The Nest

While I’m not a big fan of his hot-dogging, I did find it very entertaining yesterday when Manny not only caught up to a fly ball that no one thought he could reach, but made the completely outstretched, over the shoulder catch. For an encore, while his momentum carried him into the left field padded fence, he launched himself toward the crowd where a Red Sox fan happened to be sitting and had the presence of mind to high five him.

That would have been worth the price of admission for any fan but Manny wasn’t finished. He made an accurate throw into second baseman Dustin Pedroia who relayed to Kevin Youkilis at first base to double off Aubrey Huff who like everyone else thought the ball was over Manny’s head. He had run all the way past second base and had to retrace his steps. Easy prey.

Lowell, Manny and others gathered around one of the NESN cameras in the dugout afterward to see the play again. That in itself, from a fan’s perspective, was entertaining. Had they known the outcome of the game, there may not have been so much frivolity.

That and solo shots from Veritek and Lowell would turn out would be the only entertainment for the Sox and their fans today as they dropped yet another game in which they held a lead.

I won’t go into the two bad calls a first base when Manny and then Kevin Youkilis were called out when replay showed clearly safe. I didn’t need replay to tell me Manny was safe, it was that obvious. Maybe the first base ump didn’t appreciate Manny’s antics earlier in the game. Nonetheless, a good team overcomes that adversity or takes its lumps and comes back stronger tomorrow.

The major issue seems to be the bullpen, it’s very shaky and they seem to have no answers for long middle relief…they can’t maintain a lead long enough to get to Papelbon. But along with that, with a few exceptions, they’re not getting the clutch hitting they were enjoying during their most recent winning streak.

Baseball’s a funny game…not yesterday’s game – that was heartbreaking – but in general baseball is a funny game.

manny, manny being manny, red sox, camden yards, orioles