Big Papi: Justifying The Love

He did it. The monkey's off his back. Swing and a drive, deep to center field... and it's gone! David Ortiz has gone yard, to the deepest part of the ballpark no less. I couldn't be happier for Papi. He really did look like that 800 lb. elephant was off his back. That damn thing had been weighing him down. It was just great to see him smile. It was even better to see him hit a double high off the wall in his next at bat. Perhaps the confidence is back?

Everyone at Fenway had been really supportive of him, and it makes you proud to be a Red Sox fan when it comes to stuff like this. He got just as much support as we could give him, and then some. I like to believe that it actually made a difference for him. He said it did, but I don't want to give too much credit to the fans at the expense of Papi. Today feels like the beginning of the season all over again.

I also need to give major love to the Captain. As NESN showed last night, Tek does tend to like hitting on May 20th. 9 home runs in the last nine years. I wonder what it is about May 20th that gets him all amped up? But two home runs from Tek is all I need to be a happy girl. Doesn't he have like, seven on the season already? Amazing. Last year, my darling captain had a lot to deal with, and his personal life obviously got in the way of his game. Not to say that he isn't declining, because he is, but it's nice to see him put a good swing on a ball every now and then.

Even more love to Jacoby for tying a record that he really had zero control over. His 12 put-outs in the game tie the major league record and break the Red Sox record of 11 that had been held by the likes of Ted Williams. Jacoby didn't have a say in which balls were hit in his direction, so this isn't (in my mind) that big of a deal. It's just kind of a cool trivia fact to know.

Love abounds today, and now it's JayBay's turn. Talk about trying to show up the rest of the guys on the team, Jason hit it clean out of the park. Unassuming Canadian. Hmph! Yeah right. The man is devious. I love it.

And now, of course, Michael Averett Lowell. The double play had me screaming out vulgarities, but the home run made up for it. Admit it. You completely forgot he had hit into a double play after the home run. Just for the record, he's up to 12 now. The record for double plays in a single season, as NESN also informed me last night, is held by none other than our HOF inductee Jim Ed Rice. He had 36. Let's hope Mikey doesn't get around to breaking that one...

Credit must also be given to Penny. Yeah, it may look ugly while he's doing it, but as long as the results are good, I'm cool with it. I guess. He's gotten a lot of flak from me for being frightening, but c'mon... he's no worse than some of our OTHER starters have been.

We get Binky today and Dice on Friday. So Beckett is now, what, the number three starter? Or is he still the number one, and Timmy is our number two... ok, I'm just gonna stop this here because I'm going to get confused. If Johnny doesn't want to be considered the worst starter on this team, he better plan on having a clean outing tomorrow. I know it will be hard, because the Blue Jays like to punish him, but we're gonna keep hoping. Ok? Ok. Awesome.

And just for the record, I'm thoroughly enjoying Eck's love of cheese. High cheese, educated cheese, cheese of a higher temperature? It's all good.