Friday, April 28

Ouch

Not a good three days in Cleveland. Not at all.
Game 1 we came out with the W after some late inning heroics by Manny. His three run shot in the 7th or 8th ended up being the game winner. That bad part of that day was that Schilling threw something like 133 pitches and was not quite as sharp as had had been in the earlier part of the season. Final score was 8-6.
Wednesday night was another rough one for Wake. He is definitely off to a slow start this season. I'm sure it has something to do with the cold. The biggest blunder was a three run homer he gave up in the first inning. Mr Bard had some more trouble catching the ball and once again the offense didn't help him at all. I think every game that wake has lost this year we have only scored one or two runs. Bard's passed balls lead to a run or two. Final Score was 7-1.
Then there was last night. Double Ouch. Final Score 15-3. Basically nothing went right at all. Beckett gave up a grand slam in the first inning then two more home-runs before he was yanked in the 4th inning. We couldn't get any calls to go our way and had at least 2 errors. Then there is the fact that 6 of the runs were runners that got on base by walking. We gave up 9 walks total on the night. Not so good.
I think the last three days have really highlighted some problems. Our offense is very iffy. Of course Manny, Papi, Tek, and Nixon will provide but what about the rest of the gang? Willie Harris is batting below .100, Cora is around .150, and so is Gonzalez. There is not a lot of production in the bottom of the line up. Youk is doing a fine job as the lead off guy but we really need Coco back. Last year I used to think we could come back from any deficit, now we get down by three and I start worrying.
When our starting pitchers don't kick butt for 6 or 7 innings we get in trouble. Dirty Sanchez the bullpen man is useless and should be sent to single A. He sucks. Tavarez seems ok but not great. Foulke, Timlin, and Paperboy are holding there own but there is only so much they can do when the starting pitcher get's roughed up.
It's early so I'm sure things will turn around. I can see a lot of mid-season trading action this year.
the Yankees are creeping up on us.
Hopefully a weekend series at Tampa Bay will help us get our spirits up.
Can't wait to see what happens to Damon.

Monday, April 24

A week from tonight

One week from tonight our old friend Johnny Damon returns to Fenway in what I'm sure will be a fun evening for him. I'm actually curious how he is going to be treated. I'm pretty sure he is going to get booed beyond all belief but part of me thinks it might be a mixed bag. Some booing and some cheering. Who knows. If I was there I would definitely be booing.
We lost the last game of the series with the D-Rays.
We lost two out of three to Toronto who seems to be our nemesis this year. We were up 6-2 on Friday but the pen blew the lead. With 2 outs in the 11th Tito pulled Foulke for Dirty-Sanchez guy which I knew meant we were going to lose. That guy ain't done jack for us all year. He sucks. Send him to single A.
Following the long game on Friday night no one showed up for the Saturday afternoon game. Lenny D got rocked in the first inning and we only managed to get one run in. Bahh. If only we still had Bronson.
We got the W on Sunday with a nice pitching outing by Clement, Foulke, Timlin, and Paperboy. Speaking of Paperboy he made some silly bet with someone and now has the Mohawk that Ricky Vaughn had in Major league. It's pretty damn silly. Papi had a 2 run HR as well as his first ever bunt for a base hit. It's pretty smart really when you think about the big ass shift everyone is always putting on him.
Now it's off to Cleveland for what is sure to be a tough series. They are playing well at the moment.

Wednesday, April 19

Stern Saves the Day

A Fine Snow Cone Catch Saves The Day

Thank god for Rule 5 guy Adam Stern. Total side note-What the hell is a rule 5 player anyway? What a weird concept that seems like.
Anyway I did not get to see last nights game because our stupid cable was out. Thanks a lot to the top notch work by the cox cable guy who unplugged my cable while putting some one else's in. As Jere would say..Terrible Job.
From what I can tell the opener with the Rays was a back and forth game. They would take the lead and then we would come right back. Youk put us up for good in the 8th but then Paperboy had his first tough outing of the year. He loaded the bases off one hit and two walks. Then there was a line drive to center that Mr Stern took a chance on and he made this great catch that is shown above. Defense is definitely something that we seem to be doing better with this year.
Mr Schilling is in the process of getting another win tonight as the Sox are taking care of the D-Rays at the moment 9-1. The D-rays have 4 errors. Oucch.

Tuesday, April 18

Some good pitching, some bad pitching, and some offense

This whole having to work really hard all the time thing makes keeping up with the blog very hard. It was much easier last year when I only kinda had to work. Oyy.
The home opening series with the Blue Jays didn't turn out so well for the Sox. Beckett got the start on opening day and turned in another fine game. I love his emotion. It's cool. The game also featured and amazing double play. Loretta slapped the ball out of the air to Gonzalez who completed the double play to Youk. It realy was a thing of beauty. The two other two games of the series were not so hot on the pitching front. Wells got rocked in his first start. It was over after the 1st inning. Clement had an off night the next night as he gave up a pile of runs. Both losses ended up being closer then they really were.
The Mariners came to town for a four game weekend set including the Patriots day game. We won 3 out of 4 which ain't bad at all. Schilling and Beckett both gave solid pitching performance's again. They both improved to 3-0. Wakefield pitched a complete game on Saturday but got no help from the offense so he got the L. Sad for him. Monday was supposed to be Mr Donut Eater Wells but he is back on the DL so Lenny DiNardo got his second start ever. He did pretty well. He was helped by the offense though. Every time he fell behind he boys came back in the next inning to make things even again. We fell behind by 1 in the 8th on an unearned run and I thought the game was over with the bottom of the lineup batting in the 9th. Things seemed to be going as I thought when we got two quick strikeouts. Then youk scrapped out a single and I got some hope. I was hoping loretta would walk or get a nice single so we could get Papi to the plate. He did better then that. He sent a two run game winning shot over the green monster to seal the deal. Nice work.
So after two weeks of the season we're 9-4 on top of the AL East. Can't really complain about that. Also can't complain about the Yankees in last place.
I'm very jealous of Mr Jere. He gets to go to lot's of cool baseball games. For Patriots day he went to the Sox game and to see Pedro at Shea. Must be nice.
Tonight the Devil Rays come to town. Hopefully we can go the whole series without getting into a fight with them

Tuesday, April 11

Weekend Sweep

The Sox are looking just fine here in the very part of the season. I had my doubts going into it but I am pretty impressed so far.
Friday night in Baltimore should have been sponsored by some sort of charity. They would have made a lot of money off of all the walking that was going on. The O's had 6 walks in the first inning alone and there was lot's of runs that scored due to walks for the whole night. The final score was 14-8. The only bad part of the game was the 8 runs that we gave up late. Clement pitched a very solid game into the 7th and then he gave up 4 runs. Some new reliever guy came in for the 8th and also gave up 4 runs. That was not exciting. We did win though, that's nice.
Saturday was an interesting event. It was crappy and rainy to say the least. Trisha and I had great seats on the right field line. The game was supposed to start at 4:30 but was delayed until 6pm. Trisha had a bad reaction to something and we had to leave after the first inning. Schilling pitched another great game and we won a 2-1 pitching duel. Paperboy did another fine job closing the game out.
Sunday was Wake's chance at redemption from last week and he did very well. He gave up a run in the first then was rock solid. He even go out of some pretty tight jams including one where the O's had runners on 1st and 3rd with no out. He struck out the next three. Foulke pitched a solid 8th inning and Paperboy closed it out again.
The 5-1 Sox open the Fenway season today with Beckett pitching. Should be a lovely Tuesday in Boston.

Friday, April 7

Paperboy Delivers

Great game on Wednesday night with the Rangers. After Wake's sad pitching performance on Tuesday I was hoping to see some good stuff from Beckett. He sure did that. He gave up a run early but after that he was pretty dominating. I think the thing I liked the best was that he was showing a lot of emotions. There were several innings that he ended with a lot of fist pumping and screaming. That was good. Timlin was a little shakey but got through it. Manny helped make a nice play at home that saved the Rangers from tying the game. Paperboy came is as the closer and was solid as a rock. He struck out two (I think) and got the other one out on a fly ball. He looked very good as the closer. He also showed some nice emotional outbursts which I liked seeing.
The offense was provided by a 2-run HR by Trot.
The Rangers had some good pitching Tuesday and Wednesday. The 6-6 tall guy that was pitching on Wednesday did very well.
Manny has definitely not hit his stride yet. I think it's the hair and the goatee.
Two Side notes today: I got DMB tickets at Fenway. Hooray. I got the VIP package so we get a nice area with food and a bar. Should be fun. Looking forward to going back to Boston. It would be nice to see the Sox but you can't have everything.
I'm wearing my new Damon He Sold His Soul T-Shirt that I got from Chowdaheadz. Very nice.
Tomorrow it's off to Baltimore to see Schilling pitch against the Orioles. It's looking like a pretty crappy day weather wise but it will still be a fun day. I hope Miller gets some nice cheers.
The Yankees lost an error-filled game on Wednesday. Ohh darn.

Wednesday, April 5

A good one and a bad one

Well two games are over for the 2006 season.
Game 1 went very very well. Schilling pitched great and left the Rangers scratching their heads. That was good to see. Much of the offense was provided by Papi and Tek so that was also good to see. I forgot how great it is when Papi hit's a homerun. It is very fun.
Game 2 didn't go so well. Wake got rocked in the first inning and that was pretty much the end of that. The very angry looking Rangers pitcher was all over the Sox batters. Manny looked pretty clueless and I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of the new look. The dyed dreads and the goatee is an interesting combo.
I pretty much gave up on the game in the 6th.
It is great to have baseball back and even better to hear Rem Dog and Jerry on NESN.
Tonight we get our first look at Beckett. Hopefully it goes better then last night.
Schiling is pitching on Saturday. That should be cool.

Monday, April 3

2-0

Tek doubles in Papi and Trot. Hoo-ya.

And Away we go

The sox and their new lineup start the season today at 2:05 against the Rangers. Schilling takes the mound.
Good luck to us.
Here's today's lineup.
1. Coco Crisp CF
2. Mark Loretta 2B
3. David Ortiz DH
4. Manny Ramírez LF
5. Trot Nixon RF
6. Jason Varitek C
7. Mike Lowell 3B
8. Kevin Youkilis 1B
9. Alex Gonzalez SS
P—Curt Schilling

GO SOX!!!