G35: Red Sox 2, Twins 1 (11)

Twins    - 000 000 010 00 - 1 10  1
Red Sox  - 000 010 000 01 - 2  9  0

Carl Crawford collected his second game-winning hit in nine days, doubling off the Wall and scoring pinch-runner Jose Iglesias from first base. The extra-inning victory brought the Red Sox (once again) to one game within .500 (17-18), 3.5 GB New York and Tampa Bay in the AL East.

With one out in the bottom of the 11th, Twins reliever Jim Hoey walked Jed Lowrie on five pitches. Iglesias pinch-ran, and Crawford ran the count full (bcfbfb) before slapping an opposite field double.

Hideki Ojakima got credit for the victory, pitching two innings and throwing 43 pitches. He escaped a 1st/2nd, one out jam in both the 10th and 11th - and a 2nd/3rd, 2 out jam later in the 11th.

Boston scored in the fifth when Jason Varitek (2-for-4) doubled into the left field corner and scored on Adrian Gonzalez's single to left.

Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a single in the third. ... Darnell McDonald, pinch-running for Tek in the bottom of the ninth, was picked off first base and tagged out in a 1-3-6-3-4 rundown. ... Dustin Pedroia's double in the 10th inning was his first extra-base hit since April 15 (87 plate appearances).

After seven innings, Beckett (7-6-0-1-5, 103) handed the ball to Alfredo Aceves, who allowed a one-out single to Denard Span, then balked him to second. Jonathan Papelbon was called in for a five-out save, but he allowed a bloop single to Jason Kubel that tied the game at 1-1.

Nick Blackburn / Josh Beckett

After slogging through several weeks of near daily rain - which turned our backyard into a mini-swamp (which = two extremely muddy dogs) - today was the first truly beautiful, warm spring/summer day. ... Tala has been hosed and is surveying her backyard kingdom, Diego is wandering around with a look of wonder at his good fortune, and we are relaxing, sipping champagne! Tonight is Grilling Evening #1 for 2011: organic steaks, asparagus, and red wine.

And then ... baseball!!!!

In his last 14 games, Adrian Gonzalez is hitting .386/.407/.667, for a 1.073 OPS. And that's with very few walks (two in his last 59 plate appearances and only three since April 17). So what's doing is flat-out hitting the bejesus out of the ball.

Leadoff man Jacoby Ellsbury is also on a tear -- .394/.420/.530/.951 in his last 15 games.

              GM   AVG   OBP   SLG   OPS
On April 10    9  .156  .229  .281  .510  
Since then    25  .340  .390  .536  .927
Season total  34  .295  .350  .473  .823

Ellsbury - who has a 17-game hitting streak - is first on the team in runs scored, second in hits and doubles, third in average, fourth in slugging, and fifth in OPS.

On the other hand, #2 hitter Dustin Pedroia is having a rough time. He's 8-for-61 (all singles) in his last 15 games (.131/.239/.131/.371). Outside of his white-hot performance in the April 8-10 series against New York (9-for-13), FY's average is only .184.

AL East: Tigers/Blue Jays at 7 PM.