Hopefully, A Turning Point--Peter

Jenn:
Yes, I was aware that Lester's 12 K's were a career high. His performance was finally the stuff we've been waiting for since last season's excellent one. The K's seem to have been there all year, but his command or control or something always seemed to kick in after 3-5 innings and he'd be lit up instead of light's out. Maybe things have settled out.

Even better is the way the Sox' other two ace pitchers have started to perform at the same time. Yesterday it was Dice. OK, so he only went five, but he was hitting his spots, keeping the hitters off balance and led the Sox to the W, his first of the year. Add to this the continued resurgence by JB as the staff stopper and we may be back to where we want to be. Tonight J.B. was outstanding, as in beat the Yankees in the WS great. He had a no-no through 6 2/3 and got nine K's in that time. This on top of the fact that in his last 22 2/3 innings, he's only allowed one earned, and just three earned in his last four starts. The result? He's now 6-2 on the season.

Maybe we can rely on the rotation we thought we had. Add in Smoltz in the next week or two (don't know exactly where he'll be used, but should be good for the Hose if he's even half of what he was in his prime years. Buchholtz is also lurking in the wings.

On the offense, Jake is really starting to show some consistency with the stick, had a couple of hits tonight and is up to .312, while Dusty's Dusty--what else needs to be said? Even Papi got in on the act tonight with a solid two bagger to center after driving the Detroit fielder to the wall one AB earlier. Pre-game he was pumping them into the seats. We'll see. I hope he does come around because if the slump continues, he's gonna' get a lot of pine splinters and I'd hate to see someone who's meant so much to the team go through that. What's Aidan's thoughts on that?

Dad