Pedro's Not The Only One That Has His Fastball Again

I laughed out loud at this:

If you're a Red Sox fan, there was a ton of stuff to love. Including ...

The thought of the Angels taking a potential "Dead Man Walking" cross-country flight.

The thought of a potential clincher on Friday afternoon in Boston, in a St. Patrick's Day-level atmosphere (since just about every office downtown is closing early that day).

The thought of Schilling only having to pitch once this series, meaning he could go 1-4-7 against the Yanks or Twins (pumping my fist).

Pedro pulling the old Hulk Hogan routine in Game 2, lifting his arm and waving his index finger just as the referee (in this case, just about every Boston fan) was counting him out. Not a virtuoso performance, but an effective one: Seven innings, three earned, no extra base hits. Just like I requested in Wednesday's column (even within two hits and a strikeout). I didn't think it was the biggest start of Pedro's career or anything, but it was one of the most satisfying -- the greatest Sox pitcher of my lifetime proving that his back remained fork-free, even consistently hitting 94 and 95 on the gun. Maybe that seven days of rest did him good.

(Of course, when he left the game after the dramatic seventh -- when Eckstein and Figgins fouled off a combined 75 pitches -- players were hugging him and congratulating him outside of the dugout. My buddy Hench thought that the players were trying to make it clear to Francona that Pedro was done for the night, leading to a series of "Just to be safe, Ortiz and Millar are stripping off Pedro's clothes in the dugout" and "They're sneaking him out of the stadium in a cab before Francona reconsiders" jokes. All warranted, obviously.)