Strong Finish to the Weekend

No Manny. No Papi. No problem.

After dropping the series opener to the Reds Friday night, the Sox bounced back in a big way with a dramatic 10-inning victory on Saturday and a dominating rout on Sunday.

Manny Ramirez rested his sore hamstring both days, but the Sox got big contributions from just about everybody, especially Kevin Youkilis, Coco Crisp, J.D. Drew and Jacoby Ellsbury.

Coco homered in both games, as he's gotten hot just at the right time. This seems to be a running theme with this year's team -- whenever somebody goes out or struggles, someone else comes in and picks up the team. This is exactly what championship tams do, and is very reminiscent of the 2004 team.

BOX SCORE: Red Sox 6, Reds 4 (10 innings)
BOX SCORE: Red Sox 9, Reds 0

Ellsbury on first base has to be one of the scariest sights any catcher can see these days. The guy is just stealing bases at will. The Sox have never had a guy that can dominate a game on the bases like this. He is going to shatter Tommy Harper's Red Sox record for steals in a season, the AL rookie record for steals in a season, and is on his way to leading the Majors in steals.

J.D. Drew keeps hammering the ball and is the team MVP to this point in the season. He is doing everything -- a lot like Mike Lowell did a year ago.

And then there's Youk. He had to be nervous and pressing coming into the series with the Reds. Playing in front of hundreds of friends and family in his home town against the team he grew up rooting for, all he did was go 3-for-5 with the game-winning home run in the 10th on Saturday. I think he was even more excited when Coco followed with a back-to-back shot to give the Sox a 2-run cushion.

The pitching was solid both days with the exception of the usually reliable Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon on Saturday. Okajima is definitely not the pitcher he was last season. Francona might want to rest him a bit and use him more against just lefties until he works his way out of this slump.

Paps got tagged with a game-tying homer in the 9th on Saturday for his third blown save of the season. Those things will happen to closers and he will undoubtedly bounce right back.

The good news out of the bullpen is the rest of the guys seem to be back on track. Manny Delcarmen has looked good for a couple of weeks now, Craig Hansen has been better and even Mike Timlin has had a couple of good appearances in a row.

Tim Wakefield had another solid start on Saturday and Josh Beckett was lights out on Sunday. He has been dominant against the National League since coming to the Sox, so hopefully he'll get a on a roll these next couple of weeks.

Boston heads to Philadelphia now where some are calling it a World Series preview. I wouldn't go that far just yet, but the Phillies have a really good team with some big hitters so the Red Sox will have their work cut out for them.