Couldn't have been steroids. Musta been... radiation.
Yes, it hurts to run one of the NL’s best pitchers out of the game only to let things slip away in the final frame. But, man, did it have to be freakin’ Jason Giambi – the dirtbag’s dirtbag — putting the screws to us?
Was Kevin Federline not available? Or Benito Mussolini? Or the cast of Jersey Shore? Or Rob Schneider? Any of those assholes would have been preferable to seeing Jason Giambi get a hero’s reception at home plate at our expense.
“This is why I came back, for moments like this,” Giambi said after his 418-foot blast into the right-field bleachers off Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon. “Every kid in his backyard dreams of having this opportunity. They don’t come around often.”
Honestly, I’ve had enough of this bozo since his chemically-enhanced home runs helped drive a few more nails into my heart in the 2003 ALCS. I’d almost forgotten he was still playing baseball now that his exploits are confined to the National League. So I guess my argument against interleague play will have to be expanded to include, “reminds me that Jason Giambi still exists, and still plays pro baseball.”
Sure, I could accentuate some of the positive points, like the fact that the bulk of our offense came from Daniel Nava, Darnell McDonald and, God help us, John Lackey, who was more imposing in the batter’s box than on the pitcher’s mound. Or I could rail against Papelbon, shake my fist and say that this could have been the kind of uplifting, beating-a-pitcher-you-weren’t-expected-to-beat victories that propels a team to an extended win streak, until he turned it into BP for the Rockies.
“This was gigantic for us,” Giambi said. “This could be one of those games when you look back on the season and see this as a turning point.”
But that would be the easy way out. So I’ll just give a hearty, “F@#k you, Giambi” and be done with it.
