Aside from last Saturday’s Phills game that I was fortunate enough to attend, this was the best game of the win streak. The Red Sox capped off their twefth straight win and sweep of the previously red-hot Mets with an exhilirating, come from behind 4-2 victory. This one had something for everybody.

First, it was well-pitched. Tom Glavine and Curt Schilling each managed to keep two of the game’s better offenses at bay for most of their respective outings. Glavine needed to throw a lot of pitches and failed to get an out in the sixth but he was still ok. Aaaron Heilman relieved Glavine, and did an admirable job for a couple of innings. Schilling went seven, allowed just seven hits and a walk but did allow a two-out, two-run homer to Carlos Beltran in the sixth. Mike Timlin came on in the eighth and after getting Jose Reyes and Paul Lo Duca, gave up a sharply hit single to Beltran. I thought it was time to get Papelbon here, with the tying run on at first and superstar David Wright up at bat. Terry Francona disagreed, which leads me to the next aspect of this game that offered appeal.

There was some excellent defense in this game - highlighted by a catch in the eighth inning off of the bat of Wright that I suspect we will be watching for a long, long time. With the speedy Carlos Beltran on first and two outs Wright smacked a ball on a line into the left-center field gap. Because Wright possesses the ability to hit the ball hard to all fields, Coco Crisp was playing him straight away, perhaps even shading him a bit towards right-center since a ball that rolls into the right-center field triangle has the potential to do a lot more damage than one that hits over the 379′ sign on the Monster in left-center. Anyway, Crisp dashed to his right as soon as the ball was hit and seemingly less than a second or so after the ball was hit, dove in such a way that he launched himself sideways and was completely parallel to the ground, enabling himself to snare the liner and preserve the one-run lead. Mike Timlin’s reaction went from “oh shit he nailed that ball” to “does Coco really have a chance to catch that” to “wait a second it looks like he might have caught it but he rolled over awkwardly so I can’t be sure” to “holy shit he caught that effin’ ball…whooooo!…..yeeeeeaaaahhhh.” Just a great shot by the NESN camera crew. The lead was preserved, extended in the bottom of the eighth and nailed down in the ninth by Jonathan Papelbon. It was probably the play of the 2006 season for the Red Sox to date.

There was plenty for the purists out there - for the people that for one reason or another prefer smallball and the manufacturing of runs to the more efficient practice of gettin’ ‘em on and bangin’ ‘em around. There were hustle plays, sac bunts and sac flies. In the sixth, after Mark Loretta led off the inning with a home run and David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez followed up with a double and a walk respectively, Mike Lowell hit a flyball to moderately deep center field. Carlos Beltran caught the ball perfectly with his momentum coming forward and I didn’t think there was a chance that David Ortiz would make it to third when I saw that he had committed to his decision to tag up. But sure enough, with the Sox down a run, Ortiz busted his ass and dove in ahead of the throw, which also allowed Ramirez to move up to second. Jason Varitek followed with a sac fly that never would have happened without Ortiz’s hustle play.

The go-ahead run was even gushier. A bunt single by Coco Crisp to kick off the home half of the seventh, a steal of second by Crisp, a sac bunt by Alex Gonzalez and a sac fly by Kevin Youkilis. Be still my freakin’ heart.

Finally, for those more of my offensive pursuasion, there was the long-ball. Carlos Beltran, Mark Loretta and David Ortiz all smacked home runs. These plays accounted for 2/3rds of the runs scored in the game so for all of the talk that is sure to circulate about the right way to play the game and all of that nonsense, keep in mind that four of the six total runs scored came by way of the four-bagger.

The Red Sox head to Miami now to take on the upstart Marlins. Jason Johnson makes his Red Sox debut against Dontrelle Willis. Don’t roll your eyes at Johnson. He sports the highest BABIP of all starters with at least 75 innings pitched, and BABIP does tend to regress to the league average. He is due some natural improvement. Compounding his prospects for improvement is the fact that he will go from pitching in front of a pretty crummy infield defense in Cleveland to Boston’s stellar foursome. Anyway, I have some hopes for the guy and we’ll get our first glimpse tonight.