The Game Last Night

I doubt that many of you got through my election thoughts. I just kept writing and writing, and without realizing it, I exceeded 3000 words. Sorry about that. I won't bore this time. I just want to talk a bit about the game last night, and by "the game" I'm referring, of course, to the second game of the ALCS.

As I predicteed yesterday, Beckett indeed was not his "ridiculously ridiculous" self. In fact, if anything, he was ridiculously terrible. I kept thinking that eventually he would get his shit together, and he just never did. It was pretty frustrating to watch, but I guess you can't get too cocky about your guys always going out there and excelling, kickin' ass and taking names. That would make you a Yankees fan. Or, to be fair, an obnoxious brand of Red Sox fan that was spawned in 2004, a group that sort of disgusts me. Every single one of Boston's teams, with the exception of the Bruins, at least made it to their league championship last season. That, my friends, is absurd. This has, in turn, bred a bunch of cocky assholes in Boston (even cockier than before, which is saying a lot). But again, I digress.

Like I said, I kept expecting Joshy to turn it around but he just didn't. The offense was awesome last night, though, which bodes well. Pedroia hit two jacks, Youk had 1, and Bay had yet another (who is this guy?). I had to wonder how this was not enough offense. It just seemed that no matter what the Sox did, the Rays just turned around and either matched it or exceeded it in the bottom half of the inning. The Rays have been consistently underestimated all year and I will admit that until 3/4 of the way through the season, I felt the same way. I knew they were good, but I just could not accept that they were winning the AL East, and quite handily. Chalk this up to the fact that they have been more or less a AAA team until now. Kudos, I guess. But still, Beckett? Even coming off an injury, Red Sox fans have gotten into a habit (perhaps a bad one) of expecting him to go out there and allow at most 2 runs. He has been so amazing in the post seasons of the past that is it hard for you NOT to expect that. But his last two starts have him looking completely out of it. Not sure of it's the injury, rust, a bit of both, or just not getting it together. I still love the guy though.

DP looks like he is turning it on. Youkilis is hitting like the reincarnation of Ted Williams, although he looks like Sasquatch's cousin. I love Jason Bay. When Manny was released, I figured that there were two sides of the coin. One was that he was acting like an asshole, so maybe it would be good for the team to have that off their minds. He and Youk, it should be remembered, got in a fight in the dugout last June. Manny attacked the traveling secretary. There was certainly tension. The other was: Holy shit, we are losing Manny, who is a future Hall of Famer. But Bay has really been playing well in his stead, and Manny's absence hasn't really been too palpable in the postseason. Bay is hitting out of his mind. Big Sloppy is popping up everything, but I feel like he is just missing. I am calling this right now: he's hitting a home run in Game 3. I know this. I consulted an augur last night, after throwing my cat out of the window in frustration at the outcome of the game and scaring the crap out of my sleeping girlfriend. The augur guaranteed it. And the augur knows all (what the hell am I talking about?). Maybe I was dreaming, although I think not.

Anyway, last night was an excellent game. It was intense and competitive throughout. It was a billion hours of exciting baseball. I had several myocardial infarctions. All of these extra inning games are taking years off my life. But, then again, this is playoff baseball. I live for this. But, you can't win 'em all.

As a final note, I think it is beyond idiotic that Major League Baseball decided to have tomorrow's game start at 4 pm. This sucks. I get out of work at 5:30 and I can't get home till at least an hour later. That means that, conservatively speaking, I might get to see 2 innings of baseball. Most people also have jobs. It starts at 1 pm on the West Coast. It is an important playoff game. Who thought this up?

P.S. I have a crush on Jon Lester. I get giddy when I see him on the mound. I have five posters of him in my room and I asked the augur if there is a future for us together. And tomorrow afternoon, he's gonna win. I know it. I just might not see it. And that is just not right.