A Red Sox View Through the Numbers

500
The number of consecutive sellouts there's been at Fenway Park since 2003. This is a number we should all take a second to admire, and to pat ourselves on the back for. Although Fenway isn't the largest park in the world, this still isn't a number to be scoffed at. I know I did my part to help with this streak, however in the end the credit goes to the organization, because without a competitive ball club over all these years, there'd be no streak to speak of.

232
This is the number of games it took Jacoby Ellsbury to to make the first error of his major league career. It wasn't that long ago there was a cult hero roaming the CF grass of Fenway who seemed implacable. That player was Johnny Damon, and while Coco did an OK job in his absence, he never quite lived up to expectations. This is where Jacoby comes into play. He first burst onto the scene in 2007 and almost was named the MVP of the World Series before he was even an official rookie. This is a player with all the tools who's also a perfect face for the franchise. A lot is made of his range and speed out there, however his consistency in making the "routine" plays should be acknowledged as well, especially for such a young player.

100
Brad Penny received his 100th career win last night and also may be making the decision for the Sox to trade him an impossible one to make. The great debate over the past week has been what to do about the Sox pitching because of the surplus of it that we seem to have. If I had my say I'd say we do nothing. People will be going on the DL again at some point, and as we learned shortly after trading away Bronson Arroyo, too much pitching is a myth in this game, and should be talked about as if it's a no hitter. Either way on that, congrats to Brad, a significant accomplishment any way you look at it.

40
The Red hot Sox have now become the first team in the AL to reach the 40 win plateau and have increased their lead in the AL East back to 3 games. The Red Sox are also a league best +66 in run differential and seem to really be cooking on all cylinders right now.

3
Dustin Pedroia, who was in his greatest slump of the season last week, knocked out three clutch hits in the win last night with 3 RBI's to boot. When he's producing at the top of the line-up it makes it a heck of a lot easier for the rest of the team to "move the line". Little guy's quite simply our spark plug. This also may be one of the most underrated moves by Tito so far this season. Since he shook up our lineup placing Dustin up top, the Sox as a team broke out of their mini slump, and have been beating teams with regularity one could get used to.

.213

David Ortiz is slowly but surely creeping his batting average back up after it was just .197 heading into the Yankee series. He looks like a different Papi to me, and his confidence seems to be a commodity again. One of the coolest things I saw in Philly over the weekend was him being the first Sox player to emerge out of the dugout during the rain delay, in a game he wasn't starting. Why? To sign autographs, now that's why he has the great rep he does, and is a true professional ballplayer. Lets see Manny do that.

Comments

[Kris]

Don't forget Frodo's 2 swiped bags last night. He pulled an Ellsbury, and Ellsbury pulled a J-Bay. Great game...

[Derek Hixon]

How could I forget with the Fantasy implications that are on the line with him and my team :) lol

I need more help though, stupid Nannerpuss...kicking my a$$.

[Kris]

BEAT THE PUSS! BEAT THE PUSS!