Sweeeeet sweet relief!

It wasn't long ago that the Sox decided that Justin Masterson would be a great reliever. They sent him to Pawtucket to make the transition just a little bit ago. Suddenly, tonight he was in the pen, warming early, in just the 6th inning. He ended up coming in in that 6th inning, gathering the last 2 outs and stayed in for the next 2 innings. Masterson was nearly perfect in his 2 and 2/3 inning. It was amazing. The bullpen had been so hard to watch all season, but tonight, it was awesome, powerful, impressive. The Sox front office folks are geniuses. Masterson is not a power pitcher and why someone there thought he'd work out of the pen, I can't imagine, but if tonight is any indication, it was a brillant move. And now with the trade deadline approaching, I can safely say 'We don't need no stinking Gagne'. Please Front Office, do not make any desperate disaster trades like last year. We have what it takes.

The rest of the pen must have sensed the turn of the tides, as Oki and Delcarmen also went hitless. In fact, there were no hits given up by relievers for FIVE innings, when Papelbon tripped over himself trying to get to a little bloop down the first base line. Clearly, tripping over yourself is an error, but the generous scorer called it a hit, just to mess up the relief no-hitter the Sox had in motion. Pap was undoubtedly trying to show up Buchholz, who also fell on his ass fielding a ball...