In case of emergency, break glass

It's nearly one a.m. eastern daylight time, and I'm as wide awake as the day I was born. I'm probably about as lucid as then as well. I was sitting here, waiting for Papelbon to close the Yankees out for what is an absolutely must-win game. He was the only bullpen pitcher not to appear in the 2-day, 3-loss, 39-run slaughter, so he was able to avoid much culpability. But Francona had to use him- he had to break that glass after saving him from those games.

As I type this, I'd still give him that. He did allow two runs to score- the tying runs, but I can't blame him that much. The Sox thrust him into the toughest possible situation- bases loaded, no outs (courtesy of Timlin and Lopez, who should be quite fresh for tomorrow, thanks guys) in the eighth inning. He allowed a sac fly in that inning, and then blew the save in the ninth. He was really bringing it, too, hitting 99 on the radar, and pitching pure adrenaline. I was trying to avoid turning on the computer with its dwindling battery until he closed it out. No dice.

You can't really blame Schilling for this one either- he really only made one mistake in seven strong innings- the HR to Giambi- including the hour-long rain delay. He came up big for the Sox.

And now it's time for the hitting to pick up what was a fairly decent pitching performance- and time for me to start blogging this as it happens- until the game is decided or until my laptop battery dies. Big Papi just hit a double to lead off the bottom of the ninth. All sense of joy or hope has been completely numbed by persistent anxiety. Manny just got the intentional walk- his 5th of this series. It's time to move Wily Mo back to 5th, Youkilis to leadoff, and Coco to 7th. Youkilis isn't scary. He just bunted, a decent bunt, but you've got Papi at 2nd, and he gets thrown out at 3rd. Why didn't Francona run for him? I guess I know the answer to that. This could go another couple of innings.

Wild pitch- Manny to third, Youk to second. Posada isn't a strong defensive catcher anymore. They're going to walk them full to avoid facing Loretta and to put newcomer Hinske on the spot. Come on, new guy. Come on. Make Boston love you.

Would this be a place for a suicide squeeze? Probably not, Francona has never done one as manager of the Sox- despite his ruminations on those Sullivan Tire commercials. Rivera is just throwing the heat past Hinske, and it's 1-2. Now it's 1-3, and Hinske is strolling back to the dugout. Who's next? Hinske hit for Kapler, who replace Wily Mo. Now we've got Mirabelli. Hitting .198 on the season. He hits a chopper back to Rivera, now we go to extra frames. That really sucked. Who will pitch this thing home?

I guess it was Craig Hansen. I still like the kid, I still think he'll be a very good pitcher (heck, just look at Cla Merideth these days). He gives up three runs on two home runs in the top of the 10th. At least Coco didn't hurt himself too badly trying to go after Giambi's homer. This is just shitty. We've lost four in a row to the Yankees, the bullpen is in shambles, we're 5 1/2 games back- and all we've got to show for it is all of this damned broken glass.