He's human.

Right when we were all starting to think he was unhittable, Jonathan Papelbon proved that he was a mere human being.

With his 98 MPH fastball that he can hit spots with, devastating splitter that can fool all hitters, and intimidating staredown before each pitch, Paps had given up just 2 hits in his first month of work.

But Tuesday, he more than doubled that hit total, giving up 3 hits, including a game tying 2 run home run by Travis Buck in his only inning of work, blowing his first save of the season.

Wait a second. Travis Buck? The guy who had been able to mow down Michael Young, Derek Jeter, and Hank Blalock in the previous month, could not get Travis Buck out.

The first question I had when I saw the box score of the game was, "Who is Travis Buck?" because quite frankly, I had never heard of him. After doing some research I found out that he was a rookie, who made the team in spring training, and who had made his major league debut in April. And our guy who we all swore was unhittable in the 9th inning, gave up an 0-2 home run to him.

Being a pitcher I understand the imperfection of all pitchers, and realize that there is no such thing as a perfect pitcher. No matter what the matchup, when a good swing and a bad pitch happen simultaneously, the ball will be hit hard. When Papelbon left the 0-2 fastball that was supposed to be out of the strike zone, a couple inches lower, and when Travis Buck put a good swing on the letter high fastball out over the plate, it wasn't a suprise that the ball was hit hard, and in this case, it left the ballpark.

Yesterday's game was good for the Red Sox because it showed that Papelbon is flawed. No matter how brilliant or intimidating the pitcher is, he will make mistakes, and no matter if the hitter is Travis Buck or Albert Pujols, any major league hitter will take advantage of that missed spot. Don't get me wrong, Jonathan Papelbon is an absolutely brilliant pitcher, quite possibly the best in baseball at what he does, but Red Sox fans need to understand that even he is not invincible. Papelbon had 6 blown saves all of last year. It would be better to get them out of the way now, than to have those blown saves in October.