Lester: Exactly Like Beckett, As Usual

There are some occassions that I truly enjoy the fact that Jon Lester has actually become Josh Beckett in many ways. The post-game interviews. Seeing them wear the same silly shirts. Hearing the two of them say 'execute pitches'. Even listening to Jon Lester talk in a somewhat southern accent at times. Watching them dominate games. These are the times that watching Josh and Jon morph into the terrifying left and right-handed pitching monster is fun. However, when Jon starts mimicking Josh's sucky pitching, then I don't like it any more. I mean, I'm completely not surprised, but I am a little disappointed. I guess I'll have to wait until Josh's next start to predict how Jon is going to do. Hopefully one of them (meaning both of them) can pitch 6 or 7 and not give up five runs. What's that called? A quality start or something like that? I don't know, it's been a long off-season and there are plenty of things I haven't seen for a long time. Hard to remember.

Not that the Yankees' starting rotation is giving them any quality, but that hardly excuses our piss-poor pitching.

Now, I really wanted to jump on the laptop last night after the game and start writing how Marco Scutaro (for the record, when he makes me unhappy, I've decided to call him Scugo, pronounced Skoo-go.) blew the game, and he should be drawn and quartered and how we can't seem to hold on to the shortstops who don't suck and.... sigh. I'm not feeling it, though. I want to blame him for the loss, because he's a shortstop, but really, it's not all his fault. Asshat SHOULD have picked the ball (and I SHOULD come up with a better nickname for him by now, but I'm not gonna). Oki SHOULD have been able to throw a strike to Nick Johnson and not walk in a run. The rest of our guys SHOULD have scored more runs. Jon Lester SHOULD have pitched better. A bad team effort all around. I'm giving no one an A. You all get C's for this test, Red Sox. Maybe if you work a little harder, I'll give you better grades. Let's not all blame Scugo for this, ok?

And if one more person complains to me that Papi is all washed up, I'll throw a temper tantrum. I swear to God, I can't escape it. It's ridiculous! We're two games into the season. I know he's 0-7, but he's making contact. I don't care if the balls aren't falling in for hits. It's better than watching him strike out, which I KNOW he did plenty of. Don't worry, I watch the games. Give the man a chance to turn it on before you declare him all done. I've always been a huge Papi fan. I didn't quit on him last year, and I'm not quitting on him now. Don't Sox fans still hold on to that old saying 'Keep the faith'? Remember that? Let's have some faith, shall we?

In the spirit of trying to turn this into a good thing, here's my list of five positives from last night. Yes, I decided to start up the random lists again. Here we go:

1) We got that first loss out of the way. It's better to get it done early. Now when we go on that extended winning streak for the rest of April, the first loss won't seem so bad, because our dreams of going 162-0 will have already been dashed.

2) CRW got his first stolen base of the year, which of course means he got on base for the first time this year! While I have zero faith in his fielding ability (I know, I know, I was just bitching about keeping the faith, and here I am faithless), I do love watching him steal bases, so that was nice.

3) Victor Martinez very well could be the bat that Papi was worried about. My love for Jason Varitek will never, never end, but getting production out of our catcher for the first time since 2005? I like it. I like that Varitek is still on the team, and I like that we are getting production. It's the perfect situation for me.

4) Papi's struggles ensure that we actually need Mike Lowell. Another guy I love having on the team. You know Mikey can hit. As long as Papi's struggling, knowing we still have someone on the bench with some pop in his bat is reassuring. Maybe we can actually finish the season with Mikey still in town. That would make me happy.

5) Steven Tyler did not sing God Bless America and Neil Diamond did not sing Sweet Caroline. I know that some people really enjoyed those renditions, but I did not. I'm glad they weren't back.

So there we go. Some positivity heading into Lackey's first start in a Sox uniform. Let's see him put a little hurt on Pettitte, eh?