The Fabulous Thunderbirds

Game 114 – Red Sox

Red Sox 9, Angels 6
Record: 69-45

The Red Sox diaspora is already talking about this one as if it has season-saving import after the Sox battled back from an early 3-0 deficit and overcame Jon Lester’s ineffective outing to stifle the Angels. The Sox themselves? More concerned with Papi’s wardrobe, Dominican King Kong impersonations, and the prospect of Reggie Miller joining the Celtics, apparently.

Two days ago, I repeated the argument that successful Red Sox teams need a bit of goofball distraction to insulate them from the neuroses of their wackjob fanbase, presently company included. With the affable Terry Francona as ringmaster, there’s already plenty of evidence that these Sox are plenty loose – witness Manny’s new bull and matador post-homer routine – and the Globe story linked above offers confirmation. Idiots a la 2004? Perhaps not. But a different brand of own-beat marchers nonetheless.

As for last night, I fell asleep right before the Sox woke up. Lester, to his credit, didn’t mince words when asked to describe his performance. “I was terrible”, he said, and he was right. He gets a few more starts before the worries come. The bullpen backed him up admirably allowing 1 run and 4 hits in 5 1/3 innings, with zeroes across the board after the 5th inning. The three-headed endgame beast was in a particularly foul mood, with Okajima, Gagne and Papelbon combining to strike out 4 and allow a single hit in their 3 1/3 innings.

Dustin Pedroia continues to make his case as the AL’s Rookie of the Year, as his homer to left broke a 6-6 tie and turned out to be the winning run. Mike Lowell reached base 5 times and continues to be the Sox’ leader in RsBI – you could’ve taken Vegas deep if you’d bet on that before the season started.

As a group last night, the Sox just said no. No, we’re not losing this one, sorry Chone, you pesky little bastard. It’s about damn time.