Fish Out of Water

The Red Sox continued to enjoy home cooking and the Rays faced road woes as the Sox swept Tampa and moved 1 1/2 games into first place.

The game had a series of highlights:

• Jon Lester with 6 plus innings of 1 run ball
• A bench clearing brawl after Coco Crisp charged the mound after being thrown at
• Manny Ramirez jacking a three run first inning homer
• Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis having a shoving match in the dugout
• Jacoby Ellsbury hurting his wrist making a diving catch

Lester raised his record to 4-3, lowered his ERA to 3.5, and didn't allow a walk, critical progress for the young lefthander. Timlin and Aardsma finished, with a total of 177 pitches in something less than economy.

Crisp charged the mound, avoided a James Shields right hook, got tackled by Dioner Navarro, and then played punching bag to Johnny Gomes and Carl Crawford.

Manny got subbed out early for a pinch runner after hitting a homer...and Youkilis.

Ellsbury appeared to hyperflex his right (glove hand) wrist making a diving catch.

The genius of Francona may get tested in his explanation of the Ramirez-Youkilis set to...I'm guessing that Manny was making an argument for John McCain and Youkilis was a Ron Paul guy.