Manny & Wily Mo power up....

The Red Sox finished off their 4 game set with the Cleveland Indians with a 14-9 win in a slug fest at the Jake. The Sox were paced by the red hot Manny Ramirez. Manny is hitting .434 with 6 HRS, 19RBI'S in 15 games since the All-Star break. It looked like this might be the year that Manny didn't get 30HRS and 100 RBI's but at this rate, he looks to be back on track. Right now he is on pace for 27HRS & 103 RBI'S. His offense has certainly been a welcome boost to the Sox lineup, as they continue to pound out the hits. They have 5 guys hitting over .300 in the lineup, those guys make up the 2-6 hitters, talk about a lineup a pitcher doesn't want to face right now, especially with the way Coco and Lugo have been hitting lately.
Highlights of last night's 14-9 victory
*Manny hits 2HR's, his 49th career game with 2 or more jacks. His home run in the 2nd was the third longest in history at the Jake, it went an estimated 481 FT, a true monster shot to straight away center. His HR in the 8th was again to straightway center. When Manny's hitting to ball to center you know he's going well, that's 3 HR's in the last week that have gone out that way.
* Wily Mo Pena, with trade rumors swirling around, he had one of his best offense nights of the year, 4-5 with 4 RBI'S & 2R's. Apparently the Cleveland pitching staff didn't listen to their scouts or their scouts are just that bad, because they threw Wily fastball after fastball and he kept smashing the ball all over the park. He saw more fastballs last night than he has all season, to his credit he was swinging early and made solid contact. It's crazy how much power this guy actually has, when he connects with a baseball the ball just flies off his bat. I am sure Theo was licking his lips after a performance like that last night, his trade value just went up from 0 to a 1. It's clear that playing time is what Wily Mo needs, something that he has never really had the chance to do since he played 110 games in 2004 with Cincinnati. It may be worth some small market team to take a chance on him, with regular playing time, he should produce 30 HRS a year.
*Curt Schilling in his rehab start for Triple-A Pawtucket last night was outstanding, 5 innings, 8k's only gave up 2 hits, walked none on 66 pitches. Schilling looks like he is well on his way to coming back and being a lights pitcher, One more rehab start to extend his arm out and he'll be back on Aug 6th to face the Angels.

Other news
Kason Gabbard was cruising through the game having retired 13 of 14 batters, but ran into a blip, where he lost control and starting giving hits and never made it out of the 5th, so he wasn't eligible for the win. This type of performance may open the door for Jon Lester, or make the Sox more inclined to deal Gabbard at the deadline. I think it's clear to the Sox that the upside of Gabbard is not great compared to other arms they have in the minors (Bucholz, Bowden), they may sell now with his value being at it's high point.
The Sox are 7.5 games up, and have the best record in the majors 62-40 as the head for the Trop and the great pitching of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Let's hope the offense keeps going against these guys. We have to face Kazmir on Sunday.