The end of the Kyle Snyder era

Well as one night "hope and pray" starts go, that wasn't too bad by Kyle Snyder.

His pitching line - 5IP, 4H, 3ER, 6K, 0BB - was really as good as we could possibly have hoped for, and the bullpen decided that they had provided enough excitement in Atlanta, and pitched 4 innings of 0 run ball, giving Snyder the win in his (hopefully... please) only Red Sox start of the year... unless he proves in Pawtucket that he has something that wasn't evident to the Kansas City Royals. Although perhaps the Sox put more weight on the 43/9 K to BB ratio in the minors this year, as an indicator of potential, than the Royals did by looking at his 2 innings of work 10 days ago against the Rangers.

But it shouldn't be forgotten that this was against one of the NL's weaker line-ups, and you have to hope that the Sox don't use this start as evidence that the Sox can maintain a 5 man rotation through to July 1st (when they should next require a 5th man).

The Sox offense was very balanced - 4 players returned 2 hits apiece, the other 5, 1 hit each. One of Manny's 2 hits on the night was his 18th HR of the season, moving him ahead of Yaz (and Jim Thome... at least for today) on the all time home run list, and into a tie with Gary Sheffield for 28th place on the all time list with #453 - another moon shot over the wall in LF. Thankfully the other side of Manny that was on display tonight didn't hurt us - for some reason Manny didn't think that Mark Loretta, trying to score from 2nd on a single to shallow CF by David Ortiz in the 4th, would benefit from Manny's advice on whether he needed to slide home or not, and was tagged out standing up at the plate... as Manny watched from the on-deck circle!

What is that Manny phrase again?