Sports Redux: Fausto Carmona Bedevils Red Sox

Our familiarity with German legends is admittedly not what it's supposed to be, but we are familiar with the tale of Faust, the medieval alchemist who made a deal with the devil to acquire riches and earthly pleasures. The tale's already been updated and retold once in a baseball context, in Damn Yankees.

Now, we're not suggesting that Indians pitcher Fausto Carmona has made his own deal with the devil, but there's certainly circumstantial evidence. But when the Red Sox last saw Fausto, Cleveland was trying to make him into a closer, and the Sox absolutely destroyed him at Fenway. A friend of Bill Simmons' wrote, "If Wedge sends him out there to close another game, he should be investigated for a human rights violation." We thought maybe we'd seen the last of Fausto.

Now we only wish we had. Carmona came out on the good end of an old-fashioned pitchers' duel; he and Josh Beckett both had their A-games going. Beckett made the first mistake, surrendering a solo home run to Franllin Gutierrez in the third. Carmona made...well, didn't really make many mistakes at all. In fact, the first hit he gave up was in the sixth, when Coco Crisp beat out a tough grounder up the middle. Ortiz then singled, but Coco was thrown out at the plate, slowing down before sliding for some reason. It might have been that Manny wasn't guiding him into home, like on-deck hitters traditionally are supposed to.

As long as we're digging up literary allusions, tonight Kason Gabbard takes his Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde act to the mound. He's been very very good at Fenway, and not so much on the road, which is relevant since they're still in Cleveland. Cliff Lee pitches for the Tribe.

Curt Schilling has angered Jose Canseco by suggesting that Canseco's admission to steroid use means he should be stripped of his 1988 MVP Award (giving it to runner-up and Bostonist favorite Mike Greenwell). Why Curt would want to anger a bunch of admitted steroid users doesn't make a lot of sense, but it is Curt.

Training camp starts tomorrow! Bill Belichick's summer of fun (well, we assume he took at least half an hour off) is over, and he's in the Globe today, talking about how he prepares for camp and how it's different than it was in the old days.

Faust etching by Rembrandt. The Master never bothered to etch one with an Indians cap on.