3 for 4

sporting goods

Both the Red Sox and Mets have won three of their last four since Friday, and I haven't posted since. So to be in line with their recent results, here are 3 things to be happy about and 1 thing to be less happy about with regard to the Sox.

• Wade Miller is back, and looked good in his first start. So the Sox didn't win, but Miller was hitting 95 on the radar gun, and looked less rusty that I would have expected.
• Kevin Youkilis not only got called up (finally!) but Tito is giving him more and more playing time. And deservedly so, a quick look at Hardball Times stat page suggests that Youkilis created as many runs in his first 21 at bats as Mueller did in his first 85. For those keeping track at home, it took Mueller an extra 51 outs.
• The number of players that are hitting below expectations has been reduced by one as Papi is on fire.

The one bad thing that I had originally planned to write was softened when Millar hit his first home run of the season last night. So now the Sox first baseman and 5-hitter has a whopping .336 slugging percentage! Instead of putting Millar as a negative, I will point out that it appears that AL pitchers are trying to kill Manny.

I'll try to get to the Mets later, but if Chill beats me to it, I will take no offense. (update: Hey Chill, no offense taken, you did much better than I could. Although I think the #1 thing has to be that the games are back on TV.)