HIDEKI OKAJIMA

A POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
Hideki Okajima saves the Sox in Minnesota

May 6, 2007 ... Curt Schilling looked calm, sitting in the dugout after having been removed after his command unraveled in the seventh inning. The game was left in the hands of Hideki Okajima and, eventually, Jonathan Papelbon, and the Red Sox ace appeared resigned, seemingly concealing his disgust at how a masterful outing had nearly become a tie game.

Not as disgusted as it would have been had Okajima not ridden to the rescue again, recovering from allowing his first inherited runner in the United States to score (after stranding his first five) and bridging the gap to Papelbon and a 4-3 win that gave the Red Sox the rubber game of the three-game set in the Metrodome in front of 27,807.

But he was left with a bitter taste only because of how sweet his pitching had been over the first 6 2/3 innings. To that point, Schilling hadn't allowed a batter past second base, with runners reaching second just three times over the first six.

Then, with two on and two out in the seventh, Luis Castillo singled to left to load the bases, and Jason Tyner followed with a ringing single to right that scored two on Schilling's 99th and final pitch of the afternoon.

With Schilling sailing and the Twins flailing throughout the first six innings, it hardly appeared a couple of missed chances for the Sox would be quite as glaring in the final tally. But the caught stealing of Coco Crisp to lead off the game, the 8-6-2 in the first on J.D. Drew's double that resulted in David Ortiz being thrown out at the plate, and the out at second base made by Cora in the sixth just a fraction of a second before Dustin Pedroia crossed the plate with what would have been the Sox' fifth run of the game, loomed larger at the one-run end.

As Manny Ramirez and Julio Lugo sat this one out, Pedroia and Cora combined for five hits and three runs, even without that last run from the second baseman, whose average surged to .239 with a 5-for-6 weekend in Minneapolis.

Having started the scoring when he came home on Drew's double after getting on base when Sidney Ponson plunked him in the backside, Cora also scored the third run of the day in a two-run fifth. He singled to lead off that inning, then scored after a walk to Ortiz, a fielder's choice by Kevin Youkilis, and a throwing error on Ponson on a ball hit by Drew. Youkilis later scored on a single by Jason Varitek.

Those runs seemed like they would be enough. That was until Schilling, as he said, "let it get away," nearly undoing a start that gave Red Sox fans at least a slight boost amid the news Roger Clemens had brought his white horse with him to Yankee Stadium.

The Pawtucket Red Sox were involved in a collapse of epic proportions Saturday in Buffalo, and top relief prospects Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen were in the middle of it. The PawSox, ahead, 14-6, after the top of the ninth, gave up nine runs in the bottom of the inning. Hansen faced seven batters; all of them scored. He made an error and failed to cover first base on another play, contributing to his demise. Delcarmen, who earlier in the week had wild-pitched home the deciding runs in an extra-inning loss, walked home the winning run Saturday.

Kevin Youkilis, who was forced out of the game when his left quadriceps tightened on him after he was hit by a pitch in the seventh inning, got some good news yesterday. The official scorer changed his ruling from an error on third baseman Nick Punto to a hit for Youkilis on a ninth-inning bouncer Saturday night that caused Punto to range nearly five steps to make the play. Youkilis ceded his place to Eric Hinske for the final innings yesterday, but he said he thought with the off-day he should have no trouble playing in Toronto tomorrow.

Lester will play catch for the first time since leaving Wednesday's Triple A game early with forearm cramping. Though there is no timetable beyond that, he'll proceed to long toss, then a bullpen session.

Manny Ramirez sat for the first time all season, despite having a 19-for-47 (.404) lifetime average against Twins starter Sidney Ponson. Julio Lugo, who has gone .155 (11 for 71) in his last 18 games, was also given the day off.

Dustin Pedroia's three-hit game (two doubles) was the first of his career and gave him five hits in six at-bats in two starts here.