Ok, so maybe Manny Ramirez is still a better hitter than Jason Bay. But Bay is doing a pretty good job of helping Sox fans to forget that. Last night, his 2 HR led the Sox to a 6-3 win over the Orioles. Bay had a total of 3 hits and 4 RBI, and Jon Lester (7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 5 K, 1 BB) pitched great for the win. The Red Sox are now 4.5 games behind the Rays in the AL East, and have a 1.5 game lead over the Twins in the Wild Card race.

Since moving to Boston, Bay is batting .348 with 3 HR and and 16 RBI in 16 games. His OPS is an outstanding .972, and he has stolen 3 bases as well. While many Sox fans will miss Manny, Bay has been a more than adequate replacement, and definitely an improvement in many aspects.



----- Other MLB Games -----
AL:
Rays 6, Angels 4 - Eric Hinske and Cliff Floyd each hit 2-run HR's, and Willie Aybar scored twice for the Rays.
Tigers 8, Rangers 7 - Curtis Granderson, one of my favorite non-Red Sox players in baseball, hit 2 triples and had 4 RBI's. This guy is the real deal.
Athletics 3, Twins 2 - All-Star and A's ace Justin Duchscherer left the game in the 3rd inning with a hip injury. The A's are pretty much out of the race anyway, but that's a huge blow to them.
White Sox 13, Mariners 5 - Alexei Ramirez had 4 RBI, Nick Swisher had 3, and Carlos Quentin hit his league-leading 35th HR. MVP?

NL:
Pirates 5, Mets 2 - Here's a shocker: John Maine pitched well, but the Mets' bullpen gave up 5 runs and blew it. Are you surprised? Didn't think so.
Giants 5, Braves 0 - Barry Zito has actually been pitching well lately, and he held the Braves to only 5 runs this time over 7 innings.
Brewers 9, Astros 3 - CC Sabathia (8-0), complete game, Brewers win, blah blah blah. Same old story here, folks. Sabathia for MVP?



----- MLB News/Notes -----

Greg Maddux is now a Dodger... what's the point of the trade deadline, anyway?

Will the Cubs celebrate 100 years since their last WS win with 100 wins?

Justin Duchscherer's hip injury... the A's hope he gets better soon.



Streakers - In case any team tries to make history, I'm going to list the teams with the longest active winning and losing streaks. Today's streakers:
Rockies, Cubs: 3 wins
Nationals: 10 losses