Something In The Water

With two of the more improbable back-to-back comebacks Red Sox Nation is left with a sense of pride and a happy end to a LOOOONG Road trip. I guess I should probably touch on the genocide that the O's put on our bullpen the other night. Only to have Karma come right back and bite them in the ass! Of course I still think we may be winning with the Mother's Day Miracle being replayed every last Sunday in May.

First off, Smoltz, (not that I needed any) But I am completely reassured that he will not only help but be a FORCE to be reckoned with come September and October. This also enables us to not have to use "He Who Shall Not Be Named", and anytime this happens it's a good day/season. I was pretty pissed when the rains came through not just because Smoltz didn't get his win but because after playing baseball for 15+ years in that kind of weather it gives the team who's throat you have a stranglehold on, room to breath. The much needed respite was precisely what those Orange Birds needed.

It was going smoothly but when the diminutive leader Dustin Pedroia took off for the dugout after only two outs (Yes Dustin we play three in this league) the wind was taken right from their sails. I said it aloud in my house when Masterson came back out for the 7^th that there is something strange about to happen. And I would say blowing a 9 run lead with 9 outs left to play qualifies as strange.

We threw everyone but the kitchen sink (and by Kitchen Sink I mean Daniel Bard) at them and it was to no avail. That third inning for Masterson was nothing short of Bad News Bearish. Okajima was more like Nagasaki, Saito was Hiroshima, and Papelbon albeit with inherited runners was less than sharp. Tough loss, but have to say we were probably due for a stinker being that no one scores on our bullpen for weeks at a time it seems.

All was atoned for though on Wednesday afternoon, Getaway Day. The O's Rookie Bergeson, well on his way to Rookie of the Month, was not overpowering but the Red Sox (like they always do) made the rookie look like Roy Halladay, who consequently makes everyone look like rookies, but that's neither here nor there. For Eight baffling innings we did almost nothing. Dustin snuck in an RBI in the early going and after that we were praying for his exit from the game.

I'll tell you one thing as a manager if it ain't broke don't fix the damn thing. Bergeson had just eclipsed the century mark in pitches and could have gone one more and EASILY handled getting the win for them. But No, everyone has to get a save. I don't care that he's a rookie. He's a pitcher, let him pitch. He has been stifling the opposition for 8 STRONG innings and you're going to take him out to put in, *ahem* Jim Johnson? WHO THE HELL IS JIM JOHNSON.

Once this happened I knew the Sox were going to win the game. I didn't know how but I knew that this game was going to be going in the W column for the hometown 9. So it was no surprise when they brought in their closer and he had a fit of wildness reminiscent of Greg Vaughn in Major League and then a questionable check swing went their way, all to be topped off by the Woonsocket Rocket fisting a ball just out of the reach of Robert Andino (another WHO THE HELL ARE YOU is warranted here.)

Maybe it's luck. Maybe it's Karma, hell maybe it's just baseball. But something's in the water when these two teams play each other.

Stay Tuned

Ryan