It finally happened. The Red Sox came out and looked like an energized ball club. People often talk about how different baseball is. How a team doesn't need to have great chemistry, or a good morale necessarily to be successful. That since it is more of an individual sport those aspects don't matter. I've never agreed with that sentiment entirely. Baseball is a game that is largely mental. Being able to control your emotions is huge.
What we saw today was a team that came out fired up and ready to play. They were an energized bunch. Many players mentioned after that Theo Epstein had delivered a pre-game pep talk that helped get them all some much needed perspective.
"On a scale of one to awesome, it was awesome," explained Red Sox reliever Daniel Bard. The pitcher later elaborated, "It was good. I didn't really know what to expect when he wanted to talk. But it turned out to be some good words and probably just what we needed. He's showing he still has faith in us. He has more than just the team money invested, he's emotionally invested. He wants to see us do well just as much as anybody.
"That was one of the best ones I've heard," said Red Sox outfielder Mike Cameron. "It was good. It was really good. It was refreshing to see that type of thing. i don't know how he came up with it, but he's right there with all the Nobel Peace Prize winners with that one. It just kind of put it all in perspective. We grind so hard sometimes, and expect to be great so much, we forget about short-comings and how you overcome those things.
Even Big Papi, who's been here for nine years, had never seen anything like this from his boss.
"Oh man, he said a lot of good things, man," said the Sox designated hitter. "He said really good things. I've been here nine years and I never thought he had those words all lined up for us. I never heard him talking before. He came out and put everybody in a good mood. I had goosebumps after he finished talking, I'm telling you.
I wish it had been recorded. It would have been very interested to see what he had to say. It was smart for Theo to not talk about baseball and just try to get his players minds right. These guys want so badly to live up to their potential, their contracts, the experts predictions. Sometimes they get to pressing too much. Sure there were some nerves when they opened up the season against the Rangers, but those guys are a legitimate World Series contender. The Indians series was the one that showed how much these guys were feeling the pressure. They were taking themselves out of it mentally. Once you start overthinking its over.
The Yankees are a great team and it was clear the Sox were going to need a catalyst. As he has time and time again, Dustin Pedroia stepped up. In the first inning he hit a solo home run off Phil Hughes. That was a huge mental sigh of relief for the whole club I think. Although it didn't give us the lead it had the feeling that we were going to be able to punch back this time around.
Lil Dusty finished at 3-5 with 3 RBI's. David Ortiz continued his more efficient than usual April, going 2-4 and driving in a run. J.D. Drew drove in another 2 runs for the Sox.
Maybe the lone negative to take away from this game was John Lackey. He wasn't awful, but he certainly wasn't good. Whenever we would get a small lead he would let the Yankees right back into it. When we signed this guy we all thought we were getting a number 1 or 2 pitcher. He's far from that. More like a 3 or 4. There were moments today when I was actually wishing for Wake to be out there. And why not? Let a team deal with the knuckleball for 5 innings, and then bring in hard throwing Daniel Bard. Sure Wake is going to give up his home runs, but it's not like John Lackey is any threat to shut anyone out.
The bullpen was very encouraging. They got a hitless inning from Jenks, Bard, and then Papelbon closed the door in the 9th. It was an absolutely vintage Papelbon performance. If he strings a few more of those together I might actually like him again. Of course, he'd also have to stop making comments about wanting to be the highest paid closer ever, and everything else short of announcing he wants to be a Yankee. But he was downright dominant. After seeing he was hitting 95 I said "Paps back." He mixed in that splitter nicely but he was able to blow them away with the fastball. Against the top of the Yankees lineup too.
It was a good way to start the season at home. Still undefeated at home. Let's keep that going.
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