Lester and a Lemming of a Suicide Squeeze
October 7, 2008
Last night was the second time that I’ve gotten choked up at Fenway Park this season. I guess it was the third if you count the time that I actually choked on a Super Pretzel, but I was more referring to being at the Park when the Red Sox first clinched their Playoffs spot, and second; won the American League Division Series. Many of you have told me how lucky I am to have gone to last night’s game and I’ve replied that you’re absolutely right. Never in my life have I imagined that I would be at Fenway for such a remarkable night and the fact that it happened might be why I sat at my kitchen table in dumb shock until after 3 Am this morning.
Maybe it's because I'm so tired that I'll put the target on my back and admit that some part of me is happy that the Angels beat the Sox in Game 3. Before any of you come after me with pitchforks (or unused brooms from the sweep that wasn't), hear me out on this. I think that loss put the fear of golf into the hearts of our Sox and made them dig a little deeper as they ran out plays:
E.g. Varitek charging linebacker-style at Reggie Willits to show him what the “suicide” in suicide squeeze truly means,
push themselves harder to protect our pitching:
E.g. Mark Kotsay’s body-be-damned, seventh-inning
sliding snag in foul territory,
and just play hungrier:
E.g. David Ortiz buying a sundae-in-a-helmet in the fourth—just kidding. I’m talking about rookie Jed Lowrie stepping up to drill a first-pitch curveball from Shields through a hole in right, and Jason Bay screaming down the third base line in a headfirst slide that looked like he wanted to swallow home plate.
This is the team I want going to the American League Championship Series. We Sox fans have been itching for the chance to prove to the Tampa Bay Rays that we’re the better team in the American League, and I know that if the Red Sox that we watched at Fenway last night show up to the ALCS, we can do exactly that.
Especially one Jon Lester.
Although he has now officially pinned a Powerbomb on the Playoffs by hurling 22 and 2/3 consecutive innings without an earned run, it is not enough to just call him Mr. October. We mustn’t forget that Lester is also the young gun who threw the 18th no-hitter in Red Sox history on May 19—a feat that has eluded the likes of Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, and Curt Schilling. Since Josh Beckett is unable to pitch at 100% this postseason we are blessed as a Nation of fans to have a hurler as heroic as Lester to take the hill.
This is why I move that we dub Jon Lester the Sawxheads Most Valuable Player of the DS, as the MLB is too stingy to officially award an MVP of the Division Series. I just saw that DinnTrophy.com has “Trophies As Low As: $3.60!” so can even afford to get Lester some sweet hardware. I’ll have to go back to Fenway to give it to him, of course.
I’m thinking October 13 would be perfect.
-sportsgal
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