For the first time in a long while, I have a total baseball hangover.

The kind of hangover you can only get after a full and satisfying weekend of baseball. One that has nothing to do with alcohol, and everything to do with the play on the diamond. One that involved a sweep of wins notched on the scoreboard, but also displayed a combination of a killer offense and a cracking defense. Pitchers spotting their locations well and throwing some gas. Hitters seeing the ball well and maximizing on-base efforts every at-bat. Web Gem-like diving catches in the outfield and beautiful double plays in the infield. Spectacular baserunning and steal attempts. OK, well except for Sunday on that last one.

Red Sox baseball seems to have had a heavy cloud hanging over it of late. A sense of drudgery, a touch of antagonism, an air of melancholy. You got the feeling, even through the TV screen, that everything was labored for the guys, heavy and difficult where it ought to be light and breezy-- weighed down by... something.

The easy way out would be to point the finger at Manny - but I think that is not only wrong, it would also be a gross oversimplification of something that's far more complex. I think though his recent behavior was a part of the malaise, he was a symptom of the problem and not the cause. The team just seemed to be in a funk that they couldn't seem to shake loose (albeit not a totally unproductive funk - it's not like they went into a '07 Mets-like losing skid). A baseball team can't always run around all "HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY" every day- this is a job, after all, and they have ups and downs like anyone else at work. But that mythical 'spark' seemed to have died out there for awhile, and the grumpiness and petulance and lethargy seemed to take off at the same time.

But that all seemed a thing of the past this weekend. Everything was fun again. And just like Manny was not the cause of all the problems before, Jason Bay was not the solution to all those problems either. But he certainly helped. I think the trade on Thursday prodded the team to stop and draw a line under what had happened in the first part of the season, and then decide to close the book on it and move forward to reclaim some of that spark back again. The clouds seemed to part over Fenway, and the heavy load seemed to lift. I'm sure a large part of it was subconscious, but the change is welcome all the same.

Maybe it's all just a happy coincidence. Or maybe it's just a mirage. Either way, I don't much care - because I'll happily suffer through a string of baseball hangovers from now until the end of October for more weekends like we just had.

Maybe it's a BAYsball BAYngover. Yeah, I'm pretty much going to keep up with as many Bay-related plays on words as I can.