Back on a roll -

after dropping four games in a row to start the month of May, the Boston Red Sox have rediscovered their groove, edging out the Kansas City Royals last night 7-6 (with Manny Ramirez scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning by coming in all the way from first base on a Jason Varitek hit and not even sliding! You just keep hitting the way you're hitting, Manny, and we'll forgive such occasional unnecessarily close calls) to put them back onto a three-game winning streak. And to think I was beginning to worry...

One troublesome bit of news, however, was ace hurler Pedro Martinez's announcement last week that he has broken off contract negotiations with the Sox and will test the waters as a free agent at the end of this season, which practically guarantees that he will not be pitching at Fenway next year, unless as an adversary. The nightmare scenario of course, is Pedro in Pinstripes, a la Roger Clemens, another temperamental Boston pitcher who got the short end of the stick from the owners, the media, and the fans only to go and have some of the best seasons of his life elsewhere (this year he's had his best start ever, 5-0, with the Houston Astros, and this during what was supposed to be his first year of retirement!). It will be a shame for Pedro to pitch anywhere but here, but I don't blame him for wanting to see what the market will pay for him. Sure, he can be a royal pain in the ass, but the Sox wouldn't have gotten even a tenth as far as they have over the past seven years without him, and we'll sure as Hell miss him in the rotation if and when he's gone.

Another key player the Sox are likely to lose through their own incompetence at the end of the year is Nomar Garciaparra, who I'm sure is still smarting from the off-season stab in the back the folks at Yawkey Way attempted on him in a butt stupid play to sign Alex Rodriguez (at the price of Nomar and Manny!), although I've read that Manny has offered to take a pay cut himself in order to help defray the cost of keeping his two comrades on board. After last year's antics and bad attitude, who'd have thunk that Manny Ramirez would emerge as one of this season's heroes! As long as he doesn't get a hangnail and end up taking half of the summer off recuperating in the strip clubs of Miami, everything might just turn out all right for the Sox in 2004.