Papi Turning A Corner?

On a night where his presence in the lineup frustrated a large segment of Red Sox Nation, myself included, Big Papi delivered. Tito saw Papi's numbers against Angels starter (and ex-Sox reliever) Joel Piniero and the opportunity this gave the struggling slugger to break through. It wasn't as if everyone else was teeing off against Piniero--he held the Sox to a mere two runs, one of his better starts this season. Papi connected with a change-up and send it over the Monster for an opposite-field big fly. He had singled earlier in the game, so the dinger was the second hit of the night for him.

Lackey, in the meantime, showed the Angels just how much they miss him, holding them to one run over 7 innings. Like Lester, he has lowered his ERA to below 4. The only really bad outing Lackey has had so far in a Red Sox uniform was the shelling by the Rays last month. Given how the Rays are playing, there's not a whole lot of shame in getting trampled by them. The starting pitching, for the most part, seems to be settling in and putting quality starts together. Beckett, even though the Sox lost the last game he pitched, had a solid start after two poor ones. Lester has had one decent start followed by two outstanding ones. Buchholz has been the most consistently good so far this season. His last start wasn't one of his best, but it's not every day he gets drilled in the ankle twice by the same batter.

Last night's game was also a good one for Adrian Beltre. He went two for three with two RBI and a homer, his second so far this week. He also made a stellar defensive play with broken bat pieces flying in his face. Methinks that four-bagger on Monday night took a monkey off of his back and now he can relax a bit and trust his natural ability. As of today, he's 8th in the league in batting average, hitting .340 and finding his home run stroke at Fenway makes his offensive contribution all the better.

So, the Sox are now back at .500. However, they have one more game against the Angels and then the Evil Empire comes to town for the weekend. The Sox need to keep their momentum going by completing a sweep of the Halos today and winning at least two of three against the Yankees. That means Dice-K needs to improve on his last outing when he takes the mound tonight. Winning a series against the Yanks will be challenging, but not impossible. Especially if they keep playing the good baseball they've been playing since returning home.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! BRING ON THE BROOMS!!!!