DEAR RED SAWX NATION: TOLD YOU SO, NEENER!

Back in March, when I was making my part-time entry into the realm of Red Sox Bloggers as the Exile from Sawx Nation, I went out on an airplane glue fume-induced rant about Theo putting Bronson Arroyo on the bus to the Reds.

Rueage, I predicted: MAJOR rueage. Baseball gods pissed, I said. Curse II: Grendel's Mom in Pinstripes rueage.

And you laughed at me. I was the crying clown of Red Sox Bloggers.

Here's what you said:

He was going to start the season in the bullpen anyway. Two words to remember this season, Steve-O: John Papelbon. He is the future. Posted by: The Colossus at March 21, 2006 02:30 PM

I'm in a rare moment of agreement with the Colossus. Papelbon is da man (I still have Kleenex fantasies of Rocket coming back for a year to take JP under his wing). While Bronson was surely a vast wellspring of unintentional comedy, I knew Bill Lee, and he is no Bill Lee. It is pretty lousy to sign the guy on a stay-at-home discount and then trade his ass. But if Arroyo’s agent had been worth his 10%, he would have put a poison pill into the contract…
Posted by: LB buddy at March 21, 2006 05:45 PM

The one thing the Colossus---he of the Golden Domers (South Bend, not Samarra) and "the company"---and LB Buddy---Genocidal Mengele to the zebrafish community who is downright worried that Noam Chomsky has gone all soft, corporate, and conservative---could agree on: yours truly was the proverbial wind up monkey with the fez and cymbals.
Ahem:

This is the one Bronson Arroyo wanted.

"This is the one team, that I'm sure I can feel comfortable against, feel like I can beat them," he said. "When I was with the Pirates, I was a different guy, but they always hit me hard. ... They always made games tight near the end of the game."

But not Monday, not against Arroyo.

He threw a complete-game, four-hit gem to beat the Cardinals 6-1 before a crowd of 20,900 at Great American Ball Park.

Arroyo is 5-0 with a 2.06 ERA. He's gone eight, eight and nine innings in his last three starts.

"To beat the Cardinals was the No. 1 thing," he said. "A complete game was just a bonus. Any time you can go against a quality team like that, you want to show them that we can play with them."

His previous start against the Cardinals was the only semi-blemish on Arroyo's record with the Reds. He got a no decision in an April 16 start, but the Reds lost 8-7.

By looking better the second time around against a club - he did the same thing against the Chicago Cubs - Arroyo's showing that he's doing more than cashing in against hitters in a new league who are unfamiliar with him.

"This guy is not a fluke," Reds manager Jerry Narron said. "He's got a great feel for pitching."

Arroyo says that comes from pitching with Boston, where the rivalry with the New York Yankees raises the pressure.

"Facing the Yankees 19 times a year - that lineup is so power-packed - it's tough to pitch to," he said. "It's mentally wearing as the game goes on.

"... I don't think there's any lineup in the National League that compares to that one. For me, it's easier to get over the hump."

The victory moves the Reds into sole possession of first place in the National League Central, a game ahead of the Cardinals.

Arroyo's been a huge part of that.

"We're feeding off him," said Felipe Lopez, the offensive hero with three RBI. "He's that personality. He's been in the playoffs. He gives us a lot of confidence."

I tell you, dealing Bronson---the Waterboy/Timmy Lupus from the Bad News Bears Mascot of the World Champion Boston Red Sox---is setting up Curse II: Turns out Babe Ruth's Mom is Pissier than Grendel's.

Rueage, I tell ya---major rueage.

UPDATE: Which will collapse first this summer---the Sawx bullpen, or any section of the Big Dig?

Let's go to the tape:

Attorney General Tom Reilly has said there's no evidence that the concrete is connected to hundreds of leaks which have sprung in Big Dig tunnels. He also has said there's no reason to believe the substandard concrete has affected the project's structural integrity because it was delivered at least six years ago.

Nancy Sterling, a spokeswoman for Aggregate, said the company had no immediate comment Thursday. R. Robert Popeo, an attorney for Aggregate, did not immediately return a call.

The Big Dig, formally called the Central Artery and Third Harbor Tunnel project, buried Interstate 93 in tunnels beneath downtown and connected the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan Airport with a third tunnel beneath Boston Harbor.

The project was plagued by long delays and cost overruns that ballooned from $2.6 billion to $14.6 billion. Earlier this year, after more than a decade of traffic detours, the last major section of the project opened. The heavy construction had started in 1991.

Substandard concrete, structural integrity, big bodies of water, nah, nothing to worry about there.

Okay, maybe Theo's a genius: make the Yanks land at Logan, then trap them in the Ted Williams Tunnel, then let the Bay State Culture of Corruption do its thing...