A glorious spring weekend

Globe photo by Jim Davis
What an exciting weekend of baseball, Red Sox v. Yankees-style. Friday night's come from behind, Saturday's game which featured Big Papi homering - they were both overshadowed by Sunday night's game. Wow! Some of the more exciting parts:

*Well, of course, number one was the four-in-a-row homers by the Red Sox in the 3rd. Down 3-0, Manny Ramirez hit one over the Monster with two outs. I'd felt he was due to start breaking out of his "slump," so I took that as a welcome sign. Next up was JD Drew, who powered one into the bleachers behind the Bull Pen. Yeah, score now 3-2. Then it's Mike Lowell - another one into the Monster seats, and suddenly we're tied!. I couldn't believe it! I looked away from the tv for a second, and I hear Jon Miller making the homer call - and I figured they were replaying Lowell's homer. No, it was Jason Varitek following up with ANOTHER one over the Monster, and now we're ahead 4-3. I was screaming "Unbelievable" at the tv - scared the cat and, I'm sure, my neighbor! Then Wily Mo stepped up - and if anyone has the power to make it five in a row, it's him. Unfortunately, he struck out - Lowell said that when Wily Mo came into the dugout, everyone was saying "Yeah, you suck" to him!

This is only the 5th time a team has hit four consecutive homers - and the first time since 1963 they've hit four off one pitcher. The last time for the four homers was last year, in a Dodgers-Padres game. The Dodgers hit four homers off two pitchers to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th - a game won in extra innings with a homer by Nomar. And who hit one of those four homers? J D Drew - who hit the second home run in BOTH instances. Strange.

Even stranger coincidence is that in the previous time this feat was accomplished in 1963, one of the home runs hit by the Cleveland Indians was by our manager's father, Tito Francona. Karma, baby, karma.

PS - I love that photo. It's actually from later in the game -when Lowell hit ANOTHER homer, this time for 3 runs - but it shows all four of our "homers" together.

*ESPN had some great reaction shots to the homers. The best were the shot of Manny in the dugout and Theo in the luxury box. When Lowell's shot went out, they showed Manny leaping around the dugout, hugging everyone in sight. Say what you will about our Manny, it appears that his teammates aren't nearly as disenchanted with him as the press would have you believe. He was like a big puppy, bounding around to everyone's clear delight. And as for Theo - here's a screen capture I grabbed from "Surviving Grady" this a.m.:
Doesn't look too detached, does he?

*This was first three-game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway since 1990.

*Daisuke had a few control problems all night, most noticeably when he hit two batters. Of course, I couldn't think of two better batters to hit than A-Rod and Jeter! If Matsuzaka wanted to win the heart of RS Nation, that's one way to do it!

*I know - it's only April. We've got a long way to go. But an exciting series like this really makes you glad we have baseball back. And just whets the appetite for the rest of the season. We've got quite a week ahead of us - two games v. the Toronto Blue Jays; two games at Baltimore; and then three games over the weekend at Yankee Stadium. I hope the boys aren't too emotionally let-down tonight...