Stirrups and Sleeves

Funny thing happened at the end of the Sox game last night.

They won.

Late in the game between innings on a television commercial Bobby Val and Eliot of Jordan’s again pitched the furniture store’s Monster Hit promotion.

At the time the Sox were behind by a run against the Jays and 0-3 on the season, the defeats including a couple late-game collapses. 

Maybe the colossal September slide they experienced in ’11 was carrying over to ’12.

Maybe the season would be a wash from the get-go and Sox fans could spare themselves late-season agony.

Or, heaven forbid, maybe this was the return of the Curse. A nasty sequel. Curse Part II.

On the commercial the two guys were saying if a Red Sox hitter homers to straight away center and tattoos the Jordan’s rectangular sign during the contest period customers could win furniture.

Forget about hitting the sign in centerfield, how about putting a W in the standings on the Green Monster.

Maybe then we’ll think about renting a chair at Fenway Park for a few hours.

It’d be a lot cheaper to buy a chair and watch or listen at home.

Then Dustin Pedrioa stepped to the plate and rifled a head-high fast ball to the fence in left. 

The cocksure second baseman slid head first into second base just ahead of the throw, raising a cloud of dust.

Hmmm. He wasn’t standing pat and playing it safe.

Pedrioa then moved to third and scampered home on a sacrifice fly.

A couple of walks later Ryan Sweeney hit a ball off his shoe top into right field.

The third base coach aggressively waved in the go-ahead run. Darnell MacDonald slid. The ball got away from the catcher. 3-2 Sox.

They added a run before Alfredo Aceves came in to close out the 9th.

Already this season, we’ve seen enough late game disasters to last the month. Two months.

But Aceves was all business. 

He had the confident look of a closer and threw hard. He wasn’t about to let setbacks in previous games derail him.

He was tough and smart and dispatched the Jays hitters.

Now that’s more like it.

There will be no Curse Part II.

After all, the Sox dispatched the Curse in '04 with their comeback in the AL Championship Series against the Yankees and their World Series championship.

And there’s a W on the Wall standings and a reason to think about renting a Fenway chair.