A Good Day

     Saturday night's contest versus the Texas Rangers has been one of the brightest spots of the past month or so, for a medley of reasons:

     1. Jon Lester. Brilliant. I don't know when the last time was I saw a pitcher deal like that. Vintage Pedro, maybe? Maybe. Lester was perfect for six and a third, with a ridiculous 10 K's through the first six. After the first couple of inning I stopped guessing what pitch he was going to use to ring guys up because he was mixing so well, and I can only imaging what the Rangers batters were going through up there. The fastball was sitting in the mid-90's, with pinpoint control and was absolutely unhittable. The curve was going where he wanted it to, the cutter was acting like a Randy Johnson slider, just attacking the feet of (swinging) right-handed batters. Even the changeup was on tonight. Best pitching performance of any pitcher this year, best performance of his career, better than last years no-no, hands down, especially the first six frames. Outstanding.

     2. Papi goes yard. Sure, it's a foul ball down the line in any other park in the majors, but you know what? It's an HR for David Ortiz, and I'll will take quite literally ANYTHING we get for him right now.

     3. Timely hitting. Pedey, Ellsbury, Ortiz, Lowell, the list goes on. The Sox offense was working last night, and I hope to see more of it.

     With our bullpen far and away the best in the game, and our starters and hitters now (dare I say it?) firing on all cylinders, and with interleague play coming up - a time of year the Sox usually dominate, look for boston to go on a serious run here and look to put us in a good position over the East by the Break.

     With everything looking hunky-dory (Dice-K's Sunday start pending), I think we're ready for New York. With the team running like this, in our house, this is the time to put us up a few games to start interleague play.

     This will be my first 'Rivalry' series with this column, so I am really looking forward to it. Hope you guys check in.

    

Waiting patiently for Father Smoltz,

    -Matt