The bullpen rides high

Gm10: Baltimore 8, Boston 10

Put in a hole by Brad Penny’s god awful start and with their bats looking capable of turning it around, the Sox turned to their depth-laden bullpen, and aside for Javier Lopez, they delivered, again. The guys pulled out a five inning shutout, allowing five hits and a walk with four strikeouts as the bats broke out and did what they do best...mash.

Top amongst the performers were Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez, neither of whom has allowed a run so far and Hideki Okajima, so-so in the first few games this year, got a big two outs after Ramirez had allowed two one-out singles to start the eighth. Papelbon finished the job obviously.

As for the bats, they go boom!

As it stands Kevin Youkilis, JD Drew and Jason Bay are leading the offense but Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury both showed signs yesterday that the fog is lifting. Drew got on base five times in all and is doing his best to relieve the doubts over his back whilst Bay is off to a tremendous start in his all-important contract year.

As for Penny, well its one game and there’s plenty to go; Baltimore’s offense is in good form so all is not lost.

It’s very easy to look at it from that point of view when the big ‘W’ is next to your team’s name.