A Fine Balance

Game 5 - Red Sox

Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 3
Record: 3-2

This game felt like a loss from the jump, so I had a hard time working up any sort of righteous indignation. Jacoby Ellsbury had a ball pop out of his glove as he hit the wall. Ellsbury and Manny Ramirez watched a popup fall in front of them. The Sox wallowed in offensive ineptitude against Shaun Marcum. The Blue Jay righthander allowed a single hit, Kevin Cash's ringing double in the 3rd, through 6 innings, and when Tim Wakefield finally cracked in the bottom of the 6th, I was happy to wander aimlessly through the channels.

Imagine my surprise, then, when J.D. Drew solved Marcum in the top of the very next inning. The very same Drew who elicited the following text message from me to Whitney earlier in the evening: "Ahhh, the ineffectual wave of J.D. Drew at an outside breaking pitch, a sure sign of Spring. Like the salmon of Capistrano." The laconic lefty crushed a Marcum offering into deep right with a pair of runners aboard to tie the game at 3, setting the stage nicely...

...for the dregs of the Sox bullpen to hand the game to Toronto and send the assembled Canadians home happy. First David Aardsma (walk to David Eckstein), then Javier Lopez (single to Shannon Stewart) failed to do their simple jobs, leaving Manny Delcarmen to clean up their mess. And he almost did, recording 2 outs before leaving a changeup over the middle of the plate to Frank Thomas. The Big Hurt is now more of a Paper Cut, but he can still rip meaty pitches, and so he did last night. His 2-run double gave the Jays all they needed.

And left me feeling...eh. (That's eh, as in "whatever, it's far too early in the season to get worked up", not as in, "take off, you hoser") Either Aardsma or Lopez is likely to find himself in less glamorous climes as soon as Sunday, when Josh Beckett comes off the DL. Bartolo Colon's first start in Pawtucket was highly encouraging. Clay Buchholz makes his season debut in about 10 minutes, and it's sunny and 60 where I sit. Can't win 'em all.