G6: BOS @ TEX

3-2 BOS.

Nice. I caught some of the game before Sopranos and Entourage, and the last couple innings afterward. A good night for Sunday TV indeed. Schilling redeemed himself after his shoddy opener with 7 solid innings of 1-run, 1-walk, 6-K ball. Big Papi was the sole run producer in this game, knocking two taters out of the park for the 3-2 lead. In the eighth, things were looking dicey as Piniero and Lopez produced a helluva situation for Papelbon to get out of.

And get out of it he did. Pap was amazing in the last five outs of the game. He K'd Young and got Teixiera to fly out. Sosa jumped at the first pitch and popped it up to open the bottom of the 9th, and Pap absolutely dominated Blalock and Wilkerson. Blalock got a steady diet of splitters, fouling off one to make it 2-2, and then Pap whipped the high stinky cheese up at eye level for him to whiff at. Wilkerson looked like a BC boy facing the Sox in spring training, as he fanned at the first pitch, swung through his feeble check-swing at the second, and sat there watching the third strike as Pap painted the outside corner with enough heat to disinfect Wilkerson's soiled undergarments.

Pap looks good, man. I like nothing more than seeing this kid, who is a couple years younger than I, and about a bajillion dollars richer, come in late in the game and start blowing away batters like a Hellcat during the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.

I'm starting to really get psyched about this team. I also read FJM for the first time in six months last night and the deconstruction of the first JoeChat of the season made me laugh uproariously.

.500 ball, baby! Good moods, cheap beers and free chicks all around!*

*Quality, cost, and availability of items subject to change.