Red Sox Sweep Giants as Barry Bonds Hits Number 748

The Red Sox beat the San Francisco Giants this afternoon 9-5 to sweep the three-game weekend series. Sox starting pitcher Tim Wakefield evened his record at 7-7 despite having given up five runs in five and two-thirds innings. Wake was bailed out by a lively Sox attack that featured Manny Ramirez's tenth homer of the year (and second in two games) and five doubles (two from David Ortiz and one each from Manny, Mike Lowell and JD Drew). The bullpen work by Manny DelCarmen, Javier Lopez, Joel Piniero (who induced a bases loaded 6-4-3 GIDP off the bat of Begnie Molina, after a Barry Bonds walk, to end the seventh inning) and a scoreless ninth from the incredible Hideki Okajima sealed the deal for the Sox.

Barry Bonds hit his 14th homer of the season, and the 748th of his career in the sixth inning when he lofted a hanging knuckler into the right-field bullpen. Bonds went also had a single and a walk in four plate appearances as he faced Wakefield, a former Pirate teammate (Wake came to the majors in 1992 with Pittsburgh) who became the 441st different pitcher off of whom Bonds has hit a homer. Two innings earlier, Pedro Feliz, the Giants third baseman hit his ninth homer of the year as Wake was not sharp, but, as noted above, the Sox bats came through for him.

The win gives the Sox a momentary nine-game lead on the Yankees (who have won ten of their last eleven games), who host the Mets tonight. The game will be carried on ESPN, and I'm sure that Joe Morgan will continue to verbally fellate Derek Jeter and A-Rod to the point where the fine minds at the Fire Joe Morgan site will have no choice but to document the atrocities. I just hope that Mets staring pitcher, the 83-year-old former Yankee El Duque can spin a gem against his old club tonight.

The Sox now travel south to play the Atlanta Braves (second in the NL East as I type this) for three games from Monday through Wednesday, then, after another travel day on Thursday they cross the country to play the San Diego Padres (first in the NL West as I type this) in a three-game weekend series that ends interleague play for 2007.