DOUG MIRABELLI

A POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
Doug Mirabelli comes through in the end

August 2, 2007 ... It was a confusing little dance Doug Mirabelli performed while at third base. Toward home plate. Twist. Turn. Back to third base. And then, in a moment that seemed to make Mirabelli cringe just as surely as it did the 36,457 sun-drenched fans in attendance at Fenway Park, he plodded toward home, only to be tagged out by Orioles catcher Paul Bako. Mirabelli's choices were limited, as Dustin Pedroia was advancing to third after Nick Markakis collected the fly to the warning track in right by David Ortiz. It would have been a sacrifice fly to put the Red Sox up, 4-3, in the sixth inning. Instead, it went into the books as a 9-6-2 double play.

Fortunately, at least for Mirabelli's psyche, redemption was quick to come. One inning later, in fact, as the catcher added his third hit of the afternoon, an RBI single that broke the tie in what would become a 7-4 Red Sox win. It started out so well for Mirabelli. With one run already in on Manny Ramirez's single in the third, Eric Hinske hit a home run to right to push the Red Sox to a 2-0 lead in the fourth. On the next pitch, Mirabelli's drive hit the first row of the Monster Seats for his fourth homer. It was the sixth time the Sox have hit consecutive home runs this season.

In the fifth, Sox starter Tim Wakefield delayed his 41st birthday celebration by allowing three runs, beginning with a sacrifice fly by Jay Payton that scored Aubrey Huff (triple). Bako and Brian Roberts scored on Corey Patterson's single. But that would be it for the Orioles against Wakefield (13-9), though they mustered a ninth-inning run off Eric Gagne in the reliever's first appearance with the Red Sox.

Baltimore's fifth-inning runs took Jeremy Guthrie off the hook. Guthrie has not yet lost a game on the road as a starter this season. While it didn't take anything nearly as dramatic to beat the Orioles as it did the last time Guthrie made an appearance in Boston, it did require some late-inning offense. The Sox recorded their second straight seventh-inning revival, led by Mirabelli, who notched his first three-hit game since Aug. 25, 2004.

With two outs, Coco Crisp was on first via a fielder's choice. He stole second, Hinske was intentionally walked (J.D. Drew ran for him), and Mirabelli came to the plate. And he came through, sending a Rob Bell pitch into center to score Crisp. Alex Cora followed with a single and then, in what was a common occurrence, Nick Markakis played a catchable fly off the bat of Dustin Pedroia into a two-run double as the ball bounced off his glove, off his face, and off into right field. (Markakis was charged with a sixth-inning error, and the Orioles' left and right fielders misplayed four other balls, though none was deemed an error.) That made the score 7-3, sending the Sox to a positive conclusion in a game that could have been a missed opportunity, especially with the Yankees losing.

Not only did the Red Sox take a series from the Orioles and pick up a game on the Yankees, but Tim Wakefield reached two milestones. He won his 150th game with the Sox, becoming just the third pitcher to reach that milestone behind Cy Young and Roger Clemens (192 each). And he turned 41, making him undefeated in four career birthday starts.

Eric Gagne got the loudest cheer of the afternoon when he entered the game to start the ninth inning. Since Jonathan Papelbon closed Wednesday's game and the Sox had a four-run lead to start the ninth yesterday, it was considered the right time for Gagne to make his Boston debut. Though he breezed through the first two batters on seven pitches, striking out Kevin Millar and Miguel Tejada looking, he then gave up a ground-rule double to Aubrey Huff on what was essentially a pop fly down the third base line, then a single to Jay Payton that scored a run. He ended the game by getting Jay Gibbons on a liner to left field.

The Orioles had significant trouble in the outfield yesterday. Payton misplayed two consecutive balls hit to left in the third inning. The first miscue gave David Ortiz a double on a ball that fell next to Payton's glove. The second was a Manny Ramirez liner that went over Payton's head and scored Ortiz with the Sox' first run. Payton also let a Dustin Pedroia hit bounce past him to the Wall in the fourth, though Pedroia settled for a single. Nick Markakis not only was charged with an error in the sixth when he dropped a Kevin Youkilis fly, but he played a Pedroia ball into a two-run double in the seventh.

Manny Ramirez recorded his 1,585th RBI with a third-inning single. That pushed him past Rogers Hornsby and Harmon Killebrew into sole possession of 32d place all time.