So Much Good: So Little Time

First of all, before anything else I need to say congratulations to the Bruins on that excellent win in double OT last night. Very cool and it gives them a 3-1 lead over the Sabres in the series.

Second, Kevin Millar is finally a broadcaster! Sure, not for NESN. Not yet, anyway. But I am now going to make it a priority to watch the MLB network whenever I can. It's Kevin freakin' Millar! Ducky! A broadcaster! There is reason for plenty of excitement (and probably some concern). I'm sad Ducky couldn't get a job as a baseball player, but I can pretty much promise that no one will be more entertaining as a broadcaster or analyst or whatever it is he's doing. As long as they let him be himself, I'm happy.

Third, the Sox. Oh, there was plenty of good in this game, for sure. Do you know what was not good? Beckett. Beckett was not good. All he needed to do was not give up seven runs, and he couldn't do it. When your ace cannot not give up seven runs, you're usually not going to win games. How very abberrational for Josh. He better cut that out because I don't want to have to worry about him, too. Seven innings and less than seven runs allowed shouldn't be too much to ask.

But, the good. Hmm, let's see... we had a grand slam by JD, another home run by Ronald, only THREE stolen bases (I know that's not fair, it's a lot harder to steal off of a power pitcher than it is off a knuckleball pitcher, but still), amazing pitching by Bard, Paps, and Oki who are apparently our holy trinity of awesome relievers (and I'm ok with that), and another off-the-wall game winning base hit for the Sox. Youk did us proud. I'm guessing he HAD to do that because he needed to show teams it wasn't ok to walk Munchkin to get to him. Honestly, I'm glad it was Youk. He'd been scuffling, much like the rest of the team, so it was good that he got his breakout.

More bad. We went a stretch of 18 batters without having a single person reach base. Two times through the lineup, no one could muster a hit or a walk against Texas. That was pretty ugly. That's the kind of thing that makes me continuously nervous about the team, even after a hard-fought win like this.

More good. Texas pretty much had the same problem that we did with that whole 'getting on base' thing. Paps was brilliant in his first inning of work, even if he did give up a single to the sham that is Josh Hamilton. Paps was also brilliant in his second inning of work. Two innings, 15 pitches. That right there is vintage Papelbon. It also didn't hurt that Texas got a little swing happy. I don't care. I'll take it.

Even more good. Scutaro advancing to second on that fly ball by Drew. I mean, my goodness, if he didn't make it he would have been a pariah. I don't know that there's a single person who was watching that game who thought that was a good idea, but since he actually got it done, it seemed brilliant. There's some fight in these Sox after all. Nice to see. Even nicer to win!

Tonight, Dahmer takes the mound against C.J. Wilson. I'm only five posts away from reaching my goal for April. I am very proud of myself. I'm also proud of the Sox for winning two really exciting games in a row. Could this be a sign of good things to come? I hope so!