Sports Redux: Glass Half Something

We're old school Sox fans here at Bostonist, which means that we haven't been able to shake the "what are they going to do to break your heart this time" mentality that was drilled into us at an early age. But we've heard so much about this new Red Sox fan philosophy - the "of course they're going to get it done, when have they ever not?" outlook - that we're going to use Monday's Red Sox-Twins showdown as a reason to try it out.

Big win for the the first-place Boston crew on Monday. A 6-5 victory in Minnesota featured 16 hits, including 4 from Mike Lowell, who demonstrated that designated hitters really can sometimes, you know, hit (Old School Fan Slipup #1). The sick Brad Penny was busy vomiting outside the lines, but he looked sharp when it mattered, delivering another sharp starting performance. This continues to suggest that Boston's starting rotation has finally realized that they are supposed to be one of the best in baseball and ought to pitch as such (OSFS #2). Fans can think about breathing easy and giggling about the fact that there's this lights-out prospect tearing things up in Pawtucket and coming thisclose to pitching a perfect game. Kid's name is Buchholz. Looks like he might turn into something special.

Oh, who are we kidding? It feels great to record a win, but we're not sitting pretty atop the standings. We love Big Papi as much as the next Boston fan, but we were hoping that that first homer last week would unleash at least a few more hits in the games following. That's not happening - those hits are instead magically being transferred to the opposition. How else could we possibly explain the fact that our ace closer, Jonathan Papelbon, has given up two two-run home runs in his last two appearances? The argument that Monday's blast was unleashed by Joe Mauer has weight, but our closer is paid the big bucks to get the Mauers of the world out. Just sayin.

So yes, first place is a great place to be, but it's not all sunshine and roses. Fortunately, we ought to be able to maintain our sense of humor. After all, who didn't laugh when they heard about the way Twins outfielder Carlos Gomez took on a revolving door and lost?

In non-baseball news, Tom Brady threw a football at Gillette. Cue the choir of angels!