let me tell you which pitcher from Texas i want on *my* team

1. ok. someone help me out here. i thought we traded in A-Gon's supreme defensive skills for a bat & some base-running abilities from Julio Lugo. his batting average is a whopping .229, but up til now, i haven't had any reason to lament his base-running. and then, last night, he was awarded a gift single on a bobbled ball. but he tried to stretch it into a double & was called out at 2B. this cost Boston a run when Youk got up & promptly knocked one into June. not that we needed that extra run, it turns out. but we didn't know it at the time. meanwhile, back in Cincy, sweet little Alex Gonzalez is batting a healthy .295, and on Monday, his stats looked like this: 2-4 , 2 HR , 2 R , 3 RBI. tell me again why we needed to let A-Gon go for this punk at short?

2. my allegiance to the Red Sox, not to mention my fantasy baseball team, was giving Youk some extra love last night. 3-for-3 with a long home run. and then he got plunked by a pitch of questionable intent, knocking him from the remainder of the game, and possibly today's as well. this is the fifth time he's been hit this season, the third time in six games. now he's day-to-day with a contusion. and even he, who willingly sacrifices his body for his team, is finding this getting hit nonsense a little bit old. Stop. Hitting. the Youk. next time we're sending Julian to make it clear.

3. the dome was open last night. i can live with a dome when it's retractable (and has a bullpen). i hope it rains on Thursday so they close it though. Wakey does great in a dome. it's the one & only time i love the dome, you know.

4. Joshy started rough. first pitch knocked clear out of the park. but unlike 2006 Joshy, he buckled down & all was right with the world again. can you believe it?? 7-0 in seven starts. one better than someone known as The Rocket.

5. Cap'n Tek was 4-for-4, plus a walk, last night. had a two-out solo home run. and ::drops voice to a whisper:: he's batting a beautiful .284 right now. and sporting a five game hit streak. i love me some Captain.

6. dude. *dude*. (that's right, you know it's big time when *I* say "dude!")Pedroia Pocket has shown us that he swings himself some bat. first time he goes yard for 2007, and it's a two-out three-run blast. he's hit seven of his last ten. wee man is red hot! everyone keeps saying that this will silence the battle cry for Alex Cora to be a starter, but they are wrong. it's not 2B where i want regular Cora. the campaign lives on: Cora for SS!

7. speaking of two-out, three-run homers. my baseball love, my magnificent third baseman, decided it was time to end his three-game O-fer streak with a bomb that was a beauty. and when you can go 4-for-38 in your last ten games (only four Ks though!), and *still* have a .289 BA? not too shabby. besides, i think he's been working out the kinks in his glove, so a brief hiatus at the plate is ok with me. he reminded us last night that he can still make his bat send the ball a long way.

8. Remy & Don-ism from last night, while plugging the online NESN store: "Can you get a pet Tavarez? I saw one on Saturday..." if there's a Pet Tavarez promo night at Fenway, i am going to be there, even if i have to sell a body part for a ticket.

9. after a month's worth of baseball, my observations lead me to believe that Mr Drew does not have the same RF instincts as Trot. just sayin'...

10. i wish someone would explain to me why Eric Hinske gets booed in Toronto. it's not like he was a free agent that went shopping for the biggest contract (::coughcough:: Benedict Damon...) -- he got *traded*. he kind of didn't really have a choice.

11. we had some bats last night. we seem to take them out for Joshy. i hope there's still some life in the bats for Matsuzaka & Wakey tonight & tomorrow...

12. final score: Sox 9 Jays 2

13. even if the bottom falls out from under us & the Sox finish in last place, i will never *ever* wish we had signed Roger. that lying sack of... he claims he didn't even know that there was a clause in his contract that allowed him to travel back to Texas when ever he wants to. i am not sure who is buying that load of malarkey. to quote Lance Berkman from the Astros: “With this Rocket situation, there’s two kinds of people: People that are not surprised, and morons.” Roger is so full of himself & hot air, that i would rather run into the ground like a plane on a nose dive than to allow him back in red socks. i don't understand what the Yankees are thinking, beyond total desperation (which, after last year, i *do* understand), because Clemens is almost 45 years old. he's going to start falling apart eventually -- or to quote Daniel the other night: "one of these days, he's going to throw the ball & his arm is going to just come flying off with it." not only that, but he can't get out of the fifth inning, which isn't going to help the bullpen, who at this point, is gasping for breath. i swear that Proctor got suspended purely so that he could get a guaranteed five-day rest. like i was just saying to Dan in email, the only way Clemens is going to make it deeper into the Yankees' marathon-length games is if he gets in cozy with Greasy McSquarehead and scores a little Giambi-Juice. if you think NY is a circus now, with all the A-Rod & Jeter fawning, just wait til the prima donna lands in NY once every five days. he'll show those two amateurs what it means to take the spotlight in pinstripes. suddenly, it would appear that Boston no longer has the biggest diva in the AL East. =P

14. on to something better. will Matsuzaka bring his hundred-million-dollar A-game tonight & live up to his 10K habit? will the Boston bats take advantage of a Chacin-free series to light up the Jays for the second night in a row? will Don actually construct a paper airplane that can make it further than a dive bomb into the seats just below the announcers' booth? we'll find out at 7:07.