Josh Beckett To Stay Stateside ***New Sox Blog Announcement***

Good Monday morning, the cheeriest day of the week (NOT!). But what can we do? Every seven days, a Monday comes and goes...by now, I'm used to it. Happy St. Patrick's Day, lads and lassies. Notice that my blog has a basic color scheme of green. But it's like that 365 days a year (this year-366). I like to think of it as a Fenway Park type of color. All things Red Sox make for a very happy blog. Ok, OK, back to baseball. Josh Beckett's back is feeling 100%, and those are sweet words indeed. He will not be going to Japan. A 14 hour plane ride is not condusive to the health of any muscle in the body, especially those that are entwined through and throughout the spinal region. Here's what the man himself, as well as his manager, had to say after his Sunday outing. This is borrowed from the Boston Globe...

"Everything's good," said Beckett, who had an icepack on his back. "I did everything I wanted to do."
Francona, speaking from Bradenton, Fla., where the Red Sox dropped a 6-3 decision to the Pirates, said of the decision on Beckett, "It's not the right thing to do [to send him to Japan]. Everything we say, we need to live by."
Francona was pleased with Beckett's work yesterday. "He started out throwing at 60 [feet] and progressed to 75 with no concerns, which was really what we were shooting for," he said. "He'll start ramping it up a little bit from here. The best-case scenario - I say the best-case scenario - is Thursday will be a side day. He tolerated everything he was supposed to. John was real excited. The ball came out of his hands real nice. "

Peter here, and those are some of the sweet words I really needed to hear. The Red Sox without a dominant Josh "Baseball" Beckett would be like breakfast cereal without milk, a pencil without an eraser, a burger without ketchup and onions. Tim Wakefield looked really great yesterday in the "B" game. He and his new catcher, Kevin Cash, threw five PERFECT innings. The "A" game starter, Kyle Snyder, fared just as well, along with reliever Hideki "the Darkman" Okajima. See for yourself...here is the Sox pitching summary. You see, the reason why I post the pitching lines of certain games and NOT the batting lineup stats is because I worry about our pitching staff, especially now when its exact format has not yet been assembled. Here you go...

IP H R ER BB SO HR
K Snyder 3 1 0 0 1 2 0
H Okajima 2 2 0 0 1 1 0
M Timlin 1 3 2 2 0 1 0
C Breslow (L,0-1) 1 4 4 3 0 1 0
J Papelbon 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

As you can see, Mike Timlin and Craig Breslow combined for Pittsburgh's six runs in the eventual 6-3 loss. But it's great to see Kyle and Okie so effective. I'm counting on Okajima SO much this year. In many ways, he is as important to the team as Jonathon Papelbon. Our bullpen is constructed AROUND those two talented guys.

I have a new blog announcement. Faithful and relatively new reader Brittany has started her own blog. She's written only two posts, but her blog is newly "minted." I have listed it on my link list. It's called Brittany's BoSox. A pretty catchy title, isn't it? All you have to do is click on THIS post's title and you will instantly be transported there. Or go to my link list. Bookmark it, for I have a feeling it will be a "must-see" stop on my daily Red Sox "blog jog" during the 2008 season to come. GOOD LUCK BRITTANY!! Brittany is also known as commenter "redsox.njdevils." So click on the title and watch her blog grow. She's already bookmarked on my Apple Mac.

Everyone, have a great Monday, and as always, BE WELL. Now go check out that BoSox blog! And maybe leave her a comment or three. Thanks.