The Smithereens

Games 41 & 42 - Red Sox

Red Sox 13, Atlanta Braves 3
Braves 14, Red Sox 0
Record: 29-13

From the sublime to the seriously ridiculous in the span of a single afternoon.

The Sox coasted in the first game of interleague play, taking a 12-0 lead behind Mike Lowell's 5 RBI and Daisuke Matsuzaka's 6 innings of shutout ball before the Braves broke through with 3 meaningless runs in the 7th. I, of course, saw absolutely none of it thanks to the inability of MLB's television partners to figure out the rocket science involved with rescheduling games called due to inclement weather.

The second game was long overdue, as the Sox have been firing on all cylinders for so long. Frankly, you're pretty much gonna lose a John Smoltz/Devern Hansack matchup, so you might as well lose it big.

NESN's cameras caught a fittingly absurd dugout scene midway through the Game 2 carnage. Coco Crisp fouled off an inside breaking pitch directly into the Sox' first-base dugout. As the ball bounded into the seating area, Jason Varitek attempted to knock it down with the butt end of the bat he was holding. Much like unprotected sex in Haiti, bad idea. The ball caromed off his bat directly into Wily Mo Pena's forehead, from which it ricocheted off the ceiling into the jaw of starting pitcher Devern Hansack, requiring medical attention. Hansack later left the game after taking a batted ball off his wrist in the 4th inning, and was on the hook for the loss. Probably not going in his personal MLB highlight scrapbook.

Kason Gabbard against Tim Hudson doesn't offer a great deal of additional confidence, but the Sox have hit Hudson hard in recent action. Whitney's predicting 6 runs for the Sox, but offers the key question: will it be enough?