Everybody seems to be talking this morning about the pair of Jon’s, Lester and Papbelbon, combining for a 1 hit shutout of the Royals. (By everybody I am obviously referring to obsessive compulsive Red Sox fans who paint the Green Monster in their living room and name their first born kids “Fenway.”) Lester is now 5-0 with a 2.38 ERA, and PBR earned his 28th save in 31 chances. And while it’s nice that Lester went 8 innings allowing only 1 hit and a measly (for him) 4 walks, it’s still only his eighth start in a Sox uniform.

Yesterday belonged to the Captain. In his 991st start behind the plate for the Red Sox he surpassed Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk for most games at catcher in a Sox uniform. Any time you can break the record of a Hall of Fame player you’ve done something extremely special. So while Tek may not have put in a performance worthy of Cal Ripken Jr., he did hit a wall-ball double and later came around to score the only run on A-Gon’s 2-out single. (Yes, you did read that correctly, A-Gon had the game winning RBI.) Plus, I love the fact that he looks obviously uncomforatable by the standing ovation. He may be slumping this year, but you know he’d take a Sox win over a 4-4 day at the plate coupled with a Sox loss any day of the week.

I was at Fenway on September 4, 2000 when the Red Sox retired Fisk’s number. It was quite the carnival atmosphere including long standing ovations and a few waterworks. On top of the pre-game festivities, Pedro was also pitching when that alone was an event worthy of getting out of almost any commitment. You could probably even get out of your own wedding if you had tickets to a Pedro start. I don’t know if the Captain will get his number retired one day, but he certainly deserves a standing ovation worthy of #27.

First 88 games, zero shutouts. Next four games, two shutouts. That’ll do.