He Runs on Grass, He Walks on Dirt. And Water.

The Red Sox swept their two game series against Baltimore with a come-from-behind victory in Camden Yards tonight. The Sox had a 5-2 lead, going into the bottom of the 9th, and Closer Boy ran/walked in from the bullpen to pitch a scoreless inning for the save. Jonathan never gives up runs in April- I don't know why they even bothered to play the bottom of the 9th. It's probably some kind of arcane MLB rule. (Like the "don't give champagne to the Kansas City Royals rule.")

But Papelbon wasn't the big story tonight. (I was just trying to kind of link to my post title, which I am a bit proud of. It may even be "Benjamin-esque." Also, "arcane" is totally a word that Amalie would use. OK. AB Fanboy mode off.)

Josh Beckett was brilliant tonight, pitching eight sterling innings, in which he allowed two runs on eight hits and ZERO walks. He threw 73 of his 100 pitches for strikes. (That trade with the Marlins doesn't look quite so bad right now.) Beckett became only the 4th Sox P to start the season 5-0, joining Babe Ruth, Pedro Martinez, and Matt Young.

The hero on offense was another questionable trade acquisition, Wily Mo Pena. (Note: I was in favor of both the Pena and Beckett trades, and, yes, I have been taunted in an unkind manner in the past as a result.) The bulky CF lugged his sub-.180 batting average to the plate with one out and the bases loaded in the 8th inning against Orioles closer Chris Ray. The Sox trailed at the time, 2-1.

This blogger was yearning for a right-handed pinch-hitter. (Yes, I know WMP IS RH. Bear with me here.) A single would have given the Sox the lead, a sacrifice fly would have tied the game. The worst results would have probably been a strike out or a DP, two of WMP's specialties. But the best RH option off the bench was Doug Mirabelli, who needed to be reserved, in case Varitek was injured, or Wakefield was brought on to pitch the 26th inning. So Francona allowed Pena to bat, and Pena hit a 900 ft. grand slam to give the Sox a 5-2 lead. (And if you believe the HR was 900 ft., you probably also believed that Matt Young stat a paragraph ago. But it was a 420 ft. blast.)

Ray was having trouble getting his off-speed stuff over the plate, tried to throw a fastball past Pena, and Wily Mo made him pay for his insolence. Now, if only Pena could do that to non-fastballs. Then, the Sox would have themselves a player. After that, we could start teaching him to play guitar like Bronson. I would very much like to see WMP perform "C is for Cookie" one day. But the batting and the fielding are the priorities right now.

The Sox play the Yankees in New York this weekend, hoping to replicate their excellence of last weekend against the Yanks. Daisuke Matsuzaka (2-2, 4.00 ERA) will start Friday night, facing Hideki Matsui for the first time in regular season action. As Jerry Remy said, "there should be some media there for that." Matsuzaka will be opposed by Game 1 losing pitcher Andy Pettitte (1-0, 1.78 ERA), who will also be available out of the bullpen in this Sunday's loss to the Sox. The first place Sox currently have a five and a half game lead over the cellar-dwelling Yankees.