It was a night for standing, for 36,910-person ovations, for Curt Schilling tipping his cap after seven innings of scintillating splitters, for Trot Nixon's return to Boston, for Kevin Youkilis motoring around third base to reach home plate -- standing! -- on an inside-the-park home run. But, in the end, the standing that the fans of Boston were left with was in appreciation of Jonathan Papelbon wriggling out of a mess with a call that was nearly as messy.
Or maybe that was confusion.
Ask Papelbon, or manager Terry Francona, or Indians third baseman Casey Blake, or Tribe manager Eric Wedge. Each take, slightly different. But in the end, the only one that mattered was the opinion of first base umpire Chuck Meriwether, who dispatched Blake with a strikeout swinging that very likely saved the game for the Red Sox in a 5-3 win over Central-leading Cleveland.
More so than even Schilling, whose splitter hadn't felt this way since 2001 or 2002, and who finished the night with 10 strikeouts and no walks and his first win in four starts. Though, clearly, the team wouldn't have been in that position without the return to form of its ace.
"It's tough," Papelbon said of the ninth-inning call. "I only saw one replay of it. That's a tough call. Personally I thought it hit the bat, but everybody's telling me it hit him in the hand. I guess by the rule he's out. I didn't necessarily see that, to be totally honest. But that's the call that they made. That's the call that we went with."
With one out and men on second and third, Papelbon was protecting a two-run lead and faced Blake, running the count to 1-and-2. It was then that Papelbon threw a pitch that appeared to bounce off Blake's hand. At first, plate umpire Rick Reed called it a hit by pitch, but after reviewing with Meriwether, it was determined that the ball hit Blake while he was swinging -- a strikeout, according to the rulebook.
The Indians disagreed.
"The home plate umpire said the ball hit his hand, the first base umpire said he went," Wedge said. "My argument was I didn't think he swung. I'm not arguing that the ball hit his hand.
"[Meriwether] said the bat had crossed the zone. To me that's a hard thing to do when you're leaning back that way, to get the bat head across the zone. I didn't see it that way."
Despite the ending, it was the beginning that, in all likelihood, will be far more important to the Red Sox' ultimate fortunes. Schilling, to be specific.
"No walks, 10 strikeouts, located his fastball with some finish on it," Francona said. "And really threw, probably, in my opinion, his best split of the year. Had some depth to it, got them off that fastball. That's a good-hitting lineup. He really pitched."
