No more walk off walks, please

TJ Large doing his thing in Portland earlier this month. Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission

I was supposed to be in Pawtucket yesterday watching TJ Large make his first major league start in a spot start appearance because Randor Bierd was scratched late in the day.  The PawSox ended up winning their game 6-4 against Syracuse.  I missed a good game.

Of course, the game I didn’t miss?  Didn’t turn out so well.

I missed the end of that game too.  Sleep overtook me much more quickly than the Tigers beat the Red Sox but I saw enough of the game that I could have guessed, with the way things have gone this year, how it would end.

If there is one thing in baseball I absolutely hate it’s when my team walks in a run.  When they walk in a run to lose a game it a thousand times more frustrating.  So the gods were with me last night when they made me fall asleep because, had I witnessed Ramon Ramirez walk in that winning run, I probably never would have fallen asleep last night.

I’m writing this without having read anyone’s blogs or tweets or message board rants.  I’m sitting on a screened in porch with the sun shining, the birds singing and the sounds a few people mowing their lawns as my soundtrack for the morning.  In spite of the infuriating way the game ended, it’s a beautiful morning – and we have another day before us with the promise of a good baseball game ahead.

I fully acknowledge that it’s much easier to feel this way when I didn’t witness the crushing blow of how the game ended.

John Lackey goes out for the Sox at 1:05pm today against Armando Galarraga who was just called up from the Triple-A Toldeo Mud Hens to make the spot start for the Tigers.  On paper this should be great but last night is a reminder that baseball doesn’t care about what’s on paper just about what’s on the field.    Here’s hoping the Red Sox make the decision to switch the channel over to the Celtics at 3:30pm a tough one.

This is hard for some people to accept, I know, but we need to focus on whether the team wins or loses and not look at the rest of the standings – for probably quite a while.  Losing last night stunk but the Sox have a good opportunity to pull it together today and win the series.  Small steps, people, small steps.