Feudal Societies
Jon Lester and Rajon Rondo have similar miens: unperturbed, humble, and focused. Some would mistake their subdued manner with a lack of intensity, but I perceive them to have that quiet confidence that smolders through their in-game accomplishments and not through post-game interviews or on-field shenanigans.
Rondo notched his fourth career playoff triple-double (29 points, 18 rebounds, 13 assists) in his team’s 97-87 victory over the Cleveland LeBrons. The Celtics’ team trajectory seems to be comparable to the Red Sox’s state of affairs: an aging roster that is a few years removed from a championship that is good enough to make the playoffs annually with younger players like Rondo waiting in the wings to usher in a new wave of championships.
If there are questions whether or not the Red Sox will make the postseason, it won’t be because of the reinvigorated Lester. The southpaw shed himself of his April woes and staunched the formidable Yankees offense with a 7 inning, 4 hit, 2 earned run, 2 walk, 7 strikeout performance.
The third-inning five-run offensive onslaught by the Red Sox demonstrated that the team can string together hits. Leadoff hitter Marco Scutaro walked and advanced to third on Dustin Pedroia’s scorching ground ball double off the left field stands. Although Victor Martinez disappointingly grounded out to A.J. Burnett, Kevin Youkilis got a free pass to load the bases and J.D. Drew sacrificed to deep left-center.
With two out David Ortiz starched an unlucky ground-rule double to right; if the ball had gotten into the jet stream it would have cleared the fences, if it were a little lower it would have caromed about the right field curve and two runs would have scored.
Adrian Beltre took a different tack and lined to the left-center gap, plating Youkilis and Ortiz. Jeremy Hermida capped off the scoring with an RBI single looped to shallow left.
Unlike Fox, ESPN had no moment of silence for Ernie Harwell and Robin Roberts. The Sunday Night Baseball team is more tolerable with Orel Hershiser and Jon Miller keeping Joe Morgan somewhat in check, but we were still treated to a seemingly endless treatise on Robinson Cano’s greatness in the sixth inning. Cano grounded into a double play to end the inning.
| Game 32: May 9, 2010 | ||
| Yankees 21-9 | 3 | L: A.J. Burnett (4-1) |
| HR: Nick Swisher (7), Alex Rodriguez (3) | ||
 Red Sox16-16 | 9 | W: Jon Lester (3-2) |
| 2B: Dustin Pedroia (11), David Ortiz (6), Adrian Beltre – 2 (9), Kevin Youkilis (9) HR: Jeremy Hermida (4) | ||
