Must-win, Baby!

Well, the first inning was definitely a little more action-packed than game 4, let's see if the Boston bats can stay hot!

7:42-Why does Fox show us that stupid Fox-Trax box? All it ever does is confirm that the umpires suck. It makes me almost miss Scooter the baseball. Ugh.
7:42-Kielty strikes out on a fastball around the inside corner...let's see if they go to Fox-Trax. Nope, it must have been inside, Fox doesn't want to embarass the ump.
7:45-Someone should remind the Cleveland fans that the whole waving towels thing was started by their hated rivals from Pittsburgh with the terrible towels...and that slogan on them, "It's Tribe Time"...is beyond stupid.
7:48-As Coco Crisp stands staring at strike 3, Jacoby Ellsbury's agent starts planning on what kind of raise he wants to ask for for next season.
7:50-Fox shows just how atrociously the Sox have been hitting with 2 outs in this series, while Cleveland is hitting at something like a .380 clip in the same situation. Pretty clear why the Indians are in charge right now. I'm all for taking a lot of pitches and working the count, but you've GOT to come through when you get your pitch, and other than Manny and Papi, no one on Boston is doing that.
7:53-After watching Jhonny Prealta's ACL almost rupture on that first Josh Beckett curveball, you have to wonder why Beckett is even throwing fastballs. The scouting report on Cleveland says they struggle against off-speed stuff, and I haven't seen a good swing at an off-speed pitch yet tonight. Beckett needs to keep the change of speeds going. And I know I spelled Peralta's last name wrong, but if he can spell his first name goofy, than I reserve the same right for his last name.
7:58-Mountain man Casey Blake is coming up with Gutierrez on 1st with 2 down. Blake scares me in the 9th hole in the lineup. He's got a lot of pop in his bat and can actually handle the breaking pitch fairly well. McCarver and Buck are focused on why Gutierrez isn't stealing, but with the leadoff man up next, I'm sure Wedge wants to turn the lineup over here and not risk an out on the bases from a guy who stole all of 8 bases this year.
8:01-Do I smell a curve ball?
8:02-Nope, but Blake must have thinking curve too, cuz a check swing on a fastball gets him for strike 3.
8:02-Whose country is this? It's OURS!!
8:05-If this series makes it back to Boston, Pedroia needs to get dropped down in the order...he's swinging wildly (as usual), but for once Ken Rosenthal makes a good point and reminds us that Pedroia is actually making good contact, so maybe he can stay where he is. The point of this post is...absolutely nothing...ignore everything I say!
8:08-Buck and Mccarver start discussing the end of the Joe Torre era...hey guys, the Yankees aren't playing right now...how about you talk about the game? Meanwhile...Pedroia laces a single to right, which Buck briefly acknowledges, and then they return to talking about the Yankees. SHUT UP! Sweet, now Rosenthal wants to talk about the Yankees. I almost miss the atrocious TBS announcers. Another inning of this and I'll be ready for Joe Morgan.
8:11-Youk hits into the 9th DP of the series for the Sox. Man, you'd think that Boston was made up of a bunch of slow station to station guys. Oh, wait, they are...never mind. And before you tell me that they have speed now, let me point out that all their speed is localized in the legs of Coco Crisp and Julio Lugo, who are currently hitting a combined negative .300 for the series.
8:15-Holy crap! How did that ball go that far? I thought it was going to die in shallow center. Meanwhile, after replay, that looked like a homer to me, but the umps are going to rule it stayed in the park. We need Deion Sanders to come by and dump a cooler of ice water on Tim McCarver...he needs to calm down about Manny running hard. Yes, we ALL know that he should be on second right now, especially since Ortiz scored from first on that play.
8:18-Speaking of dumping ice water on someone, Tito needs to get off the field right now, so he doesn't get tossed. Well, hopefully Lowell will just hit a homer to shut everyone up. Nope, he strikes out, so as Joey from Friends would say, it's all a Moo point anyway.
8:26-Hey, Manny....find any nose gold up there? Pedroia robs Asdrubal Cabrera of a hit...nice play DP!
8:28-Travis Hafner looks overmatched so far this series. Even Terrie commented on how bad he looks. This of course scares me to death...why would I not be surprised to see Pronk blast a series winning homer in the 9th or something like that?
8:33-Tek hits a chopper through the left side for a base hit...I could've sworn that was going to be a 6-4-3. So with 2 on and 0 out, there's no way that Crisp isn't bunting here. Even McCarver picks up on this. Of course, even if Crisp is successful, that leaves the RBI duties up to Julio Lugo. And no surprise, Crisp can't even bunt right...ugh. You might as well leave the bunt on, Tito, Crisp can't hit...and his flailing swing at a slider in the dirt proves me right....and now here's the 10th DP of the series as Lugo sucks the life out of another potential rally. Couldn't we have squeezed Manny into Lugo's #23 jersey and hoped that no-one noticed?
8:40-Looks like Beckett is over any Danielle Peck related foolishness as he is now pounding the strike zone. When he is on, he is as fun as anyone to watch. Nice inning, getting 3 quick outs on grounders. You know Tito would love to have Beckett go at least 8 tonight, and then use Papelbon for the 9th. I don't trust anyone else in the pen right now.
8:47-Youk seems to be making a conscious effort this postseason to swing early in the count more often. It's a good idea since pitchers tend to groove him a fastball early since they know he likes to take. It doesn't work here as he grounds out on the first pitch though. Ortiz follows up by showing bunt and then slapping a single through the left side. That inside-out swing is what the Minnesota Twin coaches wanted him to do all the time. Hey, it's Manny...let's see what happens this time! I don't know how Ramirez laid off that 98 mph heater...a wild pitch from a frustrated Sabathia puts Ortiz on 2nd. I wouldn't be surprised to see Manny walk here. And he does, but it was another close pitch...I figured it would be in the dirt. Time to Lowell to hop in the juvenation machine and pretend it's still August. Drive em in Mike!
8:57-Lowell, after just missing a 2 RBI double, gets hit on the jersey and now Bobby Kielty gets a chance to be a hero. Kielty, who looks like Ronald McDonald on 'roids needs to get a hit here to justify his being in the lineup today. Not that JD Drew is any better, of course. CC muscles up and throws a heater past Kielty for strike 2. Fly ball to right ends the inning, but Sabathia looks like he's starting to lose his command out on the mound. If the Sox can get Ortiz and Manny up in an RBI situation next time up, it seems like this one could get blown open. But seeing as that would require one of the Little Leaguers at the bottom of the order getting on base, it will probably still be tight all the way through.
9:04-No surprise that Tim McCarver likes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...that place is a DUMP!
9:06-What the hell is going on here?! Lofton tries to pick a fight with Beckett after flying out. Dude...you're 40 years old and weigh 115 pounds...Beckett would KILL you! Lofton will do anything to try and fire up his team, apparently.
9:09-Beckett falls behind Gutierrez again after falling behind Lofton. He comes back to get the strikeout on a 97 mph sinking fastball. I don't like seeing Beckett behind in the count though, it looks like either the long top of the inning has messed him up or he's just trying to overthrow now as Casey Blake lines a single to center. Frigging Julio Lugo then knocks the ball away from Pedroia on a grounder from Sizemore...and with Cabrera coming up now, it just feels like they are a fluke hit away from having another huge inning. Nasty 0-1 fastball from Beckett. With all the talk about his use of the curveball this year, he didn't have that 96 mph sinker last year. Cabrera looks bad on the 0-2 fastball and the Sox escape that one. Can we put Alex Cora in the game at SS now? What the HELL was Lugo doing???
9:19-VERY nice job by the ump in that scrum situation. Kudos to Beckett for listening too.
9:21-Watching Coco Crisp, it's hard to imagine that he was once considered to be a potential star with gap to gap power with some home run pop. He's awesome in the field, but he hasn't hit a ball hard in a month.
9:22-Man, I'm SOOOO glad we have another 3 years of Julio Lugo at shortstop. Anybody who's a big enough jackass to beat his wife should not be allowed to play on any team that I'm rooting for. And look at him...he's scrawnier than Lofton...how the hell didn't his wife just beat him up back!??
9:27-As Hafner flails away at the plate, I'm already looking forward to Beckett vs. Lofton, round 2...this could be good. Hopefully Beckett will pitch long enough to get to Lofton again. Ridonkulous curveball gets Hafner...that's right, I made up a word, deal with it. Meanwhile, McCarver once again gets some numbers wrong as he reports that Beckett only has 63 pitches through 6 innings...after the errors tonight and his Brandon Arroyo fiasco from '04, it's fair to ask...is he dyslexic or just drunk?
9:35-Maybe I should bad-mouth Pedroia more often! A leadoff double sets the Sox up for a good inning, especially since the big boys are coming up. I have a feeling that Betancourt is warming up, and the video confirms this...there's NO way that CC is going to be facing Manny again. Youk knocks in Pedroia with a triple off of Sizemore's glove...good catch by McCarver as he noticed that Sizemore slowed down to look where Gutierrez was and in doing so missed the out by half a step. CC is out, so Big Papi will get the RBI chance against a righty.
9:41-Rafael Betancourt steps in, and he has been NASTY so far this series...someone make him pee in a cup...maybe he's on the juice again. Lofton showboats a basket catch on Ortiz's long flyball to score Youkilis. 4-1 Boston and let's see what happens to Manny...I feel an inside pitch coming up. Manny is finally retired on an 0-2 count as Betancourt continues to deal. The pitch looked a bit outside but it was close enough...I give Manny credit for not arguing. After Lowell lines out, the inning comes to a close...it wasn't a huge inning, but Beckett has some breathing room now. Hopefully he can stay hot and get through 8.
9:54-Lowell takes a ball away from Lugo and spins to throw out Peralta. Lowell definitely does not look graceful over there, but he gets it done. Let's see what Beckett gives Lofton. First pitch looked a foot outside but the ump calls it a strike just to piss Kenny off. Of course, Beckett can't throw anything inside now, because if he misses and hits Lofton, it will get ugly. Lofton grounds back to Beckett who misses it for an error, and now let's see if Lofton tries to run. Gutierrez has had a couple of good at bats with Beckett, and now gets to 3-1 but flies out to Crisp in medium center. Now on the game summary, Fox feels the need to inform us that Manny Ramirez hit a 390 foot RBI single in the 3rd inning...give me a break. Get OVER it! Blake strikes out on a gorgeous 95 mph fastball with Lofton running to end the 7th. It is a thing of beauty to watch an ace pitch like one. Hopefully we'll get the chance to see Beckett pitch at least once more this season.
10:07-JD Drew, who came in to play right field for Bobby Kielty now gets to bat against lefty Rafael Perez. I want to be confident in Drew, but he makes it tough. Can we package him and Lugo together in a trade somewhere? Who would be dumb enough to take that deal? It's too bad Al Davis doesn't own a baseball team. Considering how badly they've pitched in this series, the Sox bullpen sure is loose out there as Fox shows Delcarmen and Lester playing the drums on Mirabelli's shin guards followed by Papelbon dancing to YMCA. That's a good sign. (It also means that none of them but Papelbon really expects to pitch tonight...which is a very good sign.)
10:14-Crisp hits a 60 foot squibber that should have been a 1-6-3 DP, but Perez throws it into the dirt at 2nd for an error. Not to worry, Cleveland fans, Julio Lugo is up, you'll get your double play soon enough.
10:16-Well, then, that was nice...Lugo drops down a perfect bunt for a base hit and the bases are loaded with one out.
10:20-With Tom Mastny in, Victor Martinez forgets that his title is "catcher" for a passed ball scoring Drew. Pedroia walks and now Youkilis has a big RBI chance. The Indians really look frazzled...it's tough to put a team away, and they are finding that out right now. Cleveland does not want to go back to Boston and they are pressing.
10:23-Mastny is missing everything low and away, and with a 3-0 count, I'd expect Youk to take the next 2 pitches no matter what. Ball 4 is nowhere close and it's now 6-1. Hey, in games 2 and 4, Cleveland took advantage of some good luck to post huge innings...it's now Boston's turn. I'd like to see another 3 or 4 runs pushed across here...maybe on one swing.
10:27-Ortiz hits a deep sac fly on an 0-2 pitch and the score goes to 7-1. Manny doesn't look too interested in this at-bat as he actually lets his knees buckle on a slider. That doesn't happen very often. Ramirez watches a fastball right down the middle for strike 3...he must have a date tonight or something.
10:33-Jacoby Ellsbury is in the house as he tracks down Sizemore's fly ball on the first pitch of the 8th. Surprised that Grady swung at the first pitch after the long top half of the inning. Cabrera strikes out on another tailing 96 mile an hour heater. That pitch has been amazing tonight for Beckett. Hafner gets ahead of Beckett 3-0...it looks like Pronk is just praying he gets a walk, he doesn't appear to have any idea of what Beckett is trying to do. Beckett has thrown 3 straight 96 mph fastballs to get back in the count...is he setting up the hook? He hasn't thrown many lately. Instead it's another fastball which is skipped off the mound to Lugo for the third out.
10:43-Hey, JD Drew is up in a meaningless at bat...of course he hits a laser beam double to center. The Sox go quietly for the rest of the ninth and Papelbon will stroll in to try and mop up in the bottom half. He'll get to face some dangerous hitters in Martinez, Garko, and Peralta.
10:51-Granted, it's a blowout game, but it's the bottom of the ninth inning of a playoff game, but why wouldn't Joe Buck bring up the Yankees again? Fortunately, he only brought it up to connect a story about Francona from earlier in the night.
10:55-Martinez strikes out on nothing but fastballs as Fox shows Papelbon's Irish jig from the AL East clinching celebration.
10:57-Garko doubles off a belt-high fastball. Time for Paps to show the splitter.
10:59-He doesn't go to the splitter, but he shows Peralta 2 high sliders. Back to the fastball on 2-1 and Peralta helps Paps out by grounding to Lugo. That pitch was well low and away, but Jhonny cuoldn't lya off.
11:03-Lofton draws a walk and now Gutierrez will bat. Papelbon definitely looks like he hasn't pitched in 5 days...maybe he just wants to stress himself out a little bit.
11:04-Gutierrez flies to deep right center and Crisp puts an end to this one. We'll see you Saturday night, McCarver apparently thinks that there are tickets available. If he believes that one, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn that he can buy (and then jump off of).

Great game by Beckett, they really needed that. Now, hopefully Schill can pick it up Saturday night and keep it going. If they can just get some production out of the bottom of the lineup, they'll be tough to beat at home. Speaking of home, the Terrie jinx might have been broken tonight. Pretty much every Red Sox game she has watched with me has been a loss, but she proved to be excellent luck tonight. She was even asking questions about catcher's signals and Manny's quirks...I'll make a baseball fan out of her yet!!

The Mad Professor...

No comment today on the Sox taking 2 out of 3 from the Yanks in the Bronx...it's no fun kicking a dog when it's already lying down. I mean, Julian Tavarez got a win for Christ's sake! Karma will rear it's head at some point this season, trust me, the Yanks will be in the running for the East, as usual. So, that was 3 sentences about something that I said I had no comment on...wow, the coffee is really working this morning!

So the NFL draft was this weekend, of course, and once again the Pats seemed more interested in stockpiling draft picks and proving how smart Belichick and Pioli think they are. First round pick Brandon Meriweather definitely fills a need and was a good pick, all character issues aside. Maybe they just drafted him to stomp on Eric Mangini if there ever was a brawl. What I don't understand is New England trading away their other 1st round pick when they definitely had another need to fill. Maybe they'll just keep trading picks until they end up with 30 first round picks in the year 2016. Their linebacking corps is getting old and could have been improved with the addition of a player like Paul Posluzsny, who has all the makings of the next Mike Vrabel. Seeing him go to division rival Buffalo could be a painful mistake for the P-Men.

A big part of the draft festivities, of course, was the trade for Randy Moss. They didn't have to pay a very steep price to get him, who'd have thought 5 years ago that Moss trade value would be equal to that of Josh McCown and Mike Williams (traded to the Raiders for a 4th round pick)? I'm not worried about Moss' attitude, he genuinely wants to win, but he doesn't seem to be a fit for what the Patriots try to do on offense. They have never been a team that throws a lot of deep passes, and that is all Moss is able to do. Granted, they have never had a deep threat like Moss, but isn't that why they signed Donte' Stallworth? The biggest knock on the group of wideouts that the Patriots had this past season was that none of them were able to establish any sort of chemistry with Tom Brady...well, there's NO way that Moss will ever develop that relationship. He won't go over the middle, he'll take plays off if he's not the main target, and he just doesn't run any crisp patterns. Moss will have a few good games here and there, but he alone does not suddenly make the Patriots Super Bowl favorites...sad to say, but Wes Welker will probably end up leading the team in receptions this year.

Also, I do need to say kudos to the Vikings for grabbing Adrian Peterson with their top draft pick. I was terrified they were going to select the un-mighty Quinn, but it looks like they are committed to the 2nd year guy Tarvaris Jackson at QB. Peterson and Taylor will give the Vikings one of the strongest running games in all the league...if their passing game can catch up, they could challenge the Bears in the NFC Norris this fall. I would have preferred Dwayne Jarrett or Steve Smith to Sidney Rice though, I don't trust underclassmen receivers out of South Carolina...paging Troy Williamson! (The only good thing about Williamson is, unlike the rest of the Vikings, you know he'll never commit a crime, because if he got sent to jail, he'd be so worried about Bogs that he would constantly be dropping the soap in the shower.) And on that horribly lame joke, I'm out like Jeff Karstens' leg.

Yanks

So that was a nice and comforting series with the Yankees. Good to know that the Sox can show a pulse against their stiffest competition. Each one of those games definitely had a playoff feel to it...ordinarily in a baseball game, there are several at-bats where the intensity level is very low. In these games, every pitch felt like the game was on the line...

While the sweep was well earned, it is a little worrisome that the Sox fell behind in every game, even though the pitching matchups were in Boston's favor. If Schilling, Beckett, and Matsuzaka give up 5+ runs/game, I can just imagine what would have happened if the Sox had thrown Timmy or Tavarez out there, and this was an injury-depleted Yankee lineup. Depending on the pitching matchups, I think this weekend's series in the Bronx will be a truer barometer of where these teams are competitively.

That being said, I think the key to this series was the ability of the Sox starters to limit the damage done to them. With the exception of Schilling in game 1, the Yankees weren't able to really put together a big inning. They were able to consistently wriggle out of trouble, which really spared the bullpen. The pen has been excellent so far, but that is due, in part, to the fact that they haven't been needed that much. The Boston pen has thrown the fewest innings in the American League so far this year...if the starters can keep eating innnigs while keeping their team in the game, the Sox have a real chance to finally win the East this season.

Meanwhile, is there much doubt that Joe Torre should be done after this season? His amazing ability to utterly mismanage his bullpen is undoubtedly one of the major factors in New York's failure to win a World Series since 2000. Yes, the Yankees have had more than their fair share of injuries over the years to their pitchers, but Torre has made a career out of overusing his middle relief guys...calling Paul Quantrill! Just look at last night's game; he brings Pettite in from the pen on his scheduled throw day, and Andy looks great, getting through his inning of work in just 9 pitches. The Yanks have the lead at this point...why wouldn't Joe just keep Pettite in for another inning? He had only thrown a few pitches...what was the point in bringing in an obviously overworked and tired Scott Proctor? A few batters later, and the lead was gone and Torre had to bring in Sean Henn to finish the game out. It wouldn't surprise anyone, I don't think, if Joe Giradi was calling the shots in the Big Apple next season...

Ouch, babe

So I guess my earlier comparison of Felix Hernandez to Francisco Liriano was more on point than I thought. Now that King Felix has "tightness" in his elbow, Seattle fans better get Dr James Andrews on speed dial, because elbow enjuries don't seem to go away without the Tommy John procedure. Hopefully, this doesn't amount to anything, but it looks like a long season just got longer in the Pacific Northwest.

Elsewhere, Sox use the long ball and a THIRD straight awesome performance from Tim-may to beat the Jays in Toronto. Big win for the Beantown boys, since Julian Tavarez is getting thrown to the wolves today against Big Doc Halladay, who is coming off a 10 inning complete game victory.

The big bad Yankees pounded Cleveland again last night, with Duke Temple hitting yet another homer. It looks like the only way to beat them is to score 10 runs, since they are consistently getting 6 or 7 every night, their performance against Ramon Ortiz not withstanding. This team is a constant rebuttal to the conventional wisdom that good pitching beats good hitting. It actually takes great pitching to beat good hitting, and great pitching versus great hitting is pretty much a toss-up.

Halos

After cursing out the Boston offense at the end of my last post, I have to say that they brought the bats out of hibernation for the last game of the Mariner series and the entire Angels series. I know a lot of that had to do with the seriously lackluster pitching they were facing, but good teams take advantage of their favorable matchups, and that's precisely what the Sox did. John Lackey did a good job shutting down the lineup for most of game 1, but after Darren Oliver's fiasco (how is he still pitching, by the way?), the game was definitely out of hand. I've gotta say, I'm loving how Fran-coma is using Papelbon so far...why wouldn't you bring your best pitcher out of the pen to put out the biggest threat, even if it isn't the 9th inning? Of course, it could backfire if the other team puts together a rally against an inferior pitcher and you've already used your closer, but it's a risk that you definitely take.

Saw this in Rob Neyer's blog on ESPN.com (it's for ESPN insiders, so I can't link to his blog itself) and it's an interesting, if kind of superficial read. In my opnion, the game really needs more characters like Manny around; it's funny, I absolutely hated him and thought he was worthless when he was in Cleveland, but I love him as a Boston player. Now, I know that Manny always starts very very slowly, but I have to wonder if last year's shutdown and his drastically slow start this year are connected. The guy obviously loves to play too much to be purposefully stinking, but what if he's been watching the Celtics intentionally tank games for the last 2 months and is getting ideas? Quick, call up the CHB, we need to start a controversy for no good reason!!! (Yes, I know that's not his blog, but as they say, why would you want to read his stuff?)

I'm back

Well, good to know it wasn't me jinxing the bats...

8:06 Looks like Donnelly lit a fire under Guillen's ass yesterday...he's raking tonight.
8:07 Let's see if Pineiro can get anybody out...throw a strike numnuts!
8:08 Note to Pineiro...your slider sucks, stop throwing it! He has come on looking just like he did Sunday night against Texas. He needs to get ahead before he can throw a breaking pitch. I can't believe management (and me) thought he had a chance to be a closer!
8:10 Betancourt will get fined in kangaroo court for flying out weakly on the first pitch after Pineiro had showed no ability to be anywhere near the strike zone so far. Stupid play by a young kid.

Hey, did you know that Felix is still throwing a no-hitter? JINX!
8:12 Hey, it worked! JD Drew drills a first pitch fastball into center for the Sox's first hit. The Fenway crowd gives Hernandez a standing ovation, nice gesture (of course they were probably just cheering Drew, but it could have been good sportsmanship).
8:16 It looks like Varitek might turn around and beat Jerry Crawford with his bat any second now. After starting 0-2, the last two pitches were exactly the same as the first 2, but they were called balls.
8:18 Hey Richie, you have to catch the ball to make an out.

On another note...it's almost halfway through the Yankee-Twin game and A-Fraud doesn't have a homer yet...what a slacker, a TRUE Yankee would hit a home every time he saw Ramon Ortiz. Oh, and Mike Mussina left the game with an undisclosed injury. Looks like they may HAVE to bring up Philip Hughes already, otherwise Ron Guidry is gonna have to come out of retirement and help them out.

8:22 ESPN tells us that Ichiro has the third highest BA amongst active players behind only Helton and Pujols. I still think Helton would look awfully good in a Sox uniform. Ichiro flies out, and Coco takes a horrendous route to the ball, breaking in several steps, before sprinting back to the ball. Has he been taking fielding lessons from Manny?
8:24 Speaking of bad fielding, Lugo just made a nice pickup on a ball in the hole, but he doesn't set himself enough and air-mails Youkilis for a 2 base error. Let's see if Pin-head can focus himself and get out of the inning.
8:26 Sure, my fantasy team hasn't had a save yet all season, and they don't bring Putz out of the pen for an easy 3 run save. Stupid baseball.
8:33 The curve ball that Youkilis just struck out on looked eerily like the first pitch that DM threw to Ichiro. Fitting way to end the ball game. That kid is just ridiculous, 17 groundouts and 6 strikeouts? You don't see a strikout pitcher get a lot of groundballs, but he has got such nasty stuff, you just can't level it up as a hitter.

Well, looks like my e-mail to my brother was prophetic yesterday, I was afraid of the Sox using all their hits up yesterday, and that was definitely the case. Boston's offense just doesn't impress me, and hasn't since '04. It's Ortiz and Manny and a bunch of nothing after that. If those 2 don't drive in 140 runs each, they're not going to contend. And that isn't a reaction to tonight's game, not many teams would have gotten more than 1 hit off of Hernandez tonight, it's been an ongoing issue now, as I said, for a couple of seasons now, and Julio Lugo is NOT the answer, sorry.

Anywho, they're 4-4 now, time to win tomorrow and take the series. Wakefield will try to flutter his way to a win in the snow, wouldn't it be just right if the Mariners had another game snowed out?

Ode to Bill Simmons

I figure in honor of tonight's possible monumental Hideki Okajima vs Kenji Johjima showdown, I should attempt to do a running diary, ala Bill Simmons. I should say right away though, that I will have to leave at 7:30 to pick the wife up at school, so I will probably miss a few innings of game action.

Glad to see that the WWL sends us the very underrated Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser, and Steve Phillips to cover this game, I'm not sure I could have handled 9 innings of Joe Morgan's senseless ramblings. Oh yeah, and Bonnie Bernstein is in the house tonight...always a nice addition.

6:10 First pitch is a nasty curve ball for strike one...atta boy.
6:12 Jerry Crawford seems to have a tight zone early on, but K-Zone says they were balls. Fitting that Ichiro would ground right back to the mound for out number 1. He had a lot of those against the Royals too.
6:14 Already seeing DM mixing up not only his pitches, but his deliveries...he looked quick to Ichiro, but now is really pausing versus Vidro.
6:17 Lots of ground balls in the first inning tells us that his breaking ball has some nasty late movement. Orel chips in to say that scouts are advising batters to go after the first straight pitch they see. Probably a good idea, since even though his fastball touches 97 on the overzealous radar gun, it's pretty straight.
6:19 Now we get to see King Felix go to work for the Mariners...man, if Beckett and DM can be as good as advertised, what a crop of pitchers we have in the AL this year and years to come. Johan Santana, Felix, Rich Harden, DM and Beckett should all be fighting for Cy Young awards.
6:20 Felix definitely lost some weight...he looks like half the man he used to be. He's gonna have to watch out unless he wants to be the next CC Sabathia.
6:22 Nice grab by Lopez on Youkilis' pop up...Seattle has got a nice young group of middle infielders...they've got a decent core of players to develop around if only they had a GM worth anything.
6:23 Hey Big Papi, hit it deep, bro. Nope, how about a weak groundout to right field, I mean, second base...I hate infield shifts.
6:25 I didn't think those Dr Scholls gellin' commercials could get any worse...I was wrong. Shoot me now, I am SO not gellin'.
6:26 Richie Sexson should bat from his knees, just to reduce his strike zone...Christ, the guy is 12 feet tall.
6:28 That's why you should always give Guillen the green light 3-0, if he gets a fastball, he can hit anyone's. But man, is he loco. Can you just imagine what would happen if Carl Everett was still on this team?
6:29 I knew I should have started Johjima in fantasy baseball.
6:31 And all across the nation, children weep as the M's take a 1-0 lead. Pretty good job by Manny, but the throw tailed just enough to let the nutcase Guillen sneak under the tag.
6:36 Boy, is Manny slow, but at least it looked like he ran hard out of the box as the ball pinballs off of Felix right to Beltre for out #1.
6:38 Felix is definitely grooved in already tonight. He just struck out Drew like he wasn't even there. 100 MPH fastball fouled off, followed by a ridiculous curve ball for the backwards K. Man, even Carlos Beltran wouldn't have bothered swinging at that...wait, Beltran never swings at 2 strike breaking balls, never mind.
6:45 Do all these numnuts in the stands with signs involving dice really think that they are being clever? First K for DM as he freezes Vidro with the breaking ball down and in. No sign of the mythical gyroball yet. Orel said earlier on Sportscenter that the gyroball was either a cut fastball or a screwball changeup...well, those pitches have exactly the opposite movement of each other, so it can't be both of them, which is it perfessor Orel?
6:49 Oops, I forgot another potential AL Cy Younger in the future...Francisco Liriano, if he comes back healthy. Felix definitely reminds me of Liriano only from the right side. When your slider hits 93 with late break, you're gonna win a LOT of games.
6:50 Nice catch there you dumb Mariner. At first glance, I thought that foul ball went off his head, but it only went off the wall right behind him.
6:51 The announcers say that Coco was overmatched by Felix...well so far this year and last, Coco has been overmatched by anybody and everybody.
6:52 Pedroia's at bat will NOT end well...
6:53 Holy crap, Dustin draws a walk. He looked like a little leaguer out there against Felix...he did foul one pitch off, but he had NO desire to swing the bat there.
6:54 I hate to say it, but after giving up only 2 hits on opening day, Felix just might better that tonight. Sometimes, you can just tell a pitcher has no-no stuff working, and he sure does tonight. Not saying it's gonna happen, but it has that feel right now.
6:58 OK, Orel has decided that the gyroball is a screwball. Let's see if he changes his mind later.
7:00 Crawford was even fooled on that fastball against Sexson...c'mon Blue, ring 'em up!
7:02 Come on, Steve, Sexson has a LOT of holes in his swing.
7:02 So, if DM wasn't Japanese, would the ump have warned the benches after plunking Guillen on the arm? This part of the order seems to be frustrating DM, he doesn't have the command that he did against Ichiro and the top of the lineup.
7:04 Guillen just looked for Manny as the Sox ran off the field...that could have gone any number of different ways...would anybody have been surprised if Guillen had thrown a wild haymaker at him as Manny went by? Fortunately, he just smiled and patted him on the back...so great, Guillen and Manny are buddies...hopefully crazy ain't contagious.
7:07 Youk draws a quick 4 pitch walk...this will be Felix's downfall if he has one, he tends to overthrow his fastball and lose command.
7:08 Have I mentioned I hate infield shifts?
7:10 That's why I dig Orel in the booth. He lets us know a little bit about the psyche of a major league athlete. Felix has been dominant his whole life and he relaxed a bit last year. Once he realized that he had to improve his physique to consistently get major league hitters out, he worked his ass off and got it done. Through 4, it's still 1-0 M's, and DM has been good, but the story has definitely been King Felix so far.
7:16 ESPN lets us listen to the Japanese broadcast of the third Ichiro at bat, and guess who our new color commentator is? Why it's Bert Blyleven's favorite name in the whole wide world...Shigetoshi Hasegawa! Nice to know that Japanese ballplayers just sort of drift into broadcasting too.
7:18 DM gives up a rocket shot to Beltre for an RBI double. If Crisp had any sort of arm, then they probably nail Lopez at home, and now it's 3-0 as Vidro goes up the middle. I don't know how Vidro got on top of that high fastball...ugly swing but it worked. Ugh, need to get the bats going fellas. I wonder if in the backs of their minds, the Sox feel that they don't need to score a lot of runs because Matsuzaka is pitching.
7:23 Drew hits a shot to Lopez at 2nd, and Sexson has to bail out his 2nd baseman on a poor throw. The official scorer is probably glad he didn't have to rule that a hit or an error.
7:24 Lopez is everywhere! He gets Lowell on a ground ball right over the mound, grabs the ball, runs towards shortstop, eats a hot dog, writes a letter to his mom, and then finally throws the ball to first and Lowell still was only halfway up the line.

Well, time to go get Terrie, maybe my leaving will take the jinx off the Sox. Back later to check in.

Results

Well, according to the WWL's boxscores, that was the 3rd best pitched game in the American League thus far this year. Of course, it was just against the Royals, so let's not get too carried away just yet. On another note, that was also a nice game for Zach Greinke in his first major league start in a couple of years. He's battled his way back from some emotional and mental issues (no doubt caused by pitching for the Royals...was that uncalled for?), and has the stuff to be one of the best young pitchers in the game. Dare I say it, if he can stay strong and Meche can pitch like he did Monday, then the Royals have a chance....to not finish dead last this year.

Thursday Thoughts

Who's ready for Matsuzaka-mania? You'd think that Cy Young had risen from the grave and started pitching again for all the hoopla around the Japanese import. The Sox better hope that he turns out a whole lot better than the last major Japanese pitching prospect in the majors...Hideki Irabu. Dice-K should be a stud, and against the AAAA lineup that the Royals will throw out there, he should be good enough for 7 innings and a couple runs allowed with 6 or 7 K's. Hopefully, he'll turn out to be worth all the fuss.

After seeing the highlights of last night's game, I don't see any signs that Josh Beckett has made the necessary adjustments to his game this year. He was waaaaaaaaaaay too excited out there, and looked like he was resorting to his old habit of just trying to blow everything by all the hitters. That works against lesser teams, but in Fenway against the slugging teams of the AL East, I don't see any way his ERA doesn't end up well over 4 again.

Theo should definitely start looking at the Todd Helton trade again...Craig Hansen or Manny Delcarmen are expendable now that Papelbon is closing again, so it's a worthwhile chance to take. Mike Lowell's bat looks very slow so far this spring, and I don't see him turning it on this season.

Opening Day...3 days later

I figured I should probably start this blog-thing with a brief description of what you can expect to read on here. I'll pretty much just be talking sports, since that's just about all I know anything about, but I'll try and mix in a little pop culture and other non-relevant information from time to time. I know, I know, if I'm going to be writing a sports blog, then I should be using Fox sports or something, and I did, but I didn't much care for it and I was too lazy to keep entering stuff on there. So hopefully you like what you read, and if not, well, as Homer Simpson would say, "If you don't like it, you can move to Russia!" (Hopefully by linking to the Simpsons' website, Fox won't send any hired goons after me for using a Simpsons' quote..."hired goons?"...oops, I did it again.)

A lot of my content will most likely be a reaction to my brother's blog about the upcoming season of the Boston Red Sox. Yeah, there are way too many Red Sox "fans" out there, but growing up in New England, rooting for the Sox was a way of life, and true fans like my brother and I are much less annoying than the so-called "Red Sox Nation" members who wear pink hats and couldn't tell you who Carlos Quintana was to save their life. Anyway, Pat is going to try and post a little bit about every Sox game this season, and I'm going to try and rip his opinions apart...oughta be fun, huh? Kind of like a blogged version of PTI, except we'll probably agree a lot more than Wilbon and Kornheiser do.

Anyway, the random question for today is, if they made a baseball version of Space Jam, who would the Looney Tunes recruit to take on the evil alien lineup? Come to think of it, who would the aliens abduct for their lineup? I'm thinking something like this...

Bad Guys-
CF-Alfonso Soriano
SS-Edgar Renteria (or Rent-a-Wreck, as my brother would call him)
1B-Albert Pujols
LF-Manny Ramirez (he may actually have been abducted already)
3B-Alex Rodriguez (aliens are welcome to abduct him whenever they want...I don't think anyone would mind)
DH-Barry Bonds
RF-Bobby Abreu
2B-Ray Durham
C-Ivan Rodriguez

SP-Roger Clemens
RP-Armando Benitez

Good Guys
SS-Jose Reyes
C-Joe Mauer
DH-David Ortiz
1B-Mark Teixeira
CF-Grady Sizemore
2B-Chase Utley
3B-David Wright
RF-Vladimir Guerrero
LF-Adam Dunn (for comic relief)

SP-Johan Santana - duh
RP-Joe Nathan

Well, gotta go, I need to start getting ready for my drive to London. (see step #19)