OK, I’ll admit it. After Evan Longoria’s home run made it 5-0, I texted Gonzalez and wished his Phillies well against the Rays. Then I switched over to the Celtics to see if I could glean any insight from an exhibition game taking place in an empty arena in North Jersey. I might have even lingered on the college football game on ESPN.

I know, I know: I’m a disgrace. But seriously, did any (sober) folks out there really think the Sox were coming back last night? Who thinks ‘rally‘ when the closer is in the game in the seventh to make sure the other team doesn’t go up by 10 runs?

Honestly, it wasn’t until Justin Masterson induced that 4-6-3 double play in the top of the ninth when I said, out loud, “they’re going to win this game.”

And now, all bets are off. It’s finally October again. Three observations:

1. There are two types of players who come from other teams and can handle playing for the Red Sox. There is the, I don’t give a f–k, let’s go out and get wasted, and we’ll kick their ass tomorrow type and there is the, I don’t give a f–k, let’s go home and pray, and we’ll get ‘em tomorrow type.

JD Drew would seem to fall into the latter camp, and while it’s not quite as entertaining as the Kevin Millar Experience, the approach works just the same. We learned something about JD last night. When Craig Sager and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat asked JD the time-honored “what were you thinking” query, Drew visibly winced.

Whatever goes on inside the automaton’s head, stays inside the automaton’s head. And that’s OK.

2. Whenever a manager relies on his gut and things work out, he’s a genius. Whenever a manager sits back and lets his players play, and they fail, he’s a moron. Joe Maddon made the head-scratchingly bad move to stay with Dan Wheeler well past his expiration date last night and now he is a rube. Terry Francona let his players play for 44 innings, and then he played his last card: Jonathan Papelbon.

I’ll take Tito every day of the week and twice on Sunday—if it goes that far.

3. It’s all on Josh Beckett now. Despite his struggles, despite his injuries or whatever else is bothering him, that’s strangely comforting.

3A. It wouldn’t hurt, though, if Manny Delcarmen got himself reacquainted with the strike zone, and fast.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 10:08 am and is filed under Red Sox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by Paul Flannery on 10/17/08 in Red Sox 1 Comment »