Approved for "Casual Friday" at your office.
Finally tally out of San Fran: Two wins, one loss, three players down.
In the latest round of “another game in San Fran, another injury,” Vic Martinez got a broken thumb from a foul tip. It’s not expected to land him on the DL… but there were at least a few hours that I thought the same thing about Pedroia’s injury. So it’s wait and see.
The injury was the only blemish on another ball-droppingly good start from Jon Lester, who went all nine and gave up only five hits. Meanwhile, two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum – who wouldn’t look out of place playing synth in Tears For Fears — was knocked out in the third.
While the win helped make Sunday night’s beers go down that much easier (and, trust me, they went way, way down), I couldn’t help wondering when this rash of injuries is gonna catch up to us. How long will we be without Pedroia and how long can we keep all that good May/June mojo going without our sparkplug?
Then I saw this R. Lee Ermy-esque quote from Bill Hall:
“There is no breaking point. We’re the Boston Red Sox. We expect to win. We’re supposed to win. That’s the mentality that we have in year. Guys just know they have to step up, and we’ve had guys step up all year long. We feel that’s going to continue to happen.”
And suddenly, I felt good again.
When the new guys sound off like they’ve got a pair, I can’t help but nod my head and figure everything’s gonna be all right. If someone told me back in March that we’d be heading into summer without Beckett or Ellsbury, I’da started checking into real estate in the neighborhood of fourth or fifth place in the East. But we’re hanging tough. So I’m betting on Bill.
