Trot Nixon singled to the left side of the infield with one out. Tony Graffanino, sore groin and all, deposited a single over first base. Adam Stern, who boards a flight today for California to have labrum surgery, pinch ran. And Johnny Damon walked, loading the bases for the cerebral Colombian.

Renteria, 1 for 6 all-time vs. Ryan, figured the less he saw, the better. He offered at the first pitch and lofted it to left. Nixon scored. Stern nearly caught him on the way to the plate, with what would prove to be the winning run.

Mike Timlin allowed a run in the ninth before recording his ninth save in 11 chances since taking over the closer role.

Matt Clement, an afterthought at the end of 3 hours 44 minutes of baseball, was a significant reason the clubs played for nearly four hours. He needed 116 pitches to complete six innings. He allowed 10 runners, but not a single run. He took a no-hitter into the fifth, but had walked three batters in the second and fourth innings.

He pitched when he needed to, leaving the bases loaded in both innings, popping up Luis Matos in the second, and inducing Matos to ground out in the fourth. Clement allowed one hit in the fifth and three in the sixth but again, zero runs, aided in both innings by double plays. In the fifth, Miguel Tejada came up with one on and one out and laced a ball up the middle. The ball changed direction slightly off Clement's glove and ricocheted to Graffanino, who began a 1-4-6-3 double play. Generally, Clement is rather nondescript, but he was stoked at that moment, pumping his fist with vigor.

By the middle of the day, though, he'd be more reserved, his bullpen again putting the team in a difficult spot. Hansen, on for the seventh, began with some electricity, fanning Matos on three pitches, all fastballs, the last at 95 miles per hour. But then it all came undone, first softly, then violently. Bernie Castro chopped a ball short of third base. Bill Mueller, however, had to wait for the ball to come down and had almost no play. Then Hansen, on 1-and-1 to Mora, missed with a slider, one of two offspeed pitches among the 19 he threw. Behind, 2 and 1, he threw a 95-m.p.h. fastball that Mora lofted just 368 feet to left but gone, tying the game at 2-2. Hansen then got Tejada to ground to third, before allowing a single up the middle to Jay Gibbons and a double to Javy Lopez.

After six batters, four hits, and two runs, Francona lifted Hansen for Mike Myers, who got B.J. Surhoff to pop out on the first pitch. Jonathan Papelbon, for the second consecutive night, worked a scoreless eighth inning.

Papelbon (2-1) allowed a leadoff single, but with one out, he finished Matos with a full-count slider, and Jason Varitek completed the inning-ending double play by throwing out pinch runner Eddie Rogers attempting to steal second.