White Suburban Punk

The Bruins dominated the Canucks in Game 7 in Vancouver, winning 4-0.  The parade is Saturday, Boston’s seventh in a little over nine years.  Tim Thomas won the Conn Smythe for playoff MVP, and Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand had two goals apiece.

Nathan Horton traveled with the team as the inspirational leader and poured some Boston water on the ice before the opening faceoff.  Vancouver came out strong, but the Bruins held them off until late in the first when Marchand fired a centering pass through Mark Recchi to Bergeron, who potted what proved to be the game winner.  The team who scored first won all seven games.

In the second, Thomas was briefly caught out of position but Zdeno Chara made a save from his knees on a shot by Alex Burrows, karma proving to be a bitch for The Biter.  Marchand then scored on a wraparound before Chara was whistled for the game’s first penalty, giving Vancouver a chance.  Bergeron snuffed it with a shorthanded goal as he was hauled down from behind, and it was over.  Marchand added an empty netter and the celebration was on.  There were no issues in the handshake line and to their credit, the Rogers Arena personnel even played “Dirty Water” as the Bruins celebrated on the ice.  That was in stark contrast to the rest of Vancouver, which rioted pretty heavily.  There were no incidents of bad behavior at the celebration in Boston.

Mark Recchi announced his retirement before the game, and Claude Julien made sure he was on the ice for the final whistle.  Recchi was the first to lift the Cup after the captain, Chara.  The Sedin twins both finished the game  -4.  They won the last two league scoring titles, but the Canucks managed just eight goals in the seven games.  Claude Julien should get huge props for a wonderful job throughout the playoffs, especially considering that he was about to be fired when the B’s went down 0-2 to the Canadiens in the first round.  The Bruins became the first team in NHL history to win three game 7s in one playoffs, and earned the franchise’s first road game 7 win.

This Blog watched the game at the Carolina Ale House with friends.  The place was jammed out for the whole game, with an overwhelmingly pro-Boston crowd and many high fives with strangers at the end.  Except one guy had a Jacoby Ellsbury shirt and a White Sox hat.  The South is weird.

Josh Beckett tossed the least watched one hitter in Red Sox history last night in Tampa.  Jeremy Hellickson had been matching Beckett until late, when Pedroia hit a triple, Gonzalez was walked intentionally and Youk made them pay with a three-run blast.  The nine-game winning streak was snapped Tuesday night by James Shields, who threw a shutout.  Rubber match tonight with Buchholz taking the hill against David Price, the last game of a 7-1 road trip.  Then it’s interleague play for the next 2 1/2 weeks.  Andrew Miller, who had been in Pawtucket, had an out clause that would have allowed him to become a free agent and he’s pitched really well lately, so he and his agent forced his way up to the big club.  The Sox will apparently go with a modified six-man rotation, with Lester, Buchholz and Beckett pitching on five days rest, and Miller, Lackey and Wakefield filling in.  Should be interesting.  The Miller move looks like it’s just to prevent him from going to the desperate yankees.  Sox are up by 1.5 games.

The pressure is now on the Patriots to end the longest championship drought in Boston sports, six long years.

“It’s an easy save for me.” — Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo, offering his observations on the goal conceded by Tim Thomas in Game 5, a 1-0 Bruins loss.

Thomas led the Bruins onto the ice for warmups last night and immediately fired a puck into the Vancouver net.  Luongo responded by not making it out of the first period, conceding three goals on just eight shots.  I’m not sure he even broke a sweat.  The game started with Mason Raymond of Vancouver awkwardly going into the boards and leaving the game just :20 in.  The second line forward would not return.  Moments later, Henrik Sedin whiffed on an open net after a funny bounce before getting a penalty for diving.  With 14:30 left, Brad Marchand got the first one by Luongo, an extremely soft goal from a bad angle.  Milan Lucic added the second just a minute and a half later, another soft one five-hole.  After the Canucks’ Alexander Edler made a dirty and dumb play, crushing Rich Peverley’s head into the boards instead of touching the puck for icing, Andrew Ference got the power play goal from out front, sending Luongo to the showers.  1:10 later, Michael Ryder got a tip in on a Tomas Kaberle shot to beat Cory Schneider.

The second period was fairly even and scoreless, but Vancouver came out like gangbusters in the third.  Henrik Sedin got his first point of the series just :22 in on a power play goal, and four minutes later, Vancouver bizarrely started celebrating after a shot off the post.  They weren’t able to fool the refs, however, and soon the Bruins had a 5 on 3 power play.  David Krejci made it 5-1 after a great stop by Schneider, who played pretty well overall.  The game got ragged after that, and Max Lapierre scored for Vancouver late before getting a misconduct.

So we go back to Vancouver for game 7.  The Bruins have lost three one goal games in Vancouver and won three blowouts in Boston.  No matter what the result, the post-series handshakes should be interesting.  Does Thomas shake Luongo’s hand?  Bergeron and Burrows?  Actually, any Bruins and Burrows?  Any Bruins and Lapierre? 

One would think there would be a goaltending controversy in Vancouver, but apparently not.  Everyone seems to assume that Luongo will get the start and have a short leash.  It’s game 7, so the Canucks’ diving and embellishments shouldn’t be a factor, and it’s doubtful they will take chances with any more cheap shots.  It will come down to goaltending and 5 on 5 play, which are both clear edges for Boston.

The Red Sox had Monday off, and they start a three game set in Tampa tonight.  They increased their winning streak to nine, the longest in the majors this season, with the sweep in Toronto.  They’ve scored 83 runs during the streak, including 30 the last two games.  They’re now 2.5 games up in the division.

Another one goal loss for the Bruins in Vancouver.  The Canucks are a different team at home, and they came out physically aggressive.  The Bruins got the first four power plays of the game, but couldn’t pot one.  Their best chance was when Chris Kelly hit the crossbar in the first, when the B’s outshot Vancouver, 12-6.  The second and third periods were more in Vancouver’s favor, but not by much.  There really isn’t much separating these teams in the games in Vancouver.  Roberto Luongo was back to his confident self in net, but he still wasn’t as good as Tim Thomas.  The goal was scored in the third period by villain Maxim Lapierre when he camped out at the side of the net, got a rebound, and snuck it past Thomas, a very fortunate goal for Vancouver. 

The Canucks did there usual flopping and embellishing, and Ryan Kesler got a penalty for goaltender interference when he seemingly tried to decapitate Thomas with his stick.  Milan Lucic and The Biter had a battle on a faceoff at the end of the first period that saw them both sent off, Burrows for unsportsmanlike conduct.  The Bruins were 0-4 on the power play, Vancouver 0-3.

So the Bruins go back home for Game 6 on Monday.  They can’t be overconfident because of their dominance at the Garden in Games 3 and 4, but in order to win this thing, they’re going to have to find a way to win on the road.  They’ve now lost five consecutive road games, but all three so far in Vancouver have been very winnable.  But one game at a time, and they have to win Game 6 first.

The red hot Red Sox roll on, getting their seventh win in a row.  They beat Toronto, 5-1, behind Clay Buchholz, who allowed just three hits in seven strong innings.  Ellsbury and Pedroia (already back in the lineup) had three hits each and Gonzalez two hits and two RBI.  They completed the sweep against CC Sabathia and the yankees Thursday, as Beckett beat CC for the third time this year.  In that one, the Sox busted out with seven runs in the seventh inning, with two hits by David Ortiz, who was beaned by CC earlier in the game.  The beaning was a media special, as ESPN and the New York tabloids made a huge deal out of the fact that Ortiz had not been hit by the yankees.  Papi took it, smiled at the yankees’ dugout, and then killed them later.  The Sox have now swept the yankees twice in a month in the Bronx, and they are two games up on NY in the division, with Lackey pitching Saturday and Lester Sunday in Toronto.

In New York, Cleveland’s Fausto Carmona hit Mark Texeira with a pitch in the shoulder and the two managers got in a screaming match on the field.  No punches, and NY won.  Cleveland has completely fallen apart after their hot start.

The Bruins dominated this one from the start, a seemingly more convincing win than Monday’s 8-1 triumph.  Vancouver’s Aaron Rome was justly suspended for the rest of the playoffs, and Bobby Orr waved a #18 flag for Nathan Horton before the game.

This one was a Bruins special throughout — tight checking, lots of hitting, little time and space for Vancouver’s offensive threats.  There was plenty of the stuff we’ve come to expect from the Canucks, too.  Ryan Kesler cross checked Patrice Bergeron to the face on the opening faceoff.  Alex The Biter Burrows violated hockey etiquette by firing a puck on the Boston net during warmups (he missed), and in the third period, Burrows knocked Tim Thomas’ stick out of his hands three times on a power play, so Thomas nailed him and earned some penalty minutes.

Vancouver got an early man advantage after Michael Ryder tripped Kesler, but their vaunted power play got zero shots.  Soon after the kill, David Krejci found Rich Peverley (who took Horton’s place on the top line) for a breakaway and a 1-0 lead (5-hole on Luongo).  After another pretty weak penalty on Brad Marchand, the Canucks managed one shot at the very end of the power play.  At this point, they had been shotless on 5 of their last 9 power plays.

The second period continued the tight play, with Vancouver killing a penalty early.  With 8:49 left, Michael Ryder got a soft goal on Luongo from the top of the circle, again 5-hole, and one that Luongo saw the whole way, and the B’s led, 2-0.  After Peverley and BC’s Andrew Alberts received matching minors for a slashing war, Brad Marchand scored on the ensuing 4 on 4, another weak goal, and the Bruins’ second on consecutive shots.

Between periods, Mike Milbury called the Sedin twins Thelma and Louise on the national broadcast, which apparently didn’t go over too well in Vancouver.  To this point, through 3 and 2/3 games, they were a combined -11.

With 16:21 left in the third, Milan Lucic barreled up the ice like a freight train and Vancouver’s Kevin Bieksa shied away.  Lucic fed Peverley for his second goal of the night and Luongo was pulled.  Thomas finished with this third shutout of the playoffs.  5 on 5 in the playoffs, the Bruins are +24, Vancouver -2.  So the Bruins lost games 1 and 2 in Vancouver both in heartbreaking fashion, were outscored, 4-2, and could have won both games.  In Boston, the Bruins have outscored the Canucks, 12-1, and Vancouver had zero chance in either game.  The momentum has swung, and the hockey gods are getting the karma right.  Incidentally, Chicago fans were also up in arms about the Canucks’ play in their first round series, which even included a hair pulling incident from who else, Alex The Biter Burrows.  Game 5 is Friday night in Vancouver.

The Sox rolled over the yankees again, this time 11-6.  Papi hit another home run and the Sox are now 7-1 against them this season.  Boston leads the division by one game.  Beckett vs. Sabathia tonight.  Dustin Pedroia was sent back to Boston to get his knee examined, which may require surgery, but it’s apparently not supposed to be season-ending.  Apparently the knee and his foot are contributing to his less-than-stellar offensive start.  Bobby Jenks went back on the DL.  Sox are getting pretty banged up, but still winning.  After tonight, the road trip continues in Toronto and then Tampa.

Boston’s first Stanley Cup Final in 21 years sure was memorable.  Just five minutes into the game, the Bruins’ Nathan Horton was knocked unconscious by Vancouver’s Aaron Rome on a late, blind side hit that targeted the head, creating a scene that is all too familiar for Bruins fans (see Marc Savard and Patrice Bergeron).  Horton was coming up the center of the ice and dished a pass to Milan Lucic on his left.  Expecting a return pass, he took three strides before Rome, coming from the other side of the ice along the blue line, delivered a shoulder to Horton’s head.  Horton was eventually wheeled off on a stretcher and taken to Mass. General, where reports are that he is able to move his extremities.  Rome was given a five minute major and game misconduct, and it would be a shock if he makes another appearance in this series, but the NHL isn’t exactly consistent in its discipline.  Of course, Horton is the Bruins’ second leading scorer in the playoffs and a vital part of the power play, while Rome is just a spare part.  But you really don’t often see such a dirty play in the finals.

The Bruins had chances on the ensuing power play, but seemed kind of in shock.  They managed six shots on goal, but Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo was tough. The Bruins later had a strong penalty kill in the first and there was lots of hitting from both sides in the remainder of the period, which may have settled the Bruins down a bit.  Tim Thomas was spectacular at the end of the first and kept the Bruins in the game.  Boston had no shots on goal after the five minute major, and Vancouver led in shots after one, 12-7.

Somebody must’ve said something in the Bruins locker room between periods, because they owned the rest of the night.  At :11, Andrew Ference threw the puck toward the net and it snuck past Luongo for a 1-0 lead.  A couple of minutes later, Shawn Thornton, playing in place of Tyler Seguin, drew a high sticking call and Mark Recchi got credit for a power play goal after great passing by the B’s.  2-0.  Later Milan Lucic got a slashing penalty, but Brad Marchand made a series of brilliant individual moves and finished with a shorthanded goal to make it 3-0.  At this point, the Bruins were winning every loose puck and the Garden was rocking.  David Krejci picked up a juicy rebound and deposited it to make it 4-0, the Bruins fourth goal on their last 13 shots.  Vancouver’s Ryan Kessler was on the ice for all four goals. 

The Bruins had to kill off a penalty to start the third and it seemed like a matter of time before the Bruins would get payback for Horton, but the refs kept calling penalties on the Bruins.  Michael Ryder got a roughing penalty and then The Biter and Zdeno Chara both went for slashing.  Andrew Ference and Daniel Sedin got 10 minute misconducts for roughing and then Shawn Thornton got a game misconduct for being really scary. Of course, all this is just an invitation to Vancouver.  The other Sedin had a high stick on Boychuck that wasn’t called, and then Ryan Kessler left his feet to hit Daniel Paille.  Later, The Biter slashed Lucic and Milan got a solid punch to his head.  Dennis Seidenberg and Ryan Kessler had a brief fight, and the Bruins weren’t done.

With 8:22 left, Daniel Paille scored another shorthanded goal for the B’s.  Two minutes later, Vancouver’s Jannik Hansen delivered a vicious slash to the back of David Krejci’s legs, knocking him down.  Hansen got the puck back and scored to make it 5-1.  Krejci went to the Vancouver bench and challenged him to a fight, but of course he didn’t oblige.  So the Bruins decided the humiliation wasn’t over.  At 2:21, Recchi made it 6-1.  27 seconds later, Chris Kelly made it 7-1.  After a dirty penalty on Vancouver’s Rafi Torres, Michael Ryder made it 8-1, giving the B’s goals on three consecutive shots.  Luongo was never pulled — how’s that goals against average and save percentage now?

It’s hard to describe how much I hate this Vancouver team, especially since I really had no opinion of them coming into this series.  I really wanted to like them, a high-scoring, skilled team, but they’re just sleazebags.  Every one of them.  As Mike Milbury said between periods, “this smug team thought this series was over during warmups.”  It’s strange to have a team that is so skilled and so dirty at the same time.  I know it’s a big moment and the pressure is on, and this is where we see their true colors as human beings.  And we have to look at the team’s leadership, its coaching.  Is Alain Vigneault proud of this team?  Are they playing in his image?  This must be the way that he encourages them to play.  In the Stanley Cup Finals.  And leaving Luongo in?  WTF?

Vancouver was 0-8 on the power play and the Bruins scored two shorthanded goals.  Game 4 is Wednesday from the Garden.

The Red Sox completed the sweep of Oakland to finish the homestand 3-3.  Crawford had a 3-run homer and Gonzalez a 2-run shot.  They were off yesterday and now are in the Bronx for three.  Lester vs. Freddy Garcia, Wakefield vs. AJ Burnett, and Beckett vs. Sabathia.

This Blog hasn’t posted in a long, long time so I figured I’d throw some thoughts against the wall and see if anything sticks.

I’m still trying to get my head around the Celtics’ trades.  Before these moves, the Celtics may not have been the favorite to win the title, but they were certainly a favorite.  The major issue was injuries — would the team be healthy enough for the playoffs?  They are 29th in the NBA in team rebounding and traded away their best rebounder.  A healthy Shaquille O’Neal is still better offensively than Kendrick Perkins, and he’s still enough of a defensive presence.  But they can hardly rely on him being healthy.  Last year, the lack of rebounding in Game 7 (with Perkins out) was arguably the major reason for the collapse and loss.

Perk was going to be a free agent after this year and he had apparently turned down a 4-year, $22 million offer.  Today, he signed a 4-year, $34.8 million extension with Oklahoma City.  But with the age and health issues with this team, there really should be very little planning for the future.  They have to go for broke now.  Sure, Paul Pierce needed a backup and apparently Jeff Green is a fine player.  Now the Celtics also appear to have added 6-foot-10 Troy Murphy, who incidentally has never played in a playoff game.  Is that even possible?

So what did the Celtics lose?  A ferocious defender and rebounder and a key chemistry guy.  What have they gained?  Basically more bodies and depth, but the bottom line is the success of these moves depend enormously on Shaq’s health (and the return of Jermaine O’Neal).  Danny Ainge really rolled the dice on this one and will be justly criticized if it doesn’t work out.

Celtics:  The Celtics lost a heartbreaker/backbreaker last night, so they’re down in the series, 2-1.  It seems they can win with just two of the Big Four sharp all game, and KG delivered.  Rajon Rondo was great for three quarters, but then disappeared in the fourth.  And of course, they got absolutely nothing from Ray Allen and very little from Paul Pierce due to BS foul trouble.  If just a couple of Ray’s open looks had fallen, it might’ve been a different game.

Liverpool: Kenny Dalglish has removed himself from the committee to choose Liverpool’s next manager, indicating that he may think he is the best candidate.  I hope that’s how it works out.  He’s a Liverpool legend and he can be a caretaker until the sale of the club goes through.

Big 10:  It looks like Jim Delany has maneuvered a gun to the head of Notre Dame.  If they join the Big 10, and only them, the current national conference structure and the BCS will apparently remain intact.  Supposedly Notre Dame would join on the condition that they were the only school.  If they refuse to join, the story goes that the Big 10 will go to a 16 team superconference, the Pac 10 will raid and destroy the Big 12, and the SEC will raid and destroy the ACC.  Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Notre Dame, and a bunch of ACC and Big East schools would appear to be left out in the cold, with speculation that Notre Dame would then have a difficult time filling their schedule against teams from the superconferences.  I’m not sure I buy that, but a move to superconferences would at least theoretically increase the chances of an eventual move to a playoff, which could perhaps leave Notre Dame and the other remaining rejects out.

As a Big 10 fan, what do I want?  Sure, I would much prefer a playoff to the BCS, but just aesthetically I would rather have only Notre Dame join the Big 10 than five other schools that include Rutgers.  Football scheduling would be a mess in a 16 team league, where each school would not play seven other schools, while in a 12 team league each team would still not play three other schools.  That could result in a questionable system for a playoff, where you’re not even really sure who the best teams in each conference are. 

The bottom line is that there is no perfect system for football.  There’s just too many teams and there is a limit on how many games they can play.  I want my school to have the opportunity to win the Big 10 and go on to play the best teams from the other conferences.  Some kind of playoff system is preferable to the BCS, but in order for that to happen, we have to go to superconferences?  It doesn’t seem like a great choice to me.  Kind of reluctantly, I guess I have to fall on the side of adding five teams if that will lead to a playoff, which could provide the added benefit of screwing Notre Dame.  And actually, couldn’t all the rejects create their own conference?  The Big Reject Conference:  Notre Dame, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Colorado or Baylor, BC, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Duke, Maryland, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, and South Florida.  But that’s 18.  It makes my head spin.  I’ll just have to sit back and watch the fireworks.

Photo from Boston.com

Vince Carter, an 84% free throw shooter on the season, misses two with 31 seconds left that would have brought Orlando within 1 point.  JJ Redick inexplicably tries to advance the ball before calling timeout on their last possession.  Orlando sure had an easy regular season and cruised through the first two rounds of the playoffs.  Just like Cleveland, they haven’t faced one iota of adversity all season and they don’t have the cajones to deal with it when they do.  Vince Carter is just like Lebron with his constant complaining to the officials.  It reminds me of Johnny Most on Kareem: “This guy has been in the league for twenty years and he has never committed a personal foul.”  In the one game that Orlando absolutely had to be tougher than their opponent, they failed.  Miserably.  I thought the Celtics played about the same or a little better than Game 1 overall, despite a mess of turnovers in the fourth quarter.  Paul Pierce is the truth and Orlando got Rondo’d.  Now the old legs get three full days off before resuming the series Saturday night.

Speaking of choke jobs, Joba and the yankees coughed up another five run lead last night, aided by an Arod error.  ESPN the Magazine recently had a poll of major leaguers in which one of the questions asked who was the most overrated player in baseball: Joba #1, Arod #2.  The yankees bizarrely played the game under protest, apparently believing that Josh Beckett wasn’t coming out of the game because of injury.  After a great comeback and then blowing the game Monday night, the Sox showed some heart and held on to the comeback win last night, even though Papelbon struggled again.  I’m still not ready to put a fork in the Sox.

Tottenham Hotspur clinched the final Champions League spot in the English Premier League with a 1-0 win over Manchester City, with the goal scored by Abigail Clancy’s fiancee, Peter Crouch.  Liverpool have clinched a Europa League spot as the seventh place team.  They can finish no higher than sixth.  Rafa Benitez has begun a series of meetings with Liverpool’s top brass, but there is still no word on transfer funds available or the sale of the team.  It does appear that Benitez will be staying with the club, however.

Hull City, Burnley, and Portsmouth will be relegated to the League Championship.  Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion have been promoted, and the playoffs begin Saturday for the final promotion spot.  Sixth place Blackpool will play a home and home with third place Nottingham Forest, and fifth place Leicester City will play fourth place Cardiff City.

Chelsea will clinch the Premiership title with a win at home against Wigan.  Manchester United plays at Stoke City trailing Chelsea by one point.  Everyone’s final game is at the same time Sunday, 11:00 Eastern in the US.

The Red Sox swept Orange County in a four game set and everything appears to finally be coming together, just in time for a visit from the yankees.  That game is actually third fiddle in the Boston area tonight, however, as the Bruins look to sweep the Flyers in Philly and the Celtics host the Cavs in game 3.  The loss of David Krejci could be devastating for the B’s, as he had been superb in the playoffs and the team really relies on his creativity in the offensive end.  If the Bruins can wrap it up tonight, they could get some significant time off, as Montreal tied up their series with Pittsburgh, 2-2.  Ole!

The pitching matchups for the Sox series are: Josh Beckett vs. Phil Hughes Friday night, Clay Buchholz vs. CC Sabathia 3:10 Saturday, and Jon Lester vs. AJ Burnett 8:00 Sunday.

The Bruins continue to captivate Boston sports fans as they took a 2-0 series lead on the Flyers last night.  This game wasn’t as non-stop breathtaking as game 1, but it was still plenty exciting.  The Bruins were so mediocre and downright boring all season, with a defensive orientation and an anemic offense.  They are a completely different team now.  They really don’t seem to play all that strong defensively anymore and they got caught making mistakes again last night.  Of course, Tuukka Rask has been incredible, and looks like the best goalie remaining in the playoffs.  But the startling thing has been the offense.  Even without Marco Sturm, these guys just click.  It mostly seems due to nothing but hard work.  In the Buffalo series and in the first two games of the Philadelphia series, the Bruins seem to win the majority of the battles along the boards.  They create chances, they muck in front of the net, and they throw it at the net a lot.  It’s also amazing how their strong stretch run helped them with seeding.  They were perilously close to the eighth seed for the last few weeks, but instead of getting Washington and then Pittsburgh, they got Buffalo and then Philadelphia.  And maybe Montreal can keep up their miraculous run so the B’s can get home ice for the conference finals.  But that’s a long way off.  Philly is going to be their typical brutal selves in game 3 at home, with an added dose of desperation.  Hopefully scumbag Dan Carcillo will try to stick his hands in Zdeno Chara’s mouth this time.

The Celtics shocked the NBA world by kicking the crap out of the Cavs in Cleveland last night.  After dominating the first half of game 1 and then falling apart, the C’s got a huge lead last night and then held off a late rally.  It seems that no one, either nationally or locally, gave the Celtics much of a chance in this series.  But they really do seem to be peaking at the right time.  Rajon Rondo has been by far the best player for either team.  Mo Williams had a good game 1, but he just doesn’t compare.  And all these supporting cast guys that we were supposed to be so worried about don’t impress me very much.  It also seems clear that Lebron is going to milk this “injury” for as long as the Cavs are still alive.  I would love to see him do his crybaby act again this year and walk off the court without congratulating the winners.  Again, that’s still a way’s off, but the Celtics have been the better team through two games, and the long layoffs between games can only help.

Ah, the Sox.  Big win last night and maybe that will help turn things around.  We still don’t really know this team’s identity, as they have not performed at all like anyone expected so far.  They just need to string together some good starting pitching performances and everything should start flowing from there.  That will make everything else look better.  JD Drew and Youk look like they’re coming around, and Cameron and Ellsbury can’t be out too much longer.  Adrian Beltre just needs to get games under him to freaking relax and start playing the third base that everyone expected. This is probably the best team he’s ever been on and he’s never played anywhere that demands winning like here.  I just wish the team had a little bit more personality.  Theo has gone the Patriots’ route with a group of professional, high character guys, which certainly makes life easier for Tito and the front office, but it’s not as fun to be a fan of a team like this.  Of course, comparing any team to the 2004 version will pale in every comparison, but, man that was fun.  The Sox get a pass until the end of the Bruins’ and Celtics’ seasons, anyway. 

Photo from Boston.com