Wade Miller struggled in the 1st, giving up 3 of the 4 runs he would surrender in the Sox 6-5 victory over the Bucs. The runs weren’t entirely Miller’s fault, as he was done in by a couple of poor defensive plays by Johnny Damon and Jason Varitek.

The Sox would answer back, taking a 4-3 lead in the 2nd on a Bill Mueller double and Mark Bellhorn 3-run homer off of Pittsburgh starter Josh Fogg. Pittsburgh would tie it up in the 4th off of Miller when old friend Freddy Sanchez laced a single to center. The Sox regained their 1 run lead with a run in their half of the 4th on a Mueller triple that scored Trot Nixon.

The score remained 5-4 until the 7th. By this point, Matt Mantei was in to relieve Miller (a not stellar 6 IP, 4 runs, 4BB, 4K). Mantei sandwiched a Matt Lawton single and Jason Bay double around a Sanchez popout. Francona brought in Mike Myers to face Daryle Ward. Ward grounded out, scoring Lawton to tie the game.

The Sox played some nifty defense in the 8th to keep the game tied. With Jack Wilson on second, Manny Ramirez fielded a Sanchez single and threw a strike to the plate. Varitek neatly blocked home with his left leg. Wilson tried to slide through the leg, didn’t get the plate, and Varitek tagged him out to end the inning and keep the game tied.

Kevin Millar lead off one of the stranger rallies you will ever see. Millar battled 10 pitches before lacing an opposite field ground rule double to start things. Chris Snow summed the at-bat up nicely:

Just before 11 p.m., Millar was again moving at 100 smiles an hour, recounting an 11-pitch battle he waged with Rick White to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game, an at-bat that ended with Millar going the other way (not a typo, folks)

Tito used Kevin Youkilis to pinch run for Millar. Yes, that Kevin Youkilis. Varitek attempted to sac bunt Youks over to 3rd. He was successful, and ended up on 1st for good measure when Rick White couldn’t make the play. The Pirates walked Mueller to load the bases with no outs for Mark Bellhorn. Bellhorn grounded to first, forcing Youkilis out at the plate and keeping the bases loaded. Finally, Johnny Damon came through to single home Varitek.

Not the prettiest of games, but the Sox are doing what they need to do: beating teams they should beat. They also got some (likely) good news from Curt Schilling, who expects to make one start before the All-Star break. A productive Schilling is a necessity if the Red Sox want to repeat in 2005.

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