Now that's more like it Dice-K

As a sports fan, it's easy to write players and teams off. If you watch the games all the time, you get a feel for who has it and who doesn't. With that said, last night's 2-1 Red Sox win over the Oakland A's was very promising as Dice-K pitched a gem.

It was a far cry from his start last week in Japan-when he was understandably nervous and therefore pitched badly-as Dice-K went 6.2 innings, giving up two hits, one run and striking out nine. In probably the best sign of all, he didn't issue any walks and his pitch count was a tidy 96 pitches when he left. It was one of his best performances in his short career with the Red Sox.

With Beckett out until the weekend while Lester and Buchholz are in the rotation, the Red Sox (2-1) need Dice-K to pitch like the guy they paid all the money for last year. He's showed flashes of brilliance but all too often last year, his pitch count would go up way too early or he would have one disastrous inning.

The A's (1-2) got on the board first in the second when Jack Cust hit a solo home run.

Boston scored in the fifth when leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury singled to right, scoring Kevin Youkilis who somehow avoided catcher Mac Suzuki's tag at home.

The Sox looked poised for a big inning in the sixth when Youkilis tripled (3 hits, 2 runs) then scored on Jason Varitek's (2 hits) RBI double that should have been a home run. It hit above the yellow line on a platform in right then bounced back onto the field. The umpires talked about it but ruled incorrectly. It was a tough call but definitely showed that baseball could use replays at certain times, although that would slow down the game even more.

Hideki Okajima pitched a scoreless inning then Jonathan Papelbon got four outs for his second save. Papelbon didn't allow a hit and struck out three.

A's starter Joe Blanton pitched well for the most part, going six innings, allowing seven hits, two runs (both earned) with one walk and three strikeouts.

Good signs for the Sox included Ellsbury delivering with a runner in scoring position, Youkilis looked locked in and Varitek actually had a couple good at bats. David Ortiz doesn't have a hit yet but that won't last much longer.

The short two-game series wraps up this afternoon with a rematch of Lester vs. Rich Harden.