What's up Over the Monster. Long time reader, first time FanPoster here at OTM...I've finally broke though...normally I can just sit back read, and very occasionally comment with great pleasure. Not after last night though. Not after the FanPost I just read.

Two and Nine.

Yup.

It really sucks.

It really, really, really sucks.

I hate that this off-season was filled with the highest expectations I've had since '04, and yet it seems that every morning when I wake up I can't enjoy Mike and Mike, or SportsCenter with my bowl of KIX because I might once again be reminded of the Red Sox recent futility. I just saw the damn game seven hours ago boys. I don't need to be reminded that, as a team, we're hovering around .200 with RISP. I don't need to be reminded that even though John Lester is having his best April to date, he has no wins to show for it. And I for god damn sure don't need to be reminded that some pretty effin' historically horrible teams that started 0, 1, or 2 and whatever didn't make the playoffs. But I understand that you have a job to do, and a lot of America is loving this mounting frustration that comes with every added number to the right side of the W/L column. So shit...I guess I gotta watch Saved By the Bell for now with my breakfast...woe is me.

I'm not down on this team though. For one very simple reason, and it has nothing to do with stats, and everything that has to do with the faces I saw in last nights 6th inning.

Pedroia is on third. Price just got a gift from above when what should have been a run scoring single up the middle from A-Gonz bounced off his thigh(?). He then followed that act of god up with a strikeout of Youk on a boarderline inside fastball. Tensions were running high as a runner on second with no outs, quickly turned into a runner on third with two outs in almost a blink of an eye.

When Jed Lowrie swung on and missed at the fastest, most dominant looking 97mph fastball of the night making the count  0-2...I could feel it becoming another one of those innings. You know the one I'm talking about, as it's been all too common this year. One of those innings where this team wasted a golden opprotunity. One of those innings where your heart, along with your hope, drops another centimeter closer to your stomach. One of those innings where you begin to think about questioning this teams resolve, or desire.

Something happened though. Something to me, that meant more than Papi's last fly ball out traveling another 20 feet and tying up the ball game.

After refusing to give in, and taking three well placed balls to work the count back to full, Lowrie ripped a double into right, and verbally ripped into Price.

Fire ladies and gentlemen. Fire.

This team has it. This team WANTS to win as badly as we want them do. You can't say that about every sports franchise that has employess making millions of dollars a year, and up unil this point I can't say I was entirely convinced they weren't just going through the motions. But after MLB Network panned over to the Red Sox dugout to show Youk and his merry band of brothers reacting to Lowrie's double as if he just hit a walk off, I know there's no question.

This team has all the talent in the world, and they have the desire to along with it. A very dangerous combination. You might hate this analogy, but much like the Miami Heat with their new crop of stars, time is all these Red Sox need. Time to gel, time to find their roles, and time to fill them. Fortunately for us, baseball is a sport that has plenty of games, and only a fool would count a team, any team, out after 11 of them.

Stats may tell you one story about this team, but the look on Lowrie's face in last nights sixth inning tells me a completely different tale.

Go Sox.