I’m sorry, do my eyes deceive me, or did the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays? No, it must be a joke, because not only was Josh Towers not pitching, but long-time Red Sox nemesis Ted “I can’t beat any team south of Connecticut” Lilly was. And, to top it all off, 22-year old David Pauley was starting for the Sox.

Pauley actually looked pretty decent in the first four innings. He was throwing strikes (most of the time), and got out of a number of jams with inning-ending double plays. But between the fourth and fifth innings Matt Clement must have forced Pauley to eat an apple from the Tree of giving-up-hits-with-RISP. And a 7-2 game (thank you Papi, Manny and Loretta?) suddenly was 7-6.

I’ll be perfectly honest. This game was perfect for me. You see, David Pauley is the first Red Sox player to be younger than me. For him to pitch well in the big leagues pretty much means my chances of playing big league ball is over. (If you’re curious, the last time I played organized baseball was during the tryouts for my 7th grade baseball team. There was one more spot on the team and me and one other kid going for it. The coach hit me a pop fly, I missed it and it hit me on the top of my head. Good night major league career.) But since Pauley didn’t get the W, I still have a chance!

Thanks to some great bullpen outings we managed to escape the cold, miserable, French-speaking country to the north. Wait, I need to read that sentence again. Yup, all correct. Hell, even Detroit looks good right now.