"We got written off, but this team is much better than we've been playing and we're going to show the world that we are," Johnny Damon vowed after he raced around from first base and dived in with the winning run on Bill Mueller's two-out double to left-center off Justin Lehr before a 35,144 at Fenway Park.
Pack away the black crepe. The Sox are back, as they showed by winning a third straight game for the first time in more than a month and capping the first three-game sweep of the A's at Fenway since 1998.
"The sky's not falling anymore," said Kevin Millar, who went 3 for 4 and knocked in two runs as he embodied the team's resilience.
The walkoff thriller unfolded after the Sox squandered a 7-1 lead, with the A's chipping away for two runs in the sixth off starter Curt Schilling, three more in seventh and eighth against Mike Timlin, and the tying run in the eighth off Keith Foulke, who blew his second save opportunity in six days.
"This was probably a better way to win than going out and winning, 7-0, although I would have enjoyed that more," Schilling said. "You need a jump-start every now and then. We showed a lot of character right there."
Damon, who has reestablished himself as one of the league's most productive leadoff hitters, ignited the winning rally by singling to left off Lehr with two outs in the 10th. Then came Mueller, who was batting second in the lineup for the first time since he returned from the disabled list six days earlier. Batting lefthanded against the righthanded Lehr, Mueller took one pitch for a ball then laced a fastball to the gap in left.
Damon began sprinting from first, but we was running with a sore left knee after painfully fouling a ball off it for the second time this season. Mueller, uncertain Damon could score on the play, tried to will him home.
"I was talking him through it, I know that," Mueller said. "I wanted him to. He's so fast, I'm happy he plays for us."
Like Mueller, Damon was not convinced he had enough time to beat the throw to the plate.
