Boston 6, Baltimore 4

Big win in Boston yesterday afternoon for the Red Sox. Boston 6, Baltimore 4, as the Sox moved back within 3 of the division-leading Orioles. Matt Clement pitched fairly well, but the offense didn't do much against Oriole rookie Hayden Penn. The big hit of the game was (obviously) the 2-out, 2-out, full-count home run from David Ortiz to end it.

• It was not the first time that Ortiz had hit a walk-off against the Orioles. On September 23 of 2003, he went deep in the 10th inning of a 6-5 Boston win that reduced their magic number for clinching the Wild Card to 1. While people talked about the Ortiz walk-off, the big hit of that game was a 3 run 9th inning 2-out HR from Todd Walker which tied the game at 5 and set up the Ortiz heroics.



• One of the freaks of the baseball season was the Red Sox record when allowing the opponent four runs. They'd done it 3 times before taking the field yesterday. In each of those three games, they'd scored 3, losing 4-3. The score before Ortiz' HR yesterday? 4-3.



• It seems strange to talk about a "big win" in early June of the baseball season, but that was a big win yesterday afternoon. The Orioles were 1 strike away from increasing their 1st-place lead by 2 games over the course of a 4 week series at Fenway. They were 1 strike away from a 5-game lead in the East. Instead, it's a two-game swing on 1 pitch. Given the relative gap between them, that's a huge difference.



• On Tuesday night, Johnny Damon hit the bullpen fence - hard - and ended up leaving the game. Yesterday afternoon, his teammates (reportedly Mike Timlin) left him a reminder.
  
  
  -AP Photo