(No) Hell to Pay

Stupid is as stupid does. The keyboard gladiators want to crucify and judge after one game into the season. Talk about snap judgments.

Yes, Jon Lester got a rare bite from the gopher, and Daniel Bard's birthright to the closer spot got vacated yesterday. But it's ONLY ONE GAME. Carl Crawford didn't solve the southpaws yesterday, and he couldn't jump twenty foot walls in a single bound.

We've got plenty to be optimistic about. First, Jacoby Ellsbury didn't look even remotely look as though he were made of glass. Second, the lineup foreshadowed the maddening pitch-consuming monster they're likely to become, with C.J. Wilson working hard to survive. Third, Adrian Gonzalez looked very comfortable at the dish, and fourth, David Ortiz drove a lefthanded cookie into the bleachers to tie the game late. Fifth, the disastrous relief appearance didn't belong to Jonathan Papelbon, whose ego will get stress-tested more than Irish banks.

They say you win sixty, you lose sixty, and what you do in the other forty determines who you are. With this lineup and staff, it should be you win seventy, you lose thirty, and what you do in the other forty counts.