Bay Powers Red Sox To 11th Straight Win...Boston 3 Cleveland 1

The Boston Red Sox, fueled by another clutch ninth inning blast from Jason Bay, defeated the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland by a score of 3-1. Timmy Wakefield was again fantastic. He allowed zero runs and only one hit in his seven innings on the mound. His knuckleballs were dancing while diving and right now he is simply on fire. Boston manager Terry Francona had this to say about his pitcher...

“We’ve seen it before. He just continues to do it,” Francona said. “It takes Wake all spring. You see him the first day, his first couple innings, he gets hit around. Then the season starts and he’s ready and it’s good. He just keeps doing it, and it’s fun to watch.”

And as for Bay's tater, Tito said this...

“Runs didn’t look like they were going to come easy on either side,” Sox manager Terry Francona said. “Early on I said to bench coach Brad Mills, ‘Someone needs to line one out of here.’ Jason Bay took a really good swing. He squared it up and hit it about as good as you can hit it, and we needed it.”

Manny Delcarmen pitched a clean eighth and Jonathon Papelbon handled the ninth but not without giving up a run on three hits. This year so far he is averaging 20.9 pitches per inning, more than five pitches above his average for the last three years. We have to hope he's OK. We really do...right now I'm not sure. He HAS to fine tune his pitch location.

And so the winning streak climbed to eleven games as the Red Sox vaulted into first place, percentage points ahead of the second place Toronto Blue Jays. It has sure been an enjoyable 12 days for that team from Massachusetts, the one we love. Tonight in Cleveland they will play game two of this three game series. It'll be Brad Penny versus Anthony Reyes. The first pitch will be thrown at 7:05am EDT. Enjoy the game and click on this post's title for all the Red Sox news from the Boston Globe. Have a great Tuesday, a downright hot one here in north central Connecticut. Temperatures will rise from an early morning low of 54 and rise to 92 or so. That's too hot for me but tonight's cold front will push the temperatures back to normal for the rest of the week. Normal highs are in the mid 60s with nightly lows in the 40s...my kind of weather. As always, BE WELL. I'll be talking to you...soon. See ya. GO SOX.