"Good Night and Good Luck"

Okay, it only took a week from the date that I started a blog called "Big Papelbon" for Big Papelbon to actually get into a game. I had started to write a post the other night noting this fact and opined that maybe I should have called my blog "Big Tavarez" or "Big Seanez" with the hopes that either would suffer a similar fate. Fortunately for me (or my initial post would have needed some serious revisions), I needed take no such action. Big Papelbon did pitch and did so quite admirally I might add.

This is a minor digression from my lead in paragraph but I can't help but wonder what's gotten into Sox radio announcers, Jerry Trupiano and Joe Castiglione. I was listening to the duo last night with my dad while working on my basement and I swear, they were announcing a game pre-2004. They couldn't mention enough times that Varitek had hit into an inning ending double play in the first inning with the bases loaded. They also mentioned a number of times that the Sox had had trouble scoring runs recently. Huh? Last time I checked, they scored five runs in Monday's blowout and eight the day before against Detroit. As luck would have it, they didn't seem to have any problems scoring any runs against the Yankees either that night (9-3).

The other thing that amused me about the about Trup and Joe C. during that same game was the number of times they shit on the Giambino. They mentioned no fewer than six times what a horrible defensive player he was. Any time a ball was hit to him and he fielded it, they acted genuinely surprised. I mean, Giambi isn't winning a gold gloves any time soon but it's not like hes makes an error EVERY time he touches the ball either. Not that I'm overly concerned since Giambi is one of my lesser favorite Yankees. At the very least though, they don't need to totally crucify the guy.

Getting back to my original topic (the reason I created this blog), we got a nice close out of Big P, even it wasn't for the save. Sometimes, those are the hardest games of all to pitch in considering you have a six run lead, you didn't really have expectations of coming into the game, and the Yankees bats -- three home runs aside -- looked pretty week all night.

It wouldn't be fair if I didn't also mention that we got a great game out of Schill. Other than the three splitters he left up in the zone, he looked pretty sharp all night. Even more important, he was efficient, something he's not normally known for (leads the league in pitches/batter). It's amazing to me that this guy is 9-2 (Sox are 11-2 in games he's started). That's not to say I'm surprised by his talent but more that it's nice to see him back to his dominant self after a somewhat miserable 2005 season where he stoically tried -- and sometimes succeeded -- to help the Sox any way he could.

On that note, good night and good luck...