Lately, Youkilis's life has been grand
Two of the Red Sox' last three games have been blowouts, decided well before "Sweet Caroline" in the eighth inning.
And in those blowouts, Kevin Youkilis has done the most damage, notching a combined 10 RBIs in the 18-5 win over the Twins Wednesday and in last night's 12-1 win over the Orioles.
The latter, though, was particularly special for Youkilis, who hit his first career grand slam in the third inning, a shot over the Green Monster off Orioles starter Radhames Liz.
"I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit right there," Youkilis said. "You never know here with the Green Monster, especially in left-center field. I'm just glad it got out of here."
The four-run swing came on a 3-and-1 count and Youkilis launched Liz's 95-mile-per-hour fastball to give the Sox a 7-1 lead. It seemed fitting that Youkilis had the game-turning hit considering he stamped Wednesday's win with a two-run home run in the eighth inning, but couldn't come through Friday night when he struck out as the tying run, with the bases loaded, to end the game.
"It's great for Youk," said captain Jason Varitek, who hit his second career grand slam against the Orioles at Fenway Park May 7, 2006. "That first one is always special."
Youkilis's fifth RBI, which established a career high, came in the fourth inning when he hit a sacrifice fly to score Manny Ramírez. His sixth RBI, again accounting for the final run of the game, came on an infield single to shortstop, scoring Brandon Moss from third.
"It seems like it's a different guy every night. Youk was tonight, so good for him," said catcher Kevin Cash.
Youkilis had the most RBIs by a Sox player since J.D. Drew had seven June 8, 2007, at Arizona. Youkilis's previous career high was four, reached four times, the latest Wednesday against the Twins.
"It feels good," Youkilis said. "I'm just trying to put it together and trying to stay as consistent as I can. For me, it's just going out there each day and trying to improve. The thing with this game, if you don't try to improve and work on things, you start to falter a little bit."
In his last 25 games, Youkilis is batting .374 (34 for 91), raising his average from .294 to .316. He also has 15 home runs, one short of his career high, set last year, and 63 RBIs, just 20 shy of his career best from 2007.
Manager Terry Francona said there are a couple of reasons Youkilis has played so well this season.
"One is that as you play more, you understand the length of the season, the ups and downs, and handling that is important," Francona said. "The other part of this is he's been beat up parts of the second half in the past and he stayed out there and played, which is great, but it hurt his offensive production.
"Sometimes that's part of the game."
But all that good karma Youkilis built up by playing hurt when the team needed his Gold Glove at first base seems to be paying off when he's at the plate. 