Sports Redux: Byrd on Bird Battle

The mighty midget is making his case to become the AL MVP this season; Dustin Pedroia went 2-4 last night when the Sox beat the Orioles 7-4. Paul Byrd, who threw for seven innings last night and recorded the win, called Pedroia the MVP of the league. Coming from a guy whose spent 13 years playing baseball and has seen a lot over the years – it’s a compliment. Plus, if it doesn’t work in Boston, we’re sure Dustin’s biggest cheerleader would make room for him in Chicago. But don’t expect us to give up on him just yet, Ozzie.

As mentioned previously, Byrd pitched for seven innings, gave up four runs and three homeruns. One of which, Byrd is convinced was the longest home run to leave Fenway Park. The seven innings of work was enough to get him the win and after a shaky ninth, Papelbon recorded his 35th save of the season.

Even though he’s batting .226, Jason Varitek hit his 12th homerun of the season in the second inning. The next batter, Jeff Bailey, didn’t want to be outshined by the captain and proceeded to hit another homerun off of Garrett Oslon. The Sox picked up half a game in the standings last night, the Devil Rays lead the Sox by five games. The Sox are still in the lead for the Wild Card spot. The Red Sox send Jon Lester to the hill tonight for game two of the series against Baltimore.

Tom Brady says he will be ready for the season opener this week against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Pats also signed Deltha O’Neal, who was just recently released from the Bengals. Finally Jacksonville Jaguar Richard Collier was shot early this morning and is suffering from life-threatening injuries. The incident occurred when Collier was waiting for some women outside of his downtown Jacksonville home. I guess The Fresh Prince was right when he said, "girls of the world ain’t nothing but trouble".