I am Not Happy

I did not get my birthday wish.

Kyle Snyder was the starter last night, and he was..well, you'll see. In the first inning, he got 2 strikeouts and things looked promising, but then...
Jim Thome hit a solo HR in the 2nd, which is never fun. Then Konerko hit one off the wall, and Trot made a neat catch back in the right field corner. KS gave up two more singles to load the bases with just one out, then a depressing ground-rule double to make it 3-0. Snyder: not off to a good start. Another run, as though it wasn't obvious enough that Snyder was not on his game. Oh, if only he could have pitched like he pitched last week when he threw 7 innings of shutout baseball. Kyle, you should be ashamed. Julian Tavarez performed better than you.

He was still in for the 3rd, so Chicago got another run. DiNardo came in after the 5th run, and he took care of business. For now. Coco hit a solo shot in the 3rd to make it 5-1. His 8th HR of the year, and he had the only 2 hits of the game thus far.

So then Jermaine Dye hit a 2-run shot over the Monster. I hate when the pitching is horrible. The bleeding wasn't done yet, as another run scored in the inning. EIGHT TO ONE.

Breslow in - not bad. Mike Lowell helped him out with a great leaping catch at 3rd. Corey came in, and Crisp tried to help offensively with a single + error = got to 2nd. But no one else felt like assisting. Hansen in (yup, he's back) - Pedroia made the funniest play of the night. Dye came in to second but Pedroia forgot to tag the bag or something, so Dye was safe but he was way off the bag because he thought he was out! So Pedroia tagged him anyway. A very what the hell? moment that turned out okay. Mike Burns in - no more damage.

Breslow, Corey, Hansen, and Burns all allowed zero runs. Another good night by the bullpen; too bad the starting pitcher was so awful (and DiNardo, I suppose he's also the bullpen but let's ignore that point).

Jose Contreras was pretty awesome, so they didn't have too much of a chance.

Anyway, congratulations to the (former Red Sox) rookie Anibal Sanchez for throwing a no-hitter last night. Now why couldn't Kyle Snyder do that?!

QotD (a long one):
Lester - "You guys have been so supportive of me, I figured I needed to say something. Not only to you guys, but the fans. These fans here are the best...It's kind of one of those things you can't describe. You're 22 years old, you think you're just going in there for some back pain and then you find out you have cancer. I mean, that's pretty shocking, but we have a positive outlook in it, [it's] very curable and very fightable, and just go on from there. Taking one day at a time and fight it the best we can."

Gotta love that kid (wait, I can't call him kid because I'm now the same age as him!). He actually starts his chemotherapy Friday morning, then it's back home to Washington to continue it. He seems to have a very positive and healthy outlook and I hope he takes as much time as necessary to fully recover. Read more on Lester's interview.