Sox Demoralize Rays: More Success on Jackie Robinson Day

I want to start out by saying that I love, love, love the idea of all the players wearing #42 for Jackie Robinson Day. It's a wonderful tribute to a man who played an integral role in the history of baseball. I don't like, however, when I am on redsox.com trying to look up Jeff Bailey's uniform number so I can post my opening day pictures and all the numbers have been changed to #42. A minor issue, I guess. Just wanted to get my bitching out of the way.

For his second game of the season, Doubront again went five innings. He allowed nine hits and four runs with one walk and seven strikeouts. While the kid was pretty good, we really are going to need to get more than five innings out of him if he's going to be a worthwhile starter. That being said, he's young and I'm willing to give him the chance to adjust to the big leagues. I think he's going to be just fine.

For the second consecutive game, Ross and Calviles hit home runs. Ross went out of the park again. I'm sorry I doubted you, guys. Keep it up and I will gladly eat crow for the rest of the season.

The real beast though, is Papi. Is he on a tear or what? Granted, he was hitting the first six games of the season, but he's been destroying this weekend. 3-4 yesterday with an RBI, 4-5 Saturday with five RBI's, and 2-4 with 2 RBIs on Friday's game. With a .444 batting average, Papi is downright scary right now. I love it. I guess that's what happens when you  show up to camp looking as trim and fit as Papi did... and don't kid yourself, the dude looked good this year. The results at the plate are validating his extra work this offseason. It's pretty awesome.

Atch got a little roughed up, but he was saved by Padilla. Morales, though allowing two hits, had a good inning, and Sauce closed the door perfectly in the ninth. That ERA that used to be infinity is now down to 9.00. A few more innings like that, and he'll bring that baby down in no time.

Three wins in a row. The last time the Sox had three regular season wins in a row was July of last year. Seems like such a long time ago, doesn't it?

This morning's game brings Sharky to face Daniel Bard. I'm going to be interested to see how Bard fares against this Tampa lineup that is probably feeling mighty angry at losing three in a row to the Sox. As for Sharky, he's a mixed bag. I've seen the Sox beat the stuffing out of him, and I've seen him blow the Sox away. What we've got on our side is the fact that this is a big game for Sharky, trying to stop a four-game sweep.... and we all know the nickname Big Game James is normally more of a joke than a reality. This will be interesting.