There's nothing sweeter...in life...than having your 5-run lead cut to 1 and then being able to extend it to 5 again. (slight ig-ZAJ)

After the one that got away Thursday against the Thunder Thigh-gers, we needed a win Friday. And after almost letting this one get away too, we pulled away for the 10-6 victory.

In the fourth, we had six hits in a row, knocking Fister I Hardly Know Her out. But we couldn't tack on to the 6-1 lead as the new guy got Papi to hit into an inning-ending DP on one pitch. That turned out to be big when the Tigers quickly made it 6-5. But we put it away in the 8th. With the Sox up 7-5, The Smoking Man elected to walk Ellsbury to load the bases and face Victorino, who had four hits at the time. He grounded slowly to short, and the run scored just ahead of the throw to the plate. Then Francesa's Fake Fireballer threw a wild pitch and again we barely touch the plate in time to make it 9-5. Each team added a run in the 9th. 10-6 SOX is your final.

Mid-game, it looked as if the O's might tie us for first (percentage points ahead). But the Jays beat 'em in the 9th for their 9th win in a row. So now it's Balty 2 back, Yanks 3.5, Rays 6, Jays 7. Speaking of Francesa, he said today that the Yanks had "fallen into fourth place." Let's not get ahead of ourselves, guy! But don't worry, they'll get there....

It's rare that I say something nice about announcer types, so listen up! Sean Grande, the voice of the Celtics, has been teamed up with Castig when O'Brien's doing ESPN games lately. And I have to say, anti-terrible job by him. Let's go over the four categories of the play-by-play man for him:

1. Content: It's almost as if this guy has been closely following the Red Sox just in case they ever needed him to call games! This fill-in is more prepared than Orsillo and Remy combined.

2. Voice: I don't regularly listen to the Celtics on radio, but he's been doing their games so long that I'm familiar with his voice. It's slightly "sports-guy-ish," but not enough to take away from his call.

3. Personality: Not dick-ish or smug, not over-the-top, not laugh-yourself-silly to the point where it seems contrived. He's just your average guy calling a game with that as his top priority. Able to joke a little with Joe, but keeps the game in the forefront.

4. Call: Pretty much tells you exactly what's going on without bullshit, just like he calls basketball games. He's comfortable and in control and seems to care about me, meaning he understands I'm tuning in to know exactly what's going on since I can't see it. He's made a few mistakes, but I give him a break considering he's a basketball announcer calling baseball.

I checked his Wikipedia page, and though it calls him versatile, I don't see any history of baseball jobs. So all things considered, hell, no things considered, this guy is a breath of fresh-ass air. Maybe I'm just so used to the not-that-goodness of Orsillo, Remy, and O.B. (and dear god, Jon Rish, who thankfully has moved on to an entirely different career), that any new guy sounds great, but, I'm pretty sure the guy's actually a very good announcer, and I'm glad he's on board, at least temporarily.