Back to the Future....

 Well Yankee's brass talk about the future of thier young pitching stars. The big difference between them and us right now is that our young pitchers are ready for prime time.  Justin Masterson was brilliant for the second time in a row.  He went deep in the game, threw alot of strikes, struck out five Royal batters, and allowed only three hits and one run on six and a third innings of work.  The only run he allowed was actually given up by Manny Delcarmen, who continues to find his self in the big leagues despite the fact that he is awful, and usually very ineffective.  Masterson will be sent down again to AA Portland, however one wonders how long the Sox can keep him down there.

  The bullpen continues to be very shakey at best.  Hideki Okijima had a really rough outing, recording only two outs, while allowing three baserunners.  Okijima last week cried to the Boston Globe about coming in games with inherited runners, he had no such excuse last night, however he left a mess for closer Jonathan Papelbon.  Papelbon was his usual brilliant self, striking out three of the four batters he faced, and getting that bases loaded strikeout to end the 8th inning.  If Okijima continues his sux-fest the Sox could be in bigger trouble with that bullpen than they thought.  Somebody has to step up and get the ball to Papelbon in the 9th.

  Today marks the first apperance of Bartolo Colon in a Red Sox uniform.  The thinking is that Colon can come in and be effective, hopefully give them 5th starter type of stuff.  If that does work out, then the Sox would not have to rush back Clay Buchholtz, and give him a few rehab starts so he can fine tune his mechanics.