Uhm…what? Everyone who turned off the game in the top of the 8th only to catch the top of the 9th, please raise your hand. Crap, apparently that’s just Kim and I. (And Kim is mighty pissed at me.)

I should have known this game would be bizarre with the Sox wearing their St. Patty’s Day green jerseys. Getting Rivera to blow a four run lead in the 8th has got to be the luck of the Irish.

The first seven and a half innings were Mr. April time. He crushed everything. Two HR, four RBIs and three runs scored. I’m a little pissed at Schilling for not trying to bush him back. Slappy looks like he may as well bring a lay-z-boy chair and a pitcher of margaritas into the batter’s box cause he’s that comfortable.

If you’ve ever wondered why Dusty Baker is in the booth instead of the dugout, it’s because he believes that the MFY 3rd inning was perfect baseball. (Single, single, sac bunt, ground out – run scores, walk, fly out). You’ve got the scariest lineup in all of baseball and you’re bunting? Ladies and gentleman may I present Dusty Baker: the best manager in baseball for 23 hours a day.

With the Sox down by four, I made a grave, grave error: I turned off the game. Watching the evil empire smile and laugh at Fenway is not how I want to spend any enjoyable evening. Which of course means that I missed the following sequence: Papi double, Manny walk, JD ground out, Lowell single (3-6), enter Sandman, Tek single (4-6), Coco (what??) triple (6-6), Cora single (7-6). I hope Mariano Rivera had flashbacks of the Luis Gonzales go-ahead single from the 2001 World Series when Cora hit. Between that hit and seeing Julian Tavarez in the dugout, he must have thought he was in a horror movie.

Here’s where I came back. Okajima was money for the save. He got Capt. Jetes to ground out, he should have struck out Abreu (the strike zone was questionable all night), got Mr. April on a soft liner to Cora, and struck out Kevin Thompson swinging. That said, I was still screaming that I wanted Papelbon until he got the last strike on Thompson.

So Mr. April, enjoy your home runs and your RBIs. Just give the Sox the Ws.