The Moyer Effect
-noun

1. The phenomenon by which the Boston Red Sox discard pitchers of seemingly marginal talent, only to have them become stars or prosperous regulars on their new teams.  Named after 71-year-old pitcher Jamie Moyer.

Other recent examples of The Moyer Effect:

Jeff Suppan
J.C. Romero
Ron Mahay
Rudy Seanez
Brandon Lyon
David Riske

…and yes, Joel Pineiro.  Old Friend Joel, who Boston traded to St. Louis mid-season for a few cases of jock straps and Gold Bond.   Joel, who had a 5.03 ERA in the Boston bullpen, and a 3.96 ERA in the St. Louis rotation after his trade.  Joel, whose claim to fame during his time with the Sox was his ownership of the most often misspelled last name on the roster.

Even after the Sox were predictably shut down by The Moyer Effect, an excruciating  Papelbon blown-save, and 13 innings without a hit with men in scoring position (including 3 straight innings where the Sox failed to score after lead-off doubles), they amazingly came away with the win.

This game was one of the most frustrating Red Sox games I have ever watched in my 20 years of fandom.   The fact that it is in the “W” column is astounding, and hopefully the team can build off of their good fortunes as they face a tough Arizona Diamondbacks squad this week.

Interesting pitcher’s duel tonight:

Josh Beckett (3.87 ERA, 9.31 K/9, 5.24 K/BB) versus Danny “Dirty Hippie” Haren (3.26 ERA, 8.72 K/9, 5.25 K/BB).   Hopefully the offense will be ready to fend off Haren’s patented pitch, the “Patchouli Ball”, which I’m not even sure is legal, to be honest.