Boomed

Games 4 & 5 - Red Sox

Red Sox 6, Toronto Blue Jays 5
Blue Jays 12, Red Sox 5
Record: 2-3

Today's by far the most beautiful day of the year in this part of the world - mid-60s, clear, robin's-egg blue sky - and I'm taking advantage of it... by watching David Wells give up back-to-back-to-back no-doubters to the middle of the Blue Jay order. I'm not enjoying the David Wells Experience much, nosiree.

I've never cared much for Wells, probably because he's spent most of his career pitching for teams that I despise, and because he strikes me as a bit of a dick. That said, I was mildly optimistic about his acquisition this winter, mostly because he's been pretty successful even in the later years of his career, and he fits the Sox' control-the-plate pitching philosophy. Mildly optimistic, but ready to careen wildly from the bandwagon at the first signs of Wells' decline. 7 innings and 9 earned runs later, that's me you see tumbling off into the dust, ass over teakettle, growing smaller and smaller as the Wellswagon skitters into the distance, spraying basehits and towering homers from its prodigious coach.

I enjoyed last night's game in the company of the most recent Atlantic Monthly and a couple of frosty Tupper's Hop Pocket Ales. (Sidenote for beer fans: if you can get your hands on some Tupper's, rush out now and do so. If you don't live in the Mid-Atlantic region and can't find Dominion Brewery products, make a trip to the Dominion Brewpub in Ashburn, VA and stock up - you'll thank me later.) I was watching the game out of one eye while reading about how advances in genetic and medical technology may well mean that the first modern human to live to 150 has already been born (at the moment, I'm wondering if it's David Wells). Then, after 8 2/3 innings of somnambulent baseball, Keith Foulke turned a snoozer into a thrill ride.

Bronson Arroyo pitched 6 sharp innings for the Sox, even while battling the effects of a curiously bad hair day. Alan Embree and Mike Timlin got through the 7th and 8th, despite the rocket round-tripper that Embree allowed to Eric Hinske. Foulke took the ball with a 6-3 lead, courtesy of homers by Varitek and Nixon, a bad error on Jays reliever Brandon League, and a couple of timely knocks. 2 runs later, with the bases loaded, Foulke finally got Orlando Hudson to ground to Bellhorn to end the game, and elicit the season's first standing fist pump in my living room. Thanks, Keith...I think.

Curt Schilling makes his first start on the 18th, and boy, does it look like the Sox are going to need him. 2 bad starts by Wells does not a trend make - necessarily - but my cockles aren't exactly toasty, either.

(Edit: I love it when you call me Big Papi. Roy Halladay went 2-0 on David Ortiz with 2 on and 2 out in the top of the 6th. I stood up and said, "Oooh, you don't want to have to give him something to hit," to no one in particular. Well, to no one at all, as I'm alone. Halladay did give him something to hit, and Papi pulverized it, crushing a low fastball over the centerfield wall to bring the Sox back to within 1.)

(And one more: Sox scrapped back to 5-5, then gave up a touchdown to fall below .500 again. Wells did retire 8 in a row before getting yanked. Whatever.)