"Obviously, we're playing as good, if not better, than we were at this time last year," said the largely unheralded Bronson Arroyo, who did the honors in the opener of a 10-game homestand by rationing the Tigers only one unearned run on six hits and a pair of walks over 7 1/3 innings. "Everybody's pretty much healthy, so hopefully things keep going well."
The Sox finished the night leading the idle Angels by a half-game in the wild-card scramble and trailing the Yankees by 5 1/2 games in the division with 36 to play.
"This team has come together," said catcher Doug Mirabelli, who helped the Sox go 3-1 while Jason Varitek served his four-game suspension. "We have that energy about us right now. We see a finish line, we know what we need to do to get there, and that's everybody's goal on this team."
The hard-luck Arroyo, who has pitched far better than his record indicates, improved to 7-9 with a 4.07 ERA, third best to Curt Schilling (3.38) and Pedro Martinez (3.78) among Sox starters. With eight strikeouts, Arroyo increased his total to 117, also third best on the staff to Martinez (180) and Schilling (158).
"He gets overshadowed with the guys at the top of the [staff] and with him being a young guy [27]," said Dave Roberts, who helped to spark the offense from the bottom of the order with a sacrifice fly, a key sacrifice bunt, and his first stolen base for the Sox. "But he goes out there and competes, and from what I've seen, I've got nothing but good things to say about him."
The Sox, who had averaged nearly seven runs a game in 17 outings since Aug. 8, struggled a bit at the plate but found ways to win nonetheless. They did it with some timely offense, including some small ball that has become more characteristic of the realigned Sox since the blockbuster trade that sent Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs and brought Roberts, Orlando Cabrera, and Doug Mientkiewicz to Boston.
