It took a bit of run support, but Colon got his first win since last June.

The biggest beneficiary in this venture is Colon himself.

The Red Sox signed him with hopes of bringing a CY Young pitcher back to his glory. Into a minor league contract. How much risk has the front office assumed? Not much, really. Worst case scenario, he's a bust. There are many minor leagues who spend most of their careers there. Colon would just go down as the man who once was. Best case, he recovers his health and resumes throwing heat. In that case, not only did the Sox gain a pitcher with proven record and experience, but they did so at a bargain price.

The team already had many strong pitchers. And a well-rounded group at that. Varying by age, style, and experience, the pitchers provide a powerful lineup backed by a powerful offense. They were already on a winning streak. They have secured their lead in the eastern division with confidence of maintaining that lead. What's one game to lose if the gamble on Colon didn't pay off?

Colon, on the other hand, had everything to gain in this. He could save his career. He could make it back to major leagues as a starting pitcher. He could rebuild his value and bargaining position for the next contract. He, very simply put, could become another great.

So the gambled paid off. And Colon picks up his first win as a Red Sox player. He looked strong. Fortunately, he also had the run support from the offense.

Nicely done, Red Sox.

I am wholy impressed by how the Red Sox had picked out some superb young players. And how those players are being to show their raw talent.

Sure, we've got Dice-K with his 7-0 streak. We've got Beckett who is still considered one of the strongest pitchers in major league. But the starts this week are the new kids. The guys who broadcasters still call "the next generation of pitchers" as if they haven't been considered full pitchers yet.

Masterson is one of the newest examples. I remember watching him at Fort Myers during spring training. He didn't really do well down there. But time and warming up into the minors have treated him well. He gave the Red Sox two impressive starts, rendering his first to a no-decision which was not his fault.

What awes me about Masterson is his sheer physical pressence. Even in a sport of big guys, at 6'6" he is on the taller end. It's not the height though. As a rower I am constantly surrounded by guys that tall and sometimes a few even taller. But with gangly limbs like that, the kid is only going to get stronger. I would hate to be on the otherside of his pitch.

Indeed, the Sox has invested in the next generation of players. But I bet even some of them are surprised by how quickly the investments are paying off.  

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It's been over 24 hours. But how can you not like a kid that talks like this?

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 LESTER THROWS NO-HITTER AT FENWAY
There was never a question about Jon Lester's poise or his promising arsenal of pitches. It's just that he never put it all together quite like Monday night, when he thrilled the Fenway Park faithful -- not to mention his teammates -- by throwing a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals.

The Boston lefty was magnificent, walking just two batters while leading the Red Sox to a 7-0 victory over the Royals.

Instead of tiring, Lester only got stronger as the night wore on. Over the final five innings, it seemed the Royals were struggling just to make solid contact.

Not only was this Lester's first no-hitter, but it was also his first complete game.

And it was the second no-hitter in as many seasons for the Sox. Clay Buchholz, a product of the Red Sox's farm system just like Lester, did the honors last Sept. 1 against the Orioles.

The Red Sox have had four no-hitters in the 21st century. Hideo Nomo threw one at Baltimore in 2001 and Derek Lowe no-hit the Tampa Bay Rays in '02. Of those four no-hitters, only Nomo's took place away from Fenway Park.

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Also, been selling my furniture off craigslist and got a buyer tonight. He saw my Red Sox hat thrown aside on a chair and inquired about the game. I responded with a casual "yes, we won, 7-0" then realised he still held his head in a slant as if waiting for more. I added "and it was a no-hitter" and was rewarded a nod and my $30 for the purchase.

Time for RedSox.com and Boston.com to update their sites from those features of the Sept 1 no-hitter to include today's amazing feat. Lester. What a kid.

May 19, 2008. Another date to remember.

 

 

After last year's game, Buchholz turned into Red Sox Nation's sweetheart, having many fans root hard for his being brought onto the starting line-up.

But, Lester had always held a soft spot in my heart. As a cancer survivor, he demonstrated poise, perseverence, and amazing strength to defeat the disease and come back to professional baseball. His clinching the final World Series game last year was so fitting. What is so goose-bump inducing is that he will only continue maturing and getting better.

The front office is definitely seeing payoff in their investments in the younger players.

Probably the biggest star by the long run would be Varitek. The team owes him much for leading two young pitchers into exciting milestones. This brings his record of caught no-nos to an impressive 4.

What amused me is the rather neutral and bland post-game email Red Sox sent out:

Boston Red Sox Postgame Alert May 19, 2008 Kansas City 0, Boston 7 at Fenway Park Kansas City Record: (21-23) Boston Record: (28-19) Winning pitcher - Jon Lester (3-2) Losing pitcher - Luke Hochevar (3-3)   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R H E   Kansas City 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   0 0 1   Boston 0 0 5 0 0 2 0 0 X   7 5 1 KC HR - BOS HR - J. Varitek (5) Next Boston Game: May 20, 2008 07:05 PM ET vs. Kansas City Royals

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Indeed.

My folks now swear by StubHub. They bought four tickets, pretty close to the field, in the field box area. According to my brother, the closer the game is, the more desperate the ticket holders were to get rid of the tickets, so the lower the prices went. Interesting.

What a slugfest today. So much for defence. It's worrisome when the players seem to be hitting Beckett's sweet spots. Although Varitek's catching and throwing to the stolen base attempt was awesome.

Seems that while the team won, Ellsbury got caught in his offensive running, a couple times too many. Well, you can't be perfect. Sorry to miss the game. But I have a bit of comfort that Boston climbed their way back up to the top of the division. Now, if only they would play better on their away games...

I'm beat. Exhausted. I didn't even really do that much relative to physical activity.

Beginning of the series, and the Sox bounce back from a rather unpleasant away games series.

I find it hard to consider a double header two separate games. It's more like an 18-inning baseball game with a super long 10th inning stretch. It's almost midnight and they are still playing.. it's a wonder there aren't more signs of fatigue.

Heck, I'm too tired to tune in myself. Being out in the sun all day long coaching WeCanRow breast cancer survivors is easy work but a long long day.

No, 18 innings is a long long day, indeed.

of how to watch the Red Sox from abroad.

Here's the list I've come up with at this point. Any suggestions welcome:

- Continue the status quo of checking into Boston.com, Redsox.com, and occaisional game casts on espn.com
- Open a MLB.com subscription
- Get slingbox set up and tied to NESN back at my folks'
- Get Japanese cable
- Keep blogging

Ugh. Either way, it's going to take more work. Sometimes, to the point I have to ask if it's worth the hassle. I hope so. Because sometimes I feel like fans give so much more than they need to.

Yes, I'm still in a rotton mood about yesterday's game.

Brother was in Vegas earlier this week. I asked him to put in a bet for me. $20 on the odds that the Cubs with be the National League champions.

The news about Bonds flashed across one of the screens at Camden Yards during the game last night, but it barely registered a blip in the radar of anyone in the stadium at all.

I realised this morning that it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that some one who went to some law school for three years decided that Bonds was guilty of lying 30 times or in 30 different ways or some variation or another.

The ultimate punishment is the fact that he remains an unsigned free agent today. He wants to continue playing. And no team will sign him on, despite his career statistics. I find Major League Baseball to be quite forgiving. Look at Gagne's $10million contract. Any Red Sox fan could tell you that was sheer folly. MLB is full of teams, coaches, and general managers willing to take risks for the hope of a resurgence of a star.

But not Barry. That is one guy no one is willing to gamble on.  

That, people, is what I call being judged by a jury of your peers. That is Bonds' most damning indictment.  

Ouch.

First, congratulations to the Orioles. This is the first O-Sox game I've attended in the six years I've been living in the area in which the O's fans clearly overpower the Sox fans in loudness, tenacity, volume, and sheer pressence. I would, unofficially, estimate that it was almost a 50-50 split of the audience. Or somewhere close. Orange stands out louder and often can be confused with bright red in some lighting situations. Maybe because it was a weekday night game. Maybe because the O's have experienced a bit of a surge early this season. Who knows. But I am impressed and dutifully humbled.

What a painful game to watch. Primarily because I watched the Sox squander away so many opportunities. And give up so many hits both in pitching and in defensive performance.

I cracked up laughing when I realised that Youkilis was the right fielder. Unbeknowst to those of us at the stadium without access to sources like Extra Bases, Coco was out because of an upset stomach (!?!).

I was kinda entertained by Ortiz's antics in the ninth, although not so pleased by the O's fans' catcalls. I thought Ortiz made the wrong call. But I can relate to his pent up frustration. Heck, those of us sitting behind the homeplate, both Os and Sox fans alike, were constantly furious at the home base umpire by his calls. He had a moving strike zone that no one could identify. Even I had to acknowledge the second ball called when Manny was at bat with bases loaded was a strike. In fact, had Manny sturck out, the Sox might have had one more chance to make something of the opportunity. The only consolation we had was that the umpire was consistently inconsistent.

Aie. Bedtime. Way past, in fact. Hopefully the next game will bring better luck. I'll be back, sitting in the exact same seat.  

I treated myself to tickets to both Red Sox-Orioles games this week. Field box seating, leaning more towards the visitor team dugout.

Thank goodness the weather cleared up. Thank goodness the temperatures went up a tad. I was ready to put on my waterproof skiing layers I had to resort to that, although if the rain had continued, odds are the game would have been canceled altogether since half of DC was flooded by yesterday.

So what if the Sox is coming out of a lost series. I'm going to watch the Sox play live! This would make a new personal record of watching the Sox play four times in a year. Add in the Nationals game tickets I have for early June, it's a record three regular season baseball games and two spring training exhibition games. Hey, I'm getting as much in as I can. The opportunity disappears soon.

Here's to watching Beckett pitch.

By the way, Lowell's book is now available in bookstores.

What a rally tonight.. although just short. Those are the good but difficult games to watch.

My pessimistic Mum is throwing blame left and right and I've just reached the point of impatience where it's not even fun watching with her. On Mother's Day, of all days.

Observations:

- I rather liked the pink bats. Quite a charming touch. Gestures like this really endear me even more to MLB.
- The pink armbands, though, eh, jury is still out on that one.
- I'm dying to find a Youtube clip of Dice-K's out-of-hand wild pitch that landed two feet in front of the mound. It still makes me chuckle. Anyone have any luck?
- Watching moments of brilliance by Crisp reminds me why he's a Golden Glove and why the Red Sox would want to hang onto him.
- Cora I missed. With the team weak on shortstop players so far, he's looking quite fresh and superb.'
- I'm not sure I like Tina's replacement.. Heidi. Seriously...

 

Yeesh, while I hope Lugo is OK... I certainly am not cruel enough to will ill will or health to someone, I'm relieved that Lowrie is playing instead of Lugo. Cora will be off the DL, but Lowrie will be around just a bit longer until Lugo checks out OK health-wise.

That doesn't speak to his horrible fielding skills, though. Good grief.

I'm a little boggled out of my mind that Dice-K is still undefeated. He's a decent enough pitcher, but he's not that good. I guess that means he's also lucky.

Pedroia continues to impress. For what Lugo lacks, Pedroia has for himself and a little to share into the shortstop position.

Back to the game. Won't fall alseep this time, I swear.

 

I have a confession. I dozed off in the 8th inning. Even with my family's loud exclamations to punctuate that was going on in the game, I flat out fell asleep in the 8th inning. Just as well. I fell asleep thinking the Red Sox was going to will. How better way to be knocked out?

What can I say? I was dead exhausted. So much so that, for the first time in over fifteen years, I woke up not knowing where I last placed my glasses.

When the game ended, Dad shook me awake ever so gently. But it was the words he spoke into my ear that really roused me. "Go to bed, sweetie. Game's over. Papelbon blew another save." So that was what all that commotion that I was vaguely aware of was all about.

*sigh* well, trudge off the bed anyway. The Sox isn't going to help me catch up on rest.

.. watching the Red Sox on HD. And, traitorously wondering if I could pull off sneaking a peak to watch my usual Friday evening show of Num3ers.

Observations:

- Really really rooting for a demotion of Lugo
- Lester doesn't seem to be varying his pitches.
- Youkilis doesn't look natural stealing, but good for him!

Please exercise patience and bear with me over the next several of months. I just purchased my one-way tickets out of the country. And it will be a hectic time. Between juggling work and attending to personal and family issues, I'm lucky if I remember to pull up a browser to even check the scores, let alone set up my XM radio to follow the game.

I just got a letter in the mail from XM reminding me that the credit card on their files is due to expire soon and to call or go online to update my account info. It is actually taped on my fridge as a reminder to cancel my account prior to packing out.

This morning, I went, for the first time in my life, to see a lawyer. There's something sobering about getting a living will drawn up when you have yet to reach 30 years of age. And more so when your own parents have never taken the time to write wills of their own. I walked out of the building with the resolve to haul my parents' butts into a lawyer's office before I leave and force them to sort out their issues. It had been my intent to have my papers drawn up by a Boston area lawyer so I can coerce my parents to accompany me and get theirs done. I was turned away and advise to see a local lawyer who is familiar with the inheritance and probate laws of my state of residency, Virginia. Given that my father just underwent a major surgery less than a month ago, I only got angrier at him for being blasé enough to not attend to having a will. How can he lecture me on my keeping my affairs in order?

On the other hand, I recently did my baby cousin a favour and got her in touch with a few federal agents to talk to her about their jobs. The college kid is considering going into federal law enforcement and seemed super impressed by my connections. I admit, it feels good to be adored a bit, even if it's by someone so impressionable.

It's been and going to continue being a rollercoaster of sorts, especially emotionally. There's nothing like an international relocation to make me realise as much as I talk about my childhood home of Boston that I really have grown very deep roots here in DC. And despite all my blathering about being independent and self-reliant, I have an incredible support network of family and friends that have helped me stand on my two feet.

Yea, it'll be a busy few months. I will stay with the Red Sox as soon as I resume some sort of a routine. 

Angst, Angst indeed.