That’s Tampa Bay’s crusty Greg Norton, hitting an opposite field HR off Boston’s Julian Tavares moments ago, giving the D-Rays a 7-6, 10 inning victory (their 7th in 10 home games against the Red Sox in 2006). Earlier, Jonathan Papelbon allowed an 8th inning HR to Dioner Navarro to tie the game at 6. Two at bats earlier, Travis Lee hit a solo HR off Mike Timlin to cut Boston’s lead to 6-5.
(Addendum : the Krukster is up in arms over Manny loafing it on his 8th inning single — a fly to right center that shoud’ve been caught…and Ramirez should’ve ended up on 2nd. For once, I’ll agree with Kruk — Manny oughta be embarrased. Embarrased that he’s being called out by a guy who quit on the White Sox in the middle of a game.)
Dissing the D-Rays is old sport around here, but to their credit, Tampa Bay had actual, living, breathing fans cheering the home team this afternoon. Which is more than can be said for the Baltimore Orioles, 6-1 losers this afternoon to the Yankees, a game witnessed by what sounded like a stadium full of Yankee lovers. A quartet of solo HR’s (Jeter, Damon, Cabrera, Giambi) allowed by the O’s Rodrigo Lopez provided the comfy margin for Jaret Wright (6 IP, 5 hits, 1 earned run), with Mariano Rivera pitching a scoreless 9th for his 28th save.
5 Tigers pitchers combined to shut out the Indians earlier today, as a sharp outing by C.C. Sabathia (7 IP, 6 hits, 1 run) was squandered in Detroit’s 1-0 win. On Friday, Detroit confirmed the signing of no. 6 overall pick P Andrew Miller, and strongly hinted he might be joining the club come September. As noted by the Austin American-Statesman’s Kirk Bohls in today’s profile of Brent Clevelen, the Tigers have been relatively youth-heavy (Verlander, Zumaya, Zach “Outdoor” Miner, Curtis Granderson) for a club running away with their division.