Yesterday's Red Sox
hero: starter and
winner Jon Lester
(MLB)
If you think it’s tough to be a Boston Red Sox fan these days, try being a headline editor! On any given night, the club is as likely to resemble a World Series champion as a company softball team. With each win, you think they’ve gotten over the hump; with each loss, you realize that if they’ve done so, it’s only to trip over their own feet and roll down the hill. Viz:
Mental Headline: Sox Turn Corner, Squashed by Onrushing Bus
Remember last week, when the Sox swept the Angels and briefly basked in the sunlight above .500? And Josh Beckett opened the series against Yankees with no-hit caliber stuff? Those of us in attendance thought we were in for an old-fashioned, edge-of-your-seat kinds of pitchers’ duel, and we just knew that our Ace Among Aces would lead us back into contention.
Initial Mental Headline: Ace Leads Sox Out of Hole
Except he didn’t. Instead, he became unable to find home plate with anything short of a GPS, a bloodhound, and a divining rod, and the game was lost Just That Fast. Forget the hit batsmen and the multiple brushbacks – he knocked his own catcher out of the game (Jason Varitek) by crossing him up.
Rewritten Mental Headline: Ace Suffers Touch of Blass
[From the More is More Department: Hear the Boston Baseball and Portland Sports Examiners discuss whether this is the real Josh Beckett – among other topics – on Fenway Dreams.]
Remember Saturday, when things were so bad that outfielder Jonathan Van Every (who two weeks ago was an Indianapolis Indian) pitched the final frame? The good news and the bad was that he did as well as true moundsman Scott Schoeneweis. (Ugh.)
Mental Headline: Sox Unravel, Grasp at Threads
And then yesterday, all was again well, as Jon Lester stifled New York and brought the Sox’s record back up to even.
Mental Headline: Ace Leads Sox Out of Hole
Different ace, different result, same hope and headline, and a chance to break the cycle this week against the Blue Jays and Tigers. Or not …
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