Red Sox 7, Phillies 1
Another bang-up effort from the Boston Nine and all of a sudden they have opened a 1.5 game lead in the American League East. I don’t know if others agree with me but I thought yesterday’s ballgame was one of the best Boston has played all year. Offensively, the Red Sox put up a .308/.386/.590 line yesterday, with Trot Nixon and Bill Mueller each doubling twice while Manny Ramirez launched a towering home run in the ninth inning. Defensively, the Sox were rock-solid all afternoon. Bill Mueller made a great play on a tricky hop, David Ortiz had a nice game in the field and even started a key 3–6-1 double play off the bat of Jim Thome and Johnny Damon tracked down a few shots in the outfield. And on the pitching side, what can you say? Matt Clement turned in another stellar outing, lowering his ERA to 3.33 and running his record to 9-1. Aside from Chicago’s Mark Buehrle and Toronto’s Roy Halladay, there is not another American League starter I would rather take the mound for my team these days. On the “Theo’s Great Signings List”, Clement is entering rarified air, up there with David Ortiz and Bill Mueller.
Clearly the only thing we are forced to conclude is that the Red Sox have already won it all in 2005. Since Shaughnessy always treated Red Sox failure with such idiocy, I don’t know what I expect from him when the Red Sox are experiencing success. I guess we should expect more idiocy, just a kinder, gentler idiocy. Times are good right now but there’s a long way to go.
Wells and Philly’s best, Brett Myers, today at 1:35.
I love Clement, but you can’t compare this one with Theo’s greatest hits of Ortiz and Billy Boy. He picked them
when nobdoy else wanted them and got them for peanuts. Clement is getting paid over $25 million. This might be
splitting hairs on my part but the IRR isn’t close if you factor in production vs. pay. Also, Theo has gotten a
little luck along the way, as he did prefer Pavano over Clement.