Game 9: Jays 8, Sox 6

Ted Lilly continued his baffling mastery over the Red Sox last night, and the Blue Jays held off a ninth inning rally by the Sox to take the rubber game of the three-game series at the Fens.

The game was over by the top of the second, when Matt Clement loaded the bases and gave up a grand slam to Vernon Wells, his fourth home run of the year.

Ortiz continued to swing the bat well, perhaps a result of his new $52-million-dollar contract. He has now homered in three consecutive games. But we really needed a homer in the bottom of the ninth, when he represented the tying run with two outs. The Sox were down 8-3, and they battled back to make it 8-6 on a Youkilis double that scored J.T. Snow and Wily Mo Pena, and a Loretta single that scored Youkilis. Ortiz ended up flying out to right field to end the game. I guess you can't expect him to get the clutch hit every time he's up. (Sabermetricians argue that there is no such thing as clutch anyway...)

The attendance last night, 36,524, was the largest crowd to see a game at Fenway in more than 60 years. I cannot wait to get up there in July for a couple of games.

Tonight the Mariners (5-5) come to Fenway for the start of a four-game series. Monday will be the annual Patriots Day matinee game. As for tonight, it's Curt Schilling (2-0, 1.93 ERA) against Jamie Moyer (0-1, 4.38 ERA). Moyer has been destroyed by the Boston bats over the past three seasons, going only 13.1 innings over 3 starts, and posting an ERA of 11.48.

I feel confident that the losing streak stops tonight. Let's go Curt!