The Baseball Desert

Monday, April 09, 2007

Papel-très-bon

This is why he's back in the 'pen. So that seven solid innings from Schiling and two homers from Papi don't get flushed down the toilet by a rash of Texas Rangers who had no business occupying all three bases in the eighth inning.

I'm not one for quoting ESPN's broadcast team on a regular basis, but Jon Miller said it pretty well: "That's no three-run-lead, starting-the-ninth-inning-with-the-bases-empty save. That is a big league save." One out in the eighth, tying and go-ahead runs on base. 15 pitches, 3 strikeouts and 2 flyouts later, we had ourselves the first jump-up-off-the-sofa moment of the season, and the game was in the bag.

Now we have yet another off-day before what is possibly the best day of the whole season: Opening Day at Fenway Park. The family has been warned (and bribed with the promise of Domino's Pizza and Ben & Jerry's ice-cream): at 8pm CET tomorrow, the TV is mine, and this little piece of the Paris suburbs will have an 02215 zip code.

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Obsessive Anal-Retentive Game Counter: 6