It's All About Going Home

The Red Sox were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief today. Beating the Detroit Tigers 5-0 today was sweet, sweet success behind the masterful dealing of Daisuke Matsuzaka, who allowed nothing across to move to 2-0 on the season. Add to the win the receipt of World Series rings and the redemption of Bill Buckner, and it was, at the very least, a moving early spring day in the Hub.

It's always great to fête the accomplishments of seasons past, particularly when those accomplishments include winning the division for the first time in 12 years and winning the second world championship in four years as well. Unlike in 2004, this year's ceremony hit the amount of pomp and circumstance just right. The banners, the rings, the city celebrities were all just to the perfect degree, without any of the oversentimentality so common with the events of Charles Steinberg. The best moment for me was by far the walk of Bill Buckner from the outfield to the mound to throw out the first pitch. He was absolutely buried in standing applause, and it was incredible to see a man so publicly reserved about his time in Boston moved to tears as he was asked to throw out the first ball. Really, just incredible. Whoever managed to pull off that coup deserves free coffee for a week.

The game itself was encouraging. Despite walking four men he managed to strike out seven in the free-swinging yet (theoretically) potent Tigers lineup. Going into the game I had a sinking feeling that we could possibly have ended up the slumpbuster for the recently impotent Detroit nine, but Matsuzaka impressed early. His fastball, though not perfectly located, he kept down in the zone and was thrown consistently for strikes, which set up his devastating changeup and off-speed pitches. His biggest jam came in the sixth, when he loaded the bases with two outs, but managed to get Carlos Guillen to fly out to center.

The offense came in spurts, though there was resounding encouragement from David Ortiz, who missed a grand slam in the early goings by barely five feet, a difference caused by the wind blowing in from center.

The best part of today was the knowledge that tomorrow night will be a 7:05 pm EST start, with Jon Lester toeing up with Jeremy Bonderman, praying to God he's as effective as he was in Oakland. It's taken 19 days and three countries, but today, finally, felt like true Opening Day.

Post script: Steve Tyler singing "God Bless America"? Not that impressive.