The Life of Akins and The Red Sox

Uhhhh

2007-04-11T20:43:00.000-04:00

I guess we used up all our offense last night. Holy Jeez. Through 6 innings we have no hits. That is no so exciting.
Dice-K hasn't done awful but he has given up three runs. The other pitcher is stealing the show though.
Hopefully we can pull together some offense here.
Oyyy.

Been a while

2007-04-11T18:49:00.000-04:00

Working kinda sucks. I'm over it. I'm ready for a nice big pot of money to drop out of the sky and take care of me. Wouldn't that be nice. Then I would have to work every waking hour of every damn day. But I'm not bitter.
So after a disappointing opening day the Sox have done pretty ok in the last week plus. After dropping game one to the Royals the boys took the next two. The highlight was the debut of Dice-K. He pitched a pretty amazing game in his debut. He went 7 innings, threw 104 pitches, and had 10k's. He was pretty much un-touchable. Very nice. Beckett got the other win and has looked pretty damn good himseld at the start of this season.
The series at Texas was not the Sox finest moment but I have this feeling the were jonesing to get back to Boston. Wake pitched lights out in game one but got no run suppourt what so never. That never helps. Game 2 was Julian Tavarez, our most suspect starter in my mind. It was not pretty. If I remeber right we got crushed. Ick. On Easter Sunday Mr Schilling got his first win after a dreadful start on opening day. In other exciting news from that day Papi got HR #1 and #2 of the season back to back. #2 was also a 2 run shot. That was all the boys needed. Even better was Paperboy's lights out 5 out performance. He came in with 2 on in the 8th and was untouchable. I love that guy.
Yesterday was the season opener at Fenway. It was a great day. I knew we were going to score a lot when we had the bases loaded in the bottom of the first with no outs. The final score was 14-3 and it included a 8th inning bench clearing almost brawl. Something about one of our new bullpen dudes and histroy he had with some guy on the M's.
Tonight is a big night. Dice-K is pithcing his first game at Fenway and it should be great. Things sound pretty hoping in Beantown. I'm hoping he is as kick ass as he was in KC. I am thinking that the Mariners may want to come out and play a ltitle bit more like a decent baseball team this time around. Should be a good game. The really exciting fact is that I am sitting at home and am able to actually watch the game. I haven't been able to really see any games yet because of work and nows I'm sitting at home watching the game. Even better is the fact that I am watching in on EXTRA INNINGS! Thank god that got worked out. I love the NESN guys. They rock.
Almost game time. Let's go Sox.

Opening Day

2007-04-02T17:07:00.000-04:00

Opening Day is finally here. I had high hopes that I might actually get to go home and watch the game to day but that turned out to be a big fat lie. God damn theater really sucks some times. It really does. I would love to make the whole mlb tb thing work but it doesn't seem to like me. In general the world seems to not like me very much anymore. God damn it.
Seems to be a tough game so far. Schilling is sturggling mlike a mofo through 2 innings. His pithc count is up around 60 in the third inning. Not so good..
He also managed to walk in a run. Also not so good.
We'll see how the rest of the game goes. Hopefully well.
My computer is being slow.

Paperboy Returns to the Closer Role

2007-03-24T15:54:00.000-04:00

After a spring of questions about who was going to be the closer for the season Mr Paperboy has returned to the role he did so well with last season. I'm sure he would have liked to have been in that starting rotation but I am pretty happy he is going to be back in that role. He was pretty damn lights out last year and hopefully he will continue doing the same this year. I'd be into that. I feel like we got a pretty kicking starting roation anyway. I keep having flashbacks to last year though. Going into the season I thought we had a rotaiton that was un-stopable. Then people got hurt and such and it all went to hell. With Schilling, Dice-K, Beckett, and Wakefield I think we'll be allright. Looks like Julian Tavarez might take the other rotation spot. Not so sure how I feel about that but I'll get over it. Anything will be better then Rudy Seanez from last year. Oyyy.
I've been trying to pay closer attention to the spring games but it's kind of hard. They play during the day, people appear in the line-up that you've never heard of and all kinds of things like that. The regualr season is knocking on the door though and soon it will be here. Yeah for that.
There was great story about Papi a week or so ago. Last season he met a kid who was going off to Iraq. What a stupid war that is, when will GW ever figure that out. Geez. I digress. So Papi spent a day with this guy and had a good old time. THe guy died at the begining of this month and when Papi found out about it he was devestated. He sent the family a bunch of stuff including an autographed baseball to put in the coffin. Papi is an all around solid guy. He rocks. I think it's a littl odd that he has a little punt dog but I'll get over it.
In other exciting news the Ramrods will be returning for another fun filled season of kickball next week. Stay tuned for updates as we try and win a few games but more importantlly have a lot of fun.
Later.

Manny in the House

2007-02-26T18:31:00.000-05:00

Ladies and Gentleman.....Mannnnyyyy Rammmmmirrreeeezzz
A scruffy looking Manny reported to camp today. 2 days early. Cool.
His agent got grilled by some reporters with a bunch of dumb ass questions. Maybe if people didn't pester him with so much annoying shit he wouldn't be bothered by the Boston Media. There is some big flap about Manny agreeing to do a car show instead of going to camp. He didn't go to the car show so who cares. Let's move on. Enough of the badgering.
He stepped right into some BP against Dice-K. In a 75 pitch session with some good hitters the only hit off Dice-K was a little single up the middle by Big Papi. I think this guy is going to be the shit.
It's exciting to see scruffy Manny swinging the bat.
First Spring game is day after tomorrow. That's cool.
GO SOX.

Time for new excitement

2007-02-25T21:43:00.000-05:00

Well the new season is fast approcahing and I am finding myself very excited about the upcoming season. There was a lot of madness in the off season. The biggest being the talking to (for 50 million) and the signing of Dice-K Matusakawaka, or however you spell his name. The crazy pitching phenom from Japan seems sure to really help us out this year. To say that he has brought insane amounts of press to spring training would be an understatement. He ptiched a BP session last Friday and apparenttly was pretty damn impressive. I am looking forward to him unleashing this Gyro Ball thing on some dumb yankees.
We signed some other good talent. The one I am liking the most is Julio Lugo. I like good short-stops. I am hoping this JD Drew character will live up to the hype. I think we paid him more then we were willing to pay Damon which is a little sad but ohh well. We move on. We got another Japanesse dude working out of the bullpen which should be nice. It seems like we have done some good work shoring up the bullpen.
In sad news Trot Nixon was not re-signed by the club. Bummer.
Manny is starting the season off by providing some drama. Nice. Well at least he'll report to camp on the absolute last minute possible. Nice.
Papi has a new little puppy that seems to be every where. I'm not sure why such a big man has such a little dog. Seems odd. Maybe he has been chatting with Paris Hilton a few too many times.
First spring game is on Wednesday. Nice.
I better sign up for Extra Innings soon.
I have a nice feeling about this season.
GO SOX.

Holy Awful August Batman

2006-09-04T19:30:00.000-04:00

9-21 for the month of August. Ouch.
As the Sox hit the bottom of the barrel I lost my heart to do much of the blogging thing. It was all just to painful.
Everything that could go wrong for the Sox in the month of August did. Our very limited pitching staff got even thinner. Many of the names from the past got hurt. Varitek, Nixon, Manny, Papi, and many others got hit with various injuries. Some of them were much worse then just baseball. Ortiz had to go to the hospital to be test for heart problems. It appears that he will be back in the line up for the Sox tomorrow night which will be great to see. Jon Lester is out for the rest of the season with lymphoma (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). Those two things kind of put the whole playoff chase into perspective. It was just one thing after another. Now Paperboy is out for a bit and Schilling is going to miss a start.
Needless to say the Sox that played in August was a hodge podge team that cam from the minors and what not all over the place. They tried to hold there own but it just wasn't happening. We couldn't get any breaks. We couldn't get much hitting. We couldn't get much pitching. Really, not much good happened in August. We did manage to keep up our great defense though which is good, especially seeing as SS and 2B were always changing with the injury's.
Tonight Tek, Trot, Manny, and Gonzo are all back in the lineup. It's the first time we have seen this "regular" lineup in a long time. The bad part is that J Tavarez is pitching. Oyyy. We sent Wells to San Diego last week so now Beckett is the only remaining starter who isn't hurt. We seem to find pitchers in all kinds of random places to fill out the rotatation.
Another positive is that Dirty Sanchez was released. Thank God for that.
Manny got a double in his first at bat back. Too bad Mr. Lowell couldn't do anything with the bases loaded.
At the moment we are 9 behind the Yankees for the division and 6.5 back for the wild card. I think even if we went un-defeated for the rest of the season we would have a hard time making the playoffs. What a bummer. I think it has been a long time since the Sox were pretty much out of it at the start of September. I'm sure they'll come out and play well anyway. Maybe they could sweep the Yankees in the Bronx. That would be nice. It's just a big bummer to pretty much have no chance at the playoffs.
At least College Football has started to keep me distracted.
On a side note NAKID kickball is a lot of fun. I am working on my flip-cup skills.
Please pause for a moment of silence for Steve Irwin, the croc hunter. He was a man who had no fear. I remember watching one of his episodes where he was walking along a creek and in mid sentence he jumped in the water and came up with a crocodile. What a cool guy.
Our defense still kicks butt.

Trying to hold out hope

2006-08-28T20:15:00.000-04:00

I'm trying very hard to hold out hope for this years Sox but it just ain't going so well.
We got swept by the Mariners. Everybody who wasn't already hurt is now hurt.
More on my Sox sadness later.
FYI-Kickball is fun.

Hat's off to the stupid Yankees

2006-08-22T10:30:00.000-04:00

I have been having all kinds of trouble with Blogger. Sorry about that.
Hat's off to the Yankees for kicking the shit out of us. They have made all the right moves and we haven't.
Stick a fork in the Sox. With 36 games left we are 6.5 behind the spankees for the division and 4.5 back in the wild card.
We have no pitching and sporadic offense.
Without Tek we are 6-15.
There's always next year.

Ouch

2006-08-11T08:08:00.000-04:00

We got swept by the Royals after losing 2 out of 3 to the D-Rays.
It's hard not to be a little worried about what is going to happen with this season that held such promise.

FFS

2006-08-09T20:05:00.000-04:00

My boss really likes that saying. It stands for For Fucks Sake. That's kind of what I am thinking about the sox these day.
We did manage to win that last game I was talking about in a walk off fashion. The poor bird was eaten by a hawk. I guess it was really sick.
We lost to the Indians the next day as Beckett was giving out homeruns like they were crack on the corner in Roxbury. Bummer
Then it was off to Tampa Bay and there cool new tank in the outfield with big rays in it. Do you think they empty it during the off season? I would hope so. We won the first game but after that it was all down hill. Saturday night we tried to come back in the ninth but ended up losing 8-5. Sunday our crappy bullpen gave up a lead and we lost in extra innings when Tavarez gave up a homerun.
I have said this before and I will say it again. Why is Tavarez and Seanez pitching for this team? Why I ask?
At Tampa Bay this season we lost 7 out of 10. You can't do that and expect to win.
Now we're on our first trip to KC of the season. Guess what? We lost the first game? That's right. Thankfully the White Sox beat the Yanks so we didn't lose any ground. Would have been an awfully nice chance to gain some ground though.
We are 12-13 since the All Star break. We ain't going to win a world series with that kind of action going on.
Hopefully we can get our act in gear before the Yankees pull far away.

The Bird

2006-08-02T21:37:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention the poor black bird that was wondering arounf the infield last night. It was very funny. The NESN guys were having a really good time with it. It was obvioulsy very confused but seemed very intent on running the bases in the right order. Nothing like a nice little comic relief of a bird. Still up 4-3.

Uh-Oh Spaghetti-O

2006-08-02T21:20:00.000-04:00

Trouble at Fenway! Trouble at Fenway!
Problem #1-The Sox did not make any moves at the trade deadline. Nothing what so ever. There was so many things that could have been done, but nothing happened. I really hope that doesn't come back to haunt us.
Problem #2-Wells returned to pitch on Monday night. He looked like an old man who had no business on the mound. He might get some more chances since his next start would be against the D-Rays and the Royals. Really he should just hang it up.
Problem #3-Trot Nixon on the DL
Problem #4-Tek having knee surgery, out 4-6 weeks.

That is 4 big problems.
Thanks for super papi we were able to pull out the win on the game on Monday. Wells pitched pretty awful and gave up 6 runs before he got booted. Snyder came in and did a nice job keeping things in check. The man of steel, Big Papi, came up in the bottom of the 9th with 2 men on. What do you think he did? He hit a game winning 3 run shot. Damn he is the man. Sadly I missed the end of the game because I was out playing soccer. Ohh well.
Last night was just ugly. The offense was MIA and didn't give the guy they called up from triple A (johnson) much help. I was wicked wiped out and managed to sleep through most of the game. Oops.
Tonight Lester is on the mound. He had a rough first inning but the Sox have pulled back into it and it is now 4-3 in the top of the 7th. Hopefully we can hold on.
While we lost last night the Spankees won and pulled into a tie for first place. We have been in possession of first place by ourselves since mid june. It is not fun to see the Yankees back up there. They seem to be peaking and we seem to be going down.
There is still a lot of season left, even better there are lot's of games with the Yanks. I hope we can hang in there. The latest injuries and the lack of picking anyone up at the trade deadline make me a little scared though.

Trade Deadline Approaches

2006-07-31T07:33:00.000-04:00

As expected the Yankees made a nice deal heading into the trade deadline. They managed to pick up Abreau and a pitcher from the Phillies for 4 minor league players? How do they do that? How did they get two quality players from the majors in exchange for 4 guys who have never played in the majors? How does that work? Ohh well. The deadline is at 4pm today so hopefully between know and then the Sox will make some kind of move. Another good starting pitcher wouldn't be bad and neither would some bullpen help. Ship Tavarez and Seanez away for the love of god.
In game action the team took two out of three from the A's in Oakland. I wish I could tell you more about these games but they were on past my bed time (yes I'm an old man). We did put up 13 runs in the Tuesday game. That's always nice.
Over the weekend the boys were back in Fenway. Friday night was a tough loss 8-3. Things were close until the 6th inning and then it got out of hand. The highlight of the game was definitely Papi scoring from 1st base on a Manny double. His slide into home plate was more like a complete collapse. It was funny stuff. He's a funny dude. Saturday was a great win. Sadly it was not on TV here in the DC area. They elected for the 4:05 nats and dodgers game on the west coast. Ick. We we're down 6-3 going into the 8th. With the help of Manny and Papi we tied it up and sent it to extra innings. Papi came up in the 11th with 2 on. The Angels had the Papi shift on with most of the team in right field. Papi sent a little shot into left field and the game was over. Well done.
Last night was not pretty. It was the first game I actually had a chance to sit down and watch in quite a while. If only it had been a better game to watch. Schilling was not himself and things got ugly. He gave up three HR's in the 3rd and was just plain getting shelled. We managed to have a little rally to bring the score to 6-4 but then the tag team of Van Buren and Tavarez gave them 4 more runs to make it 10-4. I gave up at that point. Bummer.
On a total side note I would like to say what a crime I think the price of gas is these days. How can they charge us the highest gas prices ever and make a 10 billion dollar profit in three months? How does that work? Exxon makes $1300 something dollars a second. That is profit! How can they justify gas at $3+ a gallon when they are making that kind of money. Ohh wait, I know. Since GW is sucking all their dicks it is A-ok. Fucking cock sucker.
That is all. Hopefully we'll make a nice pick up today. The next three days are suppoused to be like living on the surface of the sun. what fun.

Life is a roller coaster, and I'm gonna ride it all night long

2006-07-23T20:57:00.000-04:00

I have to learn not to get some upset by a loss here and a loss there. There is a lot of baseball left in this here season and I have to understand that one loss, while sad, will not be the end of us.
After a crappy series with the A's we were blessed with a visit by the Royals. For a while it looked like we were going to have a hard time with them. When it looked like we were about to lose the first game of the series good old Tek walked up and hit a grand slam that sealed the deal on that game. Way to go Tek. The next two games ended up being real thrillers that we one 1-0 and 1-0. Thank god our pitchers showed up that day since our offense seemed to miss the bus. Beckett was one of those who did a fine job. He and paperboy combined for a one hitter on Tuesday.
After our nice sweep of the Royals we had a one game make up series with the Rangers. Schilling got the W in a nice victory.
After that it was off to the west coast. If any of you were reading this blog last year, which I kinda doubt, you will remember that I really don't like it when the Sox go out west. It makes it really fricking hard to watch the games when they don't start until 10 local time. I'm an old man who works pretty hard and I just can't stay up that late. The west coast is a bummer. There is also the fact that when they go out there they tend to play a couple of series out there. Bummer.
Anyway. At the moment we are hanging out in Seattle. I really would like to live there. I think that and Boston are highest on the list of places I would like to live one day. Our three game set with the M's featured our dream pitching line up: Synder, some guy from Pawtucket, and Lester. Oyy. Lester really doesn't deserve my grief though, he has been playing well.
Synder got the win night one, night two did not go so hot, and night three was really interesting. I missed all of game 1 and 2 but did get to see parts of game three. The game was tied in the bottom of the 8th when the M's managed to take the lead on a in the park HR, yes, an inside the park HR. Bummer. Coco miss played the ball, Manny had a tough time handling it, and next thing you know the M's were up 8-7. Tek came up in the top of the ninth and cranked a very big HR to tie the game. Sadly Timlin could not hold on and the M's got a homer in the bottom of the ninth for the win. Thankfully the Yankees have been having a hard time in Toronto so we're still holding a 2.5 game lead on them. The Jay's are lurking not to far behind.
Next up is another series on the silly west coast. More games late at night, this time with the A's.

Don't Look Now...

2006-07-16T17:09:00.000-04:00

But after we drop the game with A's today we will be tied with the Yankees for first. Damn that was fast.
Our poor performance against the A's over the last 4 days hasn't helped our cuase. The first game was lost in extra innings. Loretta made a big error in the 7th which let the A's tie the game. Mr Tavarez gave up 2 runs in the 11th and we couldn't make up the difference. Not the best way to start things off after the break.
Friday night it got much worse. We lost 15-3. The score pretty much says it all. Plain and simple-UGLY. Beckett gave up 7 runs before he got booted and the bullpen did the rest of the work.
IN the funny sport that baseball is we came back on Saturday night and won 7-0. How can a team score 15 one night and turn around the next and score none? That's wacky.
Today we are losing 8-1 in the bottom of the ninth. It will take a really big inning by Papi to save this one.
We've got to do something about the 4 and 5 pitching slots. Lester looked OK on Friday but he throws a lot of pitches and can't seem to make it late in the game. Our big pick up from the Royals, Synder, is looking like he is going to get the loss today. No good.
Meanwhile the Yankees swept the White Sox and pretty much beat the crap out of them all weekend.
Thank god the Royals are coming to town tomorrow.

At the Break and a damn fine DMB show

2006-07-11T20:24:00.000-04:00

Well the Sox have hit the All Star break with a nice record of 53-33 and 3 games up on the Yanks. We have definitely had our moments in the first half of the season but we played pretty damn well for the last 2 months. I like the 20 games over .500 part but I sure wish that number between us and the Yankees was higher. Ohh well. I think we have to keep doing what we are doing for the rest of the season. We need to shore up the starting lineup and get more consistency there. We need a solid #4 and #5 pitcher. Hopefully Clement will come back and play well but I've lost hope in Wells for the year. The bullpen could use some help in the middle. For god's sake, send Seanez down the single A, he sucks. We have to keep up the great D and keep scoring those runs. I think we'll win the AL East as long as we don't choke.
We managed to avoid the sweep against the D-Rays by scoring a pile of runs in the top of the ninth including a Papi grand slam. Then we went to Chicago and won two out of three. It looked like we were going to get the sweep in game 3 but it turned into a 19 inning loss with a few blown chances. Guess who got the loss? You guesssseeed it...Seanez. Oyyy.
Papi couldn't make it out of the second round in the HR derby. Tonight is the All Star game. I hope we win but other then that I am not that interested.
On a unrelated front last week was my journey to fenway to see Dave Matthews. It was an awful shame I couldn't see a baseball game but the concert was AMAZING! I've seen quite a few shows over the last 12 years but this was one of the best. It made it even better that I was standing in center field watching it all. Here's a few photo's:

Looking towards home from CF

DMB on the scoreboard

Damn do I not take good pictures. Me near the Monster.

Dave

Dave and the Boys rock out

Did I mention that jamming out in CF of Fenway and enjoying some damn good music was pretty amazing?

Me right near third base. Mr Lowell has made a few damn good plays right where I was standing. Nice.

Up and Down..Up and Down

2006-07-06T21:19:00.000-04:00

Well the Sox finished off their tour through the NL is a very nice fashion. We swept the Mets at Fenway including Pedro getting rocked. He is a wacky dude that Pedro. For some reason I don't feel nearly the resentment towards him that I do towards Damon. He actually got rocked in the game and went out in something like the third inning. That's not so cool. It would have been nice to see him pitch a good game but still lose.
We finished off inter-leauge action by takine 2 out of 3 from the Marlins. For some reason I couldn't get any of these games on Extra Innings not to mention it was a crazy birthday weekend so I'm not really sure what happened. I'm an old man at 30 now.
So we are now back into AL action and have managed to drop 3 in a row to the D-Rays to get it going. Baseball is such a wacky sport in that way. We were unbeatable for two weeks and now we can't be the D-Rays. Look at how the yankees lost by 18 one night then won by 12 or something the next. It's just wacky that way.
Hopefully we can pull the game out tonight so we don't get swept. Then it's off to Chicago for a tough weekend series before the break.
I'm headed to Fenway this weekend to see DMB. Should be fun.

More Winning and More Winning

2006-06-28T08:05:00.000-04:00

PAPI-PLAIN AND SIMPLE-THE MAN

I hate to sound like a broken record but that winning thing sure is fun!
After looking pretty awful about two weeks back the Sox have now won 10 games in a row.
First it was a three game sweep of the Braves. It looks like for the first time in centuries the Braves are not gonna make the playoffs this year. They are way behind the Mets in the NL East. All the games were kindaa close. Varitek helped win the first one and Papi and Youk helped win the second one. The third game was a pitching duel until it was handed over to the bullpen and then things got ugly. The offense just kept coming back and got the win.
Next on the chopping block was a three game sweep of the Nationals. None of these games were ever in doubt. The great thing about all the wins is that we are winning with a bunch of different pitchers. The first game of the Nats series was won by some guy we got from the Royals. John Lester has come in and now won three games. He's got some fire in him too.
Next up was the Phillies. The first game was a blowout that we won 10-2. Beckett looked the best he has all season including the fact that he retired the first 16 without a hitch. Manny had some home runs and we won yet again. Saturday and what ended up being Monday were both great extra innings games. Big Pappi proved on both occasions why he is the best clutch hitter there is right now. Saturday he won the game with a walk off HR and Monday he won the game with a walk off RBI. He is just the man.
Last night was the first game with the Mets and we took that one as well. Tonight Pedro returns to pitch at Fenway against Beckett. It's sure to be a pitchers duel to say the least. I'm sure we'll get some offense going to. The offense is clicking at every end of the lineup right now. It's just grand.
My only minor sadness about the whole thing is that even after winning 10 in a row we are only 3.5 games ahead of the Yankees. They have also been playing NL teams which neither of us seem to be having any problems with. The NL just doesn't seem very good this year at all.
The AL All Star team has 2 players who aren't from the Sox or the Yankees in the starting lineup. That's wacky.

Thanks to the coast guard

2006-06-21T21:14:00.000-04:00

For fixing the sinking Sox ship. We have now one 5 in a row.
Nose surgery is no fun.

STRUGGLING

2006-06-15T20:57:00.000-04:00

THE SOX ARE LOOKING LIKE A SINKING SHIP THESE DAYS

Well things are not going well in the Red Sox camp, not well at all. Our once potent pitching rotation has turned into a one man show. Schilling is still doing well and pretty reliable. Beckett has taken a dive that began with a complete implosion at Yankess Stadium. Wells seems destined to be on the DL all year long. Clement can't get a win and is now getting an MRI. Wakefield is spotty and still gets no run support. Our fifth starter changes from Random Rookie #1 to Random Rookie #2 on a daily basis. Things are not good. The bullpen is also like a mash unit. Timlin is out, Foulke is out, and that leaves us with shitty bulpen guy #1 and dirty sanchez.
Ohh yeah, the offense seems to have gone MIA as well.
OOYYY FRICKING VEY.
The Yanks took 2 out 0f 3 in the bronx. One of which was a complete shellacking.
We split a 4 game series with the Rangers. Really Texas should have won 3 out of 4 but Papi had some more late inning heroics to save the day. There was lots of rain. Texas in Boston seems to equal rain this year.
Now we have lost the first two too the twins and seem well on our way to losing a third. Tuesday night we lost the game in the 12th when Tavarez gave up a grand slam in the 12th. In general our bullpen pretty much blows right now.
Last night another stellar bullpen guy Manny Delcarmen gave up yet another grand slam and the offense was once again MIA. In the last game and 4/9 we have scored 2 runs. For what was once the most potent offense going that ain't good.
Today we traded David Riske (if I was a pitcher I would change that name) for minor leauge pitcher Javier Lopez. MINOR LEAGUE? How bout we get someone from the majors.
I am becoming convinced that the Jays are going to win the AL east as the Yankees are all over the place as well.
Watching the Sox is a lot more fun when there winning.

Trouble on the mound

2006-05-30T21:03:00.000-04:00

The boys had a nice weekend 4 game sweep of the D-Rays. Once again I didn't get to watch any of the games except for a crappy wireless connection wathing the gamecast. It was the D-Rays though. Schilling got his 200th win out of the deal which was nice. There was alot of leaving people on base during the whole thing though. We seem to have a little problem with that. Coco even made it back to play on Sunday. Willy Mo is on the DL for a while and it looks like Wells will return to that as well. He game back Friday after being on the DL for quite a while only to get beaned in the knee. He pitched a very solid game up to getting pegged. Bummer.
What seemed like a plethora of starting pitchers has now turned into a real problem. Wells is probably going to miss a few more starts. That leaves us searching for that 5th starter again. Lenny D is also hanging out on the DL. At the moment there is not starting pitcher for tomorrow nights game. Clement also took a ball in the ankle last week. He pitched again last night and got roughed up again. That makes two outing in a row that he has looked less then great. In fact he looked pretty crappy and looked like he has no confidence. It also looks like he might be heading to the DL as well. Oyy Vey. Even though Clement left us big time in the hole we were able to come back and almost get the win. Final score was 7-6.
Tonight was another hit for the pitching morale. Beckett got roughed up giving up a pile (5?) of homeruns. He didn't make it out of the 5th. We could still come back and win but at the moment we are down 7-2 with the game in the hands of the bullpen.
Ohh and Timlin is also on the DL, putting more weight on the shoulders of Dirty Sanchez.
So that leaves Schilling pitching pretty well and Wake pitching some good games and some bad games.
We got to plug the pitching problems. There was also a good story in the BG about how a large portion of our wins are against the D-Rays and the O's but not a lot of wins against big time teams.
Uh-Oh.
Come on boys.

Grrr Squared

2006-05-25T20:21:00.000-04:00

Well I didn't get my wish. We ended up losing the game last night. And we lost the game because of missed opportunities...again. All time Mr Clutch was up in the eighth with the bases loaded and he struck out, struck out looking. I think that they had a chance to tie things up in the seventh as well but weren't able to seal the deal. If these two loses against the Yankee JV game come back to haunt us that would be bad. With the sweep we would have been up in the season series 6-1, instead it's 4-3. Schilling and Beckett are both doing well on a pretty consistent basis on the pitching front. Clement, Wake, and DiNardo/Wells aren't doing so hot. Wells returns to action tomorrow night.
It's got to be frustrating for the players to know they really should have won those games and didn't. It's a long season though so I'm sure they don't dwell on things for too long.
Looks like Cucko for Coco Puffs wil be back next week. Hopefully he'll get red hot in the process.
I am still working late so it's been far to long since I have watched a good baseball game. Maybe next week, oh wait, I'll be working late then too.
My stupid TIVO didn't record Lost last night. Very sad.
Up 2-0 on the Rays. 2 runs on 7 hits. Beckett looks good through 3.

Grrrrrrrr

2006-05-24T19:55:00.000-04:00

It bums me out when the Sox waste good oppurtunites. It just bums me out. Last year we ended up tied with the stupid Yankess and we lost the tie breaker by one game. So when we waste these chances I get bummed out.
Final score last night was 7-5. We left 13 people on base. That's no good. Of course I didn't get to see any of it because I was sitting in silly theater with a bad wireless connection. Damn theater. Every time I looked it seemed like we had someone in a postion to score, often someone in a postion to score with no outs. No one could come through with a clutch hit. Bummer.
Tonight we took a nice 2-0 lead in the first only to have Clement give up 4 in the second. Youk came back in the 2nd with another homer to tie the game up. I sure would like to win this game tonight. Randy J is sucking it up big time so it would be nice to take advantage of that.
More to come

More Winning

2006-05-23T17:13:00.000-04:00

Winning is so much fun.
Saturday we had our way with the Phillies once again. The coolest thing about it all is that Mr Beckett pitched a hell of a game AND hit a homerun. I love it when pitchers hit a homer, it's just so out of place. That's got to make the other pitcher feel really odd. The offense is getting spread all around these days. Beckett with him homer and another RBI, Trot had a key RBI, and Gonzalez hit a two run shot.
Sunday was Lenny D pitching, I had my money on a loss and I was right. He is not so good. He didn't make it through 4 innings. Abe "I look very goofy" Alvarez, Dirty Sanchez, and Tavarez didn't really help. I continue to ask, what is the point of Dirty Sanchez and Tavarez?
Last night we played to Yankess, or at least the team calming to be the Yankees. I had a late meeting so I was listening to the game on the way home (god I love XM). They kept saying people's names that came up to bat and I was like who???? I ain't complaining about that though. They are a very injury riddled team at the moment. We really have to take advantage of that and build up as many games of seperation as we can. You know it won't be long until they go out and bring in someone else for a nice pile of money. So last night we kicked to crap out of the Spankee's. Hooray for us. The final score made the game look a lot closer then it really was. Papi and Manny both had 3 RBI's to aid in the scoring affair. The hitting was spread all around, lot's of people got key hits. Schilling had a very nice evening. I like him much better this year. Foulke came in and tried to give the Yankess the game like the Mets did last Saturday. It was 9-1 in the ninth until Foulke gave up 4 runs just like that. He was able to get out of it eventually.
Tonight Wake takes the mound as we look to build on our 2.5 game lead. The only time that lead will ever be big enough is when we are up by 15 games with 16 to go.
I laugh at the Yanks and there current problems. Ha Ha.
Well except for Hedeki. I feel bad for him. He actually wrote a letter apologizing for getting hurt.
Speaking of getting hurt how about that whole Barbero deal? I think it's pretty cool how he seems to be doing a couple days after he almost got sent to horse heaven.
Hooray for him.
I really don't get to watch any of this Yankee beating, I mean series because of work. Silly Theater.

I'm a slacker.

2006-05-20T15:13:00.000-04:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again-winning is much more fun then losing

Sorry about the little break in the action. It's been a tough week at work.
So after we beat the crap out of the yankees we lost to them once and beat them once. I don't remember much more then that.
Randy Johnson is pretty much awful. The Yanks are having a tough go of things at the moment. The injury bug has bitten them badly. Matsui is out for a long time, Roids poster boy Shefield is on the DL, half there pitchers are hurt, Posada is hurt and so is Matsui's back up..bubba. Ohh well. I'm really sad for them.
After the Yanks we were supposed to play the Rangers. God apparently had other ideas. Out of the three games one kinda got played. That one was in the rain and only last 6 innings. We lost though. The other two were cancelled because New England turned into a lake.
Then it was off to Baltimore for a three game stint. I went to the game on Monday night. I have not been to ton's of baseball stadiums around the country but I have to say that Camden Yards really is a great place to watch a game. This is especially true when you get seats on the club level. There is great food everywhere, the seats are great, and if you are really feeling lazy you can even get waitress service. Even though I was in Baltimore I was surrounded by Sox fans and a huge group of Japanesee tourists. Beckett pitched a gem. He gave up 2 hits in seven innings and at one point retired like 13 in a row. The offense was kicking and we won 11-1 or something like that. Willy Mo went yard. Hooray for offense.
We won on Tuesday night although I slept through half the game. I sure am tired lately. We finally lost to the O's on Wednesday night. It was there first time beating us in 14 games or so. Ohh well.
Now we are doing that whole inter-league thing with a visit to Philly. We won last night 5-3 on a homer fest. Loretta hit a 2 run shot, Tek had a solo shot, and Papi had a 2 run shot to give us the win. Clement pitched solid which was nice to see. Foulke, Timlin, and Paperboy did the job for the pen.
Things are definitely looking up for the Sox. We are leading the Yanks by a game and a half. Our defense is the best in the majors which is really great. Loretta and Lowell were great pickups. Other then Dirty Sanchez and Willy "I like to hit people with baseballs" Tavarez our pitching staff is doing great. Willy Mo is coming around and I hear the equipment manger is doing hs best work ever. Let's hope we can keep it up!
The Yanks lost to the Mets last night in the bottom of the ninth and are losing right now. Mariano ain't doing much for em this year. Excuse me while I go cry big tears.

1 Ticket for Tonight

2006-05-15T11:38:00.000-04:00

I have one ticket for tonights game with the O's.
E-mail me and maybe you can hanve it.

A lovely stomping in the Bronx

2006-05-10T18:00:00.001-04:00

Last night the Red Sox looked un-beatable and the Spankees looked like a last place team. It was a lot of fun.
The Big Unit didn't even last four inning and gave up 6ish runs. Can you tell that I am not as good at the details as some other folks are? I could go back and find all the right info on some web page somewhere but really I just like to give a vague summary. Anyway. Unit got rocked as did the rest of the pitching staff. Beckett started off slow but finished hot. He retired 11 in a row at one point. We got a lot of offense from all kinds of people. Gonzalez hit a 3 run shot that was a rocket. Loretta broke the game open. He was at 3-0 against the unit with Papi on deck. Everyone thought he would be watching the pitch go by for the chance to get Papi up. Instead of that he swung away and ripped a shot by fag rod that scored 2. Manny hit a monster shot in the 6 or the 7th and we added on some more runs in the 8th to really seal the deal. The Spankees had 3 errors on the night, they had the same number of runs. Fag-Rod had 2 and some new guy in right totally dropped a ball with two outs that led to 2 runs. Ha Ha Ha. Brokeback Jeter was striking out all over the place. Final score was 14-3, it was very nice.
I think it is so funny to watch Yankee stadium empty if the Spankees are losing. In the 6th it looked like half the fans had left. By the 7th that was up to 3/4 and I think the 8th and 9th were just the Red Sox fans. That is kinda of sad. I don't think you would ever see that at Fenway. Tells you how fair weather a lot of their fans are.
Tonight is Schilling vs Mussina. Something tells me we won't see as many runs as we did last night.
Next time I'll look back at my trip to Yankee Stadium last night which was truly awful.

Hooray for the Sweep!

2006-05-08T19:57:00.000-04:00

Well after that Yankee fest I have been slacking a bit in blog land. Life has been crazy, but hey, what's new.
The 2nd game of the series with the Yankees got called because of rain. So now they will play a day night double header sometime in August.
the Jays came to town and we spilt a two game set with them. The first game was a big back and forth battle that ended in Paperboy giving up his first run of the season and getting his first loss of the season. Ohh well. We took game 2 off a solid performance by Clement.
Then the O's came to town for the weekend. Millar got a nice hand which is really great. Friday night was more good work from Schill and Papi sealed the deal with a bases loaded double. Hooray for winning. Saturday Wakefield finally got some help from the offense. 5 runs in the second inning pretty much sealed the deal and Wake finally got a win. Sunday was another route fest that began with Tek hitting a grand slam in the first. Final score was 10-3. The good thing to me about the whole weekend was that we put up 25 runs in three games. I like offense. Willy Mo is getting so good clutch hits as are Loretta and Lowell. Our defense continues to be very solid. Lenny Dinardo got his first win on Sunday. Good for him.
Now it's off to the Bronx for a three game series. The rotation got all turned around. Beckett is pitching tomorrow night, then Schilling and Wake on Thursday.
Another sweep would be just grand.

We got the one hit

2006-05-01T22:18:00.000-04:00

Well I guess it was two. Loretta put us ahead with a single up the middle and then Papi sealed the deal. He hit a nice three run HR on a night when it didn't look like anyone was going to hit a HR. The wind was wicked and knocking balls down all over the place. Papi got just enough to hit the ball into the glove of Paperboy warming up. Yeah Papi.
wake looked much more comfortable with Mirabelli back. Timlin and Paperboy did another stellar job of finishing things off.
We got the one hit we needed to get a big one on May 1.
Yeah for winning.

3-3 Middle of the 8th

2006-05-01T21:44:00.000-04:00

Once again we are stranding people on base left and right but as the ESPN guys keep saying as the guys on XM were saying today, were only one hit away. We left the bases loaded in the bottom of th 7th. We'll get there.
Our defense is top notch though. Loretta just made a great stop to get Giambi at first and then Youk got Brokeback Jeter at 2nd after he took too big a turn. There have been quite a few good defensive plays by the boys tonight.
Mirabelli is looking just grand catching. Nice work.

Traitor Johnny comes to town

2006-05-01T19:49:00.000-04:00

Well the second coming of Johnny is here. The traitor has returned.
He actually got a pretty cordial welcome from the fans at Fenway. He tipped his hat to the fans and then popped out to right. Good god does he look like a idiot with his new spikey haircut. What a wacko. When he got to the outfield there was lot's of heckling and the crowd chanted Traitor. I liked that.
It's cold in Boston tonight, I like that as well.
In really good news we have re-acquired Doug Mirabelli from San Diego. THANK GOD. He arrived at the ball park at like 7:00, got dressed in the car, and came out to the dugout at about 7:05. He waved to his buddies then went to warm up with Wake. Now that's cool. He was smiling like a drunk in a liquor store. He was very happy. Good for him. The funniest thing about it is the Yanks knew we were going after him so they put in an offer as well just to try and keep him away from us. Silly gooses.
We left the bases loaded..again..in the first. We did manage to get one run and we lead 1-0 after 1 1/2. We didn't give up a bunch of runs in the first which is better then we have been doing lately.
I miss Boston.

Stung by the Rays

2006-05-01T19:33:00.000-04:00

So that was not a good weekend in the Trop. What a bizarre stadium by the way. Why do you have a dome in Florida?
Anyway.
We dropped 2 out of 3 to the Rays and dropped 7 out of 10 on the road trip all together.
Friday night tasted like vomit. We sucked. Clement looked very average. Of course there is the fact that the last time he played in the Trop he got beaned in the head. That could have something to do with it. Or maybe it was the fact that we left 14 people on base including twice with the bases loaded. Bleck. Let's move on.
Saturday we got the win with a nice come back in the ninth. I had turned the game off to watch a movie since the beginning of the game we looked just as crappy as we did Friday night. I guess that was good. I guess I should watch more movies when the Sox are playing crappy. When I turned the game back on we were winning. Good deal. We were helped a lot by there not so good bullpen. We actually tied the game on a walk. Tek got the winning run in for us. Winning is so much more fun then losing. But you can't have it all right?
Sunday afternoon was more dreck baseball for the Sox. Kazmir looked like a three time Cy young winner as he struck out Red Sox after Red Sox. I think he ended up with ten overall. Good for him. Schilling had a pretty going outing that went for nothing. He struck out nine on his own. Once again he got no help from the offense.
Then Tito pulled another head scratcher. In the 7th he replaced Schill with my favorite pitcher. That's right, he gave the Rays the old Dirty Sanchez. I was in my car listening to the XM at that point and I just started screaming. WHY TITO! WHY! With the windows down I got some funny looks. As predicted Seanez pitched like garbage and, you many want to sit down for this, he gave up some runs. He did strike out three but what counted was the one guy he walked and the other who hit the home run. He should be shipped to Single -AAA. He sucks. He's awful. He brings nothing good to the table. Grrrr.
We did manage to make it really close in the ninth and we really should have pulled ahead. We had the bases loaded with two outs. Ohh well.
Next post-The Yankees come to town.

Ouch

2006-04-28T17:21:00.000-04:00

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.

A week from tonight

2006-04-24T21:30:00.000-04:00

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.

Stern Saves the Day

2006-04-19T21:33:00.000-04:00

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.

Some good pitching, some bad pitching, and some offense

2006-04-18T16:57:00.000-04:00

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

Weekend Sweep

2006-04-11T11:39:00.000-04:00

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.

Paperboy Delivers

2006-04-07T10:05:00.000-04:00

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.

A good one and a bad one

2006-04-05T11:44:00.000-04:00

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.

2-0

2006-04-03T15:11:00.000-04:00

Tek doubles in Papi and Trot. Hoo-ya.

And Away we go

2006-04-03T12:54:00.000-04:00

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!!!

Rosters

2006-03-31T14:06:00.000-05:00

So it seems like the Sox have made their depth chart for the start of the season. Holy Wow what a difference a year makes. I think I call the infield "The infield of Strangers", or at least I will for a little while. It will be very interesting to see how this team develops it's chemistry and how they all interact with each other. I sure hope they can find some of the same spark/wildness that the team has had in the last few years.
I don't care if it's pre-season, our 8-19 mark is depressing.
Bronson stuck it to us yesterday, good for him.
Finally ordered Extra Innings. Hoorary for Extra Innings.
As far as I can tell I'm either going to see Wells or Schilling pitch next Saturday. It will be cool to see how all the Sox fans at Fenway South treat Millar. I'm sure he will get lot's of cheers.

The Sox Take to the Ring

2006-03-28T20:29:00.000-05:00

I would just like to say that I am very scared of the first Sox/Spankees series that Tavarez pitches in might be a scary one. I would like to go on the record with that right now.
So two days in a row the Sox got involved with bench clearing brawls. The first against the Phillies and the 2nd against the D-Rays. The Phillies one seemed like it might have actually been waranted. From what I read about Mr Tavarez and the punches that he threw that one seems like it might have been a little out of line. I can only imagine what might happen with him in a heated game in the Bronx. Oyyyy.
Graffanio is now back with the Royals. Another solid player who enjoyed his time in Boston bites the dust. Is there going to be anyone starting in the infield that was with the team last year?
We are still doing a lovley job of losing in the pre-season. Hopefully that tide will change.
A week from yesterday is opening day. Even better then that is a week from Saturday I am seeing the Sox in Baltimore (aka Fenway south). I got to get my Damon devil t-shirt from chowdaheadz before that.
On a random side note Dave Matthews has been my fave band since 1994. It was announced that they are going to play Fenway in July. Fortunately I am a memember of the little fan club that might help me to actually be able to get tickets to one night. Please pray for me. That would be a very cool 30th birthday.

More on Bronson and Such

2006-03-22T16:53:00.000-05:00

So as I sit here in another exciting theatrical tech rehearsal I have been thinking about this whole Bronson thing a lot. Jere brought up a great point that I had forgotten about. Cornrow Boy had gone against the wishes of his agent when he signed his last deal with the Sox. His agent felt like he was taking no where near enough $$ from the Sox. Bronson wanted to saty in Boston and ot go anywhere else so he took the deal to stay in Boston. He loved it there. It was like the exact opposite of what happened with Johnny Damon. Cornrow boy was rewarded with his loyalty to the Sox by getting taded to the rocking Reds of Cincy. What a deal. I feel sorry for the poor guy. I've never really understood how that makes athletes feel when they get traded like that. It must be quite a shocker sometimes. When us avergae joe's move we usually plan for a while and take everything into account. Athletes have a few days. Of course they make a lot more then the average smoe so that probablly helps.
So I'll miss Cornrow boy. With the over abundance of pitching something was going to happen. Maybe Papi could give himself cornrows as a tribute to Bronson!
Hopefully Willy Mo can hit the ball onto the interstate like Manny did last year.
There's a very interesting little thing on boston.com about all the parts of the 2004 team and how many are gone now. It is a bit on the depressing side actually. Hopefully this new group of players can put it all together and become a magical baseball team again. The most interesting thing is that at the end there is ap ole to vote on which member of that team you would want back the most. Cabrerra, Damon, Pedro, or Nomar. Cabrerra was leading the pack with Damon and Nomar bringing up the rear. I think that tells you a lot about how people feel about Damon right now. I can't wait until that first Yankees/Sox game at Fenway when they boo the living crap out of him.
Almost time for the regular season. Yeah..Hooray.

So Long Cornrow Boy

2006-03-20T12:01:00.000-05:00

It was fun.
I'll miss your cornrows.

Hmmmmm

2006-03-17T12:40:00.000-05:00

Well the Sox ain' exactlly kicking butt in the pre-season. In fact they seem to have quite a hard time putting together a win at all. I know it's just the pre-season but it's kinda hard not to get a little nervous. I guess I am really missing the fact that Papi hasn't played, Manny has barely played, and many other folks are getting tryouts. So I guess I should stop being such a negative nancy.
I still think our pitching is really gonna be hot this year. Schilling and Beckett are looking good so far and it's pretty hard not to have faith in Wake. Bronson seem's to be the trouble spot at the moment and seems headed for the bullpen, he has even said that publicly. I think Clement will be the other starter and paperboy will also end up in the pen.
Hopefully we'll get some offense going and win a bunch. Winning is fun, third place is not.
The US is out of the WBC. I think that was quite a waste of time. It has taken all those players away from their teams and getting ready for the season. Now we can get Tek back at least. I think that Dominican is going to win it all so it will be a bit before we get papi back in action.
Couple more weeks and I get the see the Sox at Baltimore..horray for that.

Spring is here

2006-02-21T19:11:00.000-05:00

Could this starting rotation be the key to the season?
GLOBE PHOTO

So maybe I was a little bitter back in December about the whole Damon thing. I think it was angst that was legit. Damon has definitely dropped in my mind.
The biggest thing that happened while I was in blogging hiatus was the good old Theo has returned to the team. With the exception of a few individuals within the organization I don't think we'll ever really know what happened with that whole thing. I'm just glad he's back because we were making a real mess of things with the whole Tag Team GM deal. Hopefully he has put his gorilla suit away for a while.
To replace Mr Traitor we picked up Coco Crisp. I remember when I was playing the Indians on the X-box last year I always had a good time making fun of his name. Know I'm happy he's here, although I am still not high on having the same name as a chocolate cereal. I saw some comparison stats of him and Traitor a while back and he was actually a little better then Johnny in a lot of ways. I can see him and Manny having a good old time.
Speaking of Manny, he is still with the team but hasn't reported to camp yet. He is working hard and getting in shape for the season? Shouldn't he have done that in January. Ohh well. As long as he does come back and hit the ball all over the place and do funny things with Coco and Pappi I'm happy.
It will be a new look team this year, that's for sure. Youk at first, Grafanino at second, someone new at short and third, Nixon, Manny, and Coco in the outfield and good old Tek behind the plate.
I think we're gonna have a pretty rocking starting rotation too. Schilling is looking like he is in shape and ready to kick some ass. Cornrow boy is back to kick some but and so is Clement. I'm sure that Mr Wells will do a fine job. Wakefield is Wakefield and his knuckle floater will continue to keep people guessing. With the addition of Beckett that gives us 6 quality pitchers by my count. You also got Paperboy in there too so that makes 7. Sounds like someone is going to end up in the bullpen. Sounds like we will do all right for pitching though.
Foulke is back and seems to be better. He is still biter though. He's salty.
Then there's some other folks floating around.
After the whole Damon thing I didn't have a lot of hope for this season but now I am feeling pretty good about it. I think we got a good chance. The yankees have offense of course with there team made of all stars but do they have the pitching to match it.
I'd like to win it all. Hopefully Theo and the gang feel the same too.
I'm much busier at work these days but hopefully I'll have a chance to keep up with this at a decent pace like I did in the beginning last year. I've got tickets to two series in Baltimore which should be fun. I also look forward to going to see the Nats and the Yankees and heckling the crap out of Damon.
GO SOX.

I hope you break your leg

2005-12-21T10:05:00.000-05:00

What have you done Johnny?

Johnny Damon is flat out greedy. So much for being devoted to a team. Is the extra 2 million a year when your already making 10 million a year really going to make your life that much better? Now you get to buy that 4th house you've always wanted and maybe a 10th car. All so you can go play for what used to be your biggest rival who within minutes of signing the deal you have warmly embraced.
The Sox of the last two years are quickly running away to other teams as fast as they can. I am sure that Manny will be gone within a month. Poor Papi is going to be our only source of offense.
Things are not going well for the Sox in this off-season and this is just another example of that.
My hopes for this next season are not very high at the moment. We don't really have a third baseman, shortstop, first baseman, center fielder, and soon a right fielder. Thank god Foulke will be back to close. I'm sure he'll do great against this Yankee lineup.
There is one player in the Yankee's starting lineup who makes under 10million a year. That's sad.
What have you done Damon? I hope you get booed out of Fenway in May.

Lost

2005-11-01T10:31:00.000-05:00

We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
We lost Theo....THAT AIN'T GOOD!
Fuck

Not Baseball

2005-10-24T19:43:00.000-04:00

How did I manage to make such a miserable mess of my life? I sure have.

Withdrawl

2005-10-19T11:15:00.000-04:00

Unless you love under a rock you know the Sox are done now.
It was a series of missed chances. Blew a 4 run lead in Game 2 after a huge error by Tony G led to a three run homerun.
Then in game three we were down by one run in the 6th when we loaded the bases with no outs. We couldn't get that one run across the plate and in my mind that was when the season ended.
Bummer.
Thankfully the Yankess also lost in the first round. Ha Ha.
The White Sox are now in the world Series which makes me feel better.
Not having baseball to wathc every night is a little wierd.

The Playoff's Begin!!!

2005-10-05T17:06:00.000-04:00

Clement should never have started yesterday. But that's just my opinion.

After Saturday's disappointing afternoon the Sox came back and beat the tar out of the Yankees on Sunday and claimed the Wild Card. The exciting part about the whole thing was because of us beating the Spankees and the Angels beating the Rangers the Yankees lost home field advantage in the first round. That sounds like a good plan to me. Yeee Haa.
Schilling looked pretty good on Sunday. He had some help from his defense but all and all I would call it a pretty damn good outing.
We ended up with the same record as the Yankees in the regular season. The Yankees beat us in head to head (10-9) so they ended up being the "Division Champs". I would call that a crock of shit. We should have played a playoff or something like that. Ohh well. Too bad I don't make the rules.
So our first round series is with the White Sox and it started in Chicago. The Yankees play the Angels with the series starting in LA.
A very interesting note, many of the experts on ESPN are picking the Astros to win it all this year, I thought that was pretty wild.
Yesterday afternoon was our first game with the White Sox. Clement was our starter. I was never really sure about that, and he justified my doubts when he gave up 5 runs in the first inning. I thought the game was pretty much over from there. I really thought that Tito should have given up on Matt earlier and gone to Bronson in the pen. I kinda feel like that was the whole point of putting him there. Wells is pitching tonight and Wake on Friday. You can look to those guys to usually have pretty strong and solid outings. So hopefully those two games won't really need a guy like Bronson.
But anyway, the game yesterday was all kinds of ugly. The final score ended up at 14-2. Yikes. Not much went right for the Sox, not much at all.
Fortunately it was only one game. Tonight we go back out and go for the split in Chicago. That was what I was hoping for. I think a win tonight will put us in a good place going back to Fenway. Let's hope Wells can make magic on the mound.
Sadly the Yankees won. Their dilapidated bullpen seems to come through when they really need to.
I wish we could do that.
I have to tell you, while I would like to jump around and say we are going to win it all this year I am just not really seeing it. Our biggest problem is that you have no idea what you are going to get out of a staring pitcher. Schilling might look like dog shit in game 4 after he pitched well last Sunday. Who knows? I think that is really going to hurt us.
Fortunately there are good Sox fans out there like JERE who have all the optimism in the world. It is pretty impressive.
2 hours till game 2.
Go Sox.

Bummer

2005-10-01T16:43:00.000-04:00

Sox Lose. Wakefiled got roughed up.
Indians Lose.
the fucking yankees win the divsion again.
Need to win tomorrow to secure the wild card. If the Indians lose we would still be in as well.
Second place again. Bummer.

2 to Go!

2005-10-01T12:20:00.000-04:00

Great win last night. Great effort by Wells and the bullpen shut them down. Clutch hitting and patient at bats at the right time.
All tied up with 2 games to go.
THE DAMN GAME IS NOT BEING SHOWED IN DC SO THEY CAN SHOW THE STUPID NATS AND THE PHILLIES AT 4. ARRRGH.
We're gonna sweep.
Go Sox.

Big Win Last Night...let's get three more

2005-09-30T15:26:00.000-04:00

PAPI DID IT AGAIN LAST NIGHT-THE CROWD WENT NUTS.
Great photo

So it comes down to this. Three games at Fenway with the Yankees. If we sweep we win the division and leave the Yankees in the hunt for the wild card with the Indians (more on that later). If we win 2 out of 3 we end up tied and hopefully head to a one game playoff.
The hardest part about this weekend is going to be who to root for in the White Sox-Cleveland series. I would like the Indians to win so the White Sox don't end up with the best AL record. At the same time I would kinda like them to lose so if we happen to not win the division we have a shot at the wild car. Tough Call.
I have a good feeling about this weekend though. Tonight it Wells and Chang. I think Wells dominate and we take the game easily. I think tomorrow we win 1-0. Last time Wake and Randy pitched we lost 1-0 even though Wake pitched amazing. I think it's our turn. That leaves us with all the momentum going into Sunday and Schilling pitching. It's close but I think we win.
We get the sweep and win the division. That's my call.
GO RED SOX!!!

MVP

2005-09-29T22:36:00.000-04:00

Big Pappi...
MVP...
That's all I have to say.

So Close

2005-09-29T22:15:00.000-04:00

Manny was 90' away with no outs and the game tied.
We couldn't get him in.
Please don't let that come back to haunt us.

MUST WIN

2005-09-29T20:32:00.000-04:00

Bronson threw a crappy game last night. We lost. The Yankees won.
I would call tonight a must win. We don't want to go into the weekend series needing a sweep.
We are down 4-1 at the moment.
Whay can't we beat the Blue Jays?

Could this race be any tighter?

2005-09-28T09:24:00.000-04:00

Wow. What a last five days of the season it is going to be. All I can say is wow.
After stumbling against the D-Rays the boys enjoyed their first day off in 30 days. Hopefully they had a nice time in Baltimore and went to some nice restaurants or something like that. The day off seems to have helped.
We swept the O's which was much needed. After having trouble with them all year we finally seem to have mastered them over the weekend. I'm sure the fact that the O's pretty much suck right now helped out the cause. Friday night Bronson pitched a decent game and got the win. Saturday was a much more dramatic game and Clement got the win.
I got to witness the Sunday game in person. It was great. I know this has been mentioned all over the place but playing in Baltimore is really like a home game for the Sox. There are Sox fans everywhere. It is great. I went with Trisha and we had seats up in the roof. I stopped at the ticket booth and asked if they had any better seats available, man am I glad I did. We ended up with 2 seats just behind home plate. They are the seats that are used for people who accompany handicap folks. So the seats were very spacious not to mention an amazing view. I'll put some pictures up later. In one of my last posts I talked about Hansen and his pink back pack. It appears the O's play that game as well. After BP and right before the game got started I look in the outfield and you see a bullpen pitcher headed out to the pen all by himself, toting a little pink roll along suitcase. Very funny stuff. A couple minutes later Hansen made his way out to the pen with his little pink backpack. Funny stuff.
I had a feeling this was not going to be a close game. Some guy named Maine was pitching for them and we were hungry. We got 5 runs in the first to confirm that. It was a great game to watch, lot's of offense. Older Dude had a big double and Damon had a nice homerun. The funny thing was right before his Johnny's HR I turned to Trisha and said "he really hasn't hit many home runs this year". It was a lovely day at the ballpark.
Then it was back home to finish off the season. Monday's night game got rained out which meant a double header yesterday. That would be god not really helping us out. Damn him. I thought JC was our homeboy!
Wakefiled continues to pitch like a mad man and he won the afternoon game for us. Tito was faced with some hard choices. It would have been nice to have Wake finish off the game and leave the bullpen for the night cap but at the same time Wake is slated to pitch one of the key games with the Yankees this weekend so he didn't want to over extend him. So Paperboy pitched the 8th and Timlin the 9th. That came back to haunt us in the night cap.
Things were looking pretty good in the night game. We had some decent offense going and shaky Schilling on the mound. I thought our 5-2 lead was going to hold up but I was wrong. Schilling stayed in the game a little to long and the game got tied up at 5. It would have been a great time to bring in Paperboy but he was out of action from the afternoon. So we went with Bradford, Myers, Hansen, Gonzalez, and the guy from the Astros and none of them could hold of the Jays.
The good news is that both the Yankees and the Indians lost last night so the division and the wild card. The yankess got spanked by the O's and had to use almost their whole bullpen. That could end up hurting them tonight.
The sad news is that last night was a very winable game and that would have put us in the lead by a game. That little cushion would have been nice.
2 more with the Jays then the showdown with the Yankess which is going to decide it all. We could win our last two with the Jays and they could lose their last two with the 0's. I wouldn't mind that. Then we would just need one win over the weekend to take the division.
I just hope it doesn't come down to Schilling on Sunday. I don't have a ton of confidence in that.

Unacceptable

2005-09-21T22:12:00.000-04:00

After 64 games in first the Red Sox have lost first place to the damn Yankees.
We gave up 5 runs in the 8th to lost the game.
We lost the series to the Devil Rays.
THE FUCKING DEVIL RAYS.
Unacceptable.

What's the deal?

2005-09-21T17:30:00.000-04:00

With these random Spammers posting comments?
I get so few comments I get excited when I see I have one. What a let down to find out it is only some guy telling me about his Ukraine bride website.
go Sox.

Bat's Come Alive-Sox Romp

2005-09-21T17:13:00.000-04:00

Can you say MVP?

15-2 over the D-Ray's.
Now that's more like it.
What a night the middle of the lineup had. Ortiz was 4-5 with 2 2 run HR's and 4RBI's. Manny was 4 for 4 with 2 HR's and 3 RBI's. Trot was 4-6 with 3 RBI's, and Tek was 4 for 5 with 2 RBI's. Not bad at all. One of Papi's homerun's was a monster shot that apparently ended up in some children's playing area. Older-Dude had a great line from that one: "They need to put out a public address [announcement] to tell those children out there to be careful". Older-Dude is funny! How bout that!
Schilling wasn't looking so hot in the beginning but he pulled it together and pitched a solid game. One of the runs that was scored the runner tagged up from 2nd on a sac fly and scored. I didn't know that was possible. I guess Damon was a little lazy on the play.
I was at a bar with a buddy and it was nice to be able to watch the game on a TV and see the NESN guys. The whole computer thing just get's a little old, especially in our current cramped computer quarters.
I like winning.
It is very funny to see rookie pitcher phenom Craig Hansen carrying around his pink backup. That is a rookie hazing thing. It is a good one. Having been on the both sides of hazing I like the people who make it fun. Back in the day when I was in a fraternity I used to make pledges wander the house like they were superheros. One of them had to be Mr Invisible and he was pretty damn good at it. The other one had to be spider man and he couldn't touch the floor. Now that's humor. So is this guy carrying his pink back pack with him everywhere and having it at his feet in the bullpen. He also seems to be taking it with a good sense of humor as well. That's funny.
Hopefully Wake can keep up his great pitching again tonight and lead us to another win. I wouldn't mind if the Yankees could lose too. This series in Baltimore this weekend is huge. I was supposed to go to 2 damn games but now I only get to go to 1 due to some family stuff. Ohh well.

Grrrrrrrr

2005-09-20T16:52:00.000-04:00

1/2 game back. That's where the Yankee's tand right now. 1/2 of a game. Oyyy.
We manged to split the seried with Oakland thanks the David Ortiz. He had two crucial home runs in the two games that we won. He really is an amazing clutch hitter. He's the man in my book. Friday and Saturday's games were played in miserable weather. Friday night it was raining something fierce. I was worried that Wakefiled wouldn't be able to make his knuckle ball move aorund like he'd like it too. Thankfully he was on the ball again. He's also the man at the moment. In general we're having real problems with the basics of playing baseball. Lot's of errors, not the greatest hitting, mediocre pitching, and other things like that.
Sunday afternoon we just stunk up the place big time. Clement didn't make it through three innings and he gave up a pile of runs. We looked pretty sad.
Last night we continued the theme of looking pretty sad by losing to the damn Devil Rays. The Devil Rays. They are 20 something games out of first place! We should be able ot beat them with Pawtucket. Wells continued the theme of crappy pitching by not making it through three innings and giving up a pile of runs. We couldn't get runners in when we needed to and we had some more errors. In general we just lookedl ike crap.
The yankees on the other hand can't seem to be beat and are winnings all the games they are suppoused to. We should sweep the D-Rays and the O's and then the D-Rays again while the Yankess lose a game here and there. Instead we are playing like carp and the next thing we know we are going to be looking up at the division title and up at the wild card. The Indians are smoking hot right now and no one can seem to beat them. If they don't catch up with the White Sox and win the division they will defintely get the wild card.
That leaves us or the Yankees high and dry. I sure hope it's not us.
Hopefully Schilling will bring his A game tonight and we'll get back on track. Hopefully.

Nerve-wracking

2005-09-16T18:01:00.000-04:00

Schilling and the boys are having a bit of a tough time at the moment.

Holy crap this is going to be a stressful two weeks.
Every night is like another stress event. Watching the Sox and keeping track of the Spankees and the Indians. Good thing my heart is not old and tired, then we might have a real problem.
After the series with the Yankees we headed up north to play the Blue Jays. We sure have had a heck of a time with them this year, who knows why.
We got the win in the first game thanks to Big Pappi. At times it feels like he really is carrying this team right now. He hit a HR in the 10th to win it. The bullpen managed to blow a 5-0 lead. Oyyy.
Tuesday night Clement got rocked and we all around didn't look so good. We lost 9-3.
Wednesday night was another so so night but it was topped off by another game winning HR by Papi. Thank god.
Meanwhile the Yankees finally figured out the D-Rays and swept them. They have won 4 in a row and seem to be peaking at the right time.
Last night we started a four game set with the A's. Schilling got roughed up for 2 runs in the first inning and we never seemed to get back in it. We lost 6-2. So much for Schilling being back in control of his game.
This whole thing is getting very nerve-wracking. The Yankees are winning the games they need to and we aren't. They are now within a game and a half. This weekend they are playing the Blue Jays while we play the A's. I would say they have the momentum at the moment that is for sure. If we fall out of first we also fall out of the wild card. That is not an exciting thought, not at all. The Indians are on fire and at this rate they may catch the White Sox.
It's gonna be a tricky couple weeks.
I sure would like to win the next three against the A's.
GO RED SOX!

Time is growing short

2005-09-12T17:24:00.001-04:00

There is only a little under three weeks left in this years season and I have a feeling it is going to be one great ending.
The Sox and the spankees played a great series last week in the Bronx. There was some sloppy play by both teams but all and all it was a damn good series. I just wish we could have won 2 out of 3. I think that would have pretty much sealed the deal as far as the division title goes.
Friday night we played sloppy baseball. Wells pitched good enough to get the win but didn't get much help from his friends. the first run of the night was scored on an error after Tony G threw the ball to the invisible first baseman. Then we went ahead 3-1 then they pulled ahead 4-3. The game really went to hell in the 5th (I think). Millar went to throw to Wells covering first but mishandled the ball. A couple of plays later on what should have been a single Damon mis-plays the ball and boots it far away. He finally gets it back and throws in to Renteria who proceeds to throw the ball into the ground. That was pretty much the end of the night. We did have a chance at one point with the bases loaded. We hit into a double play though and that was the end of that.
Saturday we the Yankees turn to play sloppy baseball. It was an even game until the 4th when we blew it open. We had Chancon on the ropes when Pappi hit a fly ball to left. Hiedki lost it in the sun or something but he plain old dropped the ball and we loaded the bases with no outs. We played batting practice for a while and knocked in 5 runs to make 8-0.
Schilling pitched a great game. He was in fine form and it was great to see. He was in total control and took care of the Spankees.
Yesterday's game was a total pitchers duel. Wakefield gave up a solo home run in the first then struck out 12 but lost the game 1-0. We couldn't do anything against Randy Johnson. The D-rays don't seem to have that problem but I don't think he has pitched that well all year. There was 6 hits total in the game. It was a true pitchers duel.
Wakefield must have been bummed out when we went into the clubhouse. He was probably like "come on guys, I struck out 12 and you can't score 1? When fatty Wells pitches you give him like 6 runs at least. What's the deal!"
Before the Yankees series we took 2 our of 3 from the Angels and 2 out of three from the 0's. I would have like a sweep in one of those series but beggars can't be choosers. Really I just want to put a big a gap between us and the Yankees as possible.
The biggest concern for the Yankees right now is actually the Indian's. They are on fire and have won like 9 in a row. The lead the wild card by a game and a half. So the Yankees are looking up at us and at the Indians. Ha Ha.
It would be so great is the Spankees didn't make the playoffs. But I'm not going to get my hopes up yet.
We have a three game set with the Toronto this week. We have had some trouble with them so I would really like to buck it up and get a sweep. More distance between us and the yankees is good.
Then we go home for a four game set with the A's.
Meanwhile the Yankees are at Tampa Bay. Then they only play Baltimore, Toronto, and us to end the season. They have a little bit easier of a schedule. the big bonus is we finish the season with 7 games at home while they are on the road for 7.
The Indians have a big series with the A's that could really help them make some distance. They have 9 games against the Royals and D-Rays.
We must hold on to first.
GO RED SOX!

Time is growing short

2005-09-12T17:24:00.000-04:00

There is only a little under three weeks left in this years season and I have a feeling it is going to be one great ending.
The Sox and the spankees played a great series last week in the Bronx. There was some sloppy play by both teams but all and all it was a damn good series. I just wish we could have won 2 out of 3. I think that would have pretty much sealed the deal as far as the division title goes.
Friday night we played sloppy baseball. Wells pitched good enough to get the win but didn't get much help from his friends. the first run of the night was scored on an error after Tony G threw the ball to the invisible first baseman. Then we went ahead 3-1 then they pulled ahead 4-3. The game really went to hell in the 5th (I think). Millar went to throw to Wells covering first but mishandled the ball. A couple of plays later on what should have been a single Damon mis-plays the ball and boots it far away. He finally gets it back and throws in to Renteria who proceeds to throw the ball into the ground. That was pretty much the end of the night. We did have a chance at one point with the bases loaded. We hit into a double play though and that was the end of that.
Saturday we the Yankees turn to play sloppy baseball. It was an even game until the 4th when we blew it open. We had Chancon on the ropes when Pappi hit a fly ball to left. Hiedki lost it in the sun or something but he plain old dropped the ball and we loaded the bases with no outs. We played batting practice for a while and knocked in 5 runs to make 8-0.
Schilling pitched a great game. He was in fine form and it was great to see. He was in total control and took care of the Spankees.
Yesterday's game was a total pitchers duel. Wakefield gave up a solo home run in the first then struck out 12 but lost the game 1-0. We couldn't do anything against Randy Johnson. The D-rays don't seem to have that problem but I don't think he has pitched that well all year. There was 6 hits total in the game. It was a true pitchers duel.
Wakefield must have been bummed out when we went into the clubhouse. He was probably like "come on guys, I struck out 12 and you can't score 1? When fatty Wells pithces you give him like 6 runs at least. What's the deal!"
Before the Yankees series we toke 2 our of 3 from the Angels and 2 out of three from the 0's. I would have like a sweep in one of those series but beggars can't be choosers. Really I just want to put a big a gap between us and the Yankees as possible.
The biggest concern for the Yankees right now is actually the Indian's. They are on fire and have won like 9 in a row. the lead the wild card by a game and a half. So the Yankees are looking up at us and at the Indians. Ha Ha.
It would be so great is the Spankees didn't make the playoffs. But I'm not going to get my hopes up yet.
We have a three game set with the Toronto this week. We have had some trouble with them so I would really like to buck it up and get a sweep. More distance between us and the yankees is good.
Then we go home for a four game set with the A's.
Meanwhile the Yankees are at Tampa Bay. Then they only play Baltimore, Toronto, and us to end the season. They have a little bit easier of a schedule. the big bonus is we finish the season with 7 games at home while they are on the road for 7.
The Indians have a big series with the A's that could really help them make some distance. They have 9 games against the Royals and D-Rays.
We must hold on to first.
GO RED SOX!

Sometimes Baseball Just Doesn't Matter

2005-09-01T11:03:00.000-04:00

So the Sox are doing ok these days. They are still struggling mightily in the pitching department but the bats seem to bail them out on a nightly basis. Two nights in a row they have come back from pretty big deficits (5 runs) and won the game. That is a good thing. Schilling still looks pretty mediocre and the bullpen is still suspect. We are keeping the yankees at bay which is a good thing.
But really that doesn't even matter these days. What is going on in New Orleans and the Gulf Goast is just so devastating that every thing else that is going on right now just seems insignificant. The tragedy that is unfolding in the south is something that I'm not sure that any of us can even really understand.
New Orleans is probably the saddest situation of them all. The city did ok with the actual hurricane but shortly afterwards the levees that protect the city gave way and water came flodding into the city. NO is basically a big bowl that sits below sea level. Once those levees are broken and water starts flowing into the city there is no way to stop it without plugging the levee. That ain't so easy to do. There is also no way of getting the water out without pumping it out. You can't pump it out without electricity.
So all of the people that didn't evacuate before the hurricane are now pretty much trapped in the city with no water, food, electricity, phones, or bathrooms. 30,000 of them are trapped in the Super Dome where they have been for days in pretty much the sam condition. The water raised so fast that many people had to climb up into their attics and chop holes in the roof to get out. Then they had to wait on the roof to get rescued. I'm sure some of them are still waiting there.
You also have a select group of individuals who have decided that this would be a good time to act like thugs and go loot. The first instance of this was in Alabama at a Wal-Mart. First off the conditions in Alabama aren't nearly as bad as in other places second of all what the fuck good in a PS2 going to do you now? I can kinda understand people in NO who are breaking into places to get food and water and other basic necessities but that is about it. You hear stories of armed thugs wandering the streets of NO after stealing guns. I think the National Guard should be able to shoot them if they have to. People have been stealing stuff from hospitals and this morning then even shot at a helicopter that was trying to rescue people. How stupid and selfish can you be?
The thing that is kinda mind boggling to me about the whole deal is the basic lack of any kind of plan for an event like this. How can you have a city that is situated like this and not have a plan for when the levees break? Did they really think that for all of eternity these things were never gonna give way? The people there are literally abandoned with no way of getting out and many not having seen help for days. HOW CAN THAT HAPPEN?
Bush is all about getting the government involved-four days after the event. They are sending the big hospital ship from Baltimore but it won't be there until next week. At that point the only thing it will be good for is storing the 1,000's of dead bodies. The wheels for all of this should have been put in motion on Monday when the first levee gave way. Then they would have been seeing help now instead of next week. How come the only way to save these people is one at a time on a helicopter? What if they got boats like the cruise ship life boats and used those? How come they can't at least drop supplies into these people? Where is the rest of the world who we help at the drop of a hat?
The whole thing just makes me so sad. I just want to drive down there with a big ass truck full of water and food and help but that won't work. There's no gas and I probably couldn't get there.
Speaking of gas...over 3 a gallon? You got to be kidding me.
Ok, I have to try and focus and do some work.
It is just astonishing to me that something like this could happen in the US. I just can't believe that we can't help these poor people at all.

Yeah Yeah, I'm a slacker

2005-08-25T17:09:00.000-04:00

This is Marcus Vick. He's gonna lead my Hokies to the College Football Promise land. But that has nothing to do with the Red Sox.

This working hard all the time stuff takes some re-adjusting to. I used to do it, but life at LCT spoiled me!
So we won a few games and lost a few games since we last spoke. We won 2 against Chicago at home. We were losing the 3rd game but it got called because of rain. Then we went to Detroit where we lost 2 of 3. That's not cool.
Then it was off to play that team kinda called the Angels from LA. They're doing pretty well in the AL West. We split the series with them, wining 2 of 4. I was ok with that.
At the moment we are in residence at Kanasa City playing the not very good Royals. They are really not good and anything but sweeping the series is unacceptable to me. We won the first game 5-2. Timlin made in interesting the the ninth but managed to hang on for the win. I still think we have some serious bullpen issues that could end up causing some problems in the post season. But that's just my two cents.
Last night we lost 4-3. I was annoyed. We should have won the game, plain and simple. We left 13 MOB. That sucks donkey balls. We left the bases loaded three innings in a row and didn't score a single run out of the deal. We should have won the game.
We seem to have this problem. Every time the Spankees lose and give us a change to build on our lead we seem to waste the opportunity with a silly loss. The Spankess and all their evilness are still hanging around and that is making me nervous. We should be taking every chance we have to distance ourselves as far from them as we can. But we aren't.
I hate the Spnakees, they annoy me.
By the way, what is the deal with them being on ESPN like every week now? That is wack. Why aren't we on ESPN more. I sure do miss having extra innings. It was fun.
Schilling returns to the starting lineup tonight. I am a little nervous about it. I want to say that he is going to have some amazing performance but I am not so sure of that. I don't want to lose the series to the Royals, that's for sure.
Tomorrow nights game at Fenway has been moved back so the crew can have more time to work on the field after the Stones concert. I was wondering how the hell the field wasn't going to get trashed but putting a big ass heavy stage on top of it. That doesn't really seem like it was the smartest move.
I sure would like to build a bigger lead on the Spankees.

Thank God

2005-08-10T20:57:00.000-04:00

Bronson went back to Cornrows. Thank God.

Good god did Manny hit that ball a long way

Pheeeewww

2005-08-10T16:10:00.000-04:00

It took extra innings but we managed to win the game last night. Schilling did some nice work in the 9th and 10th only allowing one hit. With Wade Miller on the DL it wouldn't surprise me if we see a return to the starting line up for Mr Schilling soon. I feel like he might be ready for it to. I know he has stumbled a little bit here and there but for the most part he has done some good work out of the bullpen. I think he has piled up 8 or 9 saves an a couple wins.
In very good news the Yankees lost another game to Chicago today. If we can win again tonight we could build our lead up to 5 1/2 games. I like that.
Last night was another fine event at Yankee Stadium. Some rocket since teenager was sitting with his buddies in the upper deck and said "I bet if I jump into that net it will hold me!" So he jumped off the upper deck into the netting. How dumb can you be. He wasn't hurt but he did get arrested and charged with 4 various things. What an idiot.
Hopefully Cornrow boy can have a good outing tonight.

53 pitches in one inning!

2005-08-09T22:20:00.000-04:00

Well we won the last game of the Twins series 11-7. Wakefiled came through with another clutch performance. Our bullpen tried to give it away despite all of our offense.
Last night was the first game of a series at Fenway with Texas. Wade Miller pitched. He is not so good. He had troubles once again and left with the game tied. After the game he would leave all the way to the DL. Can't say that makes me too sad. Jermi Gonzalez game in to save the day while the offense gave us enough runs to get the win. Our lineup gets a little bit wackier every day. Tonight it was Petagine at first, Graffanio at 2nd, Renteria at SS, and Youk at third. Later in the game Cora even got in on the infield action. 2 out of those 5 weren't with the Sox for most of the season. But hey, they got the job done. Graffanio was the man of the night going 3 for 3 with 4 RBI's. He won the game.
There was a bunch of crap at the Spankees game last night. Fag Rod had a stupid ass play where he got in the way of Roidfield getting picked off at first. Fag Rod is an idiot.
There was also a picture on Dirt Dogs of a fan punching a White Sox player. Funny how that doesn't make the news. Of course maybe it is just a Dirt Dogs photoshop wonder.
Tony Cruz Jr was our "big" pickup at the trade deadline. So today we let him go. It is like magical chairs in the Fenway clubhouse.
We picked up a bullpen pitcher (Remlinger) from the Cubs. More on him later.
Tonight is another game with the Rangers. Clement pitched a nice game leaving after 6 with a 7-2 lead. We had a 5 run fifth that blew the game open.
But then the bullpen got involved. Remlinger loaded the bases without getting and out then left the game. One of our other bullpen pickups, the sideslinging Bradford, game in and next thing you know the game was 7-7. I think I've gone on enough rants about our bullpen. Clement should beat the shit out of those two. It took three pitchers 53 pitches to get out of the inning. Not ok.
Our infield pickups recently seem pretty good. Our bullpen pickups are not so good.
Hopefully we can pull out a win. Looks like the Spankees are going to lose so I would like to get another game on them.
Have I ever mention that Jere (http://letsgosox.blogspot.com) is one funny dude? I like reading his blog everyday. His hijinx make me laugh. Check it out.
How come I can't make a link using a Mac? That's a bummer.

The Long and Short of the last week and a half

2005-08-07T13:09:00.000-04:00

Manny made lot's of hub-bub in the last week. Thank God he's still here.

So I tried to do this once. I somehow screwed up and deleted it.
So let's try this again.
THE REST OF THE TAMPA SERIES
In the 10-9 win on Tuesday night Trot hurt his side or something a long that lines. That put a bit of a hurt on the outfield lineup for Wednesday. jay Payton is long gone and our other outfield type guy is recently brought up from Pawtucket Adam Stern. Manny had also asked to have Wednesday off the week before. So that means we were looking at Millar in LF, Damon in CF, and Stern in RF. Tito went to Manny and asked him to play to help the team and Manny refused. At least that's what the original reports said. Later on it will come out that might not have been entirely accurate about what was said. This begin what I like to call Manny-Gate.
The boys won the game on Wednesday 4-1. Wakefield looked great and the D-Rays looks confused. Random people helped make the win happen with their offense.
During the off-day Manny-Gate exploded.
The whole thing about Manny refusing to play hit the Boston papers like hair-spray on the Jersey shore, it was wicked heavy. Then is came out that Manny had asked to be traded. People were tired of "Manny being Manny" and had made up there minds that it was time to move on.
That's pretty dumb if you ask me.
TWINS SERIES AT FENWAY
So with the Manny business swirling all over Fenway the Twins came to town. Manny got booed. It was bad.
We won Friday nights game after Older-Dude hit a nice grand slam. It was exciting.
Manny sat out Saturday's game while rumors flew all over the place. The press was saying that a three way deal was being discussed between the Sox, Mets, and D-Rays. The Mets would have gotten Manny and we would have gotten Cliff Floyd and Audrey Huff. I was scratching my head some kinda fierce. We desperately need help in the bullpen and maybe another starting pitcher but we are going after two outfielders? Why would we do that? Why would we break up the double threat of Pappi and Manny? I feel like if we had traded Manny we would have given up our shot at the World Series this year, I really do.
Oh by the way, we won Saturday's game. Older-Dude had three more RBI's and Wells was great. The team is playing good baseball.
The Manny deal did not come through. THANK GOD. Our "big" move was to pick up Jose Cruz Jr. Why we didn't get more bullpen help is a little confusing to me.
Sunday rolls around and love is back in the air at Fenway. Manny doesn't start but he comes in later to pinch hit. Standing O. He also hit's in the game winning run. In an interview on NESN after the game he refers to himself in the third person, very good stuff.
ROYAL'S SERIES AT FENWAY
Kansas City is not a good baseball team. Thank god we swept them. We gave them some chances to beat us though. Monday night we came back from down 4-0. At the end we had won 8 straight games including 6 in a row at Fenway.
TWINS AT MINNESOTA
I think the Sox missed the flight to Minnesota. On Friday night we got killed 12-0. Arroyo was useless and we had no offense what so ever. We managed 4 hits. We also had 2 errors. Oyyy.
Saturday night didn't get any better. We went up 3-0 then let them back in it to tie the game at 3. In the bottom of the ninth we let there lead off man get on with a throwing error. He advanced to 2nd. Then they put down a bunt. Timlin threw the ball into the roof and the runner scored from second. Game over. Two errors decide the game. Oyyy.
We're still three and a half games ahead of the Yankess though. That's a good thing.
Hopefully we'll get a win this afternoon, then it's off to Texas.

Dammit

2005-08-07T13:04:00.000-04:00

I just wrote a nice long post and somehow deleted it.
I'll try again tomorrow.
Sorry for the slacker-ness.

Pulled it out

2005-07-26T23:11:00.000-04:00

The Sox pulled out tonight's game in Extra Innings. It was a wild one though.
Damon made a GREAT catch at the wall in the bottom of the ninth that saved the day. Schilling owes him some beer.
Then Damon came up to bat and hit a nice homerun to give us the 9-8 lead. Tek knocked in another to make it 10-8.
Schilling gave up one run in the bottom of the 10th to make it 10-9. I got a little nervous. He managed to get out of the inning and get the save, or maybe he'll get the win.
Clement seems like he might be ok. Gonna spend the night in the hospital.
Our new young guy from Boston looked pretty good.
4:15 game tomorrow, what's up with that?

Consistent

2005-07-26T22:09:00.000-04:00

Well The Sox keep on looking like a pretty mediocre baseball team. They seem to be lacking one big thing, the ability to play consistent baseball.
Here's what the dictionary has to say about the word consistent:

Main Entry: conÂ·sisÂ·tent
Pronunciation: k&n-'sis-t&nt
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin consistent-consistentns, present participle of consistere
1 archaic : possessing firmness or coherence
2 a : marked by harmony, regularity, or steady continuity : free from variation or contradiction b : COMPATIBLE -- usually used with with c : showing steady conformity to character, profession, belief, or custom
3 : tending to be arbitrarily close to the true value of the parameter estimated as the sample becomes large
- conÂ·sisÂ·tentÂ·ly /-lE/ adverb

I would like to point out my biggest point: marked by harmony, regularity, or steady continuity. At the moment that would not really describe the Red Sox. One night we're good, one night we're not. I wish we could stick with the being good part.
I'm not going to go into my normal game by game run down. I'll just hit the high, or maybe low, lights of the last week or so.

TAMPA BAY SERIES
After losing the first game and looking pretty sad we managed to win the next two games. Don't remember what happened Tuesday night but Wednesday we scored six runs before the D-Rays could get an out. We won that won 9-4. The NESN guys were making me laugh during that one. They're pretty damn funny.

WHITE SOX SERIES
I was not optomistic about this one. The White Sox are one of the best teams in baseball and have won something like 10 more games then we have this year. We managed to get a split though, we won Thursday and Saturday and they won Friday and Sunday. Sunday was a game we could have had. We just seem to lack any sort of passion this year.

TAMPA BAY...AGAIN.
Back to Tampa Bay, scene of the big time brawls earlier in the season. I was hoping for three nice wins to get us some confidence back. That doesn't seem to be what the Sox were thinking about.
Monday night we lost 4-3. Like Sunday's game with the White Sox we squandered quite a few chances to win the game, including having the bases loaded in the ninth. It also turned into our first extra inning game of the year. Sadly it turned into a loss for Schilling on a ball that was mis-played by Trot Nixon. How we can't beat the crap out of Tampa bay is beyond me.

The Yankess continue to play good baseball and lurk pretty close behind us. Befor tonight's game they were a game back and have already won there game tonight. If we lose tonight it will be a tie a top the AL East again. The O's are fading, in fact they got swept by the Rays over the weekend.

Tonights game seemed to be going well as we got out to a 5-0 lead. Then Clement got rocked in the back of the head by a line drive in the third. Anytime we have to go to our not so good bullpen in the third inning is not good. Bradford came in and did hs funny little side arm thing and loaded the bases up. Guess what happened next? Come on, I bet you can guess! That's right. Tampa Bay Grand Slam. Tie game at 5-5. Oyy. The game has gone back and forth and we just got two in the top of the ninth to tie the game at 8. Dale Sveum sent Older Dude around from third after he started at first. That's a bit of a head scratcher.
D-Rays are up in the bottom of the ninth, here comes Schilling.

Frustration

2005-07-18T22:02:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I put a nice little picture in of a fire and talked about how the Red Sox were hot like a fire.
I now post this instead:

This person is very cold, SO ARE THE DAMN SOX.

It was a lovely All Star game. The AL won and were pretty much in control the whole game. Big Pappi had another good game. Yeah for the AL. If only I was still feeling so positve about the Sox's chances of enjoying that home field advantage.
Ya see, the Sox aren't playing so well these days. Not so good at all.
Everyone was calling the four game set with the Yankees at Fenway right after the break to set the tone for the rest of the season. Well I for one don't like the tone.

THURSDAY GAME
EVIL EMPIRE 8 (47-40)
RED SOX 6 (49-39) LOST 3

When I turned this game on the first inning was still going on and the Sox were up 4-0. After that the boys seemed to fall asleep as the Yankees crawled there way back into the game. It was tied at 6 when we hit the ninth. Everyone knew what was coming next, here comes Schilling from the pen. The place was rocking, flash bulbs were going off all over the place, you could sense good things were about to happen. But they didn't. Roid boy Schfield got a double and then "Could I look any gayer with my highlights" A-Rod hit a bomb to make t 8-6. The iar was let out of Fenway. The botton half of the ninth went by faster then you could say Mariano.

FRIDAY'S GAME
EVIL EMPIRE 1 (47-41)
RED SOX 17 (50-39) WON 1

For the second time this season we beat the Spankees 17-1. This game was highlighted by Trot's inside the park HR. There was lot's of scoring. The spankees called up someone from Triple A to pitch which probablly helped. I wish I could be more excited about this win.

SATURDAY'S GAME
EVIL EMPIRE 7 (48-41)
RED SOX 4 (50-40) LOST 1

All the sudden our starting pitching just ain't looking so good. Clement has been solid all year long but on this day he gave up 6 runs in three innings. The boys tried to battle back but it just wasn't happening. The Yankess haven really gotten it all together. For the most part their pitching has come around (last nights game really doesn't count), they have been hitting the ball all over the place with an insanse amount of homerun's. They are playing like they should be. They have also creeped right back into the race.

SUNDAY'S GAME
EVIL EMPIRE 5 (49-41)
RED SOX 3 (50-41) LOST 2

This game was a pretty good example of how the tides have shifted in the last few weeks. Al Leiter pitched for the Yankess after being picked up from the Marlins. He had been pretty mediocre most of the year. His first day as a Yankee he got to pitch against the Sox at Fenway, and he smoked us. He had lot's of strike outs and only gave up one run and a couple of hits. This game had a lot of similarity to the game I saw last Sunday in Baltimore. Wake pitched well but gave up two long balls. The Damn empire got 5 runs off 5 hits. After the 4th Wake shut them down until the 8th when Fag Rod went yard yet again. I had pretty much given up on this one when the 9th rolled around. Manny hit a HR then there was a huge error by Cano and a couple of key hits we had the bases loaded with no outs and were down by 2. I thought for the first time since the first week of the season Rivera was going to blow it. Up steps Alex Cora with his first chance to make a splash as a Sox. Instead he grounds into a double play (out at home and out at first) although the play at first was questionable. We still had a chance though when Mr Hit Streak Damon came up with runners at 2nd and 3rd. A single would have tied the game. Instead he grounds out to first, game over.
FOR AN OFFENSIVE TEAM LIKE THE SOX TO NOT SCORE ANY RUNS WITH THE BASES LOADED AND NO OUTS IT NOT OK! ESPECIALLY IN KEY TIMES LIKE THIS!
My frustration with the Sox is building. I keep expecting to see some major moves but it ain't happening.
The Emprie is 1/2 game out.

Now the Evil Empire might in first once again.

MONDAY'S GAME
DEVIL RAYS 3 (32-62)
RED SOX 1 (50-42) LOST 3

THREE DAMN HITS AGAINST THE D-RAYS! DID YOU SEE THEIR RECORD? THEY SUCK. THREE HITS. NOT OK.
I'M OVER WADE MILLER. HE'S NOT GOOD.
WAIT, WE'RE NOT VERY GOOD RIGHT NOW.
FYI-WE ARE NO LONGER IN FIRST, THE YANKESS (WHO JUST KEEP ON HITTING LOT'S OF HOMERUNS) ARE. Hold please. I just checked in and the Rangers have taken the lead. Maybe there is still hope.
BUT STILL, WE LOST TO THE D-RAYS.
Did anyone else notice that we play four games at the VERY GOOD White Sox this weekend. Oyyy.

Tito needs to light some series fires under some asses. NOW!

Some Photo's from Baltimore

2005-07-17T22:54:00.000-04:00

So I never got around to putting in some photo's of my cool trip to Baltimore. So here they are.
I went with standing room tickets but ended up getting a single on the club level. It was VERY sweet. I was looking right down the first base line. Great seats. The waitress service wasn't half bad either.

SOX TAKE A LITTLE BP.
I was really hoping to get close and get some autographs or something. Fenway south was in full effect and that proved a little hard. So I just watched.

MORE BP
It really was a beautiful day. Pretty damn hot though. Camden is a great stadium.

WAKE PITCHES
Wake had an ok day. Gave up 4 runs but had no support from the offense.

PAPPI BATS AND MANNY WARMS UP
I sure wish we had some more offense in this game.

I am going back to Camden for two games in September. Hopefully we'll win

Moving makes blogging hard

2005-07-14T10:40:00.000-04:00

So it's been a little while. Sue me.
I no longer live in Yankee lover Town USA. I have to say that I am not to sad about that. Moved to Alexandria VA last Tuesday. Last week was all about moving in, getting settled, taking care of a sick cat and a little bit of work. This week I have been starting the new job which has been fun. It is also the All Star break so there haven't been any games. There was also a little CPU snafu that left me computer less for quite a while.
After the series with the Indians the boys lost two out of three to Toronto at home. Not very cool at all. I was sad by that. We ended up going 2-4 on the homestand after winning 7 games in a row. For some reason we are having a very hard time playing with the Jays this weekend. I got to see the one win at a very cool Sox bar in NYC., It's funny how I found the place two days before I moved. Ohh well. It's called Pat O'Brians and it is very cool. Lot's of sox fans and a beer pong room in the back. Classic.
Then it was off the Texas for a three game set. We managed to win two out of three. I felt a little better about myself. The down side was that the one loss was another blown save by Foulke.
Next stop was a four game series in Baltimore. The first game was Thursday night and I was supposed to go. There was lot's of trauma going on in life so I couldn't make it. There was also the remains of a hurricane bearing down on Baltimore so it didn't really seem like the best idea anyway. It turned out to be the right call. The Sox lost 2-1 in a game that was only 6 innings. Trot Nixon was the bonehead of the day. It was the fourth inning and the rain had begun. It was obvious the game wasn't gonna be finished. The bases were loaded with two outs and Older-Dude was at bat. Trot got picked off at second base to end the inning. That is very sad. There was about two innings of good weather then it poured. It would have been nice to go but I'm glad I didn't.
The Sox won on Friday night then lost on Saturday. The whole game turned Saturday when Matos robbed Pappi of a 3 run shot. It was a pretty amazing catch. In general the O's played really great defense all week and made some pretty amazing plays. There defense got them some wins almost as much as the offense did.
I made up for my missed game on Thursday by going to the game on Sunday. I was supposed to go with Trisha and her sister but they both didn't want to go. So I went by myself. I was fine with that. I sold my three standing room tickets and ended up with some very cool club level seats. They were great. I was looking right down the first base line. It was very nice. As Dirt Dogs said Camden Yards really is Fenway south. I would say that the very full stadium was half sox fans and half o's fans.
It was a pretty ho-hum game sadly. In general over the last week and a half I feel like the Sox forgot how to play winning baseball. It is kinda a small miracle we are still in first. If the O's had won a few more games they would have passed us again. Trot had a solo shot in the second to make it 1-0. They went up 2-1. We had Manny and Pappi on in the third then nothing really happened until the 9th. We ain't gonna beat anyone with three singles (including a bad bunt by Damon) and a solo HR. We missed a couple defensive plays that the O's would have made that lead to runs. But it didn't really matter cause we had no offense what so ever.
After being really hot in June we have started July by winning 4 out of 10 and in general not playing very good baseball.
I don't think that both the Sox and the Yankees (who are surging again) are going to make the playoffs this year. I hope it's us.
A few mid-season thoughts, then I got to so some work.
Our starting pitching is pretty good. Arroyo and Clement have been pretty strong all year. Wells and Wakefield have been ok with some not so great moments. I am not really impressed by Wade Miller.
Our bullpen is our weakness. Schilling was activated today and is going to pitch out of the pen for a while. I'm ok with that. Foulke had knee surgery and will be out for a while.
We could be a bit better at defense.
Our offense is good most of the time.
The Sox are definitely capable of winning the AL East. They just need to play consistent and show up to play every day. Last year after the break was when we got really hot. We also play a lot of games at home for the rest of the year. I'm ok with that.
It all starts with a four game set with the Yankess. God how I would like us to sweep.

Day's off are boring

2005-07-01T12:35:00.000-04:00

I'll be moving soon. What fun.

When the boys play an afternoon game on Wednesday then don't play another game until Friday evening it is kinda a bummer. I guess it's good for them though. All that rest and what not.
There's a funny article in the Globe today about how there are lot's of babies being born in Boston this month because it is nine months after the Sox beat the Yankess in the ALCS and then won the series. It's funny. Read it here.
Today is my last day working in NYC. On Tuesday my lovely fiance and I will be moving to Arlington VA. I am very excited about the whole thing and excited about my new job. I will miss the good friends that I have made in NYC but hopefully we will all keep in touch.
Forgive me if the Blog goes a little un-updated for a while. Gotta get the new internet set up and all that. One of the exciting things is that shortly after I get there I will be getting a fancy new I-Mac which will be very exciting. New toys are fun.
Next Thursday I'm going to see the Sox and the O's. Looks like next weekend will see the return of Schill. That is great. I think when that happens Wade Miller should move into the bullpen. He has been our weakest starting pitcher so far.
We've had a tough time with the Blue Jays this year, I hope we can get over that this weekend.
Until next time.

That's more like it

2005-06-30T11:49:00.000-04:00

Schilling Will be Back soon...very soon (AP Photo)

CLEVELAND 2 (41-35)
BOSTON 5 (45-32) WON 1

The boys got back into the groove yesterday afternoon with a nice win. The offense was highlighted by back to back homeruns in the 6th. Mirabelli had a two run shot and Bellhorn had a solo shot. That was all the boys needed to wrap up the win.
Wakefield has definitely gotten back into his grove and had another nice outing yesterday. My nerves, as I am sure was the rest of Red Sox nation, were a little edgey when he left the game and the pen took over. Manatei was a little rocky but got through a whole inning without any trouble. Timlin came in as the closer. The Tribe managed to get the game-tieing run to the plate in the 9th but couldn't do anything about it.
Foulke made some comments about how he wasn't worried about what the random fan who works at Burger King felt after he blew the loss. He was more worried about his teammates. Dirt Dogs had a field day with that which was quite funny.
Schilling had a rehab start in some tiny stadium in Charlotte and had a great day. The NESN guys were preparing everyone for him to give up a homer or two because of the park but he only gave up one run. He looked great and everyone was very excited. If his next Rehab start goes well sounds like he might pitch in Baltimore against the O's next weekend.
A week from today I get to see the Sox play the O's. Hooorrray.
Off day today then tomorrow night soon-to-be-allstar Clement pitches against the Blue Bird People.
Zach has a great blog. Today was at least the second time that he has made me laugh out loud with his made up conversations between various Sox players and managers. Today there is a great conversation between Theo and Foulke. Funny stuff.

TIME TO GET TO WORK THEO!

2005-06-28T22:42:00.000-04:00

CLEVELAND 12 (41-34)
BOSTON 8 (44-32) LOST 2

I AM SO FLIPPING PISSED IT AIN'T EVEN FUNNY. WHAT HAVE I BEEN SAYING FOR A COUPLE WEEKS NOW, EVEN WHEN THE BOY WERE WINNING? I WAS SAYING THAT OUR BULLPEN IS SUSPECT AND NOT VERY GOOD. THEY SHOWED THAT WITH FLYING F'ING COLORS TONIGHT.
IT IS TIME FOR THEO TO GET TO WORK AND SEE WHAT ELSE IS OUT THERE. WE DO NOT HAVE ANYONE IN THE BULLPEN WHO CAN HOLD A LEAD AT ALL. HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO WIN IN THE PLAYOFFS IF YOU CAN'T HOLD A GODDAMN LEAD.
FIRST IT WAS TIMLIN THEN IT WAS FOULKE.
FOULKE IS COOKED. HE IS NOT GOOD. HE DOES NOT HAVE THE STUFF HE USED TO. GET RID OF HIM. I'M OVER HIM.
CAN YOU TELL I AM A LITTLE WORKED UP BY THIS? WELL I AM!

The boys looked like they were going to get back to their winning form. After falling behing 4-1 the boys got two runs in the 5th to make it 4-3. The Tribe got another run in the top of the 6th to make it 5-3. In the bottom of the 6th the Sox exploded for 5 runs to take and 8-5 lead. Lot's of people did good things. Damon had a big hit as did Manny and Pappi. It was a nice inning and it felt like we had gotten the grove back. Wade Miller did not pitch great but he kept it close.
BUT THEN OUR DAMN BULLPEN TOOK OVER. AND GUESS WHAT? WE LOST!
TIMLIN LEFT THE GAME WITH MEN ON BASE AND FOULKE F'ED UP THE REST.
TIMLIN'S TWO MEN HE LEFT SCORED IN THE 8TH TO MAKE IT 7-8. TOP OF THE NINTH WE GO WITH THE SOX UP ONE.
FIRST GUY GETS OUT. THEN THE NEXT GUY GETS A DOUBLE THAT BELLHORN HAD A CHANCE ON AFTER A GREAT THROW FROM MANNY. OK I'LL GET OVER THAT. THEN THERE WAS A FLYOUT TOO CENTER. TWO OUTS MAN ON SECOND, SOX STILL HAVE A ONE RUN LEAD. THEN THE GAME IS TIED AFTER A SINGLE. STILL TWO OUTS AND A RUNNER ON FIRST, GAME TIED. THEN THERE ARE TWO WALKS TO LOAD THE BASES. TWO WALKS BY YOUR CLOSER IS SO NOT OK!
GUESS WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE BASES ARE LOADED. JUST GUESS! COME ON, I BET YOU CAN FIGURE IT OUT.
THAT'S RIGHT, FOULKE GIVES UP A GRAND SLAM. GAME OVER, FENWAY ANGRY.
FOULKE IS DONE, HE HAS LOOKE GOOD A FEW TIMES THIS SEASON BUT HAS NOT KEPT US IN MANY CLOSE GAMES.
OUR BULLPEN NEEDS SERIOUS HELP IF WE REALLY EXPECT TO MAKE ANOTHER RUN.
I'M ANGRY.

Day game tomorrow. So I'll be able to watch at work. Yeah for that.
Hopefully it's not close and we won't need the bullpen. Most likely they'll give it up for us.
Time to make some changes Theo.

The Real Team was still in Philly

2005-06-28T11:16:00.000-04:00

CLEVELAND-7 (40-34)
BOSTON-0 (44-31) LOST 1

If anyone out there lives in Philadelphia and sees the Red Sox wandering around let me know. I think they all missed the flight back to Boston and the game last night was played by people who just looked like the Red Sox. The fact that the person who was playing the role of Johnny Damon had no beard was a dead give away.
I packed while I watched last nights game and it was not pretty. After knocking the crap out of the ball for a while we managed three hits and no runs last night. Not so good.
The defense was what really let us down though. It all started when the actor playing Mark Bellhorn missed dropped the beginning of a double play ball and let it role into the outfield. Two runs scored on that play. Instead of ending the inning with no runs the Tribe scored three runs that inning. Later in the game the actor playing Trot Nixon (kudos to the wardrobe department for even giving that man the right sweat-stained hat) had a fly ball in deep right bounce off the tip of his glove and over the wall for a two run homerun. That actor should have caught the ball.
The actor playing cornrow boy didn't pitch a bad game, he just got no help what so ever. His command was also not nearly as good as the real cornrow boy and he gave up a few walks.
According to the Globe the real Sox team has been located in Philly and will be flown back this morning for tonight's game.
Thanks to the actors who played last nights game. It was a nice effort.

The Sox are in First and are SMOKIN' hot!

2005-06-27T11:29:00.000-04:00

Manny goes Grandy! SOX WIN! (Widman/AP)

This is a fire. Fire's are hot. SO ARE THE SOX!

Was away for a while (I've been doing that a lot lately) so I missed a few more games. It's gonna be a hectic couple of weeks with this whole moving thing so that might happen again.
So here's what I missed.

SUNDAY
BOSTON 12 (44-30) WON 7
PHILLIES 8 (39-37)

I actually got home from a little trip in time to watch some of this game. I heard some score updates on the radio and the Sox were up 8-1. I figured another easy win was on the way. Then I get home and turn the thing on and it is 8-5 with the bases loaded. Embree and Timlin seemed to be doing there best to give the thing away. Do I sense a bit of a repeating pattern? The Phillies tie it up at 8 and I figure oh no, another game blown by the pen. But the offense got back to work and after a nice bunt by Damon, a long shot by Bellhorn, a infield single by Ortiz, some great hustle by Trot and a two run shot by Tek the sox were back on top 12-8. I was thrilled. I love the fact that the boys shook off blowing the big lead and came back and just took it back. That is great. The Sox have now won 7 in a row and 12 of the last 13. That is damn good. Damn good.
Manny had a grand slam earlier in the day to bring his career total to 19. That ties him for second all time. That's pretty cool. Love them dreads.
While I spent quite a bit of time stuck in traffic on the GW yesterday I listened to Yankee's talk radio. I love hearing Yankee fans so mad about their team. Many people have all but given up hope on them making the playoffs this year. I think it might be a little early for that but it is a nice thought. I like that the Yankees are such a disaster at the moment. The D-Rays won 3 or 4 at the stadium last week and the Mets won 2 of 3 in the Bronx as well. Now that's cool.
We moved into first over the weekend as the O's have lost 5 in a row. We're now 2.5 games ahead of the O's and 6.5 in front of the Yanks. That's very cool.

SATURDAY
BOSTON 7 (43-30) WON 6
PHILLIES 1 (39-36)

Matt Clement is the man. That's really all there is too say.
Another great pitching performance and another day of hot bats.
Yippeee

FRIDAY
BOSTON 8 (42-30) WON 5
PHILLIES 0 (39-35)

Maybe that whole thing about Wakefield really needing Mirrabelli to pitch well was the truth. He was rocking in this game and the Phillies only got three hits all night. Homers by Manny, Pappi, and Mirrabelli made it even better.

WEDNESDAY
BOSTON 5 (41-30) WON 4
CLEVELAND 4 (37-33)

The Sox got some spunk. They fell behind late in the game but put together a nice rally to come back for the win. Payton started it all off in the ninth and scored the winning run
Older-Dude (great nickname from Jere) was 3-4 with his first homer as a Red Sox.
Hooray. Ain't winning fun?

On a roll

2005-06-22T14:29:00.000-04:00

BOSTON 9 (40-30) WON 2
CLEVELAND 2 (37-32)

The boys from Boston are definitely in a bit of a groove at the moment. That is a good thing, a very good thing. Like I have said before, winning is your friend.
The game last night was never really in doubt. When I turned it on the boys were up 3-0 in part because of a Big Pappi 2 run homer. He added another solo shot later in the game and his good buddy Manny also added some insurance runs later in the game. Cornrow Boy looked good last night and the only run he gave up was on a wild pitch.
I am still holding my judgment on the bullpen. Halama came in for an inning of work and managed to load the bases and give up a run. I still feel that Theo needs to think about making some changes in the bullpen and bringing in some new folks.
But that's just my two cents.
On the Yankee front the damn Devil Rays lived up to their status as the worst team in baseball last night. The Rays were up 10-2 in the 4th after roughing up Randy "good god I'm tall" Johnson for lot's of runs. Final score 20-11 YANKESS. How could you lose that lead? How could you lose that lead and get BLOWN out. Ohh wait, the Devil Rays suck. The damn yankees scored 12 runs in the 8th inning including four homers. That's not so good.
It has to be pretty tough to play for a team like the Devil Rays when you suck that bad. The players must want to win but they just keep losing. That's got to be pretty frustrating. I kinda doubt that being a Devil Ray fan is that fun.
Being a Sox fan is fun though!
GO RED SOX!

Missed a few games

2005-06-21T14:33:00.000-04:00

Damon was key last night (AP Photo)

Lot's of stuff going on in life these days so I have let the poor blog go by the wayside a bit. Sorry about that.
In very exciting news I am leaving Yankee Lover town and moving to the DC area! I got a new job at a theater in Arlington VA and will be moving on July 5. Even more exciting then that is that on July 7 I am going to see a Orioles/Red Sox game. YEAH!
So the games I missed

BOSTON 10 (39-30) WON 2
CLEVELAND 9 (37-31)

Theo needs to kick some SERIOUS ass when it comes to the bullpen. I (the man of not a ton of baseball experience) thinks that the stupid bullpen needs some serious help. The lame commentators from FSH Ohio gave a pretty good stat last night. In games when the starting pitcher has a "quality" start we have a record of like 31-5. When they don't have a quality record we are like 6-25. That basically says our bullpen SUCKS.
Yes we won last night, but it felt like a loss. We blew a 9-4 lead but that's to Johnny Damon and his hair we were able to pull it out. Manny and Tek both had three run homers. Damon got the tenth and winning run with a solo shot.
Embree and Foulke made pitching look really hard as they let the Indian's right back into the game. I was yelling very loud. I was pissed. The Bullpen needs to get it together.
Wells pitched ok. He got the W but was definitely not as in control as we was last week.
We are now 9 games over .500 and only 2 games behind the O's.
In Yankee news they ended their latest win streak by losing at home to the crappy Devil Rays. Now that's funny.
They say that Schillin is improving and might be a few weeks away from his return. That would be pretty nice.

PITTSBURGH 0 (31-36)
BOSTON 8 (38-30) WON 1

A wacky lineup won a game with a decent amount of offense. Matt Clement pitched another great game. He has been a great pickup to say the least. Ortiz and Payton provided some good offense.
Missed this one, I was at the museum. I haven't watched enough Sox ball lately.

PITTSBURGH 2 (31-35)
BOSTON 0 (37-30) LOST 1

For the first time this season the Sox were shut out. It was the night of the men-left-on-base. We left 11. I watched parts of the game. At one point Payton lead off with a double and then got to third with somebody else on second. No outs. He didn't score. That ain't so good.

PITTSBURGH 5 (31-34)
BOSTON 6 (37-29) WON 5

Tek won this game with a great block at the plate. It was great.
I like 5 game win streaks.

GO RED SOX!

SWEEP

2005-06-16T17:14:00.000-04:00

CINCY 1 (26-39)
BOSTON 6 (36-29) WON 4

This week the Red Sox pitching is looking very good. Cornrow Boy (who is now Cornrow less) pitched a very nice game striking out 8 guys from Cincy. Some good hitting to go a long with it.
I like winning.
The Pirates come to town this weekend after getting swept by the Yankees. Hopefully we can do that same thing. Today is an off day. Maybe tomorrow I will write about something random and fun.
GO RED SOX!

What if the Red Sox were Crab Fisherman?

2005-06-15T14:13:00.000-04:00

Crab Fishing Looks Like FUN!
CINCY 0 (26-38)
BOSTON 7 (35-29) WON 3

David Wells looked frickin great last night. He threw a one hit game. The Reds had no answer for him what-so-ever. He was in complete control of his game. It was great. I wish he would do that every week. The bats defitnely like being back at Fenway. Manny hit a HR, Damon had a couple RBI's as did Bill Mueller.
I saw parts of the game but not all. I did happen to tune in when they were converting scoring opportunities. It was fun. I like winning three in a row, they should do that more often. I missed parts of the game because I was watching The Deadliest Catch on Discovery. Crab fishing is pretty cool. I wish I could go do that. Nothing like freezing your ass off and catching thousands of tons of crab in Alaska. I would like to go to Alaska although I bet it would pretty hard to keep up with the Sox there. I bet you get pretty damn wet being a crab fisherman.
What if Manny or Big Pappi were crab fisherman? Now that would be funny. Manny would probably have to lose the dreads, they would get covered in ice and what not. I bet Wakefield and Millar would fit right in, probably Trot too. Wells probably wouldn't make it too long, he would get fired for eating the crab. Damon would probably get his hair caught in all the machinery. That could get ugly.
I bet Wally and the NESN guys would do a stellar job being the captains. They could sit up there and pretend they are calling a game. "Big Pappi steps up to the loader, he is 3-10 this week on good crab pots. Not his best Average. "
I'm funny.

GO RED SOX!

Home Sweet Home.....Unless Your in a Sleep Study

2005-06-14T14:15:00.000-04:00

happy Manny and his cool Dreads (JIM DAVIS/Boston Globe)

CINCINNATI 3 (26-37)
BOSTON 10 (34-29) WON 2

A great return to Fenway for the Sox and they kicked the crap out of the Reds. I need to learn not to get so worried about the Sox. It is still very early in the season and even after the troubles that we have had we are only three games back in the division. We have also played more road games then anyone else in the league. We could easily be in first by the time the All Star break comes around. Hopefully by then we'll get Schill back and he'll be in prime form. Other then a few bumpy parts the pitching this season really hasn't been that bad. Clement has been a great pick up and Miller is holding his own as well.
We had 16 hits last night and the game was only close for the first two innings. Manny hit a three run shot that broke it open. Clement pitched well to get back in the win column.
I missed the game though, I was getting a sleep study. Let me tell you how much fun that is. You go to this clinic and sleep in a room that is kinda like a hotel room. The only difference that you have something like 25 sensors attached to you with wires coming off of all of them. Plus you got a little oxygen thing shoved up your nose. They told me I could move around but I could just picture rolling on my side and getting all caught up in the wires. Needless to say I didn't get a ton of sleep. My wonderful fiance was nice enough to call me with updates. If they say I have sleep apnea I am supposed to sleep in one of these. You got to be kidding me.
It has been almost a week since I actually got to watch a Sox game. Hopefully that will change tonight. GO RED SOX!

Been Away...Sorry about that

2005-06-13T11:15:00.000-04:00

So I went out of town for a few days. Back up to my old summer stomping ground of Williamstown Mass to help them get the season up and running. Little sad i won't be there this summer but it should give me more time to follow the Sox. That's for sure. If you ever in the Berkshires and want to see some good theater go to WTF.

I have a lot of things to be done today so I don't really have the time to go into my normal detail. I'll get back to that tomorrow.
A quick summary of what I've missed.
The boys won the last game at St. Louis as David Wells pitched a great game. They won 4-o. There was a three hour rain delay and the game didn't actually start till wicked late.
Thursday was a day off.
Friday was an afternoon game in Chicago where the boys got rocked. It was not pretty. I was moving big heavy things all over the place so I missed this one as well.
Saturday we lost a close one 7-6.
Last night we won the series finale as Wakefield returned to his normal self and pitched a great game. Youk got a nice home run (his first of the year). Wakefield did great at the plate. I think he had two singles and scored a run with a sliding play at home. Very nice.
This week it's more interleauge play with the Reds and Pirates coming to Fenway.
Tonight I am having a sleep study. That should provide for some serious entertainment tomorrow.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-Losing Sucks

2005-06-08T14:21:00.000-04:00

Pedro Rocked Last Night

BOSTON 2 (31-27) LOST 2
ST. LOUIS 9 (38-20)

See yesterdays post, repeat that and you have last nights game. Clement got his first loss of the season in another ass-kicking at the hands of the cardinals. They are definitely trying to get there revenge from their Series sweep. Sadly I don't have any bright comments to say about the game. I need to learn to be more positve. Jere is much better at that. He's a pretty happy go lucky guy.
Went to the Mets game last night and saw Pedro pitch a hell of a game. The Met fans sure have grown to love Pedro, that's for sure. It was a nice night at the ball park. Trisha got us great tickets and we sat next to some nice Mets fans. Trisha was cheering loudly for the Astros and no one even gave her a hard time, that would never happen at that place in the Bronx. Kept a scorecard for the first time in my life. It was pretty fun. Pedro even got a hit, the smile on his face when he got to first was HUGE. He even ended up scoring. I was saying that I bet Pedro had no clue what is was like to be on Third base. He had a nice game last night. I know he had his diva moments but I wouldn't mind if he was still playing for the Sox.
Yanks lost again. Someone is gonna get canned in the Bronx real soon.
Sox look to avoid the sweep tonight then get a day off.
GO RED SOX!

Flat out Beat

2005-06-07T13:11:00.000-04:00

RED SOX 1 (31-26) LOST 1
ST. LOUIS 7 (37-20)

The played better defense, they hit the ball, they ran the bases well, and they had great pitching. We just plain got beat last night. 4 hits against the Cardinals ain't gonna win you any games.
Renteria had a pretty awful night in his return to St Louis. 0-4 hitting into tow double plays and he had an error in the 8th that ended up costing two runs.
Wakefield lost again. He didn't pitch terribly but he didn't pitch great. He also had no run support at all.
Stat of the day. The Sox are 17-18 against teams with winning records. I don't think that is very good.
The Yankess lost again and are back below .500

A Lovely Weekend at Fenway-Except for a little Bullpen stumble

2005-06-06T10:39:00.000-04:00

A good weekend at Fenway. 2 out for 3 against the Angels. Not so Bad.

SUNDAY'S GAME
LA Angels 3 (32-24)
Red Sox 6 (31-25) WON 1

A good all around game. I saw parts of it, but not all of it. Have I ever told you how cool DVR picture in picutre is. I had NASCAR (yes I like to watch the cars drive around really fast)in one window and the Sox game in another. Switching back and forth was easy and I was able to keep track of both. Yeah for me. Miller pitched a good game. Got through almost seven innings and gave up three hits. He left with the game tied at three. After the horrible afternoon the bullpen had the day before I think everyone was a little nervous about this one. Our worries were for not though as Myers, Timlin, and Foulke finished off the game nicely allowing only 1 hit and no walks. The offense sealed the game with a three run seventh capped off by a Big Pappi double that drove in two. The Queer Eye guys threw out the first pitch and that seems to have bothered some folks. Get over it is what I have to say about that. One girl was complaining in the Globe that some Yankee fans were making fun of her about it. First off that sounds like the typical meat head Yankee fan and secondly I think the Yankee fans should be worrying about their team winning some games. They seem to be having a hard time with that these days. HA HA. They suck.

SATURDAYS GAME
LA Angels 13 (32-23)
Red Sox 6 (30-25) LOST 1

Various bullpen pitchers gave up 11 runs including 6 in the bottom of the ninth. That pretty much sums it up. Kevin Millar had a lovely day though hitting two homeruns. Didn't get to see the game though. I live in NYC, I got to watch the Mets. Bummer.

FRIDAYS GAME
LA Angels 4 (31-23)
Red Sox 7 (30-24) WON 2

I missed this game so I could drink some booze. A pretty valid excuse if you ask me. I saw the score at one point and the boys were down 4-1 so I figured we were going to continue our win one lose one process. But then later I saw the winning score. It was very nice. Damon had the clutch hit that sealed the deal. Winning is fun. Losing is not. The Yankees keep losing though and that is VERY fun.

Big Pappi Goes Yard

2005-06-03T12:33:00.000-04:00

A GREAT photo of from the Boston Gobe (Jim Davis) after Ortiz hit his walk off HR

BALTIMORE 4 (32-21)
BOSTON 6 (29-24) WON 1

Why is it that all of these exciting afternoon games that end in game ending walk off HR's by the Sox are the one's I don't get to watch? I have watched a lot of the games this year but I have missed all three afternoon games that have ended in Fenway Mayhem and Man Love for various reasons. That kinda makes me a little sad. I guess my time will come.
Anyway, it was another great battle between the Sox and the O's yesterday. When I got back from Softball the Sox were up 3-1 in the 7th and Clement was still pitching. After the 7th it was 3-3. Foulke game in late in the 8th and pitched in the ninth. He loaded the bases with one out but only gave up one run. Bottom of the ninth Sox down 4-3.
Damon flew to center for the first out. Mark "sometimes I really can't hit but often in the clutch I get a hit" Bellhorn got a single up the middle. Youk (who started the game and batted first) struck out swinging. Rentereia comes to the plate with two down. Every expects him to be swinging for the roof. First ptich comes in...he bunts. No one is expecting that at all and he makes it to first base easily. Two on, Ortiz comes to the plate. The count goes full, Fenway is hopping (at least I imagine it was. The game was not on MLBTV yesterday so I had to settle for gameday). There is a pause, run scoring play appears on gameday. Please let it be a homerun, I mutter under my breath. There it is, the little box flips from pictures of Ortiz and Ryan to HOMERUN and flashes yellow. He did it again. What I wouldn't do to be at one of those games.
A few side notes:
From the pictures of the post game celebration it looks like Arroyo has gone back to the cornrow look. I think I mentioned that idea a few posts ago.
LCT lost to The Lion King in softball yesterday 16-1. It was not pretty.
The Yankess got swept by the Royals, THE WORST TEAM IN BASEBALL. I think I read it was there first sweep since like 1983. OUCH. I laugh at the Yankees.
That is all.
GO RED SOX!!!!

Knuckle Ball Goes South

2005-06-02T11:07:00.000-04:00

BALTIMORE 9 (32-20)
BOSTON 3 (28-24) LOST 1

My thought of the day to Theo and the Sox. This Win One Lose One crap is not going to cut it. That's my thought.
Tim Wakefield is struggling as of late. That makes me sad. The old knuckle ball just doesn't seem to have the dance that it used to have. He has now lost his last four starts and his ERA in that span is 8.74. That's ugly. Last night was no exception as he got rocked for three homruns and left the game with the Sox down 7-0. Arroyo came in for a brief relief stint and didn't do so bad. Mantei gave up the two other runs.
Even though we were down 7-0 we still had our chances. In the 7th we had the bases loaded with no outs. Damon hit a long shot that looked like it was going to hit the wall but a great catch was made my some bird. One run scored. Renteria made an out then Big Pappi walked to load the bases again. Manny "I love my dread" Rameriz hit a single to center that scored two runs and made it 7-3. Jay Payton came in to pinch hit and walked to load the bases yet again. The tieing run was at the plate. The only glitch was rookie catcher Kelly Shoppach was coming to the plate. You see Doug Mirrabelli is on the DL so Tek has been catching almost every game of late. Shoppach is this hot stuff rookie who came up from the PawSox to be the back up. With the score 7-0 and the Sox playing an afternoon game today Tito decided to give Tek as rest. So here we are with the bases loaded and Shoppach at the plate to tie the game. The only problem is that he has never had a hit in the majors. Everyone wishes Tek was batting. He had to of known that.
So he hits a puny dribbler to the 2nd basemen for the third out. Rally over.
The boys had a chance again in the 8th with men on 1st and 2nd with one out. But the inning cam to an end with a Damon pop up and a Renteria ground out.
The O's lead in first place has grown to 4 games.
On a brighter note the Yanks have lost two in a row to the Royals. The Royals really suck.
After a four game break the boys were back on NESN last night. Those guys are funnnnyyyy. They make me laugh. They showed a funny little clip about how Timlin had gone out to where Damon ran into the wall the night before and taped out a little body outline on the fence. Very funny stuff.
Afternoon game with the O's today and LCT softball.
GO RED SOX!!!!

The Rockstar runs into a wall

2005-06-01T11:20:00.000-04:00

BALTIMORE 1 (31-20)
BOSTON 5 (28-23) WON 1

A good basebal game last night in many ways. Things were not looking good in the early going. Wade Miller was struggling and a lot of O's were getting on base. The good thing is that not many of them were making it to home plate. Miller kept getting into jams but kept finding a way out of them. They managed to get one run but that was it.
Johnny Damon had to leave the game after the third inning. He went to make a play in the deep corner of center field and ran into the wall near the Sox bullpen very hard. He stayed in the game for the rest of that inning and seemed to be doing ok but he left the game when he went back to the dugout. I guess he had to get sticthes.
Meanwhile the Sox where getting No Hit at the plate by a very tall chap named Cabrera. The fifth inning changed all that. Bill Mueller got on base after a long at bat with a walk. Mark "I don't seem to be very good at batting" Bellhorn had a rare clutch hit as he hit a nice single up the middle. This was also the first hit allowed by Cabrera. John "I don't like to wear baseball caps" Olerud came up and had a nice little RBI single to deep center to drive in Mueller. He's been a good pick up, more on that later. Edgar "I guess I really don't suck balls" Renteria got another RBI. Ortiz and Nixon also got RBI's and all the sudden it was 4-1.
After that great inning Miller was in control of the game and the O's would score no more. Timlin and Myers finished off the game and it was another win for the Sox. We are hanging out in second by ourselves and are three games back of the O's.
The Olerud/Millar battle at 1st base might get interesting here soon. Millar was the spokesperson for the team last year and the guy who really made the Sox personality. This year he is struggling a little bit at the plate to say the least. Olerud has come in and done very well at the plate and has made some really nice plays at first. He turned a double play last night that I'm not sure Millar would have made the play. We'll see what happens. Should be interesting.
GO RED SOX!!!

A lovely Weekend in NYC for the Sox...The trip home gets off to a rocky start

2005-05-31T14:01:00.000-04:00

Weekends mean that I don't really get into the blogging news. So here's the run down of the last few games.
Although we had a good weekend in NYC I am still having mixed feelings about where the boys are headed this year. Sometimes I think we are unbeatable, sometimes I think I could hit a homerun off our pitchers. That would be quite a feat. I guess I just really need to adjust to the fact that we aren't gonna win them all and that it is going to be an up and down season.
Damn emotions.
Monday Game
BALTIMORE 8 (31-19)
BOSTON 1 (27-23) LOST 1

After two days of sizzling bats in the Bronx everything went pretty quiet last night as the boys finally got back to Fenway for a while. Pitching once again proved to be our downfall as Arroyo-Acornrow got rocked. He said later in the press that he felt like he was pitching in batting practice and that the O's seemed to know what was coming. Hmmm. That's not so good. After his little suspension things have gone a little downhill and he hast lost his last two starts. That after he hadn't lost in lie 17 starts. Maybe he should go back to the silly white boy with cornrows looks. The game was really over when he gave up a grand slam to one of the O's worst hitters. Oyyyy.
We didn't do too much of that whole hitting thing. I guess we used up all our hits for a few days. It was never really a game as the O's lead from the first inning and the Sox could not get anything going.

SUNDAY GAME
BOSTON 7 (27-22) WON 2
YANKEES 2 (27-23)

Two wins in a row in the Bronx taste very sweet. It does make me very sad when the Sox play within walking distance of my house and I can't go. Ahh if only I was rich and connected. Maybe I'll try and find my way into one of the other Sox games in the Bronx this summer. That would be grand.
This was a good game. We went up 2-0 in the first inning after a MONSTER HR by Big Pappi. It landed in the middle of the upper deck. That is quite a shot. Then big old David Wells strolled out to the mound for his part of the first inning. Jeter gets a lead off homerun and then Sheffield gets another one. All the sudden it is 2-2. I think a large portion of Red Sox nation was grumbling and saying that Wells might be past his prime. I was thinking if there was anyone good we could trade him for. Then he turned it all around. He pitched a hell of a game after that including several innings with pitch counts of less then ten.
The offense continued to look great. At one point Renteria, Ortiz, and Manny were 8-8 with a bunch of RBI's. Pappi hit another very long homerun and Edgar "ok maybe I don't really suck balls" Renteria hit one as well. It was a lovely game and it is always nice to hear the "LET's GO RED SOX" chants drowning out the Yankees fans.

SATURDAY GAME
BOSTON 17 (26-22) WON 1
YANKEES 1 (27-22)

A Saturday afternoon romp in the Bronx. 27 hits the boys had in the day. Renteria had a grand slam, there were Red Sox rounding the bases on a regular basis, most Yankee fans had left by the 7th inning. It was great.
Clement pitched another great game. He is really doing well. He needs to shave the bush that he has growing on his chin. It is UGGGGLLLLY.

FRIDAY GAME
BOSTON 3 (25-22) LOST 4
YANKEES 6 (27-21)

Remember how I had been keeping track of the left on base thing for the Sox. Last night was a classic example: LOB-13. 13 damn guys in grey jerseys that say Boston on the front hopelessly left wandering around a dirt path in the Bronx. Bummer.
This was definitely a game we should have won. Missed opportunities all around. The boys were up 3-1 in the sixth when they had two men tagged out at home for back to back outs. Instead of extending the lead and putting it out of reach for the Bombers we let them stick around. IN the next inning Gary "could I be anymore annoying when I stand at the plate moving my bat all around?" Sheffield hit a big time 3 run homer that basically put and end to this game.
I missed most of this game and that is probably a good thing. I would have ended up throwing things all over the place.
I hate leaving men on base like the Sox do. It sucks. I wonder if there is a stat line for that and if we would be leading the majors if there was?

Hate to Say I Told You So But.......

2005-05-27T12:30:00.000-04:00

BOSTON 1 (25-21) LOST 3
TORONTO 8 (26-21)
I think if you look back a few posts when the Yankess where sucking the big one you will see that I was talking about how I wish the Sox were winning more games and building a bigger lead on the damn Yankees. Now it's few week later. The Yankees can't seem to lose and the Sox have a pretty hard time winning. After hanging out in second place for almost the whole season we are no in 4th place with only the damn Devil Rays behind us. What the hell is going on?
Last nights game was yet another pitching stinker. Wade Miller got rocked for 6 runs in the first inning and only lasted until the Second. When your down 6-0 after the bottom of the first it is hard to come back. We had little to no offense and the game was never in doubt for the Jays. The only time we threatened was when we loaded the bases in the 6th with one out. Take a wild guess what happened next? You guessed it, Payton hit into a double play. Rally/Game Over.
We got swept in Toronto.
We are in fourth place for the first time at this point in the season since 1997.
Schilling sounds like he won't be back until after the All Star Break.
Foulke is making mysterious trips to Alabama that may or may not involve having his shoulder looked at.
Manny is cold.
The pitching that was serving us so well a week ago has fallen apart.
The boys just look lethargic and crappy. There doesn't really seem to be much of a spark.
To top it all off we are headed into a three game series with the RED HOT Yankees in the Bronx. To say my hopes aren't high for the weekend would be an understatement.
Wakefield takes the mound for us tonight. He usually has his best stuff against the Yankees but he has definitely not looked all that hot in his recent days. We'll see.
We need some good wins, that's for sure. The media in Boston is definitely circling.
After a three week stint in the Bronx we go home to face the league leading Orioles for 4 game set.
If we aren't careful a week from now we could easily be ten games back from the Orioles and 4 games behind the Yankees. Of course if things go well we could be back in second place and nipping at the O's heals. Only time will tell. The road has not been good to us at all this year so getting back to Fenway will be a very good thing.
I am getting a little nervous. Have I metioned how stressful this whole following the whole season is?
I would like to post a picture but I can't seem to make this Hello thing work. Bummer.
God I hope the Red Sox can get it together for this weekend.
GO RED SOX!!!!

Don't Look Now

2005-05-26T12:17:00.000-04:00

BOSTON-1 (25-20) LOST 2

TORONTO-6 (25-21)

Don't look now but the Yankees are a half game behind us after we had another pretty crappy ass game last night. We were never really in it after Brosno hit the first batter of the game. We looked like crap.
If we lose tonight we will go into the weekend series with the Yankees in 4th place with only Tampa Bay in our rear view mirror. That is not ok in my book.
Someone has finally stepped up and said the boys need to get their act together. Johnny Damon had some good things to say.

"We need to win [Thursday]," Damon said about the series finale against the Blue Jays, who have taken the first two games of this three-game set. "It's a must-win. We need to get back to that stage where every game is a must-win instead of saying, 'Oh, we'll be OK,' because it's a different year. We need to start looking at every game like we have to win."
FROM MLB.COM

I don't like the mediocre Red Sox. I like the good Red Sox. It will be very good for the team to get back to Fenway next week.
Hey it could be worse. We could be the Astros (Trisha's Favorite Team). They really suck.
I like Canada. I just wish the Red Sox would play better there then they have this year.
GO RED SOX!!!!!

OH CANADA

2005-05-25T12:05:00.000-04:00

BOSTON-6 (25-19) LOST 1

TORONTO-9 (24-21)

I hate losing. It stinks. A lot.

Wells didn’t do so hot, the bullpen did even worse.

We are starting to have the look of a team who likes to play mediocre baseball. ICK.
LOB-4 Not so bad.

GO RED SOX!