Let's get right to tonight's randomonium:

I think I invented that term, by the way.

"Baby Jordan" Miner didn't have it tonight, and Beckett totally did. We win easily.

The Tigers looked like crap. Their fielders crashing into walls summed up their performance. At one point, the Red Sox scored runs on two consecutive pitches--and swung the bat on neither. A bases-loaded walk and a passed ball.

And on that passed ball, Drew didn't slide. When he did this the other night, I was pissed, but it turned out he was hurt. What was his excuse tonight?? (And what was NESN's for not showing a replay of it?) This is what I meant yesterday when I said he floats through life. Last night, he got Tito ejected because he couldn't do a normal slide into second, getting himself thrown out when he had the base stolen. I'm telling you, in 20 years, AJM and I will be standing in a room, and someone will ask us, Hey, remember that outfielder for the Red Sox who didn't seem to give a shit or know what the score was, or hustle, occasionally make a great defensive play but mostly look kind of lost, had a shitload of talent and a sweet swing, acted nonchalantly and never seemed to worry about anything but ended up with World Series rings anyway? And AJM would say "Manny Ramirez!" and I'd say "JD Drew!" at the same time.

We're still 5.5 back. I left work today, got in the car, and the Yanks were on. Sterling was saying "if you're listening on your way home from work...." and I thought, Oh, this is good, he knows it's 5:00 so he's gonna give us the score and inning. Nope. He went on and on about the different trafficky areas in the New York area. Finally he tells me the Jays have 14 hits and the Yanks have 5. Ahh, a blowout, I thought. Eventually he tells me it's the 11th. He finally gives the score, and I then hear three Yankees get on base, ending the game. Shitty. We went in to tonight knowing we couldn't gain, but we kept pace, and now they go on a west coast trip before coming to Fenway. Gotta gain ground over this stretch.

You know how many teams in all of baseball have a better record than the Red Sox right now? Three. And that's why it's always got to be insulting to fans of all the bad teams when they hear all the "free fall" and "panic" talk coming from the ridiculous faction of Red Sox Townia. And their tireless leader, Media McCrapton.
bad cam on Lowell inf hit, deep right foul kotchman

Carlos Guillen doesn't know which foot to put on first base. It's not often a first baseman gets the E on a one-hop throw.

Great to see Remy in the booth tonight. We heard from Castig early in the game that he was in the park, then go home from dinner to see him on TV. I'm guessing he comes back the Monday after the Yankee series.

Remember how the "hair cuttery" had that "nothin' sweet about me" song? Have you noticed that they have a new song now, but kept the stupid slow-motion dancing girl? Terrible job! I'm assuming they chose the music to match the visual in the first place--how can you go and change the song? What is this, the WKRP in Cincinnati DVDs? (They also had to change music on the new The State DVDs, which stanks, too.) Anyway, both songs, the visual, and the name of the place are all pretty dumb.

I think Eck misread Granderson when he caught the ball at the wall. Eck thought he was "confused." I think it was more like, "Okay, I botched the last one, I'm definitely gonna set myself, jump, and get this one like I should have done before." Then he had that frustrated look afterward, like, "Shoulda had the other one, too, dammit."

The Tigers used a pitcher with a two-letter last name. Ni. Has to be at least a tie for shortest in MLB history, right?

Sometimes on NESN, and other channels, they tell you what you're watching "NOW." Is anyone sitting there watching a Red Sox game going, "What the fuck am I watching?! Does anyone know? They need to tell me and now! This is a travesty!!"?

Pedro's back! And he was totally effective at Wrigley. Nice job, my friend. (Added to post--this picture of Pedro from tonight, taken by AJM, who I just happened to mention earlier in the post! He's at Wrigley! Thanks, AJM! Oh, and I forgot to mention "fake injuries" in the Drew/Manny thing above....)

New Fenway ad--in center field, a red Reebok one. In the spot where the NESN sign had been, I think.

Speaking of NESN, they continue to have problems with whoever controls the camera situated behind the plate. They actually got fooled into thinking Kotchman's foul fly reached the far end of the right field roof boxes, almost to the Bud section. If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about. If you didn't, you're thinking I'm worse than the guy who thinks not telling us what's currently on is a "travesty." Touche. Anyway, their other miscue tonight was on Lowell's infield grounder that scored Bay. There were two outs--we were all waiting, edge of our seats, to see if Lowell beats out the close play. It would score the run if he made it, if not, inning over. As Lowell and the ball are about to reach the bag, they cut to....Bay crossing the plate. Wrong.

Tonight on our way home from dinner, we saw a guy on the side of the road all by himself with a glove and a ball. He was casually throwing the ball up and catching it. A few blocks away, we saw another guy, also alone, but with a bat, swinging it over and over. Had the two just started walking toward each other, they could've had a game going in a few short minutes. (Note: any poignancy in this story went running for the door when we realized the bat guy was a little, how you say, cra-zy. I don't think he was thinking about baseball.)

Okay, I'll let you go now. After this one more story. Lately, any time I've used the word "guarantee," I've said it in this weird voice. I knew that I was getting it from someone from TV long ago, but I couldn't pinpoint it. If you're old enough, you probably already know where I'm going with this. Then some talk radio host said "guarantee," the same way I've been saying it. He followed it up with, "like the Cajun Cook." That's it! It was this guy.