This team isn’t as bad as they’re pretending to be

Bronson, Monday night, courtesy of Yahoo! SportsYou all have no idea how difficult it has been for me to find something positive to write so the first thing everyone sees Wednesday morning here isn’t my ranting about Tito.

Sadly, I had to go completely out of the Red Sox to do it.  And, in doing so, I’m slightly less agitated by the suckitude of the Red Sox (and, for me, more specifically, Terry Francona) over the last three days.

See, I Googled old friend Bronson Arroyo.  I’ve been so caught up in the Sox over the last month or so that I’ve neglected Bronson’s last couple of starts.  I’d been following him pretty closely all season, but let it slide.  So now that I’m back, at the very least I can say:

Things could always be worse, Red Sox Nation, we could be Cincinnati Reds fans.

Give me a good man-hug any day!I mean no disrespect to Reds fans.  None at all.  After watching  your team for the better part of the season, I have a new appreciation for you all.  Regardless of what is going on, a lot of you are still showing up for these games and still cheering your team on.  And, tonight, you’ve inspired me to NOT boycott Wednesday night’s game (Clay Buchholz is starting…it can’t suck any more than these last two, right?).

Bronson pitched a pretty good game Monday night, only to have Dave Weathers piss it all away.  And then, Tuesday night, Weathers comes in and gets his 31st save of the season, helping Aaron Harang get his  16th win.  The Reds are 9.5 games out of first place.  Wayne Krivsky, the owner for the Reds, through stupid money at both Harang and Arroyo in the off-season, and they have 25 wins between them.  The aces for the Reds have 25 wins together.  And 18 loses.

Josh Beckett (thus far): 19-6

Daisuke Matsuzaka – 14-12

Tim Wakefield – 16-11

Factor in Jon Lester’s 4 wins (and 0 loses) and Clay Buchholz’ two wins (along with 8 wins from Schilling and 7 for Tavarez) and our starting pitchers have given us more to cheer than boo this season.

Any day is a good day for this photo!Being 2.5 games up, when we should be more, absolutely sucks.  There’s no way to sugar coat that.  But the fact is, the team is still 2.5 games up.  We aren’t 9.5 games in the hole just looking to finish out the season without anyone getting hurt.  

I have to believe that these guys are pissed, upset, SOMETHING, that they’ve failed so miserably over the last three games.  It can’t sit well with a lot of them that they’re turning into the laughing stock of MLB.

So, Wednesday night, a rookie named Clay becomes our "stopper".  After the great outing by Lester (ruined by Tito and Gagne, THIS I WON’T get over any time soon), I have high hopes that another rookie will come through as well.

Maybe Tito can get himself thrown out of the game in the first inning?  Maybe Mike Timlin can tie Gagne up with fish tape and throw him in a locker BEFORE the game?  Both scenarios would work for me.

 
My manly man. One of the reasons I’ll always have faith in this team.I can’t believe the Sox are going to go down with such a whimper.  There’s no way, even after Tuesday, you’ll convince me these guys aren’t going to sack up and kick some butt going into October.

I’d just feel a hell of a lot better about it if Eric Gagne was no where near them for the rest of the year.

Okay, that’s a little negative, eh?  Well, at least I really do believe Clay will kick some butt tomorrow!

(Pictures scattered throughout this post are, pretty much, for my entertainment.  Hey, I need eye candy every once in a while!)