Jonathan Papelbon slouched on the couch, watching a baseball game on TV -- the Dodgers, not the Yankees. Terry Francona, his voice reduced by a cold to a painful rasp, asked a group of reporters if it was true the Celtics really wanted to sign Reggie Miller.
"They'd better have four balls,'' Francona said, marveling at Reggie's famous demolition of the Knicks at the feet of Spike Lee. Jerry Remy suggested that the Cooz was still available.
The Yankees? "People dropping off bridges are going to miss some good baseball,'' Francona said sarcastically. "They'd better climb back up.''
It probably took extra devotion, coffee, or Red Bull to make it through this one, but those fans who dared to emerge from hiding to watch last night's Sox-Angels game were rewarded with an exhaustive -- and exhausting -- display of the mettle of the teams with the best two records in the American League. In the end, the Sox prevailed, 9-6, behind an electric night by Dustin Pedroia, who wasn't even born the last time the Sox blew a 14 1/2-game lead, and more virtuosity from Hideki Okajima, who had yet to obtain a passport in 1978.
"They played us so tough,'' Francona said of the Angels, who had won the first two games of the series, snapping the Sox string of five straight series wins. "Some wins seem tougher than others. This was a tough one.''
Pedroia had three hits, scored three runs, stole a base, made a terrific diving play, and not least, hit a solo home run that broke a 6-all tie in the seventh. Okajima, getting an unusually early summons, took over from Mike Timlin and struck out Orlando Cabrera with a runner on second to end the sixth, pitched a scoreless seventh, and before handing over a three-run lead to Eric Gagne, gained credit for his third win without a loss.
The Sox, who were playing without David Ortiz (inflammation in his left shoulder), also enjoyed a 4-for-4 night, including three doubles, from Mike Lowell, who drove in two runs and now has 77 RBIs, just three fewer than he knocked in last season, his first with the Sox.
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