Empyreal Environs

Game 85: July 8, 2005
Red Sox (49-36), 7
Orioles (45-40), 2
W: Bronson Arroyo (7-5)
L: Sidney Ponson (7-7)

Hawaii’s Smurf mojo put me in the mood for last night’s game, but also embedded into my cerebral cortex the incessantly pert Smurf theme song. I couldn’t decide if hearing that in my head is better than being bombarded by the McDonald’s sesame ginger chicken pseudo-poetry jam commercial. I now spastically reach for the remote control when I hear the opening bars of that song. My annoyance with that commercial was somewhat salved since the game itself was relaxing jaunt down the Orioles’ throats.

The Red Sox left 15 runners on base, but this was nothing to complain about because timely hits were made with men on this evening. Manny had a chance to bolster his grand slam total in the 6th inning, but instead of going for the statistic, he went with the pitch and lined a single to center field, generating 2 RBIs. There was another bases loaded situation in the 8th inning, this time with Mueller taking the plate with 2 out. His ground ball single up the center raised his bases loaded performance to a stellar .643 batting average and 16 RBIs.

Arroyo has come out of those two rough stretches in May and June with a solid line of 7.2 innings pitched, 6 hits, 2 earned runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts, and 1 home run. Aside from a smattering of outings where he had 5 or more earned runs (notably Orioles on May 30, Cubs on June 10, and Indians on June 23), he’s pitched well enough to win. I’d prefer a predictable Arroyo to an untested Schilling in the rotation. Just think of Schilling as the Troy Brown of the Red Sox, filling in where he is most needed, which is, in this case, the porous bullpen.

Dan Roche told a joke about antennae (the ceremony wasn’t great, but the reception was good). I hate to break it to him, but Trupiano told the same joke weeks ago. It’s a bad sign when you’re reusing Trupiano’s material. Speaking of, what does Geronimo Gil yell when he’s jumping out of a plane?

[Meta note: I was reading the game comments from the past few nights and there were some glaring errors and in one case I didn’t finish a sentence. I’ve been trying to be more timely and in some cases quality has been victimized. If you see any mistakes or weirdness, don’t hesitate to comment or e-mail (thanks, twitch). I’m assuming by now you can discern between my actual eccentricity and something unintendedly idiosyncratic. I need the All-Star break, too.]