So, yes, yesterday's 12-3 victory over the Phillies was important, as was the way it was accomplished. There was, for one of the rare times this season, a little bit of that September '03 feel.
The Sox were trailing, 3-0, in the third and Curt Schilling was huffing and puffing his way through a 27-pitch inning. With men on first and third, two away, and Schilling just having gone 3-and-2 to three straight men, Chase Utley went to 2-and-2 before putting a serious swing on the ball. When the ball left the bat, Schilling was at the mercy of the gods. A gapper would have meant a 5-0 game, but the ball was hit directly at Johnny Damon, who hauled it in.
Like major "Phew!"
"He's a good little hitter," said Varitek. "He can do a lot of different things up there. That was a decent pitch. He stung a backdoor slider."
It was a game-altering at-bat, and it looked even bigger when the Red Sox stung Brett Myers for four quick runs with two outs in the home half of the third, the big blows back-to-back ground-rule doubles by Manny Ramirez and Nomar Garciaparra.
It was one of those juxtapositions so unique to baseball, and it had a soothing effect on the gathering of 34,739, who were acutely aware of their favorite team's strong need for a victory on this particular occasion.
"You could feel the atmosphere was a little edgy," said Gabe Kapler. "But those two hits took the load off the shoulders of everyone in the ballpark."
The lead grew to 6-3 on a truly startling David Ortiz two-run homer in the fifth, and the game got out of hand late when the Red Sox scored two in the seventh and four in the eighth, the outburst capped by a three-run homer off the bat of Mark Bellhorn, who, with 44 runs batted in, has more RBIs than any number of seven- and eight-figure salary guys, starting with Barry Bonds (a cheap shot, granted, but who deserves it more?).
