Friday, April 5, 2013

One Year Ago Today—The Misery Began

Bobby's Inaugural Loss
Last year, without the intrusion of the WBC, the baseball season started for Boston on April 5th against the eventual AL Champion Tigers. Things might have been different for 'Bobby Valentine's Boys' if things had gone just a little differently. After a valiant ninth-inning comeback to tie the game at two, Mark Melancon and Alfredo Aceves coughed up the game-winning score for Detroit. After that, the deluge. The big comeback was against the previously All-World closer Jose Valverde (who was 49 for 49 in save opportunities in 2011). Of course, Valverde would later implode in the post-season and has only now been re-signed to a minor league deal by the Tabbys. The loss wasted a superb outing by Jon Lester, who never really recovered for the rest of 2012. Ah, what might have been.