Let me hear you say way-oh!

It’s nice to wake up on the morning after a sports night like last night.

Before anything else I have to own up to my Bruins bandwagonism.  I consider myself a genuine Red Sox and Celtics fan but my fandom for the Bruins has definitely waned over the years.  Don’t get me wrong, as a Boston sports fan I always want the Bruins to win even if I don’t follow them closely.  (Heck, I want the Revolution to win and I think I’ve ever watched all of one game they’ve played.)  Back in the day (‘the day’ being, for me, the Cam Neely era and earlier) I was a big fan and paid much more attention.  Nowadays, I hope they do well and if they don’t I don’t lose any sleep over it.  But last night, last night I really wanted them to win.

There was something a little magical about the Bruins taking down the Flyers while the Celtics took one from the Cavaliers and the Red Sox put the beat down on the Angels.  Last night, good things came in threes.  So congrats to the Celtics and the Bruins.

But hot damn howsabout those Red Sox?

Because, much to my own surprise, sometimes I actually have a life outside of baseball, I missed the first hour of the game.  When I got in, Clay was giving up three runs in the fourth inning and Remy and Orsillo were nervously wondering if he was hurt (from being hit on the leg by Kendry Morales line drives) or tired and you could hear the worry in their voices as the score went from 5-0 to 5-3.  They needn’t have been worried – the magic was working in Boston last night.

Mike Lowell went four for four last night.  Four for freaking four (yes, he sat on my bench last night.  I blame my aforementioned other ‘life’ for my not being around to adjust my fantasy baseball lineup!). Jonathan Van Every was the only Sox player to have an at-bat and not get a hit, the slacker.  JD Drew went four for five.  Youkilis, Pedroia, Adrian Beltre and Bill Hall all had home runs.  The team had 20 hits and only left nine on base.  These guys were unloaded a lot of baggage last night.  Clay didn’t pitch as sharply as he has but, dammit, he still pitched well enough for the win (and currently leads the team with three wins).

After a team meeting, the Sox came out swinging.  Rob Bradford has a couple of great entries in his Full Count blog, one detailing the “chemistry” issue that an idiot in the Boston Herald (I refuse to name because I think he shouldn’t even have a job) wrote about yesterday.

“We’ve got good guys here. Everybody gets along,” said Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett. “I was actually noticing this the other day, that we’ve got an abnormal amount of beer-drinking buddies. Not that we drink too much beer, but that we get along. We had 15 guys go to dinner for three straight nights on that first road trip. When we start putting things together like I know this team is going to do everybody is going to be talking about what great chemistry we have. To me, winning cures all.”

It sure does, Josh. With this one win more hope has been instilled in Red Sox fans than has been in quite a while.  If the team can come off of a humiliating sweep in Baltimore and show this kind of power – many fans who were worried probably feel like than can, at least, take a deep breath.

The other Bradford entry of interest was a quote by Dustin Pedroia after last night’s game:

“To the fans of New England,” the second baseman began.

“Everybody can be [expletive] happy when you’re [expletive] 30-1, but what is everybody going to do when we’re 12-14? Are you going to show up to work the next day and write an [expletive] story? Hell no. You’re going to write the best story of your life. We’re going to try and play the best [expletive] game of our life tomorrow. That’s what you’ve got to do when you’re 12-14. Don’t put your head down and mope. Grind it out. You believe. That’s what we’re built on.”

So Dustin Pedroia wants everyone to chill the heck out, okay? It kind of reminded me of Kevin Millar’s dressing down of the press in 2004 when he assured them they’d be back at his locker asking him questions during the playoffs.  People need to be reminded that the season is long and these guys aren’t playing poorly right now because they want to play poorly.

Lest you get a little defensive (as, predictably, some commenters over at Bradford’s blog did), here’s another quote from Pedie from last night (which said commenters must have missed in the same entry):

“When you win, it’s not magnified. When your 12-14 everybody jumps on the new guys like it’s their fault,” Pedroia said. “It’s not their fault. Nobody has played unbelievable. There’s a few guys who have played good but the new guys have been fine. Boston is different, man. They demand you go out there every day and play your butt and try to win. It takes some time to get used to, but once you get used to it, man, there’s nothing like playing here. It’s the best place in the world. Everybody needs to take a deep breath and do what we did tonight.”

Pedie loves us…he just wants us to chill.

A few more 17-8 wins might make the nervous nellies calm down a bit, Pedie.  🙂

Mad bobcat murderer on the mound tonight against Ervin Santana.  Could be another good opportunity for the Sox to get this winning streak moving along.  We’ll be live chatting here tonight starting at 7 if you’re interested we’d love to have you join us!