I noticed that whenever a relief pitcher goes a long time without pitching, their next start isn’t so good. Because of this, I think it’s a good idea to do what Francona did today, allowing Papelbon to come in when it was clearly not a save situation. Now he’s gotten that shaky outing out of the way and he’ll be ready to pitch again this series so we can get back in first place.
Well even though today was a great game, last night wasn’t good. Who knows what went wrong with Wake’, but honestly, let’s leave the guy alone. He’s not going to pitch any better in his next start if we ask him over and over what went wrong. He looked miserable in his postgame interview last night, and I couldn’t feel more bad for the guy. He’s been on this team for what seems like forever, and I know I’m going to miss him a lot when he leaves. I know we’re in a playoff race, but let’s try to enjoy the rest of his games this month…it might even be his last.
Okay back to the good stuff: Dustin Pedroia, I don’t know if you’ll get MVP over some of the other candidates, but you’re definitely our MVP. You and Youkilis have been able to keep our offense going, despite the injuries of Drew and Lowell (who by the way, let everyone know that he was feeling better in his comeback game last Friday). It reminds me of earlier this summer when Drew had the hot bat, which helped us tremendously because Ortiz was out of the lineup. Good work boys, we couldn’t be more proud.
Like I said earlier, this series could put us back in first. Lester’s on the hill tomorrow, so I know I’m getting plenty of sleep tonight (despite having to wake up early for classes).
Keep the Faith!
Post game notes:
-Red Sox offense: I think it’s fair to say our offense did all it could this series. They scored 23 total runs in all three games, 8 of which were scored in our loss last Saturday. Keep it up boys, keep it up!
-Mike Lowell: As mentioned above, Lowell had a game after coming off the DL. He went 3-5 with 4 runs batted in and a homer. Welcome back Lowell!
-Paul Byrd: Can’t believe I went through the whole post without mentioned today’s great pitching. Byrd had his best outing since coming to Boston, going 6.2 innings, allowing only 3 hits and no runs. He did walk three, but struck out four as well. He might not be an ace, but props to Epstein and the Red Sox office for picking this guy upKeywords: Boston Red Sox, Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon, Mike Lowell, offense, Paul Byrd
