Hardball Heaven

Well, that went perfectly didn't it? Pedro got his applause -- which he thought was more important than actually pitching well -- and the Sox hitters did what so many other teams did to Pedro in his last year with the Sox - make him labor, lose some velocity, and then pounce.

Pedro lasted a meager three innings, gave up 7 hits, 8 runs (6 earned) and struck out one. He even allowed a Monster blast to A-Gone. He never had good juice on the ball (low 90's was his best) and it seemed obvious watching on TV that he allowed himself to get swept off his feet by the fans. All in all, we got the result we wanted and team management looks pretty smahht this morning for not caving on the diva's contract demands.

Once again, what appeared to be a classic pitchers' duel between Beckett and Pedro ended up being a lopsided 10-2 victory for the good guys. Beckett looked good. If the Sox can pull off their fourth consecutive sweep tonight, look for more 'the gap between the AL and NL has never been wider' stories coming to a newspaper near you. Not exactly breaking news, but boy does the NL suck.

At the same time, the Red Sox are absolutely, positively torrid. Eleven straight wins is the most in MLB this year and the most for the Sox since 1995. They're on the verge of breaking the MLB record for most consecutive errorless games. And they're 13-1 in interleague play. Bring on the Marlins!

First, though, it's Schilling vs. Glavine tonight in the final game of the series. Gotta love the fact that the Mets are already down, and now they have to face our best pitcher.