reverse curse

amazed that i managed to not blog an entire Sox-Yankees series? ;-)

let me summarize:

Wang had one of those games on Friday where all you can do is collect your loss & give the man his due. that was one heck of a game pitched. Clay actually didn't pitch as poorly as i thought he might, and could have even potentially come away with a win if he hadn't been up against the complete game performance he pitched against.

Saturday brought a rust-free Beckett. and rain. and a grand total of five-and-a-half hours of Joe Buck making my ears bleed by the time all was said & done. it was like the Yankees were the only team on the field. a dribbler for the EE was worth fifteen minutes of gushing & swooning. a wall ball by Pedroia was barely acknowledged. it was all worth it though, when Buck's inane drooling about how Papelbon was going to face ARod with two on, with all the eyebrow-wiggling implication that Slappy was going to show Cheerio Mouth the way things are. 150 minutes worth of "back to you, Joe" leading to all but blatant predicition that Ol' Blue Lips was going to damage the Sox. and ninety seconds after play resumed, Papelbon Kd a foolish looking ARod to end the world's longest eighth inning. Sox evened the series.

Sunday was a sloppy performance by Matsuzaka but the bats were alive & all over Phil Hughes like midges on Joba, and the Sox took the series in the rubber match.

a couple of random thoughts:

1. i am thinking Giambi's two home runs off Timlin in two appearances may make Greasy a marked man. and that giant square head of his is no small target for Mike Timlin's crossbow.

2. much as i miss Mike Lowell, i am eating up this opportunity to see what Sean Casey brings to the team. if possible, i like him even more now.

3. seems there was a Sox fan construction worker who planted a Papi jersey in the concrete of the visitor's dugout (or was it clubhouse?) area of the new Yankee Stadium. the pinstriped front office poo-poo'd the idea of it effectively being a curse, with exasperated eye rolls, but i see they didn't waste any time in digging up the jersey either. i am hoping maybe they did us a favor. maybe it was actually adversely affecting Papi, as he seems to be waist-deep in an uncharacteristic inability to hit the ball? now that his jersey is freed from it's concrete confines, we'll see what he does tonight.
(photo from Yahoo! Sports)

4. speaking of tonight. we will also see if Lestah is going to Jekyll & Hyde us through 2008 (alternating good starts with forgettable ones) or if he's going to start confirming my fears that he's not the prospect Theo & company claim him to be.

here's hoping for tonight resulting in a three-game win streak for the Sox!