Luckily, after a crap-tastic stretch where we blew game after game against AL East teams (games that could cost us in September), we had the Twins and O's coming to Fenway. Two things about this news...1) The Twins and O's are both terrible...the Twins somehow magically put together 1 year in 4 that they compete with spare parts and young guys, but the other 3 years they're nothing, and this is one of those years...and the O's are, well, the O's...they're owned by Angelos...'nuf ced...2) We're good at home...like MLB-best good at home...we just stink on the road...so getting these two teams into Fenway for a quick 6 before The Break is a good thing I told myself...
And I was right...
In the Twins series we showed them that, in Boston at least, we can beat them just about any way possible...game 1 was a pitcher's duel, with Dice and Scott Baker firing zeros at each other while they were out there...the only O on either side came in the 8th, Manny singled in Pedroia, and that was it...Oki and Pap were nearly flawless, 1-0 Sox...game 2 was a 6-5 win which was of the comeback variety...the Sox put up 4 in the 8th to take the lead, again with the big damage coming from Manny...a game-tying 2-run dinger...this time Aardsma set up Pap who gave up a hit but nothing more...for the finale it was all about the offense...the Sox put a legit hurting on the Twins, 18-5 was the final...I'd give you details but the numbers would take up a paragraph and a third, so let's just say that a 7-run 7th put it away and the sweep was complete...
We have to love Minny, don't we? I mean, it's almost a cliche at this point but that's the state that just keeps giving to Boston, don't they? Papi to the Sox, KG to the Celts and Randy Moss to the Pats (this one with a detour to Oakland, but hey)...we'll take it I guess...I almost feel bad for them, it's a good sports state too, not like they don't love their teams...oh well...thanks Minny...we love ya...
One pretender down...one to go...
Baltimore sneaked into Fenway sporting a sub-.500 record, but in game 1 of this series we tried to help them get over the hump...the game marked the return of Clay Buchholz, after two months away, so we can allow a mulligan here...the kid wasn't sharp and the O's put up 7 runs, enough to beat us on that night (you didn't think we'd get 18 back-to-back, did you?)...the Baltimore bullpen was (gasp) good...wow...can't believe I just typed that, but it was...let's forget that happened, on to game 2...which was a lot more like what we were expecting out of this series...Wake had the knuckler dancing and didn't even need it to be, since the boys threw 12 runs up on the board against a slew of O's hurlers...Drew hit his 17th on the season, Manny his 18th and Youk had the big big fly with his first career grand slam to highlight his 6 RBI on the night...good old fashioned whoopin'...so of course game 3 in the series would be a tight one...this one was all about the arms since the Sox only managed single runs in the 1st and 4th...but Dice, Oki and Manny Delcarmen got it to Pap without allowing a run...Pap did allow one, but just one, and the Sox held on 2-1 to take 2 of 3 from a team that they should ALWAYS take 2 of 3 from...and on this day that W was also enough for first place in the AL East heading into the break...
So a 5 of 6 stretch before The Break catapulted the Sox into 1st...time for some R&R and then hopefully an even better second half of the season...I like where this team is considering that the Rays have been pitching over their heads, the Yanks are also up and down and that we haven't played our best ball yet...if we put it together in July and August we could very well have the kind of September that will see us hit the top and stay there...
The All-Star Break really deserves only one item of discussion here...we'll mention the same thing everyone else was buzzing about after the HR Derby...JESUS, Josh Hamilton can hit...the ball just sounds different coming off of that kid's bat, doesn't it? IN-sane...nice to see him back on top after his personal struggles...he was drafted 1-2 with Josh Beckett, and those two were "can't miss" prospects back in 1999, Hamilton was number 1 for the Rays and Beckett number 2 for the Marlins...Beckett soon lived up to his hype and has become a legit ace for a perennial contender...Hamilton traveled a longer, darker road to the majors, but he's now finally where he belongs...generating the same kind of buzz he did in baseball back in 1999...welcome Josh, you've arrived again...
The actual All-Star game was pretty lame...but the AL won, great, so if we do get back to The Series we'll have home field...someone pointed out that the AL skipper, Terry Francona, looked super giddy after winning the game and then realized that it was probably because Terry knows we can't win on the road, so if we're gonna win The Series, better have 4 games at Fenway!
Ok, getting closer to actual current events...the next blog (tomorrow night or Wednesday at the latest) will get us through the two series before this last Yanks series...that would be the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Disney The State of California with those Annoying Thunder Sticks and That Stupid Rally Monkey (I think that's their official name now, right?), who are really good, and the Seattle Mariners, who I think just might decide to follow the Sonics to Oklahoma City if this season gets any worse...quick comment on the NBA, if you want to read about an injustice, check out the Sonics move to Oklahoma...google it or read the Sports Guy (see link to the right)...all that's missing to make this deal any shadier is the new owner (Clay Bennett) letting David Stern have sex with his wife (Indecent Proposal style)...it's a real travesty, and the Seattle fans are being raped by Stern and the NBA, plain and simple...
GO SAWX!
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