CENTER FIELD :: Victory and Assimilation

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Victory and Assimilation

Not long after Kevin Youkilis garners near-unanimous support here as the Sox MVP for April, he goes out and proves us all to be the geniuses we are with a walkoff RBI, snapping the Sox losing streak and defeating the Jays (and Doc Halladay) in the process. I love it when we're right.

Of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention Mike Lowell's return from the DL, or Dustin Pedroia's scrappy-gutsy-gamer-grinder defensive stop in the 9th, or Jonathan Papelbon's door-slamming close performance.

But above all of that, the story of the night had to be the virtuoso pitching by Jon Lester. Or, rather, the complete and total assimilation of Jon Lester by the Borg Of Kickass Awesomeness that is Josh Beckett. Below, I give you video proof- the hallmarks are all there: the Southern accent (you're from Washington state, Jon), the executing pitches mantra. If Jon shows up next week wearing hemp necklaces and rolling his eyes at stupid questions from reporters, I won't be the least bit surprised.

video courtesy of WBZ

Comments (9)

[ SoxAddict ] says:
on April 30, 2008 2:33 PM

What an amazing game. I won't lie, Lester shocked the hell out of me.

[ jules ] says:
on April 30, 2008 2:46 PM

Great video of the post-game. Beckett must've been proud.

Letser shocked me, too. We saw him in Oakland earlier in the month and he did a good job, but this game was a whole other level. Well done!

I saw Ian's video of Pleats' excellent D. I hope he's OK. I loved the interaction between Tito and Pleats.

[ fc ] says:
on April 30, 2008 3:25 PM

Guys: Lester was wearing a necklace. You do the math.

[ mouse ] says:
on April 30, 2008 3:27 PM

I just love Jon Lester, even when he sucks. (Obviously I like him even better when he pitches well, like last night.) And he has good taste in mentors too. :) Anyone else notice who was the first player eager to greet Lester on the dugout steps after the eighth inning? Hehe.

I've watched the replay of Pedroia's play several times already. Almost as good as the play itself was Papelbon's reaction to it. It was like a combination of disbelief and "F-yeah!"

[ kristina ] says:
on April 30, 2008 4:08 PM

i laughed last night when i heard him say "execute pitches", he of course also gave credit to the defense behind him....good job jon, you've been taught well...i think that game and the post game made josh feel all warm and fuzzy inside =)

[ Liza ] says:
on April 30, 2008 4:56 PM

Lester was BEASTLY. In a good way.

I hope this string of good pitching continues! Seriously.

Also, I do feel bad for Halladay--his last four starts have been complete games (!) and the last three were losses. That's gotta suck.

[ Kim ] says:
on April 30, 2008 5:12 PM

I so want Lester to kick major ass this year! He looked amazing last night and I can't wait till his next start.

[ Trish ] says:
on April 30, 2008 7:50 PM

Actually Jon has a very distinct western accent, which under certain circumstances can be mistaken for a southern accent. His voice is about two octaves lower than Josh's too. But yeah, LOL at "executing pitches." Can the f-bombs be far behind?

[ kristina ] says:
on April 30, 2008 9:48 PM

is anyone else wishing there was video from when Jon was at Josh's ranch this offseason...oh that would be priceless

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