Things are looking up in Oakland.

The Sox got two brilliant pitching performances from Daisuke and Lester, totally shutting down the A's offense. All they could manage was a Jack Cust home run yesterday, and nothing today.

With Beckett returning on Sunday, strong pitching from two other members of the rotation bodes well. The offense started to wake up, too, as Papi and Tek hit home runs, although they left a lot of men on base (including a bases loaded, no out squander in the first.)

Interesting fact: the Sox are no longer second in the game in payroll. They were passed by the Tigers and Mets over the winter to fall to 4th. The Yankees are still first by a wide margin, of course.

Hopefully, this quiets some of the talk about no one being able to match the Red Sox and Yankees financial resources. It's obviously not true in the Sox case.