The Next Big Thing

David Ortiz has officially re-defined the word "clutch." He’s brought it to a level of extreme and unrealistic proportions. The guy just gets it done, not once in a while or occasionally in a huge game, but it seems like every single week Ortiz wins a game for the Red Sox. Now, I’m not a guy that likes to drool over players (yeah, right), but this becoming insanely hilarious. You knew David Ortiz was going to hit a homerun. I emailed a friend just before that at-bat and said "here comes another Ortiz blast." Yes, it happened again. And that wasn’t even the biggest story of the night.

The biggest story was Jon Papelbon. If you want to talk about a gift from the holy one above, blessing our bullpen with some sort of stability and consistency, then I believe we’ve got our man. He’s a flamethrower. He’s calm and collective on the mound. He can pitch for a long time, evident by his perfect three innings last night and his first career win. Hats off to you, Jon. The kid.

I may be getting too high on this guy, but I loved what I saw. He was locating his pitches, actually, in one inning Remy pointed out each of his three outs and Papelbon hitting Tek’s glove each and every time. With a bullpen filled with dudes named Matt Perisho and Chad Harville, who should be waiting on me at McDonalds, and the vulnerable Keith Foulke, a gem like this may be the key. We’re not winning many playoff series with Timlin as the closer. It aint happenin.

What else went down? Well, Manny hit a ball that hasn’t landed yet. The homer landed ON TOP of the restaurant in deep center, around 440 feet estimated. I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in. Arroyo pitched well until his blowup inning in the seventh, followed by Foulkey taking shits on the hill, then Timlin leaving a gopher ball for Vernon Wells to turn into dust. But Ortiz was there. He’s so friggin powerful.

Biggest win of the season? Quite possibly. That Ortiz homer was a bigger deal than the first time I watched Soul Plane. Another win in that damn dome and a Yankee loss to Tampa would make a nice night. Let’s make it happen, boys.