Game 71: Boomstick

Final Score: Boston Red Sox 11, Atlanta Braves 0

Did you feel that? That was the Red Sox Hammer. And if you were watching the game tonight you saw it fall HARD on that Braves team. 11 runs, 15 hits, 5 HR and a bodybag for that guy Carlyle. The beach balls he was throwing in the first 3 innings weren’t fooling anybody. The strikeouts he managed to get were because the hitters were so SHOCKED that the change up stayed so far up in the zone and were swinging under it… those mistakes were quickly corrected. I can’t tell you how happy I am to see that Manny and Ortiz have found their boomsticks. What makes it even MORE special is that they seemed to have shared the recipe for ultimate power with Coco and Drew. Hell! Even Hinske was in on the fun. Gotta love the full team dog pile. It’s like they smell blood in the water and everyone needs to get their bite. Except Lug0-for-5. He’s batting .201 right now. Just saying.

Not that any of this mattered. The 7 innings of 3 hit ball from Julian Tavarez saw to that. How scary is it that this guy has been so good lately that I am worried that they might replace him with Lester? This is the #5 starter with the mental issues! What other team can claim a #5 guy with a 5-4 record and a 4.50 ERA? He puts the “crazy” into “crazy good” and doesn’t show signs of slowing down.

***Huge aside*** I have heard a few anecdotal sources (including the ESPN guys tonight) say that Tavarez is throwing a junk ball. He goes to the forehead quite often and held on to the ball a lot tonight so I can see where people might come up with this idea of “doctoring” the ball. I just want to go on the record as saying that I don’t think ANY of this is true and I attribute his last few victories on human sacrifice and baby punching. And if you call that cheating then I don’t know what to say to you.

Anyway, an appearance by Joel and Tim lin (mop up guys) couldn’t even damper the spirits on this one. Pop the corks people! The Sox are 21 games over .500 and now 10 games up on the Yankees.

Anything negative from today? Well sure… Schilling is going on the DL which may make room for Lester or Gabbard, Lowell got another day off cause of his hand injury and Drew was removed after going 2 for 2 for “safety” reasons (aka Francona knows Drew is made of balsa wood or that dance he did with Papi hurt his hammys). But none of this can bring down this Sox team. Everyone looks like they’re having fun and I can really see the clubhouse chemistry forming. And now that everyone seems to have pulled out of their slumps (Except Lugo who is batting .201) the Sox are primed to go on a mid season tear.

Stay hot for San Diego guys. I hear that town is named after a whale’s vagina.