J., R. and I went to Fenway last night for our last game of the year (unless I get tickets in the postseason lottery or some kind person makes a donation). We got lucky enough to end our 2008 live baseball season with one of the great Red Sox wins of the year.

We drove in to the ballpark, parked and headed over to the great UBurger in Kenmore Square for some dinner. We headed back to the Yawkey Way entrance, spent a few minutes with Big League Brian (the stilt guy) and went into the Twins Shop (does anyone else still call it that?) to get the kids some new Sox hats. J. got a basic blue cap, and R. got this pink and purple camo hat that was completely right for her.

After that we headed for the bleachers and took our seats. We were hoping that the Sox had gotten all the bad news out of their systems after the 8-1 loss to Toronto in the first game of the doubleheader at Fenway. The Sox started off well, with Ellsbury and Pedroia scoring two runs in the top of the first on a wild pitch and an error by catcher Greg Zaun. Bartolo Colon, making his return to the Red Sox had a tough top of the second. Aided by a Jed Lowrie error, the Blue Jays scored five runs in the inning (2 earned).

It stayed that way until the 6th, when Lowrie atoned for his earlier error by driving in a run with a sac fly to make it 5-3. They grabbed another run in the last of the 7th on a Youk fielders choice as Big Papi took out Jays shortstop Marco Scutaro on a double play ball. It took Scutaro a couple of minutes to recover, since he's giving away a few (dozen) pounds to Ortiz.

The 8th was the big inning, as the Sox got three runs to take the lead. Jacoby Ellsbury drove in the go-ahead run on a swinging bunt. Jays pitcher Scott Downs slipped and fell (some of you will get the significance of that), allowing Lowrie to score from third. Papelbon came in to finish off Toronto for a 1-2-3 9th and Dirty Water started playing on the Fenway P.A. system.

Two other funny events happened that I wanted to note. Around the 7th inning, the center field scoreboard showed events from the Rays-Yankees game and the Yankees had just come back to take a lead. The crowd cheered the Yanks, a rather strange event at Fenway Park.

The second came during the singing of Sweet Caroline during the 8th. Downs, the Jays pitcher completed his warm-ups just before the second chorus came up and the music stopped as Jason Bay (who would double and get driven in by Lowrie for the tying run) stepped to the plate. Not to be deterred, the entire crowd sung through the chorus (including the "Oh-oh-oh's" and the "so-good's"), and then cheered itself. Very fun.

So it was a great night and we ended up with the right result. Only a couple of weeks left in the season, so we'll see if the Sox can catch the Rays.