Dustin's Goin' Deep Tonight!

The moment I saw Victor Zambrano on the mound for the Blue Jays last night, only one thought entered my mind, and I told a friend, "The Red Sox are going to whack this guy tonight!"

And sure enough, they sure did. They hit four home runs off him, including the first of 2007 by the now smoking-hot Dustin Pedroia (pictured) as the Red Sox coasted to an easy 9-2 victory. (The victory was so easy that Don Orsillo on NESN was seen throwing a paper airplane out of the broadcast booth at the end.)

Josh Beckett won his seventh straight start of the year. The last Red Sox starter to do that was Mickey Harris in 1946. The Red Sox record is 8, held jointly by Babe Ruth in 1917, Boo Ferriss in 1945 and Roger Moret in 1973. Beckett gave up a homer to Alex Rios on his first pitch of the game, and a double to next hitter Adam Lind. But then he settled in, and the Red Sox played home run derby in support of him. He went 7 innings and allowed only three other hits after the first inning. He is clearly the best pitcher in the American League so far this year.

Kevin Youkilis, Mike Lowell, Jason Varitek and Pedroia all took Zambrano deep. The pitcher who the Mets got when they gave away Scott Kazmir had absolutely nothing, and he sure doesn't look like he's going to resurrect his career in Toronto. Jason Varitek had four hits and a walk last night and Pedroia continued his hot hitting, and his homer was the third of his career.

The Red Sox are now 21-10 and off to their best start of the season since 2002, when they were 24-7 after the first 31 games.

Last night at Professor Thom's while the rout was going on, we had our first "Kayreoke Night" of the season, and it was definitely a hit. It certainly was a pleasure for me to host it for the first time. Red Sox fans got to call some of the game action, although we had to turn Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy off for them to do it (sorry guys). Everyone really enjoyed it, and two Sox fans named Matt and Jake were the hit of the night with their sometimes off-color wit. We hope to have Kayreoke Night back soon, and I'll let all of you the next night we plan to do it again.