Red Sox 10, Pirates 7: Pedey, Pablo raise up Sox

Fresh as daisies after a day off, the Red Sox put a whupping on the Pirates today at JetBlue Park. Here’s how it went down.

Dustin Pedroia, destroyer of worlds

Pedroia is hitting everything in sight this spring. Today he went 3-3 with a double and a walk to raise his average to .500, which we’ll take. When Pedroia’s healthy he’s always been good, and he seems pretty dang healthy right now, and is thus, you know, quite good. The nice thing the Sox have going here is a capable backup to him in Brock Holt \o/ and a capable backup to him in Marco Hernandez, should we ever get that deep; if Dave Dombrowski has effectively mortgaged the future to get this team contending in the present, he’s at least got a diverse range of assets with which to deal. That said, a healthy Pedroia predates Dombo and might just postdate him, too, if he continues to play like this. But don’t take him for granted, not now or not ever. He’s the best.

Steven Wright is good; the bullpen less so

Wright went 4.1 innings, allowing 0 runs and 2 hits with 3 K’s and a walk before giving the game over to Health Hembree, who promptly got hammered, as did Robbie Ross Jr. later in the the contest. Craig Kimbrel pitched a scoreless inning and didn’t strike anybody out, which isn’t a reason for concern, just a bona fide novelty. Wright’s filling the Tim Wakefield role quite nicely these days, which is super important with the other starters falling like flies. He looks regular-season ready, and that sure as hell makes two of us.

Is Pablo Sandoval for real?

Another 2-3 day for the Panda, this one featuring his first double of the spring. He’s up to .362. I am, of course, a little skeptical about these numbers, given that he has exactly 1 walk in 43 plate appearances, but walks have never been his game. Looking at the positives, as long as Sandoval makes hard contact he ought to be good-for-him, which is definitely good-enough-for-us, considering the strength of the rest of the roster. Redemption isn’t quite at hand, but it’s closer than most of us thought possible a month ago. And given the headline of this post, here’s some appropriately hype outro music...