On again, Off again - can we have some baseball already?

Well we reach game 8 of the season today, which seems to have taken the best part of two weeks, and now the Sox have only 1 off day in the next 29 - why on earth do you give teams 3 days off in the first 10 days of the season?

But game 8 is slightly more important (what, than game 7?), as we see the return of Curt Schilling to the mound. Given his outing last week at Pawtucket it is probably unreasonable to expect too much from Curt, but then it was probably unreasonable to expect too much from him using an ankle procedure that had only been practiced previously on one amputated leg, and that turned out not too badly! If he makes it through 5, and we are still in the game, I will consider it a job well done - if he only makes it through 1, and gets pounded, I guess my "he was making his first start following injury / slow ST" excuse will see the light of day!

Schilling's return does begin to make the rotation question more 'real' - Wade Miller continues his rehab progress, and once fit, the Sox have 6 starters for 5 spots. Prior to the season, the assumption was that either Wakefield or Arroyo would be sent to the pen, with Arroyo probably the slight favorite to make the trip. While this is a nice problem to have (the possibility of one of these guys going to the pen, and not being recalled to the rotation following a DL stint by one of the other starters seems remote) it is always interesting to see how these moves play out, and are handled by the front office and manager - no pitcher who sees himself as a starter likes being moved to the pen. The early season travails of Wells and the good starts from Arroyo and Wake (did I hear someone mutter sample size), only make these decisions more interesting to watch.