Thank Adam Stern...

Those pesky Devil Dogs are back.

Matt Clement pitched a very good game but despite the overall good outing from Clement, the D-Rays managed to stick around and keep things interesting as the game wore on.

Thank goodness for timely hitting on the part of the Red Sox to keep the Devil Dogs at bay.

To be honest, I was kind of in cruise mode during this game, watching out of the corner of my eye and doing other stuff. Things were back and forth but in the back of my mind I felt the Sox had this one in the bag the whole time.

When Papelbon came out, I said to myself, 'The Sox have the lead, Pap's on the mound, this one'll be over soon...'

Except it wasn't.

For the first time this season, Pap got himself into a big jam in the 9th, putting man after man on base and loading them up. The unpleasant thought of this game turning into Paplebon's first blown save started to creep into my mind. Thankfully a fly ball to center wound up leading to a game saving, diving catch by Adam Stern, scooping the ball up before it could hit the ground and clutching it in the end of his glove like ice cream of top of a cone.

Final result: 7-4, Boston. Whew!