Alfredo Aceves was late because of traffic, not because he's Alfredo Aceves

Alfredo Aceves has had a weird season, between his introduction to John Farrell, his World Baseball Classic beatdown at the hands of Canada*, his awful start to the year, a demotion to the minors, and then Aceves rattling off spot-start win after spot-start win. It's no wonder, then, that you might assume that his being late for game one of Tuesday's doubleheader against the Rays was going to be because he slept in, or forgot he was pitching, or hadn't left Pawtucket yet, or, if you're our own Ben Buchanan, maybe you just thought Aceves was returning to the deepest, darkest reaches of the cosmos to live with all the rest of the Lovecraftian horrors.

*A literal beatdown, with fists.

It was nothing that dramatic, though: Aceves was stuck in traffic. And he even updated the team constantly on where he was in traffic, so they knew what was up: Franklin Morales was warming up as a reaction to these updates, not so much as a panic move while wondering where the day's expected starter was. That's a legitimate excuse for multiple reasons -- lunch time commute in Boston, the day after the Red Sox themselves warned people to take public transportation to the game rather than drive.

It's also good to see, however entertaining some additional weirdness might have been, that it was something as simple as being stuck in a car behind a whole bunch of other cars. Plus, the Sox ended up winning, and Aceves pitched well enough once more, so there's nothing to complain about.

What a weird year he is having.