Now What?

(is he back? I doubt it.....but maybe, just maybe)

A direct quote from late yesterday afternoon:

Tim: What are the chances Ortiz hits a tater tonight?

Me: I actually give him negative chances, we've got a better chance of finding Bin Laden (and I hope by saying this he finally hits one tonight).

Turns out it worked. We've all seen it, Ortiz went deep last night. It required 149 at bats, insane amounts of frustration, and a meatball high fastball that I could have put in Ted William's red seat to get it done, but it happened.

The real question is, now what? Sure Ortiz hit a double in the 8th as well, but what are the real chances he'll snap right back into the Ortiz of 2007? Unlikely. The past struggles remain as facts, he continues to hint at personal issues with his old man, and I'm not going to lie, after his first two at bats last night, I was ready to draft a post calling for him to be sent down I95 to the lovely state of Rhode Island. Maybe (and hopefully) I'm wrong, and one tater is all he needs for the stress to be lifted, mechanics fixed, and revert back to his tater-hitting ways, but I'm just not ready to say all is well. Perhaps now we'll all start obsessing in his Balldelli-like OBP, or his inability to hit anything on the inner half of the plate....I'm sure we'll find something.

What is well is that the Sox are showing the Jays what it'll take to truly compete in the AL East. Sure Ortiz hit his first homer and that is getting all the ink today, but let's not forget that Penny threw his 5th quality start (just as many as our "ace" Beckett), Tek somehow has 7 homeruns, and Youk came back and ho-hum continues the multi-hit game barrage.

The Sox go for the sweep tonight with Lester on the mound. A quality start from Lester and a sweep of the Jays will go a long way for this team, and my mental stability.

And oh yeah, some pitcher named Peavy looks to be headed to the WhiteSox....the AL domination will only continue over the junior circuit.