For the Birds #4

Tonight, I attended a Red Sox game at Fenway park. They played the Detroit Tigers and lost 3-2 in a pitcher's duel. Curt Schilling pitched brilliantly for the Sox through six and received no support tonight, save for a Coco Crisp line drive home run. Fenway is a glorious venue for baseball, packed to capacity, and buzzing with pennant fever. The scoreboard flashed a score for the Orioles and the Yankees in the Bronx. The Orioles held a slim lead, 3-0. Detroit edged ahead of Boston 2-1, after Schilling ran out of gas, and Ortiz tied the score with a single in the 7th. To give you an idea of Schilling's mental toughness, after he gave up the two runs with none out, he struck out the side. The Yankees pushed a run across making it 3-1, Birds. Would it be possible for Erik Bedard to outduel Mike Mussina? The clear Boston night looked promising for both Boston and Baltimore. Then Detroit captured the lead in the top of the ninth. The Yankees tied the score in the Bronx which spelled certain doom for the "O's." As Todd Jones, the Tiger closer stared in at his catcher with two outs and two strikes on Willy Mo Pena, the man in the scoreboard pulled the "3" from its place next to "NY," leaving an open square for a second. The ball blew past Pena for strike three, and the "4" nestled into place for the Yankees, who distanced themselves by another game from the Sox, and look poised to enter the postseason with resilience.