Last night, Kevin Youkilis was the hero with the walk-off single. Tonight, the hero was Jason Varitek as his single with 2 out in the 9th inning brought home Manny Ramirez to give the Boston Red Sox a 2-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in front of yet another sold-out crowd at the Fens. This was the 8th time the Red Sox have won in their final at-bat this season.

Varitek’s single was actually the second chance at winning the game in the bottom of the 9th. Big Papi led off with a single off of Scott Downs that went through the shift. After he got to first, Big Papi was seen clutching his knee. Manny worked a walk and Terry Francona sent out Jed Lowrie to pinch-run for Papi at second base. Downs rebounded to strikeout Mike Lowell looking. Brandon Moss then delivered a single to center. Vernon Wells picked up and threw a laser beam to the plate that nailed Lowrie as catcher Rod Barajas did a great job of blocking the plate. Tek followed that with a single to Wells but this time his throw was just a bit off the marks as Manny slid in with the winning run.

It was another great night of starting pitching by both Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jays starter Dustin McGowan. Both starters had one-hitters through 4 innings.

Dice-K hadn’t pitched in 12 days and didn’t look like he missed a beat. We are normally used to watching Dice-K nibble at the corners but instead tonight, he was attacking the strike zone. Matsuzaka went 7 innings, allowing just 2 hits, 2 walks while striking out 4 on 111 pitches.

McGowan went 7 1/3 innings, allowing 4 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and struck out 5 on 102 pitches.

The local nine finally cracked McGowan for a run in the 7th inning as Big Papi hit a solo home run that landed about 2-3 rows deep in right field. The ball was just out of the reach of Alex Rios.

The Jays battled back to tie it in the top of the 8th. Manny Delcarmen started the 8th and gave up a lead-off single to Adam Lind. Gregg Zaun greeted Hideki Okajima with a double to left, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Zaun was pinch-run for by Marcos Scutaro. Rios took a Okie offering and hit a ball into the gap in right center that Moss made an amazing diving catch on preventing two runs. Lind easily scored on the play. Okie then finished off the inning with strikeouts of David Eckstein and Scott Rolen keeping the score tied at 1.

Jonathan Papelbon was once again the winner for the Red Sox as he worked the 9th inning. He did allow a lead-off single to Matt Stairs, who was pinch-run for by John McDonald who ended up getting picked by off by Papelbon. It was the first regular season pickoff for Papelbon and just the second of his career (Remember he picked off Matt Holliday in the World Series).

Tim Wakefield will look to continue the strong pitching for the Red Sox tomorrow night as he will toe the rubber against A.J. Burnett. If these first two games are any indication, we should be in for another great game tomorrow.

Notes and musings:

Boxscore

The Red Sox players who won “TYIB” Award were presented with them before the game by two members of Red Sox Nation.

Last night’s win in the bottom of the 9th inning was the 1st time that the Red Sox had recorded at walk-off victory at Fenway Park since September 12, 2007 on a Big Papi home run against the former Devil Rays.

Last night marked the Red Sox’ 1st game decided by a 1-0 score since a 1-0 defeat to Tampa Bay on September 10, 2007 at Fenway Park.

The 2 hits allowed by the Sox on Tuesday were the team’s fewest since Clay Buchholz’s no-hitter on September 1, 2007 against Baltimore.

Bartolo Colon threw 45 pitches in a side session today and is on track to start for Pawtucket on Monday.

Alex Cora threw from 90 feet and will most likely take ground balls on Friday.

Bryan Corey cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Pawtucket.

The home run for Big Papi was the Red Sox first extra base hit since Manny’s double on Friday night (39 innings).

The Red Sox have only scored 4 runs in their last 41 innings of play.