Sox win 6-5

Smoltz pitched horribly last night. Thank god for Ellsbury and his terrific defensive play and also the great night at the plate. The reason Youkilis hit that home run in the 7th was because Guthrie was paying too much attention to Ellsbury on first and not enough about getting his breaking ball over for a strike. Back to Smoltz, every time the Red Sox had a lead last night Smoltz seemed determined to give it back up. Off of the Ortiz home run in the 3rd which made the score 3-0 Sox, Smoltz came back and gave up three in the bottom half of the inning. The Sox took the lead 4-3 and Smoltz came right back and gave Baltimore the lead 5-4 it would have been 6-4 if Ellsbury didn't go banging into the wall to save a home run. Ortiz now looks inspired at the plate to prove everyone wrong about his steroid use. He seems determined to rip the ball every time he gets up. Papelbon had a clean bottom of the 9th inning last night but he still has a lot of trouble striking batters out. He struck out two batters but they kept fighting off pitches. He needs to work in another pitch because all he threw last night was fastballs. I don't know of any major league hitter who can't hit a fastball. It was good to see the bullpen hold down a game. The most underrated play of the game was Okajima's great catch on the ball hit by Matt Wieters. I was sure the game was going to be tied until Okajima just jumped and snagged it right out of the air.

You might have thought yesterday was a great day for the Red Sox trade wise getting Victor Martinez but when I heard they had gotten him with about an hour and a half until the deadline and they hadn't given up Bucholz or Bard I was thinking go after Halladay. I would have been fine with giving up any combination besides Bard. I would have given the Blue Jays the whole farm system except I wouldn't give up Bard. The LaRoche for Kotchman deal was irrelevant they think Kotchman is better in a backup role but he isn't going to get any playing time with Martinez and Youkilis in front of him. What the Red Sox really needed to do was go out and get a decent shortstop. I think Jed Lowrie is awful and I don't understand the hype around him and Nick Green is only a back up. I think they should have gotten a good shortstop like Yunel Escobar he has a .372 OBP and a .435 SLG. We should have given up Lowrie (who most teams still think is a good shortstop but is stock is dropping by the day), Lars Anderson (who isn't as good as everyone thinks and doesn't have good power numbers) and a single A pitching prospect. The only reason the Red Sox didn't get enough is because they didn't get a shortstop but I still think they had a productive day. I would give Theo 4 and 1/2 stars for the job yesterday.