Toronto 7, Sox 6, 12 innings

The Sox dropped a heartbreaker Friday that was marked by hit batsmen and a pile of home runs, including the first two of the season by Manny Ramirez.

In addition to Manny, David Ortiz and Jason Varitek went yard. For Toronto, Vernon Wells hit two, and Troy Glaus and Russ Adams also homered. In all, eight balls cleared the fence at Skydome last night.

Toronto's Jason Frasor hit Alex Gonzalez in the top of the eighth, and Josh Beckett retaliated with the first pitch in the bottom of the inning, hitting Aaron Hill. Beckett drew a warning from the umpire. The trouble with hitting the first batter of the inning became evident one batter later, when Adams homered, cutting the Sox lead to 6-4. Wells followed Adams to the plate and out of the park to make the score 6-5. Mike Timlin then relieved Beckett and Glaus made it three homers in a row to tie the game.

The bottom of the 12th was almost a refreshing change of pace, when the only run of the game not scored on a homer crossed the plate. Unfortunately, the runner was Troy Glaus, who scored on Lyle Overbay's double to center.

The Steroid Era may be over (or not, depending on your feelings about Barry Bonds), but this season already has seen way too many home runs. Some think the ball is juiced instead of the players. And when you see games like this, with eight home runs hit, and league leaders with 11 and 9 home runs on April 22, it's hard not to conclude that nothing strange is going on.

Albert Pujols' 11 home runs are a lot, but he's arguably the best hitter in the game. But Chris Shelton with 9 home runs already? This is a guy with a career total of 28 in 498 at-bats. He's gone from hitting one home run in about every 18 at-bats to one in every seven. And Morgan Ensberg, who has 8 home runs this season, has gone from a career pace of one homer in every 18.5 at-bats to one in every seven. Even Pujols has upped his HR frequency, going from one home run in about every 14 at-bats for his career to about one in every five this season.

Yeah, it's early, and yeah, players may be stronger and newer ballparks may be hitter-friendly, but baseball is a sport that cherishes its history, and the integrity of the game is at stake. Isn't that one of the reasons why steroids were bad for the game? If juiced players are a threat to the game, so are juiced baseballs.

UPDATE: The Milwaukee Brewers just hit 5 home runs in one inning. Yeah, that's normal.