Step right up and Sweep the Mets!!!

So many highlights, so much to say.

I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, watching David Ortiz advance from second to third on a sac fly (you could almost hear Chris Berman yelling 'rumblin', stumblin', bumblin'), or Coco Crisp's sprawling catch to save the game? Clearly it was the catch -- they don't come much better.

If you throw in the circumstances that surrounded it (ie, the Mets probably would have tied the score and perhaps gone ahead had he not grabbed it), it might be the best catch of the year.

Schilling vs. Glavine started out as a pitchers' duel, and it *was* as they played to a 0-0 tie through six innings. But then Carlos Beltran got to Schilling with a 2-run shot for a 2-0 lead, and that lump in my throat appeared (I really wanted this sweep!). But Mark Loretta blasted a shot over the Monstah to cut the lead to 2-1, and then Papi played wall ball with a double to left-center. After advancing on the above-mentioned sac fly, he scored to tie the game. Coco Crisp then flashed some speed on the bases before scoring on a sac fly by Youk, and Big Papi added an insurance run with a homer to deep center. Papelbon comes on to save it in the 9th, and it's broom time for the Metropolitans!!!

But the catch. Just unbelievable!

And now the winning streak has reached 12 games, the longest for the Sox since 1995. And as Orel Hershiser (who has turned into a pretty darn good announcer, by the way) said during the call of the game tonight, the Sox won this won with a team approach and they executed in every aspect of the game. That's true. They showed:

• offense: (seven hits and four earned runs against Tom Glavine and a pretty darn good bullpen)
• defense: Coco, you the man!
• pitching: Schilling looked mahvelous, and Papelbon was his usual solid self
• baserunning: Papi even looked good on the basepaths, and Crisp was fantastic

All told, a rather pleasant night at the Fens. :-)