Red Sox Thoughts
 
Last night was a strange / typical night for the Red Sox.
 
Pedro Martinez was excellent despite being squeezed by the plate umpire. Perdo won his 10th game (pitching 6 innings,  giving up 2 runs, throwing 115 pitches and striking out 8). For the season Pedro is 8th in the AL in ERA,  tied for 4th in wins, and second in strikeouts (he has 120 and Curt Schilling has 118). Those are All-Star level numbers but of course Pedro was by-passed because he's held to a higher standard. You get the feeling that Pedro would have to win the pitching equivalent of the triple crown for some people to be happy.
 
Trot Nixon ran through a stop sign by the third base coach with no outs in a close game. You could tell the third base coach was steamed but Nixon did score easily. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't want Wave 'em in Kim at third but I also think based upon how easily Nixon scored that maybe Svleum was being too conservative (and that's also not what I want in a third base coach). Nixon was being aggressive and that's good in a player but running through the stop sign shows disrespect to the coaching staff (and that's not good). Again - I'm not sure how I feel about this.
 
Nixon is known as a hard-playing dirtdog but what if this was another player who ran through the sign? What if it was Bellhorn? Would discipline be forthcoming from the coaching staff (maybe a couple of days on the bench)? What if this was Nomar (would certain writers use this as a sign of his "selfishness")?
 
Chinless Shaughnessey did the game story for the Globe and he skipped over the incident completely (although he did take tme to take a swipe at Pedro for going home during the All-Star break). Nice reporting jackass.
 
Manny Ramirez sat out again with sore hamstrings (although he did pinch hit and got a single). I've torn a hamstring and I can tell you that it sucks. I once reinjured it months later by just stretching. I have nothing but sympathy for what Manny is going through and I hope the Red Sox are careful with the best hitter Boston has had since Ted Williams.
 
The big story of course was David Ortiz going off. Man I would hate to have him angry at me. If you saw the incident there isn't much to add except 1. he apologized to the fans and umpires for his actions (nice to see an athlete taking responsibility), 2. the homeplate umpire did suck last night and 3. I can't wait to see someone try to charge the mound while he's at first.
 
Terry Francona did a yeoman's job of holding Ortiz back. I hope at least one reporter asked Francona how much he can bench after the game.