Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Were There Any Positives?

Yesterday was another loss, and the media have notched up the hysteria to another level. 

Marriotti might have the dumbest line I ever read, "Now it's the Twins who are teaching harsh, sobering lessons as contenders emerge and sphincters do what sphincters do."  Since he has his head up one most the time I guess he knows what he's talking about.

Morrissey thinks the Sox are soft and have no heart.

Whatever.  The Sox went up against the best pitcher in the AL last night.  No one has scored more than two runs off him in his last 11 starts.  They guy has been unbelievable. And you know what, the Sox hitters did a good job against him.

This may sound crazy since they only had two hits.  But they were patient and took a lot of pitches.  By the time Santana got in some trouble in the 7th he had thrown 105 pitches and had to be taken out. 

That's smart baseball.  Maybe you get lucky and are able to knock in some runs.  But going up against a top pitcher like Santana, the best strategy is try to get to the bullpen as soon as possible.

The Sox did that last night.  Unfortunately, Garcia wasn't able to pitch out of a jam in the 5th and the Sox fell behind. 

But even though they lost, they played smart.  I don't want to read this crap about heart, toughness and emotions.  That crap is for sportswriters meeting a deadline.  And I think it has very little to do with the result of last night's game.

The Sox played smart.  I can't ask for anything else.