The Holy Land of .500: We Have Arrived

For the second time in as many starts, Jon Lester had the chance to bring his team to .500. After being handed the ball on opening day, essentially being named the team ace, this became Jon Lester's team (even though we all sort of know it's Pedroia's), so it HAD to be him evening things out. Six days ago, when he had the chance, he failed. This game looked from the start to be another failure to accomplish .500, but Jon got it together and made it through six innings when he seemed to be done in the second. I give him credit for holding it together just long enough, but this game was about the bats. They backed him every step of the way. He needed the backing.

After NY put up a run in the first, we matched it in the second with a Lowrider sac fly. Jon came out in the bottom second and allowed three runs in absolutely painful fashion, which I will not recount. We come back in the top of the third to tie it with a 3-run shot from Youkilis. Jon settled down and didn't allow another run to score. He finished with a line of 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 7 K. This definitely wasn't his prettiest start, but it wasn't his ugliest either. Results are really all that matters anyway, and his result was a W.

The Sox didn't stop their scoring at 4 runs. Papi blasted a solo run in the 5th, making it 5-4, then in the 7th, shit went crazy. Boone Logan provided a walk to Pedroia, who stole second. Logan then intentionally walked Ernie. Youk reached on a fielding error by A-rod. The announcers were babbling something about how it was reminiscient of Bucker, but I completely disagree. It reminded me more of a game in 2005 that I have a picture of hanging in my room. The game was April 6, 2005. Manny hit a ball to A-Rod, he misplayed it. Our second baseman, Mark Bellhorn, advanced to third on the error. In 2011-land, Youk hit the ball to A-Rod. Our second baseman, Dustin Pedroia, came home. Two different teams, two different second baseman, and two different results... but they both made A-Rod look like a jackass. There was absolutely no need to tell that story, but as soon as the play happened, all I could think about was the picture of Bellhorn skipping passed A-Rod as he misplayed a ball, so you get the rundown of a play from more than six years ago. Either way, we scored runs in both games due to errors by A-Rod.

Crawford's error in the 8th allowed Granderson to score from first, and I found myself swearing at him a little. Hustle, Carl. With someone as fast as Granderson on base, you got to move a little faster. You get a mulligan because of the win, but just keep it in mind for next time. Wanting to keep the lead at 2-runs, Salty hit his first home run of the season in the 8th off of Flyswatter. I sort of loved it.

Despite the action on the field, my favorite part of the night was a commercial on ESPN comparing Pedroia and Cano. The commercial said, "Second base has never had the sex appeal of shortstop." And I stopped listening because I may or may not have been laughing. I'm sure it makes sense to some people, but to me it's just comedy. Maybe it's because for me, personally, second base has always had way more sex appeal, and I've almost always found myself disgusted with shortstops.... but again, that's just me. I got a laugh out of it. Maybe you did, too.

We're at .500. I thought when we got here, I'd be happy, but I'm not. Now I want more. Now I won't rest for more than six hours per night until we're at .600, so let's get there!