Hooray... for winning.
I like to think of myself as a guy who “gets it.” That time my ex-wife went out for groceries and was never heard from by me again until that letter from her lawyer three months later? I figgered I did something to piss her off. And that time my boss informed me of a spectacular new position for which I’d get to stay home every day, not do any work and no longer receive a paycheck? Took a while but I realized, while shuffling about in the cardboard box I ended up living in, that I probably messed up.
See, some things just take a while to sink in. For example, the fate of the 2010 Red Sox. I see the parade of triple A talent getting plugged into various holes. I see Youk and Ellsbury and Pedroia already focused on 2011. I see Beckett struggling to maintain consistency and Papelbon pushing us all to the emergency defibrillators. I should, being a semi-educated man, see the writing on the wall, and understand that the playoffs just aren’t happening this year.
But then I watch games like last night’s. I see Lester reach deep and pull out a damn spectacular performance when we needed it most. I see V-Mart come up huge at the plate, single-handedly providing all the offense we needed. I see the gap between us and the Rays and Yanks shrink to four and a half games. Suddenly, I’m handing rational thinking a sandwich and a beer and telling it to go play in traffic.
A win tonight with Clay on the hill? That’ll bring us within just three and a half games. A sweep? An unthinkable sweep? I don’t even want to imagine a world in which we’re just two and half games out of the running. Because then I’ll start printing up the playoff T-shirts and canceling my October plans and dreaming of Bill Hall hoisting the AL Championship Trophy.
And I really don’t want to go there just yet.
Or do I?
"SURVIVING GRADY is Red Sox Nation's 'Mystery Science Theater 3000.' Brilliant, irreverent, and merciless." -- Stewart O'Nan, author, 
Well, the only thing that was truly wrong tonight:
1: having to listen to the perfect pair, Ass and Hat.
2: Clay trying to keep Pena on first in the 7th. That was not needed and cost them the game.
3: The fact that V-Mart and Papi were the only real hitters tonight. Everyone else was not into it.
Lackey will atone. And he has the look and sneer to do it. But if we get more crappy strike zones, it may be a long one.
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