Dustin Pedroia’s player card lists him at 5’9″ and 180 pounds. If I had to put money on it, I’d say he’d have a tough time cracking the 5’7″ mark. But size has never stopped him from succeeding at every level in the game of baseball. Throughout his tough start, Pedroia has maintained his positive attitude, always saying he’d be fine and would make the adjustments needed to be a .300 hitter in the majors. He may have already figured it out.
Just a week ago, seeing Pedroia walk to the plate was about as joyful an experience as rubbing my nuts with a cheese-grater. He was hitting just a buck seventy-two, his OBP dipped below .300, and he was in the midst of a 1-for-14 slump. Many in Red Sox Nation – myself included – were calling for Alex Cora. But there’s a reason Terry Francona sits in the dugout every night and I don’t.
In his last four games, Pedroia has gone 8-for-13, driven in five runs and raised his average to a respectable .254. The exclamation point on Dustin’s mini-streak came in the form of a three-run bomb off Victor Zambrano in the second inning last night. If Pedroia can continue hitting well – and he has done it on all levels – it makes an already potent line-up that much better.
The game? Blowout. Beckett threw one bad pitch, it just so happened it was his first pitch of the game – but then he cruised. Seven innings – probably would have gone eight if not for the lengthy top of the inning – and just one earned run with 5 K’s. A typical day at the office for the 7-0 Beckett.
Tonight we get Dice-K versus Ohka. And if you told me at the beginning of the season those guys would have very similar records and almost identical ERA’s, I would have slapped your face. But they do. If Dice-K can avoid the “one bad inning” syndrome, he’ll be fine. According to Curt Schilling in his weekly chat on WEEI “a lot of things hit the floor” after Dice-K’s last start. Hopefully a couple of Blue Jays hit the floor tonight, as Youk was hit by a pitch in the leg in his first at-bat following a very long home run, and Overbay still hasn’t paid in full for the Cora slide.
Finally, I have to throw my unsolicited opinions out to SG Nation. I had the misfortune of being in the car for the beginning of last night’s game. Glenn Geffner must go. He brings nothing to the table. How much fun would it have been to hear Trupe calling all the long balls the Sox hit last night? As you know, Red and I pimp ourselves out to the AOL Fanhouse to write about the AL East. For all of the craziness that has taken place already this year – Sockgate, pizza-throwing, etc – it is this post about Jerry Trupiano that still gets the most comments.
On the flipside, Remy and D.O. have been absolutely brilliant. The Manny “head-rubbing” that had Orsillo speechless with laughter was a classic. As they often do, they found a way to keep a 9-2 ballgame interesting. Last night it was Orsillo making a paper airplane and trying to get it to reach the field – as one from the upper deck had done moments earlier. It went down fast – I mean straight down – like an ugly girl on prom night. Of course, it propelled the two into hysterics and demanded a slo-mo replay. Pure entertainment, and more to come tonight.
