Jonathan Papelbon (above, pitching to Abreu in the ninth last night, and, fittingly, glowing) is amazing. I just did some calculating, and the guy has given up 8 runs over his last 82-plus innings. That's an 0.87 ERA, dating back to his last few appearances in 2005. Which covers almost his whole career to date. The lowest ERA Mo Rivera has had over any one season is 1.38. I'm curious as to whether Mo has ever thrown an 82-inning stretch with an ERA under 0.87, but I kind of doubt it.

I'm bringing this up because it seems a lot of media people--okay, specifically Mike and the Mad Dog--act like even right now, they'd rather have Mo than Papelbon. I think they're just not paying attention. They say it so matter-of-factly: "They've got Papelbon, but he's no Rivera, of course..."

It goes without saying that you can't compare Mo's Hall of Fame career with Papelbon's year and change of service. But I'd take Pap over Mo right now. In fact, it's a no-brainer. I'd even take the Pap of this moment over the '97-'99 Rivera, though that's clearly a toss-up. Either one would slam the door--although only Pap could consistently beat his rival. Oh! See what I did there, Mo? I can kid Mo 'cuz he's a good friend of Red Sox Nation...I do love how he's got a sense of humor about all this. Who knows, maybe he'll change his mind and decide he wants to play for a winner again one day, and come be Pap's set-up man.

Before last night's game, the sky was as gold as the end of the game would be. More photos to come tomorrow. I'm off to Fenway for one more game tonight, then it's back to NYC to grab the rest of my stuff to finish off my move into my girlfriend's place in (the) Boston (area).