Just another reason to be the beater, not the beaten. No offense to Mr. Orsillo, of course. And if that wasn’t enough to be thankful for, we also got to see a glimpse of the Carl Crawford we thought we were getting, and a little healthy competition for the third starter spot.

Down 3-1 in the fourth, the Sox took heed of Dr. Zaius and piled on eight runs in the bottom of the inning, four of them courtesy of Crawford’s gland slam. Salty added a two-run shot of his own and the Sox were on their way. Bedard was solid – six innings, three runs and six strikeouts. It would be nice to see him and Lackey battle for the October spot. We will see tomorrow in the matinee finale of the series.

I shudder to think who else Red has pictures of in the pool if the Sox lose the series…