It was a great weekend -- if you only count Saturday and Sunday. Let's just try to forget Friday night's
horrific loss and consider the positives.
Saturday's 9-2 romp after a three-game skid was a godsend. It's been said before, and will be again, but
Bronson Arroyo is a stud. Nothing seems to phase him. He never loses his composure on the mound, and he's pitching pretty much lights-out. During the playoffs last year, Curt Schilling said that "the kid" has "
nuts the size of Saturn." Bronson proved it again by playing the stopper Friday night, going seven strong and allowing just two runs on five hits. The guy hasn't lost a game since August 15th of last year, and the Sox are 13-1 in his past 14 starts. Read that sentence again. The offense looks to be clicking, too. Johnny Damon went yard for the first time this season, and Trot Nixon -- who's fitting into the #2 spot quite nicely thanks, hitting .290 with 17 walks and a .427 OBP -- did the same immediately after. The team batted around in the eighth, and Jason Varitek, who's gone deep more often (6 times) so far than I think anyone had right to expect him to, put an exclamation point on the whole thing with a homer in the ninth.
Yesterday was a little
more interesting, but at least it was a win. There should be a new stat invented for Matt Clement: YAIP (years added per inning pitched). I think I aged about a decade and a half yesterday, peeking through parted fingers as he tried desperately to find the strike zone over six innings. It was worst in the early-going; but despite throwing 55 pitches in the first two innings with only 27 being called for strikes, despite three walks, hit batsman and wild pitch in those same two frames, Clement buckled down admirably. Thanks to a badly needed double play in the sixth (after a nightmarish error by still-shaky
Edgar Renteria had blown one DP attempt to load the bases earlier), he escaped with a quality start. Again, the offense was potent, with every starter getting a hit. (After going four for eight with a double, three RBIs and two walks this weekend,
Kevin Youkilis seems to be saying emphatically that he'd like to stay put.) Still, Keith Foulke -- who appeared to be back in form after his two-strikeout, 1-2-3 inning on Saturday -- managed to put the fear in us again, giving up a base hit to David Dellucci and a two-run homer to Mark Teixeira in the ninth. Like Clement, he sacked-up and buckled down to get the final out. 6-5, for the first series win in Texas in five years. I'll take it.
Tonight, we head to Detroit, and Terry Francona will be back at the helm after his three-game suspension. A good thing, since he looked miserable watching the game from a high-up perch in the press box yesterday. (Incidentally, if any NESN cameramen are reading this: When someone is picking his nose that lustily, you should cut away, not linger for what feels like 20 excruciating seconds. Thanks.)
Jeremi Gonzalez, just called up from Pawtucket, goes tonight against Jeremy Bonderman. Curt Schilling he ain't, but the fact that Comerica is renowned as a
pitcher's park with hopefully help him out.
1BPeter Gammons wrote on Sunday that the Sox "are very encouraged by the maturity of [Pawtucket] catcher Kelly Shoppach" and that he "could be midseason trade bait when and if Boston tries to deal for a first baseman." Presumably, he wrote that before news came down that we'd signed
John Olerud to a minor league deal. (Instead, maybe Shoppach can help out as part of a mid-season deal for Roger Clemens -- a move Dan Shaughnessy boldly predicted last night on
7 Sports Extra.) The Olerud deal -- a $750,000 salary -- is an interesting move, with seemingly very little downside. If he can come back strong from his injury, he'll be a good back-up for Kevin Millar (who, Sox Blog would like to remind, is welcome to hit a home run any time he sees fit). He's lefty bat who can still spray some lethal singles and does decently enough with the glove.
We'll need him, too, since it looks like the
David McCarty era may be officially over. To make room on the roster for Gonzalez, the
Globe's Chris Snow writes today, McCarty will "either will be traded, released, or placed on waivers. If he's put on waivers and if he clears, McCarty has the option of going to Triple A Pawtucket or becoming a free agent." Don't quote me on this, but I think I've heard McCarty say that he's not interested in returning to the minors. Might a front office job be in the future for this 35-year-old Stanford grad?
Etc.* Today the official Red Sox site has an interesting article about
Johnny Damon, in which he indicates that retiring isn't out of the realm of possibility once his contract is up after this season. (Presuming that the Sox don't meet his terms, which seems likely.) It's the first time I've heard him talk that way. Obviously, the jet-setting author/actor/underwear shill wouldn't be at a loss for things to do. I also liked this quote. (Will he keep his word? We'll see...)
"There's no way I can go play for the Yankees, but I know they are going to come after me hard," Damon said. "It's definitely not the most important thing to go out there for the top dollar, which the Yankees are going to offer me. It's not what I need."
* In the
Herald, Michael Silverman profiles Red Sox massage therapist
Russell Nua. I'd never heard of him either. But he sounds very cool, and it certainly seems like he did yeoman's work in keeping the guys -- as David Wells is wont to say -- "loosey goosey" during the postseason last year.
* Exciting news over at Hart Brachen's
Soxaholix: a new character!
* Now that
Foulke seems, hesitantly, to be finding his groove again, it's probably safe to wear this wicked-cool new t-shirt we've recently been seeing around Fenway Park.
(If you don't get the reference, it's a take off of the skull logo for Danzig, whose menacing "Mother" is Foulkie's entrance music. Sox Blog heard recently that Keith has also strolled to the mound to the strains of "Die, Die, My Darling" by the Misfits, but has a hard time believing it. If anyone can confirm, please let us know.)
It's even better than those "Ortiz Has a Posse" t-shirts, the loving
Shepard Fairey homages hawked by
Sully's Tees around the park last season. Those aren't being made any more, since Major League Baseball served Sully's with a cease and desist over the off-season -- apparently so they could then step in and do the same shirt, but
worse.