Well, first game after the Big Trade, and at least Mientkiewicz went 2-4: could you imagine the howls if he’d gone hitless, or worse, made a defensive gaffe? Must be weird for him, suddenly having to play against his old teammates. The 5-4 loss was pretty run of the mill: standard way that the Sox have been losing this year, although Derek Lowe is now starting to look consistent if middling. I feel like now we can expect 7 innings, 4 runs from Lowe outings, which isn’t great but is a damn sight better than some of the dreck he’d served this season.
On to the Nomar trade. Reading through SoSH (or, indeed, this blog) you can see Sox fans go through all the stages of grief: denial, when it dawned on everyone that Clement wasn’t part of the deal; anger and blaming - has Theo ever been sworn at so much?; bargaining (“can’t we have Nomar fail the physical and come back?”); depression; and finally acceptance. Which goes to say, us Sox fans are treating this like a death. And it is: the death of a Boston icon.
I managed to catch the NESN interview with Theo Epstein. He looked clearly nervous at the start, but got into a groove talking about the defence Mientkiewicz and Cabrera bring. I hope he’s actually in love with this deal, rather than forced to do it. It’s the biggest gamble of his career, and he better hope it pans out for him, because no town can eat its heroes like Boston.