Hardball Heaven

The Nation wakes up shocked this morning that our closer supreme, Jonathan "Pap" Papelbon, gave it up in the 9th inning last night to some surfer dude named Travis Buck. Papelbon had been near-perfect so far this year, but his velocity was off last night and more importantly, he wasn't putting the ball where Varitek's mitt was. Buck capitalized with a two-run bomb in the top of the 9th to tie the game at 4 and the A's scored the eventual game-winner in the 10th.

All the naysayers are questioning the velocity issue, wondering if Pap's shoulder might be acting up again. People - it's one blown save. The guy's human. If it happens a couple more times over the next week, then we might have something to talk about. What hurts is that the Sox blew 3-0 and 4-1 leads, and wasted another solid outing from Curt Schilling. That's beisbol.

They're back at it tonight, with Chad Gaudin (1-1, 2.54) going against Josh Beckett (5-0, 2.48).