Right Back Where We Started From

(photo from Yahoo! Sports)

I don't know why, but in my head, Carlos Pena is a tiny, wee, little baby baseball player. But this is not true. He's older than me. He's a big boy. And he can hit big boy home runs. I do think it's kind of cool that I was at Fenway a little over a week ago for the Futures at Fenway doubleheader when he hit a 2-run home run that ended up being the game winner and now he's hitting walk-offs, Papi style. I mean, I'm not as happy as Carlos Pena, but come on, who is?

I would also like to mention that I'm completely terrified of the fact that in the last week, the Red Sox have won two games that Julian Tavarez has started. And Tavarez has pitched exceptionally well. Because if one of the Gas Can Twins who is, technically, a reliever, has been our most reliable starter of late, we're clearly heading down a slope of madness and tears. Not that I won't give Tavarez credit, because that's impressive. But I'm also going to be looking over my shoulder for the plague of locusts and the fire falling from the sky.

I'm almost anxious to see what happens next. Almost.

Of course, tonight someone with the alleged name of "Kason Gabbard" takes the mound so...I suppose anything can happen. He could be the second coming of Cy Young or he could pitch like someone who's nurse screwed up on his birth certificate and drunkenly scribbled in "Kason" instead of an actual name. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

The good news, however, is that Trot, Wily Mo, Manny, Tek and Gonzalez returned to the lineup. Trot promptly got drilled, Wily Mo promptly struck out, Manny promptly got a standing ovation, Tek promptly popped out to short and Gonzalez promptly made some sexy defensive plays and provoked Amy and I to bring about the return of Nickelback mojo, much to Marianne's chagrin. Neverthelss, it's great to see these guys back. Although I was slightly dismayed not to see them wrapped in bubble wrap and packing tape. Because, if you'd been around to see my complete break with reality on Friday night, (only halted when Marianne force-fed me a mug of tequila), you would understand that another injury on the Red Sox will be enough to send me COMPLETELY over the edge. It won't be pretty.

In completely unfunny news, we should all be pulling for Jon Lester. It's a horrible thing when we're jerked back to reality when something like this happens and we realize that baseball, as much as it consumes us, is just a game. So learn what you can, do what you can, and support Lester as he deals with this. Some things are bigger than baseball.