The Good, the Bad and the Weird

The Good News: On a night better suited to a Patriots game, in the 30s and raining so hard by the end the players looked as if they were all standing under shower heads, their jerseys stuck to their sides, that 2007 style Josh Beckett I've had a hankering for? Showed his face at Fenway. 

He was aggressive. He was painting the corners. He was swaggering off the field like Mick Jagger after called third strikes to end innings. It was glorious. 

In a wild and rainy top of the ninth, the Jonathan Papelbon of old also made an appearance, wielding an electric fastball and setting batters spinning like tops, swinging at air. In particular his final fastball to a hacking BJ Upton, followed by a stone-faced strut off the field more powerful than a thousand fist pumps, had me giddy with Papel-power in a way I haven't been in quite some time.

Meanwhile, the Tek-Beckett Combo continued to make beautiful music together; in addition to Beckett's sharp start, Tek supplied the only Sox run of the game with another solo homer. I hope they leave this battery in place for another few starts at least.

The Bad News: Wade Davis brought his A game last night, too, holding the Sox to just 3 hits. Beckett also let up a run, thanks to "defense" that had me literally throwing things at the television. In particular, Scutaro and Beltre...to the moon. To the moon, I say. Gammons would say in the rain delay show later on that Beckett really should've had a shutout, and "there shouldn't have been a bottom of the ninth."

Instead...

The Weird News: Unfortunately, the game is not officially in the books yet. After Papelbon's performance in that driving, freezing rain, whatever ham-n-egger the Rays had warming up in the 'pen was given a reprieve, the Sox bats were shelved, and the tarp was rolled out on the field.

Per RedSox.com:

The clubs will resume the contest before the start of their game on Saturday night at 7:10 ET. The continuation of Friday's game is governed by the rules of Major League Baseball. In accordance with those rules, the first game of the series must be played to completion before the second game may commence. Tickets for Saturday's game will be valid for both the suspended game and the regularly scheduled contest. Tickets for Friday will no longer be valid.

Guess who's got tickets for tonight (thanks to Kelly O'Connor)? This Masshole, right here. How do you like that?

Meanwhile, the forecast for today and tonight isn't looking great, either:..

Will I be attending 9 and a half innings of baseball tonight? Or some random day in July? Stay tuned.

P.S. I hate starting off posts with excuses -- "Here's why I haven't written in a couple days." Nobody cares. If I have something to say, and the time to write, I'll say it, if not, it's better to just let it go. But I feel I would be remiss if I didn't at least acknowledge some of the week's other events.

Actually, I'm pretty glad I missed Thursday's debacle -- I was irritated enough just getting the text messages. Judging by the way it appears to have pissed in Paul SF's Wheaties, I feel I dodged a potential Friday-ruining bullet. 

And I know that on Monday I was still all, "Give Big Papi a chance," but at this point, given the way some are diagnosing his real problem as psychological, maybe it's better to get him out of these excruciating, futile at-bats for a little while. And it's really, really hard to argue with Jeremy Hermida right now (except, at times, in left field!).

Comments

[Sittingstillsox]

I think it would be nothing short of hilarious if you got to see two wins tonight. From sweet seats, if I do say so myself.

[MoonstarMA]

I'm a couple of days late on reading (sorry!), but with hindsight being 20/20 and all, how much does this first lost in teh series hurt even more? It should have been a game that the Sox won and instead turned into a debacle, wasting a glorious outing by Beckett. I do hope the team gets their collective arses in gear soon ... it's getting painful to watch.

[beth]

Also wasted a brilliant outing by Papelbon! The other weird bit of serendipity / coincidence / timing / whatever you want to call it with Friday's continuation is that had there been a 10th inning Friday night instead of Saturday, Papelbon would've been available to pitch again, meaning Bard might've worked fewer innings, meaning maybe MDC doesn't come in, meaning maybe Pat Burrell doesn't hit that homer. Instead, the game got suspended, Paps' baby boy was born Fri. night and he was unavailable Saturday b/c of the whole 'new child' thing...so that suspension looms large.

Alternatively, you can just blame Tim Bogar.