They came out a step slow, wearied by the game that would not end. Thirteen innings - and one 49-minute rain delay - into what was supposed to be an afternoon game at Fenway Park, Kevin Youkilis stroked his second home run of the game, a two-run shot lofted over the Green Monster.
He was met, as usual, by a group of teammates happy to pound his head into mush, but also by the knowledge that this one was finally, finally over.
"Sick of playing that game," Youkilis said, after the 5-3 win over the Cardinals. "Glad we got done with it. It was getting a little tiring out there, little humid today with the rain."
The Red Sox and Cardinals each loaded the bases in the 11th, only to strand all the runners. But it wasn't just that. The Red Sox led off four straight innings with a hit (10th through the 13th) and three straight with a double before Mike Lowell crushed a single off the Wall to lead off the 13th inning.
That was the charm. Youkilis then smashed a fastball into the seats and a celebration - albeit a quiet one for Fenway - was touched off for the only win the Sox could take from the Cardinals this weekend.
"That's the only time I don't like the Wall," Lowell said, smiling. "I hit that ball pretty well. I can accept the double, but a single really bothers me. That's the equivalent of a blooper in the box score. And I feel like I did so much more than that."
Still, Lowell (3 for 5) did do more than a single in the box score yesterday. He helped prevent the Cardinals from sweeping at Fenway.
None of the late heroics would have been necessary without Jonathan Papelbon.
The Sox closer came in with a 3-2 lead in the ninth inning. He had struck out Rick Ankiel and Yadier Molina, both on 97-mile-per-hour fastballs, when he walked Chris Duncan. Pinch hitter Adam Kennedy followed with a double over the head of Coco Crisp, allowing Duncan to tie the score.
"You don't see it very often," Sox reliever Javier Lopez said. "You get caught up in knowing that [Papelbon] is pretty much lights out every time he's in there. He expects to be lights out and we expect him to be lights out. When it happens you're kind of shocked for a second."
Down 2-0, the Sox scored their first run on a seventh-inning homer by Youkilis, and grabbed two more in the eighth, Crisp tripling when Ankiel fell on his drive to center field. Crisp scored on Julio Lugo's sacrifice fly to tie it. Dustin Pedroia singled and stole second then scored the go-ahead run after consecutive walks to J.D. Drew, Manny Ramírez, and Lowell, including nine straight balls from Chris Perez. But Youkilis left the bases loaded when he struck out swinging.
That's when things got particularly interesting.
