Monday, July 13, 2009

Jon Lester: Now Can Beat Kansas City In His Sleep

Alright, Jon. We get it. You obviously have something very personal against Kansas City. Whenever he faces them, he puts on his beatdown boots and... well, delivers a beat down. I don't know what it is. Maybe he had some bad barbecue there once. Maybe a road map of downtown got him severely lost, causing him to miss a flight. I could literally sit and speculate all day about why hearing "Kansas City" gets Jon into terminator mode, but it really doesn't matter. I'm glad he enjoys beating them so heartlessly. We've seen the no-hitter, and now we've seen the complete game shutout. It was not a no-hitter, nor was it a 1-hitter. It actually ended up being a 4 hitter. I've said it before, and I will undoubtedly continue to say it in the future... I don't care how many hits they're giving up as long as they don't give up runs. Jon's pitching made me very happy.

On a similar note, Brian Bannister's pitching surprised me. We actually got out-hit during this game. Bannister held us to 3 hits, and 1 run (even though it should have been 2... more on that in a minute). It's got to be absolutely unbearable to pitch that well and still lose. It would drive me crazy. And if he were facing any other team, I would really have hoped that he won the game. But he didn't, because Jon was just a little tiny bit better than him.

Very confusing game. We had fewer hits, more baserunners, and more runs. KC had more hits but only walked twice, giving them 6 baserunners to our 7. There was one error and one stolen base on each side. Jacoby Ellsbury got thrown out trying to score in the 5th inning. He got thrown out for bouncing his helmet when he was called out. After watching the replays, he was clearly (to me) not out. Yes, I was furious at the time because it was a scoreless game, and I had no idea how much longer Jon could hold out with no run support (I'll explain in a second), so I really wanted him to not be out. I swore and pounded my fists and was overall livid. CRW did not deserve his first major league ejection, but there it was. But do I want replays of plays at the plate, knowing full well that they can make or break a game? No. Honestly. I agree with the home run replays, but I just don't think that we should replay everything. It's the charm of the game.

I wanted Lester to get this win. After the first four innings, he was pitching just so damn well that I wanted it for him. He earned it. Bannister earned it, also, but alas you cannot have two W's handed out in one game. My adoration of Jon is well documented. He is, right now, three wins behind Joshua and Timothy. He's pitched just as well as the both of them, so he deserves to have a comparable record. 8-6 is ok. It's a little bit better than average, but the ERA is now under 4! 3.87 to be exact. After May, did it ever seem like we'd have two starters with ERA's under 4? It seemed like an overly ambitious hope. I'm glad they're pitching well, but because they're pitching well, I expect Jon's stats to start evening out. They're starting, but they wouldn''t look as nice as they do now without that W. He needed it. I wanted it. Munchkin assured it for him, and Pap saved it for him with the cleanest inning I've seen him have in a while.

Good game. Period.

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