Should Have Known Better

I thought for sure Kevin Youkilis getting thrown out of the game last night for arguing a third strike call in the 8th inning was a sign that last night’s game wasn’t going to end the way I would like.  Youk gets the boot, Papi gets intentionally walked, putting men on first and second, and Carl Crawford pops out to end the inning.  It just felt, to me, like things were about to go downhill.

Then Tito does the one thing I genuinely hate for him to do:  He puts Jonathan Papelbon into a tied game.  While I prepared myself for a home run (I’m not proud, that’s exactly what I did), Papelbon came up with a ground out, a pop out and a strike out in 10 pitches.

Oh me of little faith.

Bottom of the ninth and a fly out followed by three singles (which included Jarrod Saltalamacchia as a pinch runner for Jason Varitek which, at the time, seemed like pinch running Adrian Gonzalez for David Ortiz), and the Red Sox win.  I suppose the fact that the Yankees were clobbering the White Sox in a game that was rain delayed (and eventually called) gave me that extra bit of anxiousness over the result of this game.  I like the Red Sox being at least a game over the Yankees.  It makes me happy.  Especially with the Yankees coming to Boston this weekend.  So I wasn’t too happy with the idea of the Yankees and Red Sox being tied for first place in the East.  The one game lead might be a little scrawny, but I’ll take it.

I wanted to take this space to do something I don’t often do, and that’s highlight a comment from yesterday.  I’m doing this for two reasons:  1) It made me laugh out loud and lately not much does that and 2) when I first read it, I did so without knowing who wrote it and finding out that it was Kelly only made me laugh more.  Without the two of us ever discussing it, she absolutely nails how I feel about Justin Verlander (and others) complaining about Erick Aybar bunting during Verlander’s no-hit bid.  So in case you missed it, here is the part that stood out for me:

If batters have to respect an opposing no-hitter, why don’t pitchers respect things like batters maintaining hitting streaks or going for the cycle? Hey, maybe bunting is NEVER fair. It’s always a sneaky play, tried only by weasels who can’t get hits the old-fashioned way! Know what else is unfair? Picking off baserunners! They got there fair and square (unless they bunted)! That’s bush league to try to take that away from them!

And NOW I’m done writing about the Tigers/Angels game.

We get Wake on the mound tonight, newly 45 (happy belated birthday!) and going for his 200th win – as if we needed to find reasons to watch the Red Sox!