There was a scare when the Rockies picked up two runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh when Matt Holliday launched Hideki Okajima's first pitch into the shrubbery in faraway center field for a 437-foot three-run bomb. But Okajima got out of the inning without further damage and, along with everyone else in the Red Sox dugout, had a smile put back on his face when back-to-back doubles by Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia produced three very welcome pad runs in the eighth.
Ellsbury went 4 for 5 with three doubles. Pedroia was 3 for 5. Once again, the table-setters put out the good china.
Everyone had to work hard to pull out this 4-hour-19-minute ordeal, including the skipper. Terry Francona revisited his National League managing days with a pair of double-switches, one of which was absolutely prescient when Alex Cora, subbing for Pedroia, laid down a sacrifice bunt that helped manufacture the final run in the eighth.
But just exactly how great are things going for the Red Sox now? Daisuke Matsuzaka had a two-run single in the third.
Old Dice-K looked like every clueless American League pitcher in his first at-bat in the second, whiffing on four pitches against Colorado starter Josh Fogg. And why not? The manager had actually ordered him not to swing when he faced the Pirates in Bradenton in March. But when he came up in the third, the Red Sox leading, 3-0, and the bases loaded following a semi-intentional walk to Julio Lugo, Dice-K hopped on a Fogg curve - why? - and ripped a shot between third and short, bringing home Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek.
Fogg had come into the game with a new reputation as a dragon-slaying pitcher, a guy who had beaten some fairly big names this season (Schilling, Mussina, Webb) in the course of a 10-9 regular season and someone whose assortment of pitches, and overall moxie, might give the Red Sox the same sort of problems they had encountered with Cleveland's Jake Westbrook. Or so the Rockies thought.
