Timing

Baseball is sometimes about big muscles and sheer power (see Ortiz, David and Papelbon, Jonathan), but it's also about timing. With two flicks of the wrist yesterday, Alex Cora got himself about 800 feet of Yankee Stadium air, good for a home run, a triple and a Red Sox tally of 6-0 when he starts.

He's also hitting us with the kind of things we want to hear:

"That [RBI groundout in the third inning]'s what I'm supposed to do," Cora said. "The other things, I'll take as they come, but if you ask Tito [Francona], he'll tell you that's what he wants. Man at third, less than two outs, get the run in. When you play once a week and pop up in that situation with the infield back, you'll be thinking about that for a long time,"

and hasn't lost sight of the bigger picture:

"If you win games in April you don't have to win them in September."

A 16-8 record in April is a pretty fine start to the season, especially when it's mostly been the result of good pitching (the Sox lineup yesterday had just one guy hitting over .300 - Mike Lowell). And that pitching should get even better with the early-May return of Jon Lester. That will in turn send Julian Tavarez to the bullpen, a move which a year ago might have had Sox fans wondering which piece of clubhouse furniture Tavarez would smash up in frustration. But now? Well, Tavarez is Mr. Team Player.

This team is coming together, folks. Fasten your seat-belts and hang on for the ride...

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Obsessive Anal-Retentive Game Counter: 23