Sigh Your Relief, Sox Win 2-1

Jason Bay, welcome to the Red Sox.

Talk about a young man overwhelmed by the sight of Fenway ready to rock itself off the foundation after an extra-innings win. Bay was gracious the entire day, and even when they labeled him the hero of the game and megawatt sideline reporter Heidi Watney took him aside for a party-line postgame candid, he made sure to give credit to everyone else. What a difference, huh?

In the field, Bay looked like what we expected. His first several ABs produced two walks, a HBP, and two strikeouts. Then in the twelfth he promptly sent a moon ball off the Monster for a triple and his first Red Sox hit.  An intentional walk to J.D. Drew brought up Jed Lowrie (who already had the only Sox RBI of the game, as he scored Bay), who promptly bounced one over the mound that bad-hopped Bobby Crosby for an infield hit, and the winning RBI, scored (again) by Bay.

Bay's biggest impact came not at the plate, but in the field and on the basepaths. In the fifth inning, with the tying run on third, Bay made a smooth sliding catch of Ryan Sweeney's bloop down the left field line to preserve the lead. With Manny in the game, there's a very good chance that Sweeney would've picked up the RBI and the game would've been tied much earlier. On the basepaths, most hitters on the Sox would've had Bay's hit stand at a triple, but Bay combined decent speed with heads-up baserunning to turn it into a triple. Both of these are encouraging signs that Bay will indeed contribute to this team, even if it is in a much different way than Manny.

Intangibly, the absence of Manny Ramirez and the presence of his replacement produced a visible change in the makeup of the club. The dugout looked much lighter, and Francona looked a little healthier. No joke.

Before closing, one thing really irked me about the trade, and it has nothing to do with Manny or the Sox. Nomar Garciaparra is a whiny little bitch. Here's a guy who went from one of my absolute heroes (and first bobblehead purchase) to just an immature, narcissistic veteran with a napoleonic complex. When asked about the acquisition of Manny and the slugger's displeasure with the Sox, Nomar had this to say:

"There's a lot of truth to what he said," Garciaparra said at his Dodger Stadium locker Thursday, two hours after the Dodgers acquired Ramirez. "I can definitely understand and relate. Maybe he'll be next to me [in an adjacent locker], and we can chat and laugh about it."

The Red Sox rid themselves of a contract dispute by trading Garciaparra at the deadline four years ago, and they rid themselves of another one Thursday.

"Manny said he didn't want to leave there," Garciaparra said. "I didn't want to leave there. . . . Were we the only ones that have gone through it? There's a track record. I played with Mo [Vaughn]. I played with Roger [Clemens]."

You gotta love Nomar not getting over getting traded for a World Series trophy in 2004. The sweet justice in this? After giving the interviews and making himself relevant to the LA sports world for one day, he's promptly put on the 15-day DL with a sprained left knee (and not willingly, I might add).