Free as a Byrd now...

By way of family agreement, Paul Byrd took off the first half of the seaon to be with his family, especially his sons who had time to be in school and play baseball, with Byrd himself the coach.

Then, once June hit and he was ready to play, offers didn't exactly come flooding in, leading to the thought that mayvbe this was it... but it wasn't. The Sox picked him up at the beginning of August and yesterday paid dividends to that frugal investment. What Byrd said in the postgame has made him a but of a hero for his team-first, just-happy-to-be-here attitude...

“Any way I can help this team get that, if they need me to clean toilets, I’ll go do that,’’ Byrd said. “I’m excited. Whatever they needed me to do, I’ll do. I told that to Tito. I said, ‘I’ll help you out any way I can. I’ll get ready. Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do.’ ’’

Other Red Sox up notes: Drew continues to have his best month of the season, Victor Martinez has been proving what a great offensive force he is, while adding positive chemistry in the dugout -- he gets along great with Ortiz and I partially credit Papi's resurgence to the fact he likes Martinez and is inspired to some extent by him. Oh yeah, recent edition Billy Wagner struck out the side in relief yesterday...