"I said, 'Go ahead and send him,' " Francona said, of his conversation with the third base coach. "The way Halladay was pitching, take your shot with [one chance], because that might be all we had."
It was. Ortiz stood at second base, only the second Red Sox to make it that far against Halladay, who was on the way to his fourth straight complete game. And the team only got that far because of a spectacular sprawling play by Dustin Pedroia in the top of the ninth, one that left him with a left shoulder that popped out of its socket, one that almost took off Jonathan Papelbon's head, and one that sent the Sox to the bottom of the frame with the game still scoreless.
That was what led to Ortiz's walk, Manny Ramírez's single to center, and Youkilis's winning single to center, all coming with two outs and leaving a very happy crowd of 37,215 exiting just a mere 2 hours 18 minutes after the game began. But all that excitement in the ninth - four men on base between the teams - shouldn't detract from what led up to it. For those who dig the long ball, it wasn't exactly the most thrilling. For those who love pitching, well, that was another story.
"Good thing," Francona said, when asked if last night's version of Lester was the one they had been waiting to see. "Because that was the Halladay we weren't waiting to see."
It wasn't, however, all-that-expected. Though Halladay entered the game following two losses, the former Cy Young award winner is one of the most impressive pitchers in the majors. Lester, on the other hand, has struggled because of inconsistencies, which left him vacillating between quality starts and early exits, pitch counts too high, walk counts too high.
Not last night.
