BY FRANCIS FLYNN*
CARVER, Mass. – Had to watch Game 2 of the Sox/D-Rays twinbill tonight on the crappy-ass tube TV in my 10-year-old step-daughter’s room. Felt sorry but still sent her out to the kitchen to do her homework or probably play with her cell phone. She’s gonna be tired as hell in school tomorrow but she can tell her teacher its her moms fault for having a gaggle of her disastrous excuses for friends over for the B’s game. Not my decision that they went to overtime.
Pretty sure every single one of the “ladies” in my house showed up in a Chara jersey. Only one had enough class and respect to put on a old school Neely sweater. One of ‘em kept shouting about how much she loved Marchand. As I’m carrying my sixer of tall-boy MHL into my stepkid’s bedroom, I go, What’d daddy do to you?
Sorry finally on to the Sox. Getting real sick of everybody talking about infield shifts. Like nobodies ever done that before. Teams shifted in the 1980s and 1990s. TV people didn’t make such a fricking thing out of it back then though. Bearing all that in mind, nice to see Papi get two ribbies with a seeing eye single through the shift. Just the Lord’s way of saying sometimes being a big freaking dweeb works against you, Joe Madden.
Thought the Sox had it at 5-2. Right around the time the Rays tied the game 5-5, there was just absolute haywire coming from the other room. So I go, What the hell is going on? Apparently the Broons scored to get the game to overtime. Meaning I had to watch the Sox blow it while slugging High Life cans on my step-daughter’s bed. She barged in right about the time Koji gave up the dinger. Looked at me like I was Chuck Stewart or something. Oh well. Nothing I can do about that.
The only other bright spot in a frustrating evening in my view was Bill Middlebrooks working three walks. Can’t deny the guy is less antsy at the plate right now. Wonder if getting some on a regular basis off that Jenny Dell when he was on the DL helped bring about some patience on his side of things? Just thinking out loud on that one. I don’t know and it’s not for me to say I’m not a expert.
*Ed. Note: Carver man and friend of the site Francis Flynn is an avid Red Sox fan, Boston-born and bred. Flynn’s day job is maintaining a 10-acre cranberry bog and tract of farmland that has been in his family for three generations. But his passion is following his region’s most beloved baseball team. Flynn recently agreed to provide Fenway Pastoral readers with his own recaps throughout the 2014 regular season. All we had to do in return was promise to publish his pieces unedited and to send him a case of Miller High Life (bar bottles were specified) every week.
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