it was so much fun the first time, we decided to play again

ok, so that's not exactly how yesterday's double header came to be, but it was still fun! it might mean a long baseball post. but that's all right, because there wasn't one after Wednesday's rain out, and if the weather forecast is right, there won't be much baseball in Boston this weekend, so humor me.


photos from The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald

1. here's a stat for you: Julio Lugo was picked off just twice in 952 games. he has recently been picked off twice in five games. so now he can't even do *that* right?? great.

2. Tito put up quite an argument in the first game over a ball he felt should have been called a ground rule double when a fan grabbed it up. the umpire ruled it a single because *he* felt that was all the runner would have gotten, had the fan not interfered. truthfully, it was the right call. i think Tito knew it too. i suspect he was hoping to get tossed from Game One so that he could make a DQ run before the late game.

3. there are not words to describe the pleasant surprise of a six-pitch 123 inning from Julian. love it.

and the fact that our Number Five went deep into the game? i am all about Julian Tavarez in 2007. that does not in *any* way indicate that Julio Lugo will be given the same treatment in 2008, however. =P

4. few things amuse me more than Julian playing traffic cop from the mound. he's hysterical.


5. Daniel gets the credit for this beautiful analogy, but Oki truly is "the prize at the bottom of the $100 million Cracker Jack box we call Matsuzaka." 20.2 innings pitched & only nine hits given up. the only run he has surrendered was the lone solo shot off his very first pitch, so far back in the past now that it's barely a fuzzy memory. he's walked only four, but sent 23 back to the bench with another K added to their statistics. like Mike Lowell taught us last year, unexpected gifts are often the best kind.

6. a call to Papelbon. two Ks & a soft ground ball out later, and we finally get another win for our crazy but lovable fifth starter. Sox 2 Tigers 1.


7. Don summed it up well: Schill did *not* look comfortable out there last night. pitch count was at thirty after just one inning. lucky for us, Detroit's starter struggled just as much. after two innings, the two starters' combined pitch count was already over 100.

8. the Tigers should be... errr... proud of themselves. walking Whiffy Mo three times in one game is nearly impossible.

9. yay! Cora for SS in Game Two! i swear i am going to print up a t-shirt with this on it...

10. anyone else ready for Manny to start swinging for the stars already? seeing him strike out three times in one game is... well, let's just say we already have one WMP. we don't need two.

11. Remy: You know how when you get a giggle fit, and then someone asks you a question? You just can't answer it seriously, because you're laughing?
Don: No. I try not to laugh. Ever.
if you watch NESN, you know exactly why that exchange is so funny.

12. hoooold up just one second. how did i not know that we have another knuckleballer in our farm system?! man... if we could just somehow cultivate Charlie Zink for our future...

13. talk about a crazy couple of games. our ace & our number five man traded bodies or something. there was a rundown between third & home that involved five of our guys (i think... i may have lost count) but thankfully we got the out.

there was all kinds of leaping & diving on the field. like this one, which i think should be captioned "Pocket full of dirt."

they definitely kept things lively.

14. Eric Hinske was that Game Two MVP. he made all sorts of catches in RF (would have made Trot proud); put in some impressive effort on one that got away; took a face full of dirt, his head bouncing off the ground, but still came up with the out, somehow, and for one scary moment, lay there on the ground, then got up grinning, apparently with just the wind knocked out of him; and then knocked one out of the park, a two-run homer that ended up being the game winner.

i've loved Eric Hinske in Boston since day one. i think i would have hugged him too, Tito.


15. slated to be Devern Hansack (seriously... who names their kid this??? anyway...) against a Braves starter -- Lerew -- who is pretty much his equal. that is if we don't spend the whole weekend looking pretty much like this:


16. ahhh... the 2006 "prize in the bottom of the Cracker Jack box we call Josh Beckett"...

just because.