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Two Red Sox WinsHad a good night gaming last night. Becky and her husband Chris brought over the old boxed set of Illuminati which we played. Play went slowly since there were six of us and two had not played before. But I scored a bit of a coup on the second round by eliminating Subrata from the game!Understand, now, that Subrata often wins when we play. His mind works in a manner very suited for handling game strategy. So this really did seem like a coup. Plus it gave me a pretty good power structure. However, the game was going slowly enough that I knew I didn't want to stay up late enough to finish it, and Subrata was threatening to go back to work if he was ousted from the game, so I surrendered my position to him, and headed out. I don't yet know how the game actually turned out. But it was fun anyway.
 Our beloved Red Sox are in Oakland this weekend to play the A's, so CJ and I went to see two games, last night and tonight. CJ bought sixth-row infield seats for last night months ago, and I bought tickets to see Pedro Martinez pitch tonight on shorter notice, as soon as it was clear he'd be going tonight. Last night's game was, simply, one of the best I've ever seen. Tim Wakefield started for Boston, and Barry Zito started his second career game for the A's. Both pitchers pitched well, Wakefield giving up 4 runs despite allowing three homers. The Sox offense seemed decimated, as Carl Everett is serving a suspension, Trot Nixon didn't start since he's still a bit tender after a hamstring injury, and some random player I'd barely heard of started at DH. Yeesh! It came to the ninth inning, with the A's up 4-3, and CJ had said that it looked like we'd be seeing a loss tonight. But the Sox put together a rally against A's closer Jason Isringhausen, scoring the tying run. The Sox have a great bullpen, and Rich Garces held the A's in the bottom of the ninth, sending us to extra innings. In the top of the tenth, the Sox managed to scratch out another run after the A's intentionally walked Nomar Garciaparra, our best hitter, and we went to the bottom of the tenth with a 5-4 lead. This was especially gratifying since the run came against their #2 guy in the pen, Jeff Tam, who threw some really tough pitches that Sox hitters somehow managed to lay off of. Somehow the A's managed to load the bases with one out against out closer Derek Lowe, but Adam Piatt hit a grounder to third and Ed Sprague threw to home to get the force out, and Ryan Christianson struck out looking, ending a very close game with a Sox 5-4 victory. Fantastic! We sat on the first base side with many other Sox fans, which was pretty cool, since we got to get into the chanting. The A's fans were pretty supportive, too (those who were there; attendance was under 20,000), and CJ said that Giants fans are not as loud at Pac Bell. Nomar went 2-for-3 with two walks and a home run. And in the "things I've never seen before" category, I saw a 3-6 double play, nailing the runner at first base before the runner going to second. Wow!
And tonight we saw Pedro. He gave up a game-leading-off home run to Terrence Long, and then shut down the Athletics for the next seven innings, allowing three more hits and one walk, and striking out 11. Ed Sprague and Nomar both hit home runs, and Nomar went 3-for-4, bringing his batting average up to .398. Rich Garces and Derek Lowe allowed a total of one hit over the last two innings, and the A's only threatened in the seventh, when they had men on first and second with one out. After a brief conference on the mound, Pedro struck out the next two batters. A's pitcher Mark Mulder was simply overmatched. This was not a great game. We went home happy after a Sox victory, but mainly we were pleased to see Pedro pitch well, and Nomar hit the cover off the ball. (The A's retired Nomar only twice in these two games.) Gosh, I love baseball. And I got more into these games than I ever do at Giants games. There's nothing like seeing your team.
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