I'm not surprised...I'm a Sox fan

Usually when teams win 11 straight games, they can hang with any team at any time. Even after losing the heartbreaker to the Cleveland Indians which snapped the streak, they came back and won the next night to get back on track. Then they went to Tampa Bay.

If you're not a Sox fan, you don't understand that a series in Tampa is not as fun as it was earlier in the decade. The Rays can play now. They hit well, they field well and they pitch well. Especially against Boston.

In game one, the Sox got as many baserunners in nine innings as Tampa did ... hitting off of Jonathan Van Every. Boston's right fielder allowed a hit and a walk in 2/3 of an inning. Matt Garza allowed a hit and a walk in 7 2/3 innings before Grant Balfour finished the one-hitter. The Rays won 13-0.

Coming back tonight with Justin Masterson on the bump against Andy Sonnanstine, I figured it would be a close contest. And it was. Until the fifth inning. Up 2-0 when the inning began, Tampa cut the lead to 2-1 and had the bases loaded with two outs for Evan Longoria.

Understand this about Longoria (and yeah, I'm writing in the heat of the moment, but I mean every word I'm about to put down). He is the scariest hitter in the game. Not Alex Rodriguez. Not Ryan Howard. Not Albert Pujols. I repeat, not Albert Pujols, just so you know I knew what I was writing. Evan Longoria puts a fear into me that nobody else does. Derek Jeter has hit like .836 in his career against the Red Sox. But Longoria is easily around .900. And he's 23 years old, so unless the Sox pony up a few hundred million in a few years, Boston fans will be sitting through this for a couple more decades.

Anyway, when he came up, two thoughts ran through my head. One is that the Sox should just walk him intentionally, bring in the tying run, and take your chances with Carlos Pena. I understand there were two outs and I understand that nobody since Barry Bonds has been issued a free pass with the sacks full, but I didn't care. That was thought one.

Thought two was that I was following the game on ESPN Gamecast and I didn't even want to look at the screen, figuring I was about to see the equivalent of a bad train wreck. But, like the result of a bad train wreck, I couldn't look away. And on a 2-2 pitch, Longoria, obviously, hit a grand slam, his seventh home run of the season and fourth (in five games) against Boston. To go with that, 13 of his 28 RBIs are against Boston and he's hitting just .455 on the season against the Sox.

In last season's ALCS, Longoria was only 7 for 27, but hit four homers in the series. In his rookie year, he ended with a .272 average, 27 homers and 85 RBIs in being named Rookie of the Year. Pujols was considerably better in his 22-year-old season (.314, 34, 127), but I'm stubborn and am saying that Longoria is the league's best player right now. Even if Pujols is at .356 and nine homers.

As a Sox fan, given the choice, I'd send any pitcher to the mound and would rather face Pujols than Longoria. And if I could have either on my team, give me Longoria.

As far as I'm concerned, that's how I define the game's best player.