Thank you, Red Sox. That was fun.
Not too shabby, Felix. (Photo by Kelly O'Connor and used with permission)
On Easter Sunday I got to watch much more of the game than I expected I would. After watching the team come back a couple of times only to eventually lose, the two people I was watching the game with both mentioned how they felt terrible for Alfredo Aceves and they wondered if, to protect him, Bobby Valentine would cease to use him as a closer for a while.
We got our answer quickly enough on Monday night, eh?
There wasn’t a lot to dislike about last night’s game. Felix Doubront held his own for five innings (and two runs and six strikeouts) and then Scott Atchison gave us three scoreless innings (along with three strikeouts). Going into the ninth inning down 2-1 (the “1″ thanks to a Dustin Pedroia home run, “La Luna!”) the Red Sox shook off the ghosts of the weekend and came from behind to score three runs against the new Toronto closer Sergio Santos. That’s when Bobby Valentine thumbed his nose at the naysayers and called in his (interim) closer, Alfredo Aceves.
It took Aceves fifteen pitches to end things against the Blue Jays’ 6th, 7th and 8th batters and he even mixed a strikeout in there. Maybe Aceves needed to find his comfort zone? Maybe he prefers the AL East? Maybe he just had a bad weekend? In any event, the Red Sox got their first win of the season, and their manager’s first win in a Red Sox uniform, and we can enjoy the day and look forward to tonight’s game without bothering with the panicking naysayers getting the upper hand.
I turned on NESN again this morning just like I did on Friday, forgetting I wouldn’t get “Breakfast with the Sox” or even just a game recap from “NESN Daily”. Seeing Dennis and Callahan on my television during baseball season makes me feel like every morning NESN is giving me and the rest of the Red Sox fans the middle finger.
Comments