A Little Payback--And Some HITS!!-Peter

Well, all is not lost after all. The Sox still can hit and get those runners around! In their first return match against the surprise team from northwest Florida who they were swept by last week, the Hubhose grabbed the Rays by the neck early and wouldn't let go until the matter was well settled.

To steal a lyric or two from our singing leader, Mrs. Diamond's favorite son, they 'start in soft and slow, like a small earthquake' (single run in the third on Pedroia's two bagger); 'then when they let go, half the valley shakes' (five more runs in the fourth, beginning with Moss' homer and including another ribbie from Papi). No, it wasn't Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show, but the effects on the near capacity crowd were just as vivid. When the smoke cleared, the Sox were up six zip, and well on their way to their third win in the last four contests.
Buchholz pitched well considering he had to wait out a nearly two and a half hour rain delay at the game's start. He only gave up five scattered hits in five and a third, K-ing six. His control suffered a tad from the long delay, resulting in four free passes and a wild pitch. But without the wild pitch the Rays don't even score against him. Be that as it may, his ERA dropped into the respectable area (below 4.00) as it used to be, not today's 'anything under 4.50 is OK'. No, today Buchholz produced what truly IS a 'Quality Start'--and not just by today's watered down feel good standards.

Speaking of which--who in the hell came up with that as a legitimate stat? And exactly how did they determine that giving up no more than three runs in six innings was 'quality'? I mean, three runs in six innings is an ERA of 4.50--not very quality in my book--or the books of many other long time fans. I mean, think of Pedro who had seasons under 3.00, some a full run below that, or Bob Gibson, who had a season long ERA of 1.12. That's NOT a misprint. What do you think a quality start would have been for them or others like them? Even Beckett or Schill wouldn't argue the point--they wouldn't have to. They regularly were in the threes or lower. Quality start, my butt.

Terry finally felt he'd gone as far as could be expected, given the weather and delay and brought in Lopez, who, although only surrendering a single hit, was charged with two runs, none earned, aided in part by his partner in crime, the Other Manny-Delcarmen.

Anyway, they got us through the 7th, to be followed by our classic finishing team of Oki and The Saver. Covering the final two innings they combined for only 16 pitches over the entire two innings, fourteen of which were strikes. In fact, with his usual lasers beaming, Papelbon didn't allow a ball out of the infield. Zip, ZIp, ZIP--sit down! Game over!

If I had to find any fault at all, I guess it would be that Manny is continuing his recent slide from his early season heroics, but I'm not worried as with his quality hitting, he'll be back scaring hell out of opposing hurlers real soon.

Well, tomorrow's another day at the Fens, and, a good thing that there's a 7:05 EST start as tonight's game ended just shy of 1 a.m. local time due to the rain delay. The guys can use the extra rest. Let's pick up another!