The Second Cup: Reflections on a revelation

It’s always a beautiful morning the day after everything goes right in a game against a top AL rival. But it never hurts to have terrific weather to boot, does it?

Dice-K was dealing last night.

BOSTON HERALD

Dice-K drives in a run - Jeff Horrigan drops a Lindsay Lohan bombshell for a lead (he’ll be at the Sands all week people, don’t forget to tip your waiters), but goes on to extoll just how good Daisuke Matsuzaka has been over his past 11 starts, despite a stunning lack of run support.

Sox stay calm in storm - Rob Bradford focuses on how focused the team’s locker room is, and how the Sox are showing a united front heading towards the trade deadline next week.

Ortiz gets lumber ready - Horrigan’s notebook leads with the impending return of David Ortiz, but also hits on last night’s bizarre lineup, Curt Schilling’s rehab start tonight and the blazing bat of Manny Ramirez.

Speed readings on Papelbon’s radar - More than two weeks after the closer initially broached the subject, Bradford writes the sidebar on how Jonathan Papelbon hates radar guns.

The Sox got a little incidental help from an old friend, right fielder Trot Nixon.

“New” Coco old to news to Indians - Bradford’s copious writing continues, touching on resurgent Coco Crisp, who is peaking as he returns to his former stomping grounds at the Jake.

Lester gets Lance’s support - Testing the theory that you can’t have too much Bradford, the sidenote scribe writes the late-breaking piece about Lance Armstrong’s written and personal support of cancer survivor Jon Lester.

PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

Dice-K strong-arms Indians - ProJo columnist Joe MacDonald writes about the atmosphere and drama surrounding last night’s pitcher’s duel to end all pitcher’s duels.

PawSox manager gave Delcarmen renewed purpose - MacDonald touches on the subtle yet essential influence that Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson had on Sox reliever Manny Delcarmen erlier this season.

Indecision on Bonds lessens Selig stature - Sean McAdam’s potpourri column leads with Bud Selig heading to San Fran for Barry Bonds’ run at Hank Aaron’s record, but touches on Sox trivia and administrivia as it courses along.

BOSTON GLOBE

Red Sox are a bit better - Amalie Benjamin leads the Globe’s gamer with a touch of the side McDonald wrote for the ProJo, but quickly segue’s to Dice-K’s dominance.

Watch for the Dice-K sighting in this bizarre clip. We promise, it’s the best you’ve seen all year. Honest.

From the looks of it, Epstein needs to stay focused - Nick Cafardo writes Wednesday’s On Baseball column, touching on the dilemma that Theo Epstein faces a week before the deadline, mainly weather to make a more minor move or whether to push full bore into the Mark Texeira sweepstakes taking place in Arlington.

Just like his average, Crisp moving on up - Benjamin leads the notebook with Crisp’s ever improving spot in the Sox lineup, but also hits on Julio Lugo’s current career-high hitting streak, among other oddities and niceties.

‘You couldn’t wait for Manny to come to the plate’ - Admittedly, Cafardo had a hard time finding Indians front office personnel who were around the team in Manny’s seminal 1999 season. But when he did, he knocked his story out of the park. A terrific retrospective on a terrific hitter.

Sox Nest is in favor of more LMontro, all the time.

Red Sox connecting with their cut off man - Oh … my … God. It’s an LMontro story. And a terrific one at that. While we’re disappointed that they didn’t name drop Sox Nest (come on Mark Shanahan, show us some love!), the scribe does a terrific job tracking down all that is the bizarre world of LMontro, where cutting hair gets you a fly car with Louis Vitton wheels. Astounding.

HARTFORD COURANT

1 for the road - Jeff Goldberg’s gamer focuses on Matsuzaka-san, with a healthy dose of support for the bullpen and the team’s situational hitting, which seemed all but dead a week ago.

In tight game, defense huge - Goldberg’s notebook takes an interesting twist, leading with Boston’s impressive team defense, but quickly moves on to Big Papi’s return.

– Cameron Smith