Good News and Bad News - Jenn

After a horrific weekend against the Jays, the Sox are back in a groove. They've taken the first two games against the Orioles and are thereby keeping a tight grip on the lead in the wild card race.

The good news that I referred to in the title is that the Sox are on the road and so far they're winning. Better news is that Varitek hit home runs in each of the first two games in Baltimore. And after 3 and a half weeks as a member of the Red Sox, Jason Bay is making it obvious the trade of Manny was a smart move. He had two homers in the first game and three hits in yesterday's. And while Youkilis was hitless in Monday's game, he helped give the Sox some breathing room last night when he launched homer #24 into the cheap seats in the 5th inning.

And speaking of breathing room, let's talk about Dice-K. They're calling him the escape artist in Boston because no matter what kind of bases loaded situation he finds himself in, he seems to get out of it without any damage. That's exactly what happened in the fourth inning. After giving up two runs in the 3rd, he proceeded to load the bases in the 4th with no one out. It was a nightmare to watch. But then Houdini appeared and Dice-K got Melvin Mora to strike out and Aubrey Huff to pop out to Youkilis to end the inning. I don't know what it is about Dice-K and him loading the bases with walks. Maybe he likes the pressure. Maybe it allows him to really focus and throw strikes. Whatever the reason, while it may work for him, it's torture for any Sox fan to watch.

So that's all the good news of the last two games. Now unfortunately, the bad news. We now know why Beckett pitched such an awful game Sunday. Turns out Josh woke up Sunday morning with some tingling in his right hand. He thought it was just numb because he'd slept on it funny. But the tingling never went away. In fact it was still there as of yesterday's game. And now the ace who was supposed to take the mound for Saturday's game against the Jays will miss his start. He didn't even throw Monday or Tuesday and was supposed to take a few practice tosses today to see how his hand feels. Hopefully it's nothing to worry about and the ace will be back to full form in time to face the Yankees next week. If it's not nothing... well, I don't want to think about that.

The other upsetting news is that Buchholz is scheduled to take the mound today. He hasn't done well in his last several starts and he was even sent back down to Pawtucket to work on his pitch. But now he's back and hopefully improved. He needs to throw a better game today than he has because we can't afford to be any farther back in the standings than we are already. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I may be watching today's game through my fingers.