Varitek is such a rock behind the plate. It is hard to imagine how much confidence pitchers must feel with him back there. He calls a game with authority, no wussy lack-of-confidence signals from him.
No consistently, but occasionally. He was ultimately being used quite a bit last year as the sox staff was depleated. If rested appropriately I think we could reasonably expect 94-95 regularly.
If he continues pitching this well I could see Lopez and MDC pitching the 7th inning regularly.
Barret is a very good catcher. I wondered before he moved from the Cubs whether the Sox could be interested in him. He may be available a year too early.
I think bravo is the word I was looking for too. Well said.
Bravo Matsuzaka-san. For a guy who had a bad outing, I would say he pitched pretty well and got great results. We all see glimpses of what this guy would look like when he puts it all together and I'm hopeful we will see some of those games in the 2nd half of the season and perhaps in important games beyond that.
Bravo.
I haven't seen Dice-K smile very often in his past few starts. In the past he was very animated, smiling and communicating non-verbally alot with his teammates. He seems much more serious, which is probably a good thing.