Paps in the Days of Yore

Last night's 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers was both encouraging and discouraging at the same time. Curt Schilling buckled down after he was owned on a Frank Catalanotto home run in the bottom of the first inning, managing to go seven strong innings without alowing an additional run. David Ortiz, suffering from a serious power outage, managed to jack two long balls to right field off (never thought I'd say this) of a sizzling Vicente Padilla. Jonathan Papelbon, after only throwing once in the first five games, came into a bases-loaded no-out situation to save Joel Piñeiro's tail and the game, managing both velocity and location on his fastball, and disgusting bite to his splitter. All of those are the good things.

The bad thing is that the bats were as quiet as they have been all spring, as the Sox were unable to really muster any sort of team effort. The law of averages says that it won't last, but we can only hope they're right. Thankfully, the Sox will be able to get off the road and open at home tomorrow afternoon (and not tomorrow night). Here's hoping they return to form.

One word about Papelbon closing: I know that he was absolutely lights-out against the heart of the Rangers lineup. He had velocity in the mid to upper nineties, and he was spotting his fastballs beautifully on this outside half of the plate. Thing is, it's going to take me a while to watch him pitch and not worry about his shoulder on every toss. I still agree that he needs to be in the closer role in order to prevent games like yesterday's from getting away, but I just worry about the length of his career in that situation.

Unfortunately, I won't feel comfortable until the season is done with and he's still healthy. Here's hoping.