The Winning Starts Today.

It's really easy to not care about the losing when you're not far away but perhaps a little mojo changing music is in order for today. Win today boys.

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things.

I really don't know what to say boyos. I go away on a nice little (well-deserved, I think) vacation and at the request of my traveling companion "Give the baseball a rest" and everything goes to hell.

It's raining. My traveling companion is asleep. I'm flipping through the channels and stop on Fox to see a terrible play out in left and think: What the hell was that? Then they zoom in (and play it over and over again from various angles) and Youkilis is gamely trying to play out there. Again: What the hell?

So, Smoltz was DFA'd. Lowrie is now on the DL. They've picked up Chris Woodward. Apparently last night's game was fifteen innings long. And most annoyingly, they've lost the first two games of the series to the Yankees. Blah.

Homing Pigeon.

After the past couple of games I had come to the conclusion that Theo Epstein might know more than I do about running a baseball team. And I had been working up the courage to publicly admit that I was wrong. (It's a big step.) Clearly, when taken away from the soft, gooey center that is the Baltimore pitching staff the offense has once again hit a snag and the bat of Victor Martinez has proved to be useful.

I wasn't totally ignored, though. I said that his starting pitching staff was a little bit weak on the back end and that he should have done something to address the situation. [Note: I was not wrong on this point. And I may have to demote Buchholz to 3/7 of a pitcher.] Obviously due to my fabulous insight, Theo Epstein has addressed the situation by re-hiring Paul Byrd.

It's not quite the move I was hoping for. I spent most of his starts for the Sox last season with my fingers crossed, mumbling "Please don't suck. Please don't suck. Please don't suck."

Meanwhile, Epstein's 'pen mostly worked wonders last night. It was quite impressive. And the less said about the rest of it, the better.

A Heads Up.

I don't watch ESPN very often but I may have a date with my television Monday night, August 10. Back in April, ESPN bought the rights to air the Luis Tiant documentary 'The Lost Son of Havana' with the intention of airing it in August. Keeping their word, the program will be shown on August 10 at 10pm. If you happen to get ESPN Deportes and understand Spanish, you can watch it earlier and at a more convenient time as they will be showing it on Sunday August 9 at 6 pm, right before the Red Sox v. Yankees game.

Movin' Right Along.

Since Theo Epstein seems determined to ignore my advice on how he should run his baseball team, we'll just have to swallow the pill that he's got two and a half pitchers (if you include Buchholz) and hope that it works out.

It's August boyos. The season is no longer young. There's no more time for screwing around. Wins and lots of them. Thank you.

Victor.

Cleveland Indian Victor Martinez traded to Boston

As we bid adieu to Happy, I suppose I should welcome Victor Martinez, a switch-hitting catcher/first baseman who's not too awful defensively at either first or catcher but has a very nice bat. Sadly, he can't throw anyone out either.

So what do we know about Victor? He's Venezuelan. He was sad to leave Cleveland (I don't begrudge him that fact, it's the only place he's ever known). The reporters in Cleveland seemed to really like him. He was willing to give catching Wake a shot at the all-star game. And he wears very expensive t-shirts.

Happy/Sad.

I'm going to miss Justin Masterson. Yeah, Happy could be a little preachy but, overall, he was ten kinds of adorable. And possibly the sweetest, happiest kid ever, witness: his final blog entry. Maybe the hair is to blame.

Best of luck to Happy Masterson in Cleveland. And poor Don Orsillo--no more cookies.