Saturday, July 28, 2007

Game 103: Creamy Center

Final Score: Boston Red Sox 7, Tampa Bay Devil Rays 1

Mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm the creamy center of this schedule sure is tasty! Even better, what with the iffy state of the entire Rays relief corps, there's not likely to be any of that post-blowout heartburn the next day, either. I love it!

Actually, what's scary about games like this one is that with the Rays, things are one step away from being white knuckle ties or shutouts, with the Tampa Bay bullpen holding the balance in their shaky, loose-fingered hands. Rays starter Jason Hammel might have walked himself out of the game in the sixth by distributing free passes to Cora and Lugo, but he was only at 88 pitches; if he had been up to true starting form, Youkilis might have been another one of his victims instead of the game-winning hero.

I guess the moral of the story is that if Tampa Bay ever gets a really strong bullpen, or even a halfway decent one, these games will go from a walk in the park to a zigzagging run through a battlefield.