Boston Red Sox 9, Tampa Bay Devil Rays 1
Look, I like the close games as much as the next guy. Only one run separating victor from humiliated loser, suspense at every at bat, closers coming in to nail down the game for good. But every once in awhile you need to have a real drubbing. A one sided smackdown of the highest order. A Jean Claude Van-Damme snap kick to the figurative nuts. I mean, after all the one run wins the Sox have had this year (5 and counting) it’s nice to sit back, relax and watch the Devil Fish get squished. The pitching from Schilling was fantastic (4-0 in 4 starts, a first for Curt) and the pen (Seanez, Tavarez, Foulke) only allowed 1 hit over 3 innings. Great stuff, but who cares? We like the BIG RUNS!Youk (3 for 4 and 2 RBI) set the pace with a HUGE leadoff homerun off Doug “Clock” Waechter’s third pitch of the night. Waechter got a Chuck Norris style beating in the 3rd inning when the Sox sent 12 men to the plate and scored 7 times. The Tampa Bay bullpen was as bad as advertised (real bad) and even after Waechter was pulled the carnage continued. The Sox got 2 more off Jason Childers before pen was able to stop the bleeding. But I can’t place all the blame on the awful pitching or give total credit to the bats. The Rays made 4 costly errors and allowed 3 unearned runs. That’s fish-faced ugly.
Lowell, Loretta, Trot and Youk all had good nights at the plate. Lowell got his 8th double and went out of his way to make sure I stop making jokes about him looking as old as Julio Franco. Trot and Loretta each had 2 hits and 1 run, but the real story is Youkilis. There was a lot of talk about the offensive production dropping at 1st base this year. Well I think the critics can tone it down a bit. He gets on base, hits the big hits and does it (so far) consistently. Youk isn’t going to hit 40 homeruns, but he has an outside shot at 25 while batting .310. Those are numbers I’ll take any day. The only issue is where to bat him once Coco comes back. 9th? 6th? Well wherever they put him, it’s just nice to see him play every day. You have to love the YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUK!
Now for what I am sure is to be a complete change of pace, Thursday is going to be Wakefield vs. Scott Kazmir. You may already know that Kazmir is a card carrying member of the “Sox Killers”. He, Rodrigo Lopez and Ted Lilly are like the Legion of Doom to the Red Sox Justice League. So far they are 1-1 against these villains this year. Hopefully they can make it 2-1. GO SOX!
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