The Team Sucks It Up--Peter

Well,, we got the official word on Papi's wrist. The tendon sheath is partly torn and even though he's only on the 15 day DL, it's generally conceded that he'll be gone for at least a month. No-one's planning on surgery at this point, but just as his bat was truly coming around, he's gone again. Aside from his power numbers, which are among the league leaders, his BA is almost respectable--a few points more and legitimate respectability would be his.

So, what does the team do when one of its offensive leaders goes down? The same thing when a soldier in battle gets hit. Everyone else picks up the banner and moves forward. It's simple--suck it up, go forward or die. The Sox performance tonight was a very good example of that.

Manny got only one hit, but reached base twice and scored both times. Ellsbury, in spite of not getting a hit, continued to take a page from the likes of Maury Wills and Lou Brock. Get on base any way you can and it's more often than not like hitting a double. He gets to first, lights the afterburners and BANG there he is standing on second and ready to come around at the first opportunity. Tonight he added another stolen base to his league leading total.

Lowell only got one hit tonight, but it counted as much as possible--a two run shot to the cheaps. JD had two hits-a two bagger and a homer to account for two of the Sox runs while raising his BA top the highest it's been in over a month. He's just shy of returning to .300 territory again.

Even Coco, who's been in the grips of a miserable slump in recent weeks came through with a very timely two run double to put the Sox up 6-4 in the 6th when they took control of the game for good.

Let's not forget the pitching staff. Masterson was good enough to get the win, going six innings on his fast recall from the Pawsox. Though he gave up all four Rays runs, if you take away the two bad pitches he made that Iwamura and the Pride of Haverhill (Pena) each put beyond the reach of any outfielder, he's throwing shutout ball. I know, I know. You're saying, "If cows had wings, we all could fly" (never understood the exact logic of how that one worked), but minus those two pitches, he's pitching pretty fine.

Tito, having seen enough replaced him with The Other Manny-Delcarmen the 7th and was rewarded with an inning of hitless shutout ball. Lopez was inserted in the 8th, and when he walked what would be his only batter, was followed with Hansen.

Now Hansen is a big strong kid who sometimes can't control where he puts his pitches. He's ample proof that being able to throw consistently in the mid-90's isn't always everything if you can't do it with command. Tonight he had that command. Ten pitches later and a perfect 8th was over. In the final inning, Laserman arrived on the scene and, true to classic form, turned off the lights for the Rays. Twelve pitches, two K's and another perfect inning to notch his 17th save in 19 chances and Pap, not to mention the rest of the team, had pulled together and cut the Rays' lead in the division to 1/2 game.

The performance shows exactly what this team can do as a team. It's the mark of good teams throughout history. One member goes down, and someone steps up to cover for him. They run into adversity and the team sucks it up and moves through, over and around the opposition as if it were Patton's Third Army relieving Bastogne. Good to see.