More of THIS Dice-K please!

I don't like the Dice-K who lets up 5 Yankee runs in the first and puts the Red Sox in a desperate hole.

I like the Dice-K who throws no hitters into the 8th inning.

In his last 4 starts he is 3-0... a deceptive 3-0 because the Red Sox had to make wild comebacks against the Angels in one game and the Yankees in another to take him off the hook (and in the case of the Angels game, get him the win.)

In those his 5 starts he has had three brutal innings...

A 6 run fifth inning on May 1st in Baltimore...
A 4 run first inning on My 6th against the Angels...
And of course the 5 run first inning on May 17th in the Bronx.

In his two other games, he pitched a 7 inning 1 run win against the Blue Jays and of course the near no hitter in Philadelphia.

His ERA for the season is 5.76.
Remove the 2 2/3 innings that accounted for 15 of his earned runs and suddenly Dice-K has a 1.33 ERA.

Now yeah, I know that's a little bit like saying "Besides that, Mrs. Kennedy how was your trip to Dallas?"

But that does show you that if he can avoid a big meltdown inning, he's actually pitching quite well.

And a few more solid performances by Dice-K and if he can avoid the big inning, maybe the Sox can absorb the loss of Beckett.

(What the hell happened to the Gyroball?)