No, success against my team doesn’t make me happy

It's been brought up more than once to me that I'd be happy if Kyle had just beaten the Red Sox.  Hell, I'll be happy when Kyle just gets to get back on the mound...but I stil won't want him to beat my team (just pitch well enough against them to not suck and let his bullpen come in and lose to the Sox!!).  Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.

It's been brought up more than once to me that I'd be happy if Kyle had just beaten the Red Sox. Hell, I'll be happy when Kyle just gets to get back on the mound...but I still won't want him to beat my team (just pitch well enough against them to not suck and let his bullpen come in and lose to the Sox!!). Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.

No one knows more than I do that sometimes you just choose a player to like, regardless of how well he plays or what team he plays for.  I also am aware that Justin Masterson has the label of “Nicest Guy in Baseball…and Possibly Life”.  I get it.  (And Justin has been more than nice/good to folks I know so I not only am aware of the label but I’m tempted to believe it.)

I just hope folks will excuse me for not being all giddy that the man pitched his best game since being traded to Cleveland against the team I root for.

I’m not one who gets too bent out of shape when the team loses.  But I will fully admit that when Boof Bonser came out of that bullpen, I checked out of the game.  I had a list of things that needed to get done that I was going to tackle after the game so the non-existent Red Sox offense and the appearance of Boof made he decision to shut the game off before it was over quite easy.  I can’t remember the last time I shut a Sox game off before it was over, but I did this one.  Maybe external issues not related to baseball have me a bit more tightly wound than normal but, really, I’m not blaming my feelings solely on that.  Losing to any team 11-0 sucks.  Especially when we had one of our best pitchers out there to start the game and the opposing team had one of their worst.  So while I suppose ultimately, if this triggers success for Justin throughout the season, I will eventually be pleased for Justin, right now is not that time.  I can’t take pleasure in his success when it comes at the price of such an ass-beating.  Maybe next time, Justin.  Definitely next time since it won’t be against the Red Sox.

While I’m cranky, I guess it’s a good time to bring up Jacoby Ellsbury and all of this “he’s soft” bullshit going around.  The kid fractured his damn ribs (well, if I’m being specific, Adrian Beltre fractured Ellsbury’s ribs) and it’s the kind of injury that’s extremely freaking  painful.  There is no one, no doctor, no member of the media, no teammate and no armchair athlete who can tell whether Jacoby is genuinely in too much pain to play or just being “soft”.  Jacoby is the only one who knows how he feels and to call him soft is ridiculous.  Break your ribs, do what he needs to do on the field and then get back to me.

Jon Lester pitches the final game in the series before we get back to interleague play against the Phillies.  My crankiness will be over quickly regardless but it would be nice if the Sox left Cleveland with the series win and not the split.

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