Ugly. Sporadic. Win.

It's counterintuitive, but the truth is that there are points during a long season where you need to see that headline.

That's right, folks, the Red Sox won ugly last night. Dasiuke Matsuzaka struggled mightily with his control - even by his standards - allowing a whopping eight walks in five innings. Eight walks. Seriously. Amazingly, he also allowed only one run. Seriously. As he's shown an even better penchant for this year than during his first campaign, Dice-K wriggled out of trouble time and time again, with key strikeouts and a remarkable rash of Tiger pop ups. Somehow, he walked almost an entire round of the Detroit lineup, yet still held a lineup expected to score 1,000 runs this season to a single plate crossing.

Luckily, Nate Robertson wasn't better. In fact, he was worse, serving up a serious meatball of a fastball for Mike Lowell's first RBI of the year, then repeating the delivery ALMOST EXACTLY to Kevin Youkilis innings later. Talk about not learning from mistakes. It certainly makes it more clear why Jim Leyland has become so frustrated with Robertson during his third season managing the immensely talented yet mercurial and inconsistent would-be ace.

Instead of capitalizing on a flock of ducks on the pond, the Tigers went right on missing them like a blind Nintendo fan shooting in early 90s Duck Hunt. Then, when they mounted a rally against Craig Hansen - great for one inning, horrible for two (take note Terry Francona) - they couldn't solve Hideki Okajima, unlike how Boston solved Detroit reliever Clay Rapada, whose funky delivery was positively terrifying, yet produced remarkably hittable pitches.

So there you go. A relatively eventful night for the pitchers that produced little more than scratch marks. A remarkably smooth night for hitters which saw David Ortiz, Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis add to their recent on-track trajectories.

And in the end, it's a win. That's all that matters, and it's worth remembering.


STARTING PITCHING: √
Well, he earned his fifth win. Barely. Still, Dice-K tossed 109 pitches in five innings. Eight walks. And his butt-wiggle was clearly off. CLEARLY off. Still, like we said earlier, a win is a win. And he's 5-0. That's worth a lot in WMYM's book. Especially against a lineup like Detroit's.

MIDDLE RELIEF: √
So, Craig Hansen gets charged with two runs, but he could have gotten out unscathed. One of his walks could have been a strikeout. Just saying. The more significant step in the uber-prospect's latest major league stint was his first inning, in which he set down the Tigers with AUTHORITY. If he can keep delivering shut down performances, even for a single inning, that would be an enormous boost for the bullpen. Manny Delcarmen, it's your move kid.

SET-UP RELIEF: √
Okajima allowed a pair of runs, but they weren't his, and if you haven't noted that tendency in his performances, well, you haven't been watching closely enough. He more than redeemed that shaky frame with the eighth, in which he blew back through the Tigers and set the stage for Jonathan Papelbon. Speaking of which ...

CLOSER: √+
Is it possible that any other closer in baseball is more dominant that Paps right? We think not. One inning, 13 pitches, 10th save. Seems safe to say that his early-season rough patch was just an absolute blip on the radar.

LINEUP: √+
Six runs is usually a borderline √+ for the powerful Boston bats, but against Robertson, and with the control they showed, it certainly warrants the grade tonight. Making the outing better was the continued improvement of Youkilis (if that's even possible), Lowell (in both health and performance) and Ortiz, who despite his relatively meager season stats is rounding into form with one of the hottest stretches at the plate from across the bigs. Equally shocking is Big Papi's prospective RBI total if he keeps up his current pace ... 126. Seriously. Just imagine what'll happen if he gets back to his traditional season averages.
 

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