As for the game, I think up-thread in the discussion of Game 2 I had said I thought the Sox had the right approach to handling Wacha. There were a lot of good quality at bats in the first couple of innings of this game. Even when he was racking up Ks, the Sox were making him work. Really only Pedroia and Bogaerts got themselves out quickly the first time through the order. He was already up around 37 pitches after 2 innings. The third was another long inning. Victorino's hit was somewhere around the 20+ pitch of the inning. Wacha could not nibble on the edges last night. I also liked that, of the Sox's first 3 runs, one got on on an intentional walk and another on an HBP.
For a guy who had a lousy series at the plate, Drew had a sac fly to tie Game 4, drew a walk to push the go ahead run to scoring position in game 5, and had a dagger home run in the 4th. Add in his defense, and he had a pretty good series. Free agent probably made himself 2 years, $20MM on the market.
I cringed at the decision to let Lackey pitch to Holliday with Taz in the pen. Lackey was not dominant in any stretch of the game and was allowing runners all night. The shutout / 1 run stretch was pretty shaky and Farrell really was managing with his heart when he left him in.
Oh, and this:
