Final Score: Boston Red Sox 4, Oakland Athletics 5Like some sort of anti-Christmas, Jonathan Papelbon's first blown save comes but one terrible time a year. The circumstances don't matter. The ending of the game almost doesn't matter, although it sucks when another leg of the bullpen (Donnelly) undergoes his own meltdown, gives up the winning run and the Sox go and lose because they can't score a runner from second.
Ahem.
Let's try that again, with less contextual bitterness. The ending of the game almost doesn't matter, because they got to Mr. Untouchable, his Holiness, the Papal-Bon. A magical, pure moment of Spring has been lost forever and we must go on with the rest of the season, knowing that despite all appearances to the contrary, our closer is still human, if only for one night. We accept this knowledge and move on, but the bitterness still lurks in our hearts.
However, if it must be defeat, better a defeat like that of tonight. Despite his business-like demeanor beforehand in the bullpen, on the mound Papelbon looked like someone had opened up his back and removed the special gear that makes his fastball go to 11, his slider turn the knees of batters into goo and his splitter that would sooner kill a man than look at him. Someone had removed this gear, which doctors might someday refer to as the "bad ass gear" and poor Paps went out to the mound and hung pitches like it was his job, which - in opposite world - it was. In the gloom of this sad moment, the task for tomorrow shines all the more clearly. Go for and conquer; win one for Papelbon and his missing gear.
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