Honestly, I got to see very little of last night's pitchers duel between Jon Lester and the Jay's Roy "Doc" Halladay. I teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays and can't even really keep up with the score, let alone watch the game. So I get to my car about 9:00 PM and get the XM rolling. I hear Lester strike out two and get a routine grounder from the third to clear the Jays in the 8th. I listen to the continued "next to nothing" of the Sox bats in the bottom of the frame. Papelbon comes in and as I'm parking, he has struck out one batter on 3 pitches, the second on 4. By the time I get in the house and fire up MLB.tv, I've missed a double by Rolen and the play of the game, a huge stop by Dustin Pedroia (that looked exactly like his huge stop during Buchholz's no-hitter last September). Then, as I ate my supper and wondered why the Blue Jays insisted on keeping Halladay in for the ninth. Sure enough, two out walk to Papi, Manny single, Youk walk-off. Game!

Lester was utterly awesome. One hit, 6 K's, 4 walks, no runs. What else can you ask for. In fact, the only hit almost wasn't a hit because of what would have been another great Pedroia play. He leaped on an line drive by Overbay to lead off the fifth. The ball went off his glove, but had he caught it, Lester would have been looking at a no-hitter of his own going into the ninth.

While the bats continue to suck, the Red Sox have had three virtuoso pitching performances in the last three games (Buchholz, Beckett, Lester). If they can get back to production at the plate, May will be looking very promising, indeed!

Labels: baseball, Blue Jays, Red Sox

Does anyone else have the feeling that we've stepped through the looking glass here? I mean, you have a Steinbrenner who recants (sort of) the numb-skull comments he made about idiots and relief pitching, you have Papi patting .077, then .305 (for a couple of weeks) with a grand-slam, now 0 for 6 on Friday then sitting two days. Beckett goes seven innings, gives up 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, and 13 freakin' strike-outs, and LOSES!? Why? Because the Red Sox got shut out by the Rays, who are now tied with Baltimore for the lead in the AL East?

CUE MUSIC:"One pill makes you bigger..."

The Sox have squandered two excellent starts from Buchholz and Beckett, not to mention a decent early lead in the division. Today's day off will be a welcomed rest. With the Red Sox playing through a rather arduous April schedule, it was a matter of time before some stopped repeating the canned statements and let loose with a rant. That came yesterday from Josh Beckett. For my taste, I always much rather complain after I've done well because I think your comments are taken more seriously and less like whining. Josh had a career day and then went off about the schedule that the Sox have had to endure. Read here.

Tomorrow that Red Sox will take on Blue Jays at Fenway in the first of three, then a home weekend series against the Rays. This will bring them into May over .500 (one game over, at worst) and, as I'd mentioned to a friend during the first week, given the way the month was layed out, over .500 is a good place to be.

P.S. Bonus points if you the title rings a bell for you!

Labels: baseball, Blue Jays, Orioles, Rays, Red Sox

I'm watching yesterdays Red Sox game on MLB.tv, which means that I'm hearing the Toronto television feed. It's the bottom on the 5th, and Beckett has just loaded the bases with two out. It seems like Francona was giving Beckett one last chance to finish the inning and put himself in line for a win if the Sox could score in the 6th. It did not work.

In comes Manny Delcarmen. The announcers (the Blue Jay announcers) mention that this seems like an odd thing to do since the next batter is Frank Thomas, Blue Jay power hitting DH, seems to have Delcarmen's number lately. He bats about .333 against MDC and had smacked a t RBI double off him earlier in the series. So, at this point, I'm saying to myself, "Why is he using Delcarmen?" That was about the only statement I had time for because the first pitch went over the Center field wall for a grand slam.

I'm a fan of Sabermetrics. I'll admit it, I'm a geek. One of the things that I like about the Red Sox is that they are a team that pays attention to stats. But now I'm looking at the third game in a row where Tito has ignored the mathematical probabilities and it has proven to be a bad thing.

We're finally going home tomorrow for the Fenway season opener. Mathematically speaking, how likely is it that the 0 - 6 Detroit Tigers will be 0 - 9 by Friday?

Labels: baseball, Blue Jays, Francona, Red Sox, statistics

Being that the general concensus is that Terry Francona is horribly underrated and that his new $12 million deal is a reflection of his wonder, I'm hesitant to question him so soon in the season. However, after the Wakefield situation last night and the after pulling Youkilis today in favor of Casey. what else can a Red Sox fan do?

Labels: baseball, Blue Jays, Francona, Red Sox

The Red Sox will take the field tonight in Toronto for the Jays home opener. Counting the Japan trip, then the A's first home game, this will be the Sox third opener. They of course have one more, the most important, opening day at Fenway this coming Tuesday.

Yesterday was an off day which we're hoping will take the last of the team's jet lag away. There nothing like an off day to get creative juices flowing for folks when there isn't actually a game to talk about. I heard on Mike & Mike this morning a clip of some baseball pundit extolling the reasons why Papelbon should be a starter. I cannot remember who this lad was (If anyone knows, please leave a comment!) but he was taking a page out of some Sabermetrics guide and talking about how your best pitcher should not be a reliever and your best reliever should not be a closer. The geek view of this topic is that you should put your "closer" in whenever the game is really on the line. For instance, if you have a 1 run lead in the 6th, and the opponents meat is coming to the plate, that should be the clue to put in your "closer". The only flaw with this theory that I can think of was that the Red Sox tried this once and it was a downright disaster. Meanwhile, the Yankers have two closers; Rivera for the ninth, Chamberlain for the eighth. I vote we keep Paps where he is.

There's been discussion about center field and the Crisp/Ellsbury situation. The truth of this matter is that decisions on who is in the line-up are not being made strictly on numbers and perceived benefit towards a win. Crisp got a start Wednesday and will probably get more, not because he is better than Ellsbury, but because the front office wants to "showcase" him so that a trade can be worked out. He went 2 for 5 that night and scored a run. I suppose that isn't too bad a show, but I can't help but wish that Jacoby was in. (Drew, who went 1 for 5, is not being showcased for anything, as far as I know.)

It appears that Josh Beckett will make his first start on Sunday in the third game of the Toronto series. Here's some logic that I can't help but question. Starting Tuesday (for that Fens opener) the Sox will be facing Detroit who will be, at best, playing .500, assuming they sweep the White Sox. Based on their plate performance while being swept by the Royals, those Tigers may not be able to get three in their first home stand, but anyone who thinks that those bats aren't going to wake up at some point is nuts. Should we be leaving Beckett out until that Tuesday? I mean, he didn't get the Japan start, now he won't get to pitch in Fenway until the 11th or 12th against the Yankees? I say you let him have the Fens opener, which still leaves him ready for game three of the Yankee series (Which is the only one I'll actually get to see since MLB.tv will be blacked out for me and Sunday's game is on ESPN. (Thank you YES network!) Who do we need Beckett more against, the Toronto line-up or those of Detroit and New York?

Finally, folks are expressing their relief to see some players waking up a bit. Papi had hit first hits, his first RBI, and his first jack of the season on Wednesday. Matsuzaka looked much better in his second start, as did the young Jon Lester. Even Tek is performing better at the plate, getting a RBI double (He was robbed of a homer, pure and simple) and a homer this week. We have survived the worst part of this Homeric 2008 Opening Odyssey with a record of 3 and 1, and that is a good thing because April is not getting any easier.

Labels: baseball, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Royals, Tigers, Yankers

Labels: Blue Jays, breath, Phillies, Red Sox White Sox, Yankers