Asked at what point the sample size moves from small to large, Lowell said, "I don't know. As long as we keep winning, I don't care."
The Sox don't know why they have been able to sweep through the Yankees, nor are they willing to tempt fate by attempting to provide an answer to an oddity that seems bound for a correction - especially given the way the Sox have won the seven straight. They haven't all been easy.
"It's crazy, but we've been playing really good against them," David Ortiz said. "I don't think we have done that ever before, huh?"
He's not quite right. The seven mark Boston's second-longest winning streak against the Yankees to start a season. The longest was a 14-game run from April 11-July 1, 1912. Ortiz can be excused for not remembering those days.
As manager Terry Francona said, "What we did in April is a long time ago. What I care about is us playing good tonight, and getting better as we go."
In last night's game, as the Red Sox' bullpen faltered - albeit momentarily - in the form of Ramon Ramirez, it was Hideki Okajima who provided the 38,121 on hand with a reason to go home content. With two home runs having narrowed the lead to one run in the seventh, Okajima stranded Jorge Posada at first with a strikeout of Hideki Matsui. And in the eighth, as the speedy Brett Gardner stood on second base with one out, Okajima got Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon to swing at air.
Jonathan Papelbon, one night after suffering from food poisoning, closed out the game for his 15th save.
"I had to take my time in between each pitch," Papelbon said. "I'm sure I got a handful of pace-of-game violations tonight. Breathing a little heavy. The big thing is I made it through it."
He also gave credit to Okajima, saying, "By far, no questions asked, Hideki was our star of the game. He came in and basically took over the ballgame, and did what he did. That's the big reason why we won the game tonight. There was no doubt about it."
