'Penless In Toronto

All of a sudden, the Boston Red Sox bullpen looks as porous as a piece of paper towel, the less expensive one-ply kind. Saturday, Toronto continued their winning ways with a convincing 10-2 victory over visiting Boston. Clay Buchholz, making his first 2008 start, gave up four runs in five innings, and then the dam let loose, deadly water engulfing everyone and everything. First Kyle Snyder, who was woeful with his control and who might be on his way to Pawtucket, and then Corey, who was even worse, and finally Tavarez, who was OK but by then the game was out of reach. The Sox were being drubbed, and except for Papelbon and Okajima, the relievers haven't done a damn thing this season. Tito Francona had this to say after his team's defeat...

"We don't point fingers at anybody," manager Terry Francona said when asked about the troubles with the bullpen. "We win as a team, we lose as a team. When we lose, we all feel like we didn't do the job. They got into our bullpen and did what good offensive clubs do."

Peter here, and these are the ugly numbers for all to see...

IP H R ER BB K HR Season ERA
C. Buchholz 5.0 6 4 3 2 7 0 5.40
K. Snyder 0.1 0 2 2 2 0 0 21.60
B. Corey 0.1 4 4 4 0 0 1 11.25
J. Tavarez 2.1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0.00

It's me again. So the Red Sox, after winning three of their first four, have dropped to the mediocre .500 level. They're 3-3, but they have their ace going today. But wait! Toronto will be trotting out their own ace. His name, as you know, is Roy Halladay. Last year Boston was successful against him, but he was on the verge of appendicitis and clearly wasn't pitching anywhere near the way he can. The game starts a couple minutes after 1pm EDT, well before the basketball games (women's NCAA) begin at 7pm. The reason I mention the Women's NCAA Final Four is because one of the teams hails from Storrs, Connecticut, about 30 miles from here. They are the University of Connecticut Women Huskies, and they will play Stanford. They've made us proud all year long and are currently ranked number one in the nation, as they have been almost all year long. But at this point of the season, rankings mean absolutely NOTHING. Nada. Zilch. Zero. That game, as well as the LSU-Tennessee contest, will be televised on ESPN and ESPN HD. The winners will play Tuesday night. As everyone knows, Tennessee and UCONN have a checkered past, and their coaches, Geno Auriemma for Connecticut and the always dislikeable (hateable??) Pat Summitt definitely DO NOT LIKE EACH OTHER. But first things first-both teams need to win in order to face each other for the National Championship. And for those of you who might say "WOMEN'S BASKETBALL?", I say this. They play a pure form of the game, not a slam and dunk power show.

For a full wrap of yesterday's Boston-Toronto rout, just click on the title of this post. And have a wonderful Sunday. We might even see the sun here today before the grey clouds shroud us once again with sheets of rain. But that's spring...April showers turn into May flowers, as they say. I'm not sure of that one, though. Oh, I almost forgot. GO JOSH. GO SOX, And as always, be well.