Nomar Speaks

His side of story, so take it for what it is worth, but I do like this exchange...

On Boston general manager Theo Epstein's assertion that he was a defensive liability: "If they feel that way, that's great. I don't have to worry about how they play or what they have to do anymore. My focus is on this great team and trying to be a part of it. My goal is to try to get to the playoffs and try to win the World Series.

Meanwhile Barrett and Garciaparra exchanged numbers under one condition...

"I just told him I'm not going to give you my number for a month and a half," Barrett said. "You're going to have to think about staying here for a while. And he said he would. That was probably the biggest piece of the negotiations."

Way to go Barrett!!

Note: It probably wasn't noticed by many people last night but I liked how Nomar took a pitch straight down the middle so Corey Patterson could steal 2nd base and get in scoring position. Even better the very next pitch Nomar knocked him in. You have to be pretty confident in not striking out to pull off going down 1-2 in the count.

I guess I am so used to seeing our guys get down 0-2, 1-2 in the count and 80% of the time ending up striking out and doing nothing. Nice to see someone with some bat control on this team.