some things hurt my brain

photo from Yahoo! Sports

1. in what freaking twisted world does a pitcher strike out ten batters & give up only two runs, but *loses*??

2. back in Spring Training, when Wakey appeared to be showing Matsuzaka the finer points of throwing a knuckleball? yeah. he was really passing off The Curse of No Bats. i might be more upset about this if i didn't love Wake so much & really want him to have the run support he was denied last year. but i wonder... couldn't he have given it to, say, Julian instead?

3. 10K has two distinct deliveries. his fast one looks pretty much like everyone else's. his slow, deliberate one is unique though. and he does this little hoppy-skippy thing with his feet during the slow one. i was trying to find something that would indicate why he uses two different delivery styles -- men on base vs no one on. fast balls vs breaking balls. -- but i came up empty-handed. the only thing i noticed was something Remy & Don were talking about, which was that his leg kicks up really high at the end of his fast ball pitches, but nothing about the different deliveries themselves. hmmm... this bears further consideration.

4. WMP *crushed* that home run. holy cow, when he makes contact, does that ball sail. of course when you combine that mammoth long ball with the other hit he got in last night's game, that just translates into no more hits from Whiffy Mo til at least June.

5. remember that crazy fielding from Lugo that i shared yesterday? well, i ask you, where was it last night?! vanished, like the fluke that it was. poor Matsuzaka was already battling the mini-meltdown of Vernon Wells' escape from being out not once, but twice, in the same at bat, but then Lugo has to miss a ball hit right to him -- one that should have been turned for a double play -- to make things so much worse. i think we need to tattoo something to his arm: WWAGD? (you know -- What Would Alex Gonzalez Do?)

6. Chacin makes me angry. he needs to suffer a loss against the Red Sox. preferably the very next time we face him. that nasty 6-0 record against Boston needs a blemish. also, he looks like someone out of The Matrix. even his name sounds like it belongs there.


7. i think we need a montage of the many looks of Manny. they showed a clip of a home run he hit in Toronto in 2001. didn't even look like the same guy.

8. speaking of looks. i miss clean-shaven Coco. ever since he changed to this new look, he has been as sloppy at the plate as he looks.

9. i know he lost as a result of his own coming unglued in the fourth (and no thanks to Julio Lugo), but seriously. did you not see him come back out in the fifth to strike out the side after coming completely unhinged the previous inning? in my opinion, that was nothing short of impressive.

10. damn. i *knew* i should have worn one of my Red Sox shirts during last night's game. (yes, it turns out that fans are at least as superstitious as players.) you better believe i will have one on tonight.

11. did i mention *ten* strike outs for 10K?? for the second time in three starts?? crazy.

12. is there anything more heartbreaking than watching Youk go down on strikes? it kills me every time.

13. last night Remy suggested something we must never *ever* speak of again. he mused that "maybe if David had slid into first base..." stop it. stop right there. there is no reason for us to see the Papi Flop ever again. David should never slide. please do not stop my heart like that again.

14. may there be bats for Wakefield tonight or i fear the Jays are going to sweep us. (that's right. i still show little confidence in Julian's ability to win a game for us when he goes opposite Halladay.)

15. unrelated to the Sox game, what are the odds that the replacement Catcher i picked up for my fantasy team when Ramon Martinez got placed on the DL has also now been injured? here we are at April 18th & do you want to know how many games i have had a Catcher available for? *five*. ::sigh::