Papi's BACK (I hope)!

Sox down in the early going, one zip; two outs and then suddenly the Sox load the bases. Up comes Big Papi. One swing of the bat and the folks in the Monster Seats have a souvenir--one that has been sorely lacking so far this season--four-one, Sox! The Hub Hose continued to pile it on in the next inning, capped by Dusty's home run so that by the end of the fourth it was 9-1, Sox. It remained that way until the Diceman gave up a two run shot into the bullpen to the Rangers' Hank Blalock.

Dice was not really cruising. He had thrown 62 pitches in the first three innings, but somehow held on, limiting the Rangers to that single run in the third. He came out after Blalock's homer, Francona apparently figuring (correctly, in my opinion) that there was no reason to push things much farther. Lopez took over and gave up only a single walk in 1 2/3 innings. Next came Aardsma for another shutout inning and Timlin finished up with a perfect inning. Yes, you read that correctly--a PERFECT INNING. Two of the outs were even grounders. Maybe he should pitch to anybody EXCEPT the 'Stripers.

So, here we are--two in a row and six of seven. Feeling good. On the subject of Papi, tonight's his best showing so far this season, and hopefully, it's the precursor of many more. Not only did he park one on top of the Monster, he finished off the Sox scoring later in the game with an RBI single. If stats mean anything, he just may have regained that awesome stroke that has kept the Fenway Faithful happy for the last five years or so.