 Daniel Bard during his first appearance at McCoy Stadium. Photo by Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.net. Used with permission. |
Thanks, again, to everyone who stopped by for the marathon live blogging yesterday – I had a lot of fun and hope you enjoyed it as well.
Sox made it all worthwhile with two impressive wins and now we get a day off to recover before we have to gear up for the Yankees coming to town. I’ll be at the first game of the series on Friday night. I’m both excited and anxious about this. I always love being in Fenway but not so much when the Yankees come to visit. It seems the jerks amp it up to 11 for these games – both jerky Red Sox fans and jerky Yankees fans – and Friday will be ripe for the jerky pickings with Joba Chamberlain pitching. Between the Yankees fans who think he’s the second coming of Christ and the Red Sox fans who want Kevin Youkilis to shove a baseball bat where the sun doesn’t shine on Joba, things could get pretty ugly.
I certainly fall in the category of fan who wouldn’t mind seeing Youk put the beatdown on Joba. I absolutely believe Joba goes out of his way to try and hit Youk’s head and no amount of “Why would he do that” rationalizing will make me change my mind. On the other hand, I don’t want Youk either getting hurt, getting suspended or both. So I’d much prefer a weekend of nothing but baseball. No headhunting, no fighting, no arrests. Just play baseball, fellas.
As if the “thrill” of Joba isn’t enough to entice me into going to this game, Jon Lester is pitching against him. How can I not go to this game? The promise of annoying fans in the stands, an obnoxious starting pitcher for the Yankees and the Red Sox pitcher who seems to always suck whenever I go see him pitch in person. Can you sense my excitement?
I know this is going to turn out to be one of those games where, had I stayed home, I’d be biting off my nails waiting for it to end. Sox/Yankees games kill me. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I bought the tickets because EVERY year I tell myself I’m not going to any Sox/Yankees games and every year I go to at least one. (And I’m honestly not complaining – I know damn well how fortunate I am to be able to go to these games – I just need to start choosing my games better. Pettitte/Masterson would have probably been much less stressful!)
I’m typing tense…see the off day will be good for all of us!
Speaking of the Yankees, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees continued their dominance of the International League with a 6-1 drubbing of the Buffalo Bisons. The good news was that Kyle Snyder got in the game (I’ve yet to see this, though, as it happened while I was live blogging and could only listen). The bad news is that he gave up four hits and two runs in one inning of work. No matter. Bisons will have a chance to improve upon their 2-11 record at home this weekend.
Also in the International League, Jonathan Van Every made quite the mark during his first game after coming off the DL. A grand slam to tie the game in the ninth isn’t too shabby, huh? Pawtucket beat Rochester 8-7 in 11 innings and, although he didn’t get the win, Clay Buchholz started the game after some off-time with his hammy, and threw 5 good innings (giving up 3 hits and 2 runs and striking out two). Daniel Bard also threw an inning (the 9th) and strike out the side (all swinging). Things are looking good in Pawtucket right now!
Wednesday was a long day. I look forward to the day off. We need to rest up for this carnival of a weekend ahead!