Remy: "I've Had Enough of This Game"

Because Don and Jerry cannot focus in a game where nothing is going on, we get the brilliant line above from Rem Dawg. He had just been laughing for maybe about three hours over the size of Don's hairbrush. Once you get to that point, baseball just isn't going to bring you back. Luckily for us, the Sox were ahead, and all was well in the land of Fenway.

Seriously. All was well. Daisuke-san bounced back from his absolutely atrocious first inning. That was a bad inning. But he made up for it, and went four and one third more, giving up only one more run. Sure, MDC gave up the home run that brought Dice's inherited runner home and couldn't find the plate to save his life in the 7th, but it's ok because Oki got out of it for him with a very clean and wonderful 2/3rds. Rambo came in for two innings and mostly shut the Angels down, though he did give up two hits and a walk. All in all, the pitching was better than I expected from us. It's nice to not have to use your entire bullpen in a game where we needed someone warming up in the first. And not for nothing, but Rambo has been pitching very well lately. Props to the bullpen for doing a great job!

Kazmir actually lasted one fewer inning than Dice. No, I'm not joking! He was wild. His pitches were all over the place. I mean, he walked five guys so that's a pretty strong indicator that his location was way off. I don't mind. I went into the game expecting a loss, and I got a win from our boys, so I'm happy. I'm glad Kazmir couldn't get out of the fifth inning. I'm glad the Angels bullpen is horrible. I'm glad that in this series, the Sox have gotten at least 11 hits every night. I don't feel bad for the Angels. They're only four games out of first, and we're like, eight*, so having our offense and pitching click on a week where we face the Yankees and Angels isn't a bad thing.

*Disclaimer: I have no idea how many games behind Tampa we are. I don't want to know either. Until we start pulling up closer to them, I'm not going to worry about it.

Youk got hit with a pitch. Again. So no, it's not just our imaginations. He really does lead the team in HBP's. VMart lead the way with RBI's, racking up four on the night. That includes his 2-run home run in the bottom of the third. That home run was his second of the year, and first since April 6th. That's right. In the time Victor managed to hit two home runs, Varitek has hit five. I'm making no comments on this situation. All you need to know is that I love Tek. Wolverine pitched in big last night again also, with three RBI's coming on a single and an Angels' fielding error. Hey, we'll take runs any way we can get them. We were 4 for 16 with RISP, which isn't great, but it's not horrible either. This team has really pulled themselves together in the last few days. Lets hope they can keep this up, because winning is fun, and sweeping teams is way more enjoyable than being swept.

Beckett on the mound tonight against Phil Hughes. Hughes has got good numbers on the season, but I didn't look deep into them so I don't know how he's pitched. All I know is that Beckett can beat them if he wants to. Also at 7 on the ice, Bruins go for the sweep of the Flyers in game 4 of the semi-finals. They'll have to do this without Davie Krejci and Marco Sturm, whose names I had to look up because I don't follow hockey. Celtics are, I believe tied 1-1 in their series with Cleveland. Tonight they're home at the Garden looking to get an edge in the series. I have no thoughts about these games, I'm just stating facts.

PS - ONE GAME OVER .500!

Trot Nixon: He Brings The Win

Just like a complete and total fangirl, during the Nomar celebration (why are we honoring him again? I mean, didn't we already do a bunch for him? I digress...) when they announced Trot Nixon, I literally squealed with joy. Complete and total joy. Little Tek, whether or not he actually looks like Tek at the moment, is just... I just love him. Completely. His last game at Fenway is recorded and saved on my DVR. When I'm putting together my yearly calendar, Little Tek still gets his own page. I still celebrate his birthday (not that that's hard, it's the same day as Tek's! Do we understand the nickname now? He's two years younger!) I squealed, I shook my hands excitedly while pointing to the TV, and I smiled endlessly while he was in my line of vision. I wondered out loud if we could just keep him and put him in right field. We don't have to tell anyone it's not JD Drew. Trot could be our little secret.

Honestly, no offense intended to JD who has been outperforming my expectations in the last couple of weeks. I just miss Trot. Yesterday reinforced how much I miss him, but it was just fantastic to see the dirt dog's smiling face. The ceremony was nice though. All I kept thinking was 'what is Nomar going to do with those two old, rickety chairs?' It was a nice gesture, though. Nomar seemed genuinely touched.

Lackey took my advice and learned something from Jon Lester. That was a damn good performance, and you won't hear me complaining. Seven innings, one run, and only 2 hits. He joins Jon on the 'under 4.00 ERA club'... they're both staring at you, Beckett. Time to pull your shit together, too. Really, this is how our pitching staff SHOULD be pitching, so it's great to see them starting to live up to their potential. You'll get zero complaints out of me! Also... Bard? Nasty. Loved it! He was consistently getting that fastball up to 99 mph and locating well. What's not to like about that? Paps? Not as nasty, but awesome anyway. In the two innings that B-P worked, they totaled zero hits, 2 strikeouts, and no walks. Beautiful way to end the game.

Munchkin has another awesome defensive play last night. This doesn't surprise me, but I am happy about it anyway. We came thisclose to hitting into a triple play. Some would argue that Wolverine DID hit into a triple play, but the play was too close to be sure one way or the other. I'm glad that it wasn't called a TP; that would have hurt. A little bit of luck went into that. I thank Little Tek.

And a huge, ENORMOUS amount of happiness came from Papi last night. What was Dustin Pedroia saying about a laser show? Has it started already? I was just happy to see Papi do well. He needed that, that's for sure. Apparently, Papi was the only one who got the memo that Joel Piniero is NOT A GOOD PITCHER! Goodness, how come every time he comes back to Fenway, we treat him like he's the second coming of Cy Young? This frustrates me to no end. But it doesn't matter. We pulled out a W. It was a good night.

Off topic, slightly... Milton Bradley has finally reached out for help for his emotional issues. I'm not going to crack any jokes or make fun of him, because he needs the help. I'm glad he's finally ready to get it. I wish him well. Maybe he'll actually be able to turn himself around a little. He's got the talent to be a star, but his anger has always held him down. Good luck, Milton!

Further off topic... I still love Tuukka Rask. It's a made up name! It has to be! But Tuukka and the Bruins managed to pull ahead of the Flyers 3-0 yesterday. Good job by the B's. I think the C's are playing tonight, so maybe they can go ahead and win? That would be nice. While we're waiting to see what the Celtics do, Daisuke will be taking the mound against Scott Kazmir. I'll be watching with my hand over my eyes. Not to say I have no faith in Dice-K... but I sort of don't. Here's hoping that he proves me wrong.

Angels: Welcome To Fenway

First of all, I will admit right up front that I did not see the first five innings of the game. I was out having fun and getting score updates on my cell phone. The last update I got via cell phone (and mind you, I don't have none of them fancy interwebs on the cell... this was all text message updates), told me the score was 7-4 Sox heading into the fifth. I imagined that Dahmer was working relatively effectively. I couldn't get a pitch count, or a walk total, but I was at least happy enough with the results. I thought 'hey, this would be a nice little win if we can hang in there,' and I shut my phone and got in my car to turn on the radio.

The fifth was quiet. The radio guys didn't give me much information pertaining to what had already happened. I knew I was going to look it up anyway. Well, I missed an Asshat homer, Bill Hall's first home run as a member of the Sox, and a Mikey Doubles two- RBI special. In the third, the league's favorite target got hit by a pitch. What's that give Youk this year in HBP's? After the magic of internet research, I can see he's been hit 3 times on the year, but I'm not sure if baseball-reference.com has updated itself yet this morning, so it may be four. Back to the scoring... In the 4th, JD hits a bases-loaded single to score Scutaro and VMart. There you have it, 7-4. What a game, right?

Well, sort of. They exploded in the 6th for 7 runs. I know, I can't believe it either. The team who couldn't score three little runs against the last place O's unloaded on the Angels. The ones from Anaheim. Or Los Angeles. Or Orange County. Listen, I don't need to know where they're from. THEY don't even know where they're from. Just to give a quick breakdown... ground out, double, single, double, home run, line-out, walk, single, home run, single, ground out. Seven runs. Home runs for Beltre (holy hell, he can do that?!) and Munchkin. Early night for the relief pitcher, Palmer. Six runs were charged to him. But don't feel too bad, we saved four ER for Stokes, adding three more runs in the 7th inning. Three consecutive doubles and a single all before the first out in the 7th. Man... wow. That's all I can say.

Overall, our offense finished with an intentional walk, a hit-by-pitch, seven doubles, four home runs, twenty hits over all, and six walks. The offensive onslaught did absolute wonders for a lot of individual stats. Hell, JD and Mikey both had four hits on the night. You know they were feeling good. And this game was exactly what a lot of people needed, including the team. Everyone felt like garbage after this weekend. Fans just needed to know there was some fight in this team. We finally caught a glimpse of it. It makes believing in them that much easier.

As for our pitching, decent work from Dahmer. Three walks and four hits in 5.2 innings gives him the win. Would have liked to see him work a little deeper into the game, but he was over a hundred pitches (and pitchers are babied, of course), and he had a three run lead, the best decision was probably to avoid letting him blow it. Delcarmen finished the inning and pitched a clean 7th, which is just awesome. I don't know what he's changed, but he's been reliable and I appreciate that, especially since I rip on him often. Rambo, getting himself back on track also, pitched a perfect 8th. Schoe was a little frustrating. I'm still not sure that the double wasn't a foul ball, but it really doesn't matter. He's kind of a mop-up guy. I want to see better from him, but in the 9th inning of a game we're winning by 13 runs, I sort of don't care if we give four away. We still win by a large margin.

Good all around last night. A much-needed, pile-on type win by the Sox, a beating of the Cavs by the Celtics, and another exciting Bruins win over the Flyers. Boston sports fans can feel really good about the way our teams played last night. Now we just need to keep it up!

Mr. Awesome: Offense-Based Hero

Make no mistake, the real hero of the night was Dahmer. Eight innings and one ER. I can safely and confidently say that he provided the best starting pitching performance of the season thus far from the Sox rotation. And believe me, that's not something I readily admit to. While one performance does not an ace make, perhaps I'm ready to give the kid a little bit of credit. We needed that, and he was fantastic. Absolutely no complaints from a pitching standpoint in this game. Even Rambo had a nice, clean, drama-free inning to close it out. He stepped up. Sure, it was only one inning, but we didn't have any other arms available. He knew it was going to him, and he delivered. We can't overlook stuff like that, you know. There will be days when we need a good performance, and he won't deliver, and we'll be angry with him... so keep stuff like this in mind. In a one run game when no one else was available, he sealed up the win. Fantastic work, Dahmer and Rambo. Talk about an unlikely duo to be thanking on a baseball blog...

I know a majority of the game was tied, but I honestly felt like we were going to win this one. Our pitching was just too sharp. I didn't know who it would be, exactly, playing the role of the hero, but I knew it would be us. The second inning was incredibly amusing to me. I think Papi was 3-1, and Marcum had only thrown 26 pitches in the game. My logic dictates that if our pitchers are throwing less than 15 pitches per inning, that's fine. If the opposing pitcher is throwing less than 15 pitches per inning, that is not fine. I very nicely asked Papi to take at least five more pitches. Well, he took exactly five more pitches and added the extra bonus of getting on base. So, I tried again with Beltre. I asked for just a little tiny base hit. He obliged. I figured I would try again with Wolverine. Before I could figure out what I wanted from him, he was 0-2. I asked for four more pitches and a base hit. That's what I got (and I have witnesses proving that I actually did ask for these things). Sure enough, Papi came 'round to score and the game was tied. Sometimes, a 'please' takes you a long way. Most times it doesn't, but I'm glad it worked in the second inning of last night's game.

Let's see. Who else did a good job? Oh! Forgot to mention about Mikey's heroics. Let me start by saying the fact that Tito felt the need to pull Papi from the game made me sad, but ultimately I believe it was the right decision. Bases loaded, 2 outs in the eighth, Toronto brings in their closer. Maybe I missed a pitch, but I'm pretty sure he walked Mr. Awesome on four straight balls, bringing the winning run home. Isn't this the second game we've won with a bases-loaded walk? There had to have been another one. As usual, I don't care how it gets done, I'm just glad it got done.

This win brings us back up to .500 for the first time in seemingly forever. That's a good thing! It also provided us with a quick, relatively painless win that didn't embarrass and abuse our entire pitching staff. Two pitchers, only 128 pitches. Sure, Dahmer allowed 7 hits, but it's ok because he didn't panic about that. His lack of panic was more reassuring that anything. Gives me a little hope.

Yesterday, the Red Sox brought up Fabio Castro as a bullpen backup plan. All of our arms were tired. BOP was unavailable to pitch, and Atchinson had pitched quite a bit in the past few days, so they swapped Atchinson for Castro. And for a brief moment in time, Dustin Pedroia was not the shortest man on the team! They interviewed Scutaro in the pre-game, and he discussed being the judge of the contest with a laugh. The joy for Munchkin was short-lived, however, as after the game the Sox optioned Castro back to Pawtucket to make room for Alan Embree. Alan wanted to back in the big leagues by Friday, and the Sox obviously wanted to keep him. He seemed to be doing pretty good in Pawtucket, so hopefully his minor-league success will translate to being able to help out this taxed bullpen. Either way, welcome back to the big leagues, Alan.

And in my last bit o'info for the day... congratulations to the Celtics in advancing to the second round of the playoffs. I think they're on schedule to face the Cavs in the next round. If they do, that should be an interesting series. Guess we'll have to wait and see!

Manny Delcarmen: Now Our Best Pitcher

A week ago, I declared to some friends that Manny was not long for this team. But after last night's debacle, I am now declaring him safe. Two scoreless innings. It was brilliant and so very needed.

If you didn't watch last night's suck-fest, consider yourself lucky. There was a lot of suck on behalf of our pitchers. I don't even know if I can call them pitchers. Last night, Josh was a mere thrower. There was no pitching involved after the second inning. Which is funny, because he didn't last much past the second inning. And he still managed to give up eight runs. There are probably only a handful of people in the world who don't know Josh personally who are as big of fans of him as I am. Or maybe there are thousands. What do I know? I base my opinions off of information I have readily available to me. Anyway. While I didn't expect Beckett to have a great season, because it is an even-numbered year, I would like him to pull back on the suck just a little. Like, maybe he could not have an ERA over 7. Maybe he needs to set the damn example for the rest of our starters, being the official ace and all. NESN showed a breakdown of our starting rotation after the game last night. Let's just say this: It makes the Pirates pitching staff look pretty good right about now. Our starters... all five of them... have something like 2 wins combined. I get it; it's not all their fault. Offense and bullpen problems can lead to not getting wins. But pitching like garbage also leads to not getting wins. It all starts with Josh. He needs to be the first to pull his shit together, and then maybe the others will follow.

As far as the bullpen goes, Atchinson did well enough. No, he didn't do well, but he did well enough. Schoe... um... 1/3rd of an inning, 1 run allowed. Not good enough for me, but good enough to get that illusive "W," so who am I to complain? Oki... Jesus, Tito, give this dude a break. He didn't get a single out and still managed to give up two runs. THAT was ugly. That was Beckett bad. He's clearly exhausted. Bard.... meh. He was average, but I'm figuring he's just as exhausted as Oki. Paps, thankfully, was good and he didn't give us that one last heart attack at the end of the game. He'll never know how much I appreciated that. But Manny D... I'll tell ya, we needed that. We really did. So how does everyone thing Rambo felt? Being literally the only reliever that Tito did not use last night? Has to tell him something, I'd imagine.

Now, for the good part... the offense. We had offense! We had TONS of offense, finishing with 18 hits and 13 runs. My Captain... my dearest, darling Jason was able to hit TWICE with the bases loaded. There was a long period of time (think every year before right now) that Jason would see the bases loaded and panic, and more often than not strike out on a high fastball. Not last night. Last night, he knocked in his first four non-solo-home-run RBI's of the season, and finished the night with three hits. Sure, the two AB's that he didn't hit, he struck out, but I'm so incredibly happy with his performance. That's the kind of Captain we need. He was awesome. Maybe could have called a better game, but I'm just going to lay the blame solely on our pitching staff.

We ended up with five batters having three hits of the night. The only slot in our lineup that didn't have a hit was the number 8 spot. Bill Hall and Wolverine combined for 0 hits, 2 strikeouts, and one walk in five total AB's. You'll never hear me say this again, but Mikey Lowell was probably the biggest disappointment of the night. If he had just gotten one timely hit, this game wouldn't have come down to one run (at least I'm assuming it wouldn't). In six AB's, he got one hit and no RBI's. Mikey left eight men on base. Not that I think Papi would have done much better, but I'm sorry Mike, that wasn't good enough. Even JD ".182" Drew had an RBI. This team was 11 for 20with RISP... and... I'm not going to complain about the offense. It was there. It saved us.

Youk, of course, had to be the one to get hit by a pitch. He's ok, but why does everyone target Youk? It's the beard, isn't it? It's scary, and they just want to conquer their fears. Anyhow... 2 SB's for Munchkin (also one of the members of the 3-hit club). Munchkin, of course, was our little spark-plug. As usual. Without Pedroia, there is no game.

I don't know what else I can say about this game. From a pitching standpoint, it was downright horrifying. From an offense standpoint, no one should complain... except perhaps Blue Jays fans. But I'm not a Blue Jays fan, so I don't care.

Also, congratulations to the Bruins in advancing to the second round of the playoffs as a result of a very exciting game that was a great distraction for me while the Sox pitching staff was making me want to rip my hair out. Way to go!

Big Papi: Can Still Blast Off When Needed

Yes, folks. On Friday night, David Ortiz blasted his first home run of the season. Say what you will about the man (but not in front of me or I'll get angry), but his home runs are always just fantastic. The fact that he CAN hit home runs, especially off a guy like Guthrie who is actually a decent pitcher (not a good one, a decent one)is a good sign. It took Mr. Ortiz a month longer last year to get the home run swing back. This time, sure, there's more to lose for him if he doesn't succeed. It's a contract year. There are replacements for him in the form of the fantastic Mr. Lowell. Not many people have been as big a fan of David Ortiz around these parts lately. I'll always support him. I'm glad to know there are still plenty out there that will do the same. It's just a shame to see how many people jumped straight off his bandwagon. Overall, the big man was able to make it on base twice on Friday. Once on the home run, once on a walk. Whenever he walks, it's a good sign. It means he's laying off bad pitches! And if you saw the pitch sequence he had walked on.... there was no way any of those pitches were deserving of a swing anyway, but still. Of course, the best part of his performance on Friday.... ZERO strikeouts. That's what I like to see!

Lester was good. Finally. Yeah, if he hadn't been able to pitch well against the Orioles, I don't know what I would have done. They're the Orioles. They're barely a major league team at this point! But Johnny gave us five and two thirds, zero runs and seven strikeouts. I'm going to ignore the four walks, because that's horrible to think about. His BB/K ratio is all out of control early on this season, and his ERA is frightening, but I will take any good news that I can from his performance and look forward to his next start. Hopefully, he'll be able to beat his Friday start. I'm thinking maybe seven innings? That would have been nice, huh? Let's see on Wednesday what he can do.

Before I forget... my most sincere apology to the Bruins. I promise I will not write down any more of my hopes and dreams when it comes to hockey this year, because apparently the Bruins didn't appreciate me doing that. So, I'll leave you to your game, B's.

As for our 'pen... the pirates were not so sharp. Yes, Bard came in with the bases loaded in the sixth to relieve Jon Lester, and he was able to get the out. But in the next inning, he surrendered a 2-run shot. Oki and Delcarmen combined to ruin the game for the rest of us. If only by the grace of God, Adrian Beltre walked with the bases loaded in the eighth inning to give us our one-run lead back. That was all it would take. Trust me when I say that it was not a comfortable game. It shouldn't have been that hard, but it was a win and I'll take a win any way we can get it. Seeing our pirates struggle against the Orioles? Well, that's ugly. Thankfully, baseball aint supposed to be pretty. No style points, as they say.

So that was that. Our losing streak stopped at one game. We denied the O's their third win of the season, and we crept closer to .500. It's kind of sad when your goal is to see your really expensive baseball team get to .500, but that's where we're at. I'm going to get to the other games this past weekend, I just need some time.

Dahmer: Killing The Competition Till The 7th

It's insensitive and incredibly difficult to try to come up with serial killer related puns every time Dahmer takes the mound, but I'm committed because I care. I'll give him credit. He pitched better than any of our other starters had for a long while. Six scoreless innings is more than I could have hoped to ask for. And he was efficient, which is even better. Ten K's and only 1 BB usually makes for a pretty good outing. Unfortunately, this great pitching performance leads to two not-great results. The first being that we still lost the game because CJ Wilson was just that much better. The offense decided that they needed a break, and we lost three to nothing. Oh well, at least we won the series.

The second not-great result is that Wake is being kicked out of the rotation. I don't entirely think this is permanent, because I'm pretty confident that Dice is going to reinjure himself at some point in the season, so Wakey will get his spot back. It just really stinks that in Tim's quest to win 18 more measley games (a quest which started with him pretty much stabbing himself in the foot, I guess), he's getting banished to bullpen land. On the plus side, those crazy pirates out there have needed some leadership since the Admiral left town. He can't be the admiral, and we already have a captain and a commander. Perhaps Tim would like to take on the role of lieutenant? I can't imagine that anyone out there is higher ranking than officer anyway.

Of course, with Dice set on the path for return, who goes down? You're not going to lose anyone in the trinity of BOP (Bard, Oki, Paps).... yes, I just called them the trinity of BOP. BOP is their collective name. Hey, I like acronyms, ok? You've got Atchinson, Schoeneweiss, Rambo, and Delcarmen. My money is on the Sox claming Manny is injured and sending him away, but it's more likely that they'll dump Schoe or Atchinson. Sad but true. We'll see what happens. Can't get rid of any bench players. We need those guys.

Also... how did the Sox miss the fact (for over a WEEK!) that CRW had four fractured ribs? That's not exactly something that I feel they should be missing.

Anyway. As someone who loves great pitching, I really did enjoy watching the game last night. I would have enjoyed it more if the outcome had been favorable for us. So I give credit where credit is due. Toight, on the other hand.... if we don't win tonight, I don't care if it's a score of 1-0, I won't be happy with it. There is NO excuse for losing to a team like the Orioles. They're the types of teams we're supposed to feast on to build up our strength before taking on teams with winning records. Frighteningly enough, even if we win all three games, we're still walking away with a less than .500 winning pct. 6 and 10 to start the season. Lord, I did not expect this. Neither did anyone else, I'm sure. But even though it's only April, it's time to start winning series, if not going for the full sweep. Tampa's at 12 wins. We have exactly half of that. We're supposed to be one of the three big powers in this division, not one of the two bottom-feeders. Time to start clawing out before it's too late. Got that Lester? No more of your ridiculously shenanigans. We really need you to be sharp tonight. Super sharp. Don't suck. That's an order.

It'll be a good night for sports-watching if you're a Boston fan. Sox are opening aforementioned series with the O's, the Bruins will be in Buffalo for game five... a game that if they win will send them to round 2 of the playoffs. The Celts are in Miami for game three with a series lead of 2-0. Let's hope that we get at least a few wins out of tonight.... but if I had to pick only one, I'd go with the Bruins. C's and Sox have won recently. Let's give the Bruins some luck. Let's go Bruins!

So Much Good: So Little Time

First of all, before anything else I need to say congratulations to the Bruins on that excellent win in double OT last night. Very cool and it gives them a 3-1 lead over the Sabres in the series.

Second, Kevin Millar is finally a broadcaster! Sure, not for NESN. Not yet, anyway. But I am now going to make it a priority to watch the MLB network whenever I can. It's Kevin freakin' Millar! Ducky! A broadcaster! There is reason for plenty of excitement (and probably some concern). I'm sad Ducky couldn't get a job as a baseball player, but I can pretty much promise that no one will be more entertaining as a broadcaster or analyst or whatever it is he's doing. As long as they let him be himself, I'm happy.

Third, the Sox. Oh, there was plenty of good in this game, for sure. Do you know what was not good? Beckett. Beckett was not good. All he needed to do was not give up seven runs, and he couldn't do it. When your ace cannot not give up seven runs, you're usually not going to win games. How very abberrational for Josh. He better cut that out because I don't want to have to worry about him, too. Seven innings and less than seven runs allowed shouldn't be too much to ask.

But, the good. Hmm, let's see... we had a grand slam by JD, another home run by Ronald, only THREE stolen bases (I know that's not fair, it's a lot harder to steal off of a power pitcher than it is off a knuckleball pitcher, but still), amazing pitching by Bard, Paps, and Oki who are apparently our holy trinity of awesome relievers (and I'm ok with that), and another off-the-wall game winning base hit for the Sox. Youk did us proud. I'm guessing he HAD to do that because he needed to show teams it wasn't ok to walk Munchkin to get to him. Honestly, I'm glad it was Youk. He'd been scuffling, much like the rest of the team, so it was good that he got his breakout.

More bad. We went a stretch of 18 batters without having a single person reach base. Two times through the lineup, no one could muster a hit or a walk against Texas. That was pretty ugly. That's the kind of thing that makes me continuously nervous about the team, even after a hard-fought win like this.

More good. Texas pretty much had the same problem that we did with that whole 'getting on base' thing. Paps was brilliant in his first inning of work, even if he did give up a single to the sham that is Josh Hamilton. Paps was also brilliant in his second inning of work. Two innings, 15 pitches. That right there is vintage Papelbon. It also didn't hurt that Texas got a little swing happy. I don't care. I'll take it.

Even more good. Scutaro advancing to second on that fly ball by Drew. I mean, my goodness, if he didn't make it he would have been a pariah. I don't know that there's a single person who was watching that game who thought that was a good idea, but since he actually got it done, it seemed brilliant. There's some fight in these Sox after all. Nice to see. Even nicer to win!

Tonight, Dahmer takes the mound against C.J. Wilson. I'm only five posts away from reaching my goal for April. I am very proud of myself. I'm also proud of the Sox for winning two really exciting games in a row. Could this be a sign of good things to come? I hope so!

Off days are for losers.

Actually, off days are just boring. Adding into the fact that yesterday was an afternoon game of which I got to watch exactly ZERO minutes, that's two days in a row of baseballlessness for me. I do not appreciate that.


Considering that gameday always has java errors on my computer at work, I was also not allowed to keep track of the game, so I really have no firsthand knowledge of what went down. Apparently, Fetus pitched well but was limited to five innings. JD (who really deserves a better nickname at this point) and Mr. Awesome lit it up at the plate. Pretty Woman almost blew the game. Strike-out-king Manny Delcarmen (who did not earn that nickname from striking out batters) saved the game, but that dancing fool Papelbon got the credit for the save. POS still did nothing useful.


I want to emphasize how annoyed I am with the rotation. I've gone to a pretty little handful of games so far this season. I want to see Beckett pitch. Before the season, I wanted to see Schilling pitch because I have never seen him pitch live. It never seems to work out. I've seen Beckett pitch, but come on, I love the guy. I want him to pitch every time I'm at the ball park. He always wins, or at the very least, we always win. The last two times I saw Beckett pitch live were at the Mother's Day miracle game last year (Ducky won that game for us. POS was trying to end it with a loss), and Pedro's return to Fenway. Both resulted in wins. So who have I seen pitch live this year? Dice-K twice, Wakefield once, Buchholz once, and Lester FOUR FREAKING TIMES. Granted, I got to see the no-hitter and I adore Binky, but c'mon, give me a break. Let me see Beckett just once this year!


I thought I would be seeing Beckett, because of the way the rotation fell. Colon was not pitching; he's hurt. Dice-K was pitching Saturday. Lester had pitched on Tuesday. There was one logical choice for Sunday's pitcher.... Lester? What?! NO! It was supposed to be Beckett, but Tito, in his endless quest to cause my death, decided to give Beckett extra days off. Of course he did. Tito, you can kiss my...


As usual, I will support Binky and I will adore Binky, but when do I get to adore Beckett?


Anyway. I want to clarify my stance on sports. In case anyone was wondering why I made a banner for the Celtics and clearly stated that I don't like basketball.... I support Boston sports teams. All of them. Even the Revolution (as long as you don't make me watch a game). I have allegances to the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Celtics, the Bruins, and every other damn sports team in Boston. I support college sports. I will not watch them, but I support them. Because I'm proud to be a Boston fan, and I believe in taking pride in your city's sports teams. I never want to see another city kick the ass of any Boston sports team.


I will watch football, basketball, and hockey only when they are in the playoffs, because that many regular season games would drive me crazy. I tried desperately to get into football this past year, but the truth is, I don't understand the rules completely and the game itself frustrates the hell out of me. Basketball I don't actually dislike. I used to love playing basketball. And in my own little junior high team, I made two all-star squads and was team captain for 2 out of my four years. So basketball is ok with me. It's just that watching it tends to get a little boring at times. Regardless, I root for the Celtics even if I don't watch them. I tend not to watch them.


But I do follow them. I have different friends that are intensely passionate about these sports that keep me updated on them. I know people who will update me on the Bruins if I haven't been paying much attention. I'm aware of what the Revolution is doing, generally. And in this town, how could you avoid knowing what the Pats and Celts are doing. No one ever needs to tell me whats going on with the Sox.


Which reminds me of a funny incident. At Lester's no-hitter, a 'gentleman' introduced himself to me and my friend. He asked if I watch the Sox a lot, and he was surprised when I answered "Of course I do. I watch almost every game." As if the notion that a fan at Fenway caring about the Red Sox was so ridiculous, the 'gentleman' countered with "No way. Really?" Ugh. People.


However, you will never see me wearing any Boston sports shirt other than my Red Sox gear (nothing I own is pink, thank you). The only exception is my Tedy Bruschi jersey which I bought because A) I was trying really hard to get into the sport, B) Tedy is awesome and I love his Papa Gino's commercials, and C) It was on clearance. I'm not going to pretend that I'm crazy in love with the three other main sports in Boston.


But I do support them.


Go Red Sox.
And everyone else.