I work in IT, and we had a major upgrade going on Saturday night into Sunday morning, which meant I had to go in to work at midnight for six hours or so. Meanwhile, my brother and I were going to Sunday afternoon's game, so I had invited him to stay over Saturday night, since he would otherwise have to get up really early to make it down from Maine in time. He arrived Saturday evening, and we watched that night's game on TV (another loss), then I went in to work. I got home from work at 7:30 am, and managed to grab a brief two-hour nap before leaving for the game. Our seats were in the second-to-last row of the upper bleachers, despite having gotten them the first day tickets went on sale. We were actually behind the Jumbo-Tron scoreboard! (That made it strange when we could hear people reacting to things on the scoreboard that we couldn't see. I knew the laughing between innings in the fourth was the Baseball Bloopers clip they always show, and we presumed the cheers were for the score of the Patriots game. Someone near us had a radio, and we did find out that they beat the Buffalo Bills 19-17 in their first game of the season.)

Julian Tavarez was pitching again, and he was starting to grow on me. While I had been unimpressed with him and his co-conspirator Rudy Seanez out of the bullpen all season, Tavarez was rejuvenated when he joined the rotation. He had been a starter with the Cubs and Marlins a few years ago, and now he was happy to be given a chance to start again. His enthusiasm was evident as he gestured dramatically toward first base each time one of his infielders gloved a ground ball. With the distressing turn this once-promising season had taken, the team had little left to play for and the fans had little reason to cheer. It was nice to see someone who still cared. And at this point, with the rotation such as it was, he was pitching like he was the ace. That was the case today, when he got five groundouts, a line drive caught at second, and three strikeouts in the first three innings without allowing a baserunner. The Red Sox offense backed him up with a run in the first, three in the third, and another one in the fourth.

Tavarez hit the wall in the sixth and gave up three runs. In the bottom of the inning, the Sox got all three back, including two on a homer by David Ortiz. It was Big Papi's first home run since returning to the lineup after being hospitalized last month, and it was his 48th of the year, surpassing his career high of 47 from last year. It was now just a matter of time before he passed Jimmie Foxx's team record of 50 which had stood for 68 years. Bryan Corey, Javier Lopez, and Craig Hansen kept the Royals scoreless the rest of the way and finished off a nice, refreshing win.

Hey Let's Go (now called Going.com) is a social networking website which lists events in the Boston area. While the Red Sox were on the road in New York, they were hosting a free event at Fenway Park. Fans could come to Fenway and watch the Red Sox-Yankees game on the Jumbo-Tron. When I heard that the 2004 World Series trophy would be available for pictures, I quickly signed up. The concept was a good one; I had often said that I wished the Red Sox would open up the park for fans to watch out-of-town playoff games, and of course any trophy-related event was a good idea. But unfortunately it didn't work out that way. A day or two in advance of the event, when it looked like it might rain, they moved it from Fenway Park to the Avalon, one of the clubs on Lansdowne across the street. Then when we got there (with nary a drop of precipitation to be found) the game was in a rain delay in New York, and eventually we heard that it was rained out. They did have free hot dogs and popcorn, and the place was decorated with Red Sox paraphernalia, including a life-sized cardboard cutout of A-Rod carrying a purse. We quickly located the trophy and posed for pictures. Later on, they offered Fenway Park "tours", which consisted of going in Gate E and sitting on the Green Monster. The rest of the park was off-limits, and it was eerily quiet looking out at the empty field. I still think it would have been a fun event if it had actually involved watching a game at Fenway like they had advertised, but it wasn't a total waste because we did get to see the trophy again.

The Red Sox did a little better on their road trip, winning two of three over the Orioles and three of four over the Yankees. Big Papi had hit his 49th home run in New York, meaning his next home run would tie the franchise record set by Jimmie Foxx in 1938. It was amazing, really, to think that in over 100 years of history, none of the great Red Sox sluggers of the past had eclipsed the half-century mark. But this year it was possible, and it brought a buzz back to the ballpark that had been missing for the past two months while the Red Sox had plummeted out of contention.

Curt Schilling was back in the rotation after missing a couple of starts. He gave up a run in the first, but then settled down. David Ortiz picked up a hit in his first at-bat when he singled through the shift into right field, but he was stranded. Jason Varitek tripled and scored the tying run in the second. Schilling allowed several baserunners, but he got out of trouble each time. He had thrown 104 pitches after five innings, though, and came out of the game. Manny Delcarmen pitched a scoreless sixth. It was still tied 1-1 when Big Papi came to the plate in the bottom of the sixth. He got ahold of the first pitch and drove it into the stands in center field. Homer number 50! (For the record, it was 8:56 pm, and the pitcher was Minnesota's Boof Bonser.) His teammates rushed out of the dugout to greet him, and it seemed as if he hugged every one of them. After two brutal months, it was fun to be a Red Sox fan again! We roared our appreciation as he rounded the bases, screamed for a curtain call, and after Mike Lowell quickly grounded out to end the inning, we cheered some more as the replay was shown on the scoreboard between innings.

I wish I could say that the game ended like that. But Craig Hansen had a total meltdown in the eighth inning: double, wild pitch, walk, three-run homer, double. Craig Breslow followed and let another run in, and it took Bryan Corey to induce a double play involving a complicated 3-6-2-5-1 rundown to get out of it. Papi came up in the eighth to a wild ovation and walked on four pitches (as we booed each ball), but that was the end of our excitement for the night. Corey allowed another three runs in the ninth, and what should have been a feel-good historical night ended as yet another loss.