Why Does the Wilbur Theatre Suck? Better Rock Shows in 5 Steps
Photo of the Day, November 24, 2009: Hook, Line, and Sinker
Photo of the Day, November 25, 2009: Boston as seen from the harbor
Cheap Eats: Burtons Grill
Sports Redux: Nobody Puts Bergey In the Corner
Never go on stage after the banjo act, they say, and try not to pitch the day after your teammate throws a no-hitter. There's really nowhere to go but down.
Aubrey Huff singled in the second for the Orioles. That right there is a letdown after Buchholz' masterpiece on Saturday. But the Red Sox - well, actually, the PawSox mostly, since the average age of the guys in the lineup yesterday was 15.4 - recovered and got Jon Lester his third win of the year and his first at Fenway.
The kid who stepped up the most yesterday was fleet-footed Jacoby Ellsbury, who hit his first major-league homer, ably covered the 450 acres of the outfield that Coco Crisp usually handles, and fixed the left-field scoreboard after a number got knocked off of it. If you call for tickets (which you won't get), there's a good chance Ellsbury will answer the phone.
Other youngsters who performed well, even if they look like grizzled vets next to the n00bs, were Okajima, who got out of a tight spot in the eighth with two strikeouts, and Papelbon, who did his thing in the ninth and sent a sad Birds team off to the airport.
Meanwhile, the Devil Rays were doing unto Andy Pettitte what the Sox couldn't, knocking him around and handing the Yankees a loss. So the lead is back up to six, the magic number is 20 (we've kept track all year, but didn't want to make a thing out of it until September), and the Yanks have a critical series with the Mariners coming up to try to lock down the wild-card spot. Go M's!!!
Dan Shaughnessy discovers that managing the Sox is a tough job. It's an interesting read, but hearing it from Dan is kind of like the older brother's reliable "Why are you hitting yourself?" trick. Negativity in Boston, Dan? O RLY?
Yesterday, in the afterglow of the no-hitter, when we asked who cares what was going on with the rest of the sporting world, we should have mentioned that Rodney Harrison got suspended for four games for taking a banned hormone. Frankly, we didn't want to think about it yesterday. Frankly, we still don't.
Sox-Jays tonight; Daisuke Matsuzaka against Jesse Litsch.
Image from the PawSox store.
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Quick look at the Sox roster finds Pedroia, Youk, Coco, Ellsbury, Moss, Paplebon, Beckett, Lester, Buchholz, Matsuzaka....ALL 28 or younger. Okajima is 32.
All this young talent also gives the Sox flexbility with free agents like Schilling. He can't hold the Sox for extra cash if they have a homegrown replacement.
Shaughnessy does a great job of stirring things up. Lately, he's been great. The Francona column was great. He also cut through the spin on Harrison emanating from Foxboro. He also refuses to kiss up to Curt.