 Justin Masterson – our ray of hope! Taken by Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.net in March 2009. Used with permission. |
There is one benefit to this cold/infection/spring fever/whatever the hell I have – it’s knocking the heck out of me. So, try as I might, I didn’t stay up for the entire game last night because I just couldn’t (had I not been sick I would have most definitely stayed up. See? There’s a bright side to every situation!). I have no idea when I fell asleep, but I woke up around 4am thinking “they had to have lost” (mostly because I had no messages from anyone yelling “They won one!!!”) and, sadly, I was right.
But there were some high points in the game – most notably Justin Masterson. I did stay awake for his performance and if you can physically embody the phrase “getting the job done” Justin did so on Tuesday. Coming in the game in the second inning for “arm-fatigued” Daisuke Matsuzaka (who I am now officially annoyed with for caring more about the WBC than the 2009 season), he pitched four 2-hit, 6-strike out, no-run, innings. Delcarmen, Ramirez (who, online, MLB puts an “R” by his name in case people still think Manny is on the team), Okajima, and Papelbon went on to pitch six more scoreless innings.
This is the stuff we need to hold on to right now. When it came down to it, the majority of our bullpen came through big time. Unfortunately, Javier Lopez didn’t have as good a time of it and walked the bases loaded before giving up a two-out single to Travis Buck. Thank God I didn’t stay up until after 2am to see this because I wouldn’t have been nearly as good-natured as I am right now.
I say this every year and I mean it: Let them get the suck out early. It’s painful to endure but it will be over soon (I’m convinced of this). Besides, look at the bright side: if they keep struggling, it might get easier to buy tickets to Fenway when the bandwagoners all start going to Bruins games.
JD Drew went 3 for 6 (so the next person to criticize him and point the finger for this really does get a kick in the shins from me); Mike Lowell knocked in 2 runs; Kevin Youkilis is hitting .500 and Jason Bay is at .320. Things will start coming around, folks, we just need to be a little patient.
It’s a good lesson for some of us – learning patience, I mean – and it’s a good reminder that we shouldn’t act so entitled (as some of our fanbase does). It’s never easy and there are going to be rough spots to get through. Your team having a record of 2-6 might hurt right now, sure, but given what we know about this team it’s tough to believe the pain will last for long.