``I'm sitting there battling and battling. My first reaction was, `He picked me up.' That's what they're out there for and that's what they've been doing all year long and that's what they're great at. For me it was a relief. That's a huge play [by Lowell]. A huge play. If he doesn't make that play, that's probably a tie ballgame, maybe they go ahead."
The Orioles had the bases loaded for much of the ninth inning as they tried their darndest to prevent a demoralizing three-game sweep. Because even though Papelbon didn't give up a hit in his two-thirds of an inning, two walks and an error by the normally steady Alex Cora at shortstop provided two runs and a chance for another major late-inning meltdown by the Sox.
But Lowell took care of that, grabbing Melvin Mora's grounder and winging it across the diamond for the final out.
He took care of more, too, his home run over the Green Monster acting as a steppingstone to another offensive outburst (28 runs in three games at Fenway after 26 in six road games) that helped the Sox cut their deficit in the American League East to one game.
``Losing this game was . . .," said manager Terry Francona, trailing off. ``We needed to stay away from that."
Simply, they needed to win these games. Having dropped five of six to the Devil Rays and Royals, the Sox needed to gain even a modicum of momentum before the Tigers and Yankees come calling. And they did that, using impressive offensive production to offset a shaky outing by Jon Lester, even without a resting David Ortiz or a hit by the streaking Manny Ramírez, whose afternoon ended with an 0 for 3 on the stat sheet. Kevin Youkilis ended the eighth with a ground out, leaving Ramírez in the on-deck circle.
With Lester laboring through a 25-pitch, one-run first inning, his teammates picked him up in the bottom of the inning with a Mark Loretta walk, Youkilis double, and Ramírez walk, setting the stage for Lowell's grand slam.
