The Baseball Desert

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Old friends

So far this season, I've seen bits of different games at different times of the day, but for the first time this season, there was my favourite middle-of-the-night gathering chez Iain, with the best guest-list that an MLB.TV subscription can buy: me, Don and Jerry and the Red Sox.

When you get up at 1am to watch the game - especially on a Friday night after a tough week at work - things can get a little shaky around the 3rd or 4th inning, as you fight to stay awake. Last night was no exception. The evening was slow in getting going, and with Daisuke looking like he needed a map to find the strike zone, it seemed like we were in for a looooong night. What I hadn't counted on was the proceedings being considerably enlivened by the arrival of an unexpected old friend from seasons past: Big Papi - he of the monstrous bat, the 5 RBIs and the grand slam home run.

It's amazing what four runs in the 3rd and five runs in the 4th (including four from the Sox' Young Guns: Lowrie, Ellsbury and Pedroia) will do for your stamina. I went from almost asleep to full fist-pumping mode in the space of about 20 minutes, and that rush of energy kept me going from Daisuke's exit in the sixth right through to Timlin's 1-2-3 ninth. (I'll repeat that again, just for Beth's benefit: Timlin's 1-2-3 ninth...).

The Sox are a long way from perfect, but taking into account the Japan trip, the absence of Lowell, and the pale imitation of Big Papi that we saw up until last night, records of 7-3 over their last ten games and 11-7 overall seem pretty good to me. Now would be a perfect time to build on that at Fenway and put together a nice little winning streak between now and the end of the month.

Over to you, gents...