Bay, Bay, Bay!

That's what some Sox fans were this morning and what the Sox are today.

Dan Miller: This is why they invented coffee. Vickie shows us the dark smudges under her eyes.

Red: Substitute Ass Kicker Kicks Ass.

Peter on Lester: WOW!

Watching Jon Lester wriggle out of early inning mini-jams and then getting stronger and stronger as the game rolled by made me say just that after his brilliant outing was finished. ...

Rob notes last night was a good one for Sox players whose first names begin with J.

Singapore Sox Fan: Ah, that Jason Bay homer was so good.

My favorite play was Ellsbury's catch: First he races all the way in to slide for the ball, then he just pops it up with his gloved hand and catches it with the other, like, "Hey, that was pretty damn cool, wasn't it?!?"

Adam Hart liveblogged the game.

Beth: It's not the same as Oct. 17, 2003, but these past couple days, for at least a minute or two, some people have had a faraway look in their eyes.

Adam Pieniazek will not be deterred; predicts the Patriots will win the Super Bowl.

Lewis Forman explains how the Fenway sold-out record has come at the cost of a piece of the soul of Sox fandom:

... It's less of a game and more a destination. It becomes classic blue hats vs. pink hats instead of right handed relief vs. left handed relief. Clam Chowder vs. gourmet pizza instead of a hot dog vs. a box of popcorn. People watching vs. GAME watching.

Papel-blog comes back from an extended blogging break:

The Red Sox are engaged in a three-game set to determine who will emerge in first place in the AL East, and I can't spend the duration of the series making jokes about Derek Jeter's sexual orientation in order to cope. And judging from what went down in Foxboro on Sunday, football is not going to be the stress-reducing distraction from the pennant race that it has been in previous years.

Kristen writes:

I would like to personally thank the Red Sox for at least temporarily, lifting the spirits of a grieving region. Jason Bay would not want us to cry, people. Jason Bay would want us to be happy. And Jonathan Papelbon would probably make some obscene sock puppets to get us laughing again if he thought that'd work. ...

And, of course, no matter what, we'll always have Debbie CHB Downer to tell us what to think:

Dan likes to portray New England fans as little more than infantile sycophants with a lack of perspective. ...

Indeed, harrumphs Soxaholix:

... Let me get this straight, the same fans who endured 86 years of Red Sox futility *and* years of the Patriots as also rans "are lost boys and lost girls"? ...

Samara Pearlstein posts "six terrible Jason Bay puns" - as cartoons; concludes:

Now let us never speak of this again.

Yay! Now, enough with the puns.

Capn Ho: It was a great (and badly needed) win, and a good way to wash the taste of the events of the last week out of our collective mouths.

But Remy? You're on notice.

And CHB? Stalking does not become you.

Jason Bay, as Manny goes to Dodgers in three-team deal that doesn't involve the Marlins, Sports Illustrated reports.

The Globe reports Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen head to Pittsburgh as part of the deal.