Jason Bay is a fount of joy

Jason Bay has truly done it. He has excised that cancerous tumor in the 4 hole, bringing about an Era of Good Feelings. His grit and hustle have spread throughout the team. The team that was once haggard and weary is now energetic and upbeat. After seeing bay make a sliding catch in left, the players are throwing themselves around in the dirt like a morbidly obese man in a kiddy-pool of cake frosting. Bay walked in his first at-bat as a Red Sox, and came around to score on a Jed Lowrie sacrifice fly. He inspired Tim Wakefield to gut out 6-and-1/3 innings without his best knuckler. He even managed to convince the bullpen to not pitch like balls.*

*I wrote that with one out in the 8th, before Okajima gave up the homer to Jack Cust.

Then, with the gears grinding in the 12th, our protagonist stepped to the plate with two outs. He took a mighty swing at Alan Embree's second offering, crushing a high fly 370+ feet, just barely missing a home run. Still, he gutted it out, ending up with a triple. After an intentional walk to Drew, rookie Jed Lowrie dug in, and hit the first pitch two or three steps to the right of second. With Bay running on the pitch, it was going to be a tight play. Bobby Crosby gloved the ball and went to throw but something was wrong, what it was we may never know, but as Lowrie thundered down the line Crosby double clutched, giving Bay just enough time to cross the plate.

Jason Bay SINGLEHANDEDLY willed the Boston Red Sox to an extra-innings victory.

Alright, so maybe that's all hyperbole, but the Sox do seem different for sure. If you had told me before the game that DelCarmen and Okajima were going to pitch an inning apiece in a 1-run game, I wouldn't have bothered to tune in, the heartbreak would've been too much. I can't say that Jason Bay is the cause of the defensive energy, or the bullpen's effectiveness. Well, you never know; he could have come into the clubhouse handing out cotton candy, cooked meats, and imported micro-brewed beer. Excepting that, perhaps it was simply the removal of sepulchral specter Manny cast over the team.

Still, he scored both runs in a 2-1 twelve inning game, and acquited himself will in the field. Jason Bay is already a welcome addition to the on-field product, and the fans seem to have taken a shine to him.

Thanks for the win, Jason. Here's to many more.

-Sox