Game 8 - Red Sox v. Twins (@Target)

Nice start from Lackey tonight, even though he didn't seem to pitch as well (read some coverage on mlb.com where he said he had to grind it out), he only gave up 2ER in 6 2/3rd innings against a pretty good Twins lineup. I especially liked the quotes from Francona and Lackey about how Francona thought he might get chewed out by Lackey when he went to pull him in the 7th. His ground-ball/fly-ball ratio was low (.63) compared to his career averages (0.83ish), but it's a small sample size. Might be an interesting stat to keep an eye on in terms of good starts having higher ground-ball/fly-ball ratios and 'struggle' starts have lower ratios.

Offensively, Pedroia got his 4th home run, which ties him for 4th in the AL (along with former Red Sox shortstop, Alex Gonzalez...why can't we get players like that?).

On a personal note, we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory today, and despite our waiter having a Yankees logo on his tie (thanks to my nephew for pointing this out), I thought he did a nice job with the service. I'm not sure I understand why the Cheesecake Factory feels the need to have a booklet for a menu (do they really need 10+ different kinds of chicken dishes?) or give huge portions when there's a whole kid-fingerprint-covered-glass-case (mine included) stuffed with super filling deserts waiting for you after your meal, but all in all it was a decent meal. Also showed how handy it is to have kids sometimes, since it got me away from the table with the rest of the family to go and check out the desert options :)