Red Sox Exist, Win Opener Against Rays
By Wally Fish
Editor’s Note: The following article comes from the mind of Justin Klugh, our Phillies lead writer for That Balls Outta Here. You have probably noticed that Brian Phair hasn’t posted in over a week, but rest assured he will be back in action soon. Until then, Justin, and perhaps a few others, will be contributing some guest posts here on BoSox Injection.
“The Rays didn’t have a good night against Boston. That doesn’t matter, they still remain the No. 1 team in the rankings.”
You hear that, Red Sox Nation? ESPN doesn’t think you matter.
Hi, I’m Justin, telling you that I am filling in for B-Dogg while he goes and gets himself a wife. I will also tell you that your recent drawing and quartering of our lineup via Dice-K and Wakefield will in no way have me harboring resentment toward your beloved organization, and was certainly not the reason I volunteered to fill in. I respect and admire the Red Sox franchise, as it continues its quest for a well-deserved third or possibly fourth place finish. […]
Thank god for the Orioles.
Here we go!
Holy crap, the Sox beat the Rays?! Do you know who the Rays are? They’re like, the most perfect baseball machine ever assembled. They have pitching. They have hitting—oh GOD DAMN IT do they have hitting—they have a manager with a Rube Goldberg mechanism for a brain, and their record is so much better than anyone else’s you can barely play in the AL East without shitting blood.
Wow. And you guys beat them.
I heard John Kruk mention today that Clay Buchholz is the Sox new ace which, like most opinions, is debatable. But he sure made mincemeat out of a terrifying lineup tonight, and the Sox smoking hot May rolls right the hell on.
First, let’s take a gander at Buchholz’s line. 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K. Shit. That’s really good. Carlos Pena belted one off of him, but it was one of those meaningless grappling hook runs the Rays like to tack on when they’re losing just to remind you that they’re not dead. It’s like when Jason Voorhees’ eyes spring open at the end of every Friday the 13th sequel.
So you’ve got to hand Buchholz a big old massive heap of credit for doing what he’s been doing (6-3, 3.07 ERA). Starts like tonight, aided by a runless—and baserunnerless–three innings from the bullpen, go a long way in the “Buchholz-for-a-big-bat” saga that so dominated the headlines not too long ago.
But who I really want to talk about is the resident beast, David Ortiz. He and Youkilis made a couple of good points tonight, and they both landed on the right side of the outfield wall. Maybe just a few weeks ago, Ortiz found himself under the knife, with an underperforming team finding itself close to the bottom of a stack of contenders. His empty offense was a big contributor to the slack, and then suddenly, the calendar fluttered from April to May, and—
Jesus, he grabbed the aforementioned slack in both hands and yanked it so tight nobody else could breathe without giving up a home run. He’s got five in the last nine outings, which, for a guy who was just three days ago talking as if he was ready to go on a killing spree (“Either you’re going to win, or you’re going to die with me.”), is a phenomenal turnaround. He’s right, in the sense that a bad a month is, while undesirable, absolutely possible in baseball. Sometimes that month long slump comes at the beginning of the season, which is terrible timing, but it happens. Big Papi’s May has been hot enough to prove April was just that—a slump—not a flaming trainwreck bent on bringing the 2010 Red Sox to a god-awful halt.
While in full blown recovery mode (There is a lot of ground to make up when you’re playing in the Rays and Yankees’ backyards), the Sox have fought their way to a 25-21 record, their best of the year so far. Maybe the division isn’t a foregone conclusion. Or at least, maybe the Sox aren’t a foregone conclusion. Though Victor Martinez was bashed in the toe by a Jason Bartlett foul tip and left tonight’s game in the third inning, so as hard as they’ve battled, losing a starter is at best inconsequential, and at worst, highly detrimental. Francona’s not anticipating a serious change in the roster, but a wounded catcher is going to test your depth. In the midst of a critical comeback surge is not the best time to test such team aspects.
But when it comes down to it, we can all rest a little easier knowing the Sox starting pitching has been on fire, the Rays have been put to bed for tonight, and the Yankees have lost 10 of their last 15.
And, as the baseball saying goes, “Fuck those motherfucking Yankees.”