Sports Redux: Bad Starts

Lots to cover today, but let's begin with a show of hands: who turned off the Red Sox game once Devil Ray killer Tim Wakefield slunk off the mound in the fourth inning on Tuesday night?

It's OK, there's nothing to be ashamed of - after praying for Boston's rains to clear up so Wake could face the DRays, it only makes sense that a poor start from the ol' knuckleballer would drive the NESN crowd away. The first half of the game was downright ugly if you were cheering for the home team. Score of 8-1 after three and a half kind of ugly, the kind that makes a Sox fan decide to throw a three-run Carlos Pena home run ball back onto center field and then get booted from Fenway.

But then something happened.

The Sox scored four in the fourth, three in the fifth, six in the sixth, two in the seventh. Home runs began jumping out of the park from expected and unexpected sources: Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, even J.D. Drew (funny what happens when a guy swings a bat for once, eh? Three hits!). Next thing you know, the Sox are patting themselves on the backs after a 16-10 victory at Fenway.

Drew was clearly the most visible surprise of the night, but we here at Bostonist wanted to give a special shout-out to someone who really got things rolling in a big way: Kevin Cash. The young catcher had already stepped up to help Wakefield by catching his knuckleball, but he delivered offensively with a huge single in the fourth inning, knocking in two runs and sending the Fenway crowd into a frenzy. It was nice to see one of the new guys get his moment to shine - and we want to officially thank Kevin and welcome him to Boston. Well done, kid.

-- Things weren't so good on the football side of Boston sports on Tuesday. The NFL is officially keeping mum, but there are reports that the league says the Patriots really did cheat via video. While NFL spokesmen are saying that a decision hasn't been reached, the reports suggest that the Pats have until the end of the week to explain why a video assistant was filming Jets coaching signals on Sunday.

We'd love to hear the justification, but in the meantime, it seems that the organization is in for a rough time. Repercussions are likely to include fines, loss of draft picks, suspensions - not to mention a cheating rep that could haunt the team for years to come. Given the multitude of what the Pats have been able to accomplish in recent seasons, we're left wondering whether it was worth it.

Fenway shot by flickr user Alex Kehr