Local hero > local 9

Last night's spring training game was a strange one for people from my hometown. Being from the White Mountains in New Hampshire, most people are diehard Red Sox fans; sure, you get people transplanted from other parts of the country who bring their fandoms with them, but anybody local is a Red Sox fan for life.

But last night, there was a conflict of interest. No, not because there are an unusual amount of Pittsburgh expats around, but because local hero Jeff Locke was starting for the Pirates. Locke took the loss, giving up three runs in the first inning, but the thrill of watching him pitch on NESN won't wear off for residents of Mount Washington Valley anytime soon.

Unlike Californians and Floridians who frequently see their local high school heroes playing in the bigs, Jeff Locke was a once-in-generation second round pick for northern New Hampshire. As such, he is followed closely by local fans, who are much more used to producing world class skiers than major league ballplayers.

It's simple to root for Locke when he's playing against 28 of the thirty major league teams, but there's a certain feeling of conflict when he faces off against the local nine. Most New Hampshirites hoped that the Red Sox would select him in the 2006 draft, but the Atlanta Braves got there first (Locke ended up with the Pirates as part of the 2009 Nate McLouth trade).

Yesterday was the first time Locke faced off against the Red Sox, and given this year's schedule, it will be the last for a while (barring a trade, of course). But I know I'm not alone in saying that yesterday I rooted for Locke, and I'll root for him again - the Boston Red Sox will always be a household name in baseball, but watching a local hero become a national name is something new and exciting.

Wild Card Day!

Photo from the mlb.com homepage

Today will be an exciting day for baseball.  Even if both Wild Card games are blowouts, it's a history-making endeavor: the first day of the newly extended playoffs.  The Braves take on the defending World Champion Cardinals at 5:00, and then the upstart Orioles look to knock out the defending AL Champion Texas Rangers at 8:30.

I know most people hate the new format, what with adding two more teams to the pennant race and making the Wild Card teams play a winner take all one game playoff - which understandably seems like a ridiculous gamble after slogging through 162 games to reach this point.

But I actually really like the new format.  First of all, Major League Baseball still has fewer teams make the playoffs than any other major sports league, so if you complain about the new Wild Card setup and have no qualms with the systems of the NBA, NFL, or NHL, you need to take a good long look at yourself.

More importantly, the disagreement over the "unfairness" of the one game playoff is absurd; if anything, this sets to right the issue with adding the Wild Card back in the nineties.  Since the inception of the Wild Card, the only penalty given for not winning your division was a lack of home field advantage.  Essentially the Wild Card winner was treated exactly the same as some of the division winners, and that is downright ridiculous.

Now, winning the division means something. It means not having to get through a one game playoff, which, as most baseball fans know, is essentially a tossup.  It means more meaningful baseball in the last games of the season. I don't know why you wouldn't be on board with that.

Interleague Hope?

Once again the Red Sox are on the precipice of being back where they were on Opening Day: back at .500. After a masterful performance from Jon Lester last night, albeit with a 3-run homerun hiccup, the Red Sox held on for the win and brought their dismal record to 32-33.  With one more game against the Cubs, then three more against the struggling Marlins, and finally a three-game set against the second-place Braves, the Red Sox have a chance to wrap up interleague play above .500.

The Sox were supposed to have Josh Beckett pitching for them tonight in the third and final game against the Cubs, but he's been placed on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation.  When reporters asked Beckett for comments about his situation, he refused, telling them he would talk about it on Tuesday.

Now, I could get into how flipping annoying it is that Beckett can't be bothered to address the media, but that's old news, and we've discussed it in this space more than once.  Instead, we'll do a short preview of Beckett's fill-in, Franklin Morales.

Morales hasn't started a game in more than three years, but he has had some rather long relief outings lately.  So far this season, Morales has pitched 23.2 innings, and has a very respectable 3.04 ERA. In the year since Morales came to Boston from the Rockies, he's had some success, and he seems to be excited for the opportunity to start.

Clay Buchholz, on the other hand, was asked about the possibility of him starting this evening on his normal four days of rest, but he chose to take the start against the Marlins on Tuesday at Fenway, after the offday.

It's the story of the season: the much-hyped Red Sox pitching staff continues to struggle, underperform, and end up on the DL.  Hopefully Morales can do something relatively rare for the Sox this season, and get the win.