Get me out of this jam!

When the seventh inning came around, Javier Vazquez started out HBP-BB to the first two batters he faced. The first thought in my mind was, "Here we go again."

And then something strange happened.

He rolled a garden-variety double play, leaving one man on third and two outs in the inning. Andrew Sisco came in and struck out Jeff Cirillo on four pitches. And just like that, the Sox were safe once again. I never thought I'd see the day.

You see, I was still in the mode of thinking that Vazquez would get through the lineup unscathed twice, and then let it go the third time. Instead of folding, though, it seemed that he almost got stronger the third time through the lineup. He was able to vary his pitches more because instead of going to his third and fourth pitches every time he got in trouble, he relied on his fastball more in the early part of the game so that if he ever got into a jam later on, he could fall back on those other pitches more readily and catch the batter unawares. Let's see if he can have that same confidence in his fastball and changeup in the next few starts because it was certainly working for him yesterday.

And now the Twins play the game they've been playing since '04 now: "Santana, Crain, and pray for rain..."