Schadenfreude 99 (A Continuing Series)

John Harper, Daily News:

This can't happen, right?

Logic tells you this can't possibly turn into a panic-stricken final-week pennant race in which the Yankees need oxygen masks to breathe while trying not to look over their shoulders at the back-from-the-dead Red Sox. ...

The problem, of course, is that there is nothing logical about September collapses. Ask the Mets. ...

Anthony Mccarron, Daily News:

[T]he Yanks have played so poorly they are making some of their normally uber-confident fans antsy ... Certainly, unease was the dominant feeling among the souls at the Stadium Saturday ...

George A. King III, Post:

On every level yesterday, the staggering Yankees converted Yankee Stadium into the world's largest and most expensive toilet bowl. ...

No wonder the 7-3 loss to the Red Sox was met with boos from the sold-out gathering of 49,558, which begged Girardi to remove Nova before he did and booed Gaudin off the hill. ...

Joel Sherman, Post:

[T]his weekend has the feel of a reverse Boston Massacre, or as if the ghosts of the 2004 ALCS Yankee choke job are being revived. That four games remain between the teams means the Red Sox have re-opened a door that seemed closed. ...

And Girardi's schizophrenic managing style has helped open that door. He has alternately pushed hard and pulled back so often over the last few weeks that his team has been left as tight as its high-strung skipper.

The Yankees had Tony Dungy, who coached Indianapolis to the 2007 Super Bowl championship, address the team before Saturday's game.

Phil Hughes said Dungy talked "about preparing for what's ahead of us".

Like yet another loss?

On the morning of Sunday, September 5, the Yankees were 86-50 and they led the AL East by 2.5 games. Since then, they have gone 6-13 -- and are mired in their second four-game losing streak in the last three weeks.

Without a couple of opportune ninth-inning home runs, New York might have gone 4-15. In one road trip, they watched the Rangers, Rays and Orioles walk off with extra-inning victories.

Amazingly, New York has blown a 2.5-game lead and tumbled into second place twice in the last 17 days. On September 10, they led Tampa Bay by 2.5 -- and promptly lost four in a row, falling 0.5 GB the Rays.

But then the Yankees won four out of their next five games and on September 21, they were once again 2.5 games up. But they have dropped four straight games since then -- while the Rays have won four straight -- and so the Yankees find themselves 1.5 GB this morning. It's the farthest they have been out of first place since June 10.

Jed Lowrie, asked if the Red Sox are still holding out any hope for a playoff spot:

Why not?

Daniel Bard:

Everyone's been counting us out for almost two months now. We just haven't given up. I think we're playing with a little something to prove but really no pressure on us. Like I said, we've been counted out.

They're playing with something to lose. They've been holding that top spot in the division and, if not, the wild card, all year. If anything, they have the reason to be nervous, it seems like. ...

If we keep doing what we need to do and a little bit of luck happens, that last series could be pretty interesting. ... Any team's capable of running off nine in a row or running off a 1-8. ... [C]razier things have happened for sure.

G154: Red Sox 7, Yankees 3

Red Sox - 003 010 201 - 7 12  1
Yankees - 000 000 021 - 3  4  0

Lester (7-2-0-3-8, 104) retired the first 12 Yankees and did not allow a hit until there was one out in the sixth. For those who care about such things, Lester is now 19-8, with one start remaining.

Boston battered Nova in the third, as Ryan Kalish was hit by a pitch, Daniel Nava walked, Lars Anderson singled, Marco Scutaro singled (1-0), J.D. Drew GIDP (2-0), Victor Martinez walked, and David Ortiz singled (3-0).

In the fifth, Drew doubled and Ortiz (facing Royce Ring) singled him home. Drew and Martinez hit back-to-back home runs to bnegint he seventh to boost the score to 6-0. The Red Sox got a run off Joba Chamberlain in the ninth as Jed Lowrie and Kalish hit consecutive doubles.

The win brought the Red Sox 5.5 GB the Yankees in the Wild Card, with eight games to play. The Rays beat the Mariners 9-1, increasing their AL East lead to 1.5 games.

Jon Lester / Ivan Nova

Scutaro, 2B
Drew, RF
Martinez, C
Ortiz, DH
Beltre, 3B
Lowrie, SS
Kalish, CF
Nava, LF
Anderson, 1B

After being released by the Cardinals, infielder Felipe Lopez rejected a waiver claim by the Padres and signed with the Red Sox. He is in uniform today.

In 109 games with St. Louis, Lopez hit .231/.310/.340. Since Lopez, 30, will likely be a Type B free agent this winter, if Boston offers arbitration and Lopez declines, the team would receive a supplemental draft pick. I cannot think of any other reason to have him around.

At 7 PM: Mariners/Rays.

September 25:

1965 - Satchel Paige, at age 59, starts and pitches three innings for Kansas City. It is his first major league appearance in 12 years and he allows only one hit, a double to Carl Yastrzemski. The Red Sox win 5-2.

Schadenfreude 98 (A Continuing Series)

Mark Feinsand, Daily News:

It has seemed for a while that the Yankees have not been going all-out to win the American League East. But after another dismal night in the Bronx, is it getting tight enough for them to start wondering when - or if - they will clinch the wild-card spot? ...

One night after CC Sabathia got rocked by the Rays, Pettitte's brief, ineffective effort has to raise some red flags inside the Yankees' clubhouse ...

George A. King III, Post:

Considering Pettitte missed close to two months at the age of 38, it's easy to rationalize he would need time to adjust. Time, however, isn't on the Yankees' side. ...

[Pettitte] is concerned that his cut fastball, once his signature pitch, hasn't surfaced since his groin healed.

Mike Vaccaro, Post:

If you are inclined toward panic ... Pettitte recorded 10 outs, for instance, and surrendered 10 hits, not usually a recommended daily allowance of either if you are a starting pitcher. He threw 75 pitches ... and only 46 of them were strikes, and almost none of them were delivered with the kind of command Pettitte is used to.

These are uncomfortable times around the Yankees, and with reason. The Rays won again last night, so the Yankees awaken this morning, officially, as a second-place team again. The Red Sox [can] ... maybe throw a genuine jolt of concern at the Yankees with a sweep.

Tim Smith, Daily News:

[A]fter watching Sabathia and Pettitte struggle, jittery Yankee fans will start wringing their hands even more. ... If the two lefties don't come through in the playoffs, the Yankees are doomed ... the Bombers won't make it out of the first round. ...

And with Ivan Nova dueling Jon Lester Saturday and Moseley pitching instead of Hughes Sunday night, [the Red Sox] could make this a nightmare weekend for the Bombers.

Mark Feinsand, Blogging the Bombers:

Based on the tweets and e-mails I've seen, you'd think the Red Sox passed the Yankees in the standings tonight along with the Rays.

Lowell: "I Felt Like The Ball Was Still Lodged In My Head"

Mike Lowell, on getting nailed in the right side of his head by Curtis Granderson's bad hop grounder in the fifth inning last night:

I feel like I've got a knot inside my head. ... I've never seen a bounce like that in my life. ... I didn't see stars. I felt like the ball was still lodged in my head, but I never lost consciousness and I didn't get dizzy. ... I would have stayed in the game, but it was 10-1 at the time. My eye started twitching a little, and I didn't really want to hit like that. I had enough excitement for a day.

Next Saturday's game against the Yankees at Fenway will be "Thanks, Mike Night" -- with a pre-game ceremony noting Lowell's career and his five seasons in Boston.

Lowell debuted with the Yankees in 1998 and was traded to the Marlins the following spring. He came to Boston with Josh Beckett after the 2005 season and was named the MVP of the 2007 World Series. Lowell recalled that he made a good first impression in Boston. "I went 4-for-4 the first home game."

He's right. April 11, 2006, against Toronto: 4-for-4, with (no surprise) three doubles.

Saltalamacchia: Ligament Damage In Thumb

Jarrod Saltalamacchia will not play for the remainder of the season because of ligament damage in his left thumb. Dr. Thomas Graham, who performed thumb surgery on Kevin Youkilis earlier this year, will examine Salty in Cleveland next week.

Saltalamacchia says surgery is a possibility: "Nobody wants to make a decision right now until we figure everything out. There is definitely some damage in there, but nothing threatening. It's just one of those things where we just got to see how far it is."

G153: Red Sox 10, Yankees 8

Red Sox - 030 430 000 - 10 14  1
Yankees - 001 002 401 -  8 10  1

Jed Lowrie went 4-for-4 and hit a three-run homer in the second inning. Darnell McDonald and Marco Scutaro each had two RBI in the fourth, and Bill Hall added a three-run dong in the fifth.

The Yankees hit six home runs (and four singles). It is only the fourth time since 1920 that the Yankees have hit as many as six homers against Boston. They hit seven on May 30, 1961, and six on both June 2, 1935 (also only 10 hits) and May 26, 2002.

(And hit six home runs in a nine-inning game and lose? This is only the 19th time it has happened in the last 91 years.)

The Rays beat the Mariners 5-3 and moved into first place in the East, 0.5 GA of the Yankees. Boston is 6.5 GB New York in the Wild Card race. Two wins this weekend would bring them within 4.5 with 7 games to go, including 3 head-to-head. Just sayin'...

Josh Beckett / Andy Pettitte

Scutaro, 2B
Drew, RF
Martinez, C
Beltre, 3B
Ortiz, DH
Lowell, 1B
Lowrie, SS
Hall, LF
McDonald, CF

This series -- and the three games at Fenway next weekend to end the regular season -- have far less meaning that we had hoped. Now the job is to knock the MFY out of first place.

Since August 1, both teams have played at two games over .500 (Yankees 26-24; Red Sox 25-23). New York has lost 11 of its last 17 games, while Boston has dropped 13 of its last 23.

Also at 7 PM: Mariners/Rays.

September 24:

1921 - The Tigers lose to the Senators 5-1 and an angry Ty Cobb challenges umpire Billy Evans to a fight. Evans accepts and they brawl. George Hildebrand, the game's other umpire, reports the incident to AL president Ban Johnson, but Johnson does nothing. Commissioner Kenesaw Landis suspends Cobb, but allows him to continue as manager.

1931 - A round-robin playoff series between the Giants, Dodgers and Yankees raises $48,000 for charity. Between games, Babe Ruth bats right-handed (!) and wins the fungo hitting contest, hitting a ball 421 feet.

1939 - Johnny Cooney played 20 years in the majors and hit only two home runs -- and they came on consecutive days. He hits his first in the opening game of a doubleheader today and the second in tomorrow's game.

Consecutive Times On Base: Frank Ward (1893) And Ted Williams (1957)

On this date in 1957, Washington Senators pitcher Hal Griggs gets Ted Williams to ground out to second in the first inning, ending Williams's streak of reaching base in 16 consecutive plate appearances.

That was believed to be the all-time record until 2007, when researcher Trent McCotter discovered a 17-PA streak by Frank Ward from June 16-19, 1893. There may be a longer streak that has not yet been discovered, but for now, Ward holds the record.

Oddly, Ward was traded during the streak. He played for Baltimore (against Cincinnati) on June 16 and then was traded to the Reds. On June 18, in his first game for his new team, he reached safely eight times in a nine-inning game, which is still a major league record.

Here are the two streaks:

Williams (he had not played since September 1)

0917 - 8th inning - solo home run (pinch-hitter)
  
0918 - 8th inning - walk (pinch-hitter)
  
0920 - 9th inning - solo home run (pinch-hitter)
  
0921 - 1st inning - intentional walk
       2nd inning - grand slam home run
       4th inning - walk
       6th inning - walk
  
0922 - 1st inning - walk
       4th inning - solo home run
       6th inning - single
       8th inning - walk
  
0923 - 1st inning - single
       2nd inning - walk
       4th inning - walk
       6th inning - walk
       8th inning - hit by pitch
  
6-for-6; 2 singles; 4 home runs;
10 walks; 7 runs; 7 RBI

After Williams grounded out in his first time up on June 24, he reached base in six of his next eight plate appearances -- for a 22-of-25 streak (a nifty .880 OBP!).

Ward

0616 - 1st inning - out
       4th inning - single
       5th inning - triple
                    walk
       6th inning - walk
  
0618 - 1st inning - walk
                    walk
       other pbp details are unknown
       but he had 2 hits, 5 walks, 1 HBP
  
0619 - 1st inning - single
       2nd inning - walk
       5th inning - single
       6th inning - single
       7th inning - single

8-for-8; 7 singles; 1 triple; 8 walks, 1 HBP

Ward made an out in the first inning on June 20.

Christmas in September

I don't care what the calendar says. It is Christmas.

Because the FJM boys have taken over Deadspin.

Founded in 2005, [Fire Joe Morgan's] original purpose was to garner support for a proposed mosque to be built in lower Manhattan, but as time went on, it evolved into a site dedicated to the eradication of poorly written sports journalism. Over the three years we were in operation, we were 99.44% successful, which is why there is virtually no bad sports journalism today. You're welcome.

Every year for the past one years, Deadspin has invited us to reunite on their site and comment on the worst sports journalism of the year. ...

So, are you ready to have some crummy sportswriting histrionically attacked as if it were existentially threatening our very humanity? You are?

In that case...

We are Fire Joe Morgan. And we are here today to rock your world.

(Assuming your world is rocked by the histrionic attacking of shoddy sports journalism.)

(It is? Then read on, friend!)

I will (somehow) resist posting any snips, but you got stuff on Murray Chass, Bill Conlin, David Eckstein, Mitch Albom, Derek Jeter, a special appearance by the ClichéTron 4000, and an article entitled "Titties Vs. VORP".

ESPN: Four Days In October

On October 5, ESPN presents Four Days In October:

When the night of October 16, 2004 came to a merciful end ... the vaunted Yankee lineup, led by A-Rod, Jeter, and Sheffield, had just extended their ALCS lead to three games to none, pounding out 19 runs against their hated rivals. The next night, in Game 4, the Yankees took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, then turned the game over to Mariano Rivera, the best relief pitcher in postseason history, to secure yet another trip to the World Series. But ...

Over four consecutive days and nights, this unlikely group of Red Sox miraculously won four straight games ... [this film] takes an in-depth look at the 96 hours that brought salvation to Red Sox Nation and made baseball history in the process. ...

"We just don't make it easy on ourselves.

Down and out and then ... POW!!!"

Thomas Boswell, Washington Post, October 21, 2004:

[T]heir generations-old inferiority complex to the Yankees is over. Now, the single biggest postseason flop in baseball history does not belong to some Red Sox team ... Instead, the new and uncontested champions of the October gag are the New York Yankees. And the greatest, gutsiest, most nearly impossible comeback to steal a pennant in all the annals of baseball now belongs to the self-proclaimed "idiots" of the '04 Red Sox. ...

For generations, the Yankees have assiduously cultivated a quasi-religious form of self-worship that leaves its pinstripe players with a conviction of their superiority and all other teams with vague issues surrounding their own inadequacies. ... Now, at least one team sees through it.

Thomas Boswell, Washington Post, October 22, 2004:

[T]he Red Sox [stole] the pennant from the Yankees not once but four times within 72 heart-stopping hours ...

The true distinction of this fabulous week was that this ALCS was the most fun -- the most unadulterated, disbelieving, decades-overdue fun -- that baseball has experienced in our time. And maybe, if you like a pinch of malice with your meat, ever.

Watch a trailer at the link above.

G152: Red Sox 6, Orioles 1

Orioles - 000 100 000 - 1  6  0
Red Sox - 000 312 00x - 6 10  1

Lackey: 7-5-1-0-4, 111.

Ortiz: Three-run homer (#31); 4 RBI.

Kevin Millwood/ John Lackey

Kalish, CF
Drew, RF
Martinez, C
Ortiz, DH
Beltre, 3B
Lowell, 1B
Hall, 2B
Reddick, LF
Navarro, SS

Millwood has a shitty 3-15 record, but as we can see, he is not that much worse than Lackey, who is 12-11.

           IP     H    R   BB   K    ERA   W- L
Millwood  178.2  214  110  61  120  5.14   3-15
Lackey    194.1  219  108  68  137  4.63  12-11
   
           BABIP   AVG/ OBP/ SLG   RS/G   W- L
Millwood   .324   .297/.356/.468   5.03   3-15
Lackey     .329   .286/.349/.437   3.69  12-11

RS/G is run support.

Lackey: 5+ runs in 16 of 30 starts; 2 runs or fewer in 7 starts
Millwood: 5+ runs in 9 of 29 starts; 2 runs or fewer in 11 starts

Lackey's home/road splits offer a clearer example of why W-L should be avoided when looking at any pitcher's stats. (I wonder when, if ever, awarding W and L to pitchers will be scrapped.)

          IP    H   R  BB   K   ERA   WHIP  W-L
Home   101.1  118  59  30  76  4.71  1.461  9-5
Road    93.0  101  49  38  61  4.55  1.495  3-6

Also at 7 PM: Rays/Yankees.

September 22:

1925 - Brooklyn's Burleigh Grimes accounts for seven outs in only three plate appearances, hitting into two double plays and one triple play.

1936 - The Tigers sweep the Browns 12-0 and 14-0, the biggest double shutout in MLB history.

1968 - Minnesota's Cesar Tovar plays one inning at each position. At that time, Bert Campaneris (Oakland's shortstop in this game) was the only other player to have done it (September 8, 1965).

G151: Orioles 9, Red Sox 1

Orioles - 000 001 314 - 9 13  0 
Red Sox - 010 000 000 - 1  8  2

Marco Scutaro dropped an easy popup that should have been the final out of the sixth inning. Instead, the ball fell and Baltimore got an unearned run off Buchholz (6-4-1-3-5, 112) to tie the game.

The Orioles scored three quick runs against Scott Atchison in the seventh when Ty Wigginton's home run sailed just fair past the Pesky Pole. The game was pretty much out of reach at that point at 4-1 -- but Baltimore felt like having more fun, so they tacked on another four runs off Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth.

The Yankees beat the Rays 8-3, so New York leads the East by 2.5 games. Boston remains 6.5 GB Tampa Bay in the WC with 11 to play.

Brad Bergesen / Clay Buchholz

Scutaro, 2B
Drew, RF
Martinez, C
Ortiz, DH
Beltre, 3B
Lowrie, SS
Kalish, CF
Nava, LF
Anderson, 1B

Also at 7 PM: Rays/Yankees

September 21:

1958 - The Red Sox complete a three-game sweep of the Senators, 2-0, 2-0, 2-0, at Fenway Park. In today's game, after being called out on strikes with two men on to end the third inning, Ted Williams throws his bat away. It sails into the stands and hits Gladys Heffernan, the 69-year-old housekeeper of Red Sox GM Joe Cronin, in the head. She is not badly hurt, but Williams is loudly booed in his next at-bat. This incident comes less than two months after Williams incurred his second spitting-related fine in less than two years.

1975 - The Red Sox beat the Tigers 6-5, but rookie Jim Rice suffers a broken wrist when he is hit by a Vern Ruhle pitch in the second inning. He will miss the rest of the season, the ALCS, and the World Series.

September 21

It is the morning of September 21, 2010, and the Red Sox are 6.5 GB Tampa Bay in the Wild Card standings with only a dozen games left on the schedule.

      W   L   PCT   GB  TO PLAY
TBR  89  60  .597  ---    13
BOS  83  67  .553  6.5    12

On the morning of September 21, 1964, the Cardinals trailed the Phillies in the National League by 6.5 games, with 13 games to play.

      W   L   PCT   GB  TO PLAY
PHI  90  60  .600  ---    12
CIN  83  66  .557  6.5    13
STL  83  66  .557  6.5    13

Over the next 10 days, St. Louis went 9-1, Cincinnati went 8-2, and Philadelphia went 0-10.

At the end of the day on September 30, the National League standings looked like this:

      W   L   PCT   GB  TO PLAY
STL  92  67  .579  ---    3
CIN  91  68  .572  1.0    3
PHI  90  70  .563  2.5    2

The Cardinals ended up winning the pennant, finishing 1 GA of both the Reds and Phillies -- and then they beat the Yankees in the World Series.

As we can see, a comeback of the type the Red Sox need is not impossible. However, Bostucket's September roster is unlikely to reel off ten in a row; the season's longest winning streak is six.

Plus, of the Phillies' 10 losses, three were to the Cards and three were to the Reds. The Red Sox have no games against the Rays. And the universe can probably arrange to make that kind of collapse/comeback happen only once, and 1964 was it.

Or was it?

G150: Orioles 4, Red Sox 2

Orioles - 100 100 200 - 4  8  0
Red Sox - 100 001 000 - 2  5  1

Dice (6.1-6-4-5-4, 109) allowed a walk and a double to start the seventh inning. Daniel Bard, who had not pitched in a game since last Tuesday in Seattle, allowed a sacrifice fly and an RBI single to give the Orioles their two-run cushion.

Down by two, Boston did nothing in the last three innings. They went down in order in the seventh, a leadoff single in the eighth was immediately erased by a double play, and they went in order in the ninth. And so the Red Sox's playoff odds, which were 1.54% at the start of the day, took another hit.

The Yankees beat the Rays 8-6, to increase their division lead to 1.5 games. Boston is 6.5 GB Tampa Bay in the WC with 12 games to play.

Brian Matusz / Daisuke Matsuzaka

Scutaro, 2B
McDonald, RF
Martinez, 1B
Beltre, 3B
Lowell, DH
Lowrie, SS
Hall, LF
Varitek, C 
Kalish, CF

A few of Peter Abraham's Sox factoids:

The Red Sox are still second in the majors in runs scored (755) and first in OPS (.791).

The Sox have used 133 batting orders in 149 games. The most common order was used a grand total of five times.

The Red Sox have used 43 different combinations of players in the outfield, their most since 1996.

The Sox have used 25 pitchers, tied for the most in the AL with the Royals.

Also at 7 PM: Rays/Yankees

September 20:

1919 - It's Babe Ruth Day at Fenway Park and the Colossus ties the single-season home run record when he hits #27. No one in the crowd knows it, but this is also the last game Ruth will play for the Red Sox in Boston.

1927 - Ruth hits his 60th home run of the season, breaking the record (59) he set in 1921, which broke the record (54) he set in 1920, which broke the record (29) he set in 1919. With the 60 homers, Babe out-homers 12 of the other 15 MLB teams, including all 7 AL teams. (In 1920, he out-donged 14 of the other 15 teams.)

1998 - Cal Ripken, Jr. is not in Baltimore's lineup, ending his consecutive games played streak at 2,632. The streak began on May 30, 1982.

"The Jacoby Insanity": Don't Think About How It Began

Neil Swidey wrote an opinion piece in today's Globe, The Jacoby Insanity:

Boston has always been a town that specializes in building up stars and then tearing them down. But usually that cycle takes many years, precipitated by a bitter contract dispute. Not so with Ellsbury, who won't even be eligible for free agency until after the 2013 season. ...

While other injured players drew sympathy, the scorn for "soft" Ellsbury grew louder on talk radio, in the sports pages, and on the blogs that featured Ellsbury's face photo-shopped onto images of women in dresses. It didn't help when unnamed members of the Sox organization apparently raised their eyebrows about him behind the scenes ...

[B]efore booing Ellsbury out of town, consider Clay Buchholz. After the young pitcher's stomach-churning performance in one stretch of 2008 -– 0-6 and 8.19 ERA over eight starts -– many of the same critics who've been riding Ellsbury were writing off Buchholz, saying it was foolish to keep this one-no-hit-wonder. Funny how none of them are bringing that up this year as they campaign for Buchholz to be the next Cy Young Award winner.

It is always refreshing to see some sanity in the Boston sports media. However, I noticed that Swidey did not mention how this sorry saga began: a hit piece penned by his Globe colleague, Tony Massarotti, back on May 28.

Swidey simply notes that the scorn for Ellsbury "grew louder on talk radio, in the sports pages, and on the blogs". It is as if the scorn and derision simply appeared one day -- poof! out of nowhere! -- and set about infesting the Boston media and then moving on to the fan base (who were, naturally, helpless to resist).

As I have said before, I know of no news story that ever questioned Ellsbury's work/play ethic before Mazz's May 28 column. Not one. Not when he was in the minors (though Mazz hinted at that) and not during his first 2.5 seasons in Boston. I have asked both here and at Sons of Sam Horn for copies of (or even quotes from) any such articles. No one has come forward with anything.

Does Swidey know how this depressing turn of events was created? I doubt it. Even most serious fans could not pinpoint its genesis. And even if he did and wanted to include it, I'm sure that his editor would consider pointing out that all of this crap sprung from a Globe employee's hatchet job to be the height of impoliteness.

Better to let everyone assume it was just one of those strange, unexplainable things that happen from time to time.

Cafardo: Always Giving A Full 10%

Nick Cafardo, Globe (emphasis mine):

Dr. David Grand, a psychotherapist who specializes in trauma, has worked with catchers who have throwing disorders (including Mackey Sasser), and says he is "90 percent" sure that Jarrod Saltalamacchia still has one in his system.

"He didn't get the remediation necessary to not have it," said Grand, who has not treated the Red Sox catcher. "Based on my experience at all levels, it has to still be in his system, and with enough pressure, it will come out one way or the other."

Grand has watched Saltalamacchia play and believes the disorder could be manifesting itself at the plate.

Grand has read about Saltalamacchia's work with sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman, but his belief is that Dorfman and other sports psychologists don't have the necessary expertise in trauma. His belief is that throwing disorders are triggered by trauma, and unless the trauma is treated specifically, the player never really gets the problem out of his system.

Saltalamacchia was injured once in a home plate collision [Nick is unable to say when], which could be the trauma, or it could be something else in his life buried in his subconscious. ...

So Grand has never met Saltalamacchia, never spoken to him, never examined him, knows absolutely nothing about his personal life or his baseball career, and has never read any report (or even read about a possible report) from any doctor or psychologist who might have actually met with Salty.

In fact, it sounds like Grand has never seen Saltalamacchia in person -- which means that if you have been to a Red Sox game recently, you are more qualified to diagnose Salty's troubles and trauma than Grand is! Nick should have called you!

And, yes, Dr. Nick did mentioned "ribs" this week:

Texas ... The goal is to get Josh Hamilton back in form. The talented outfielder, who missed a couple of weeks with three bruised ribs, leads the league with a .361 average and also has 31 homers, 97 RBIs, and a whopping 1.049 OPS. ...

Cafardo also informs us that CC Sabathia is "jitter-free in big games". Really, Nick?

In 10 post-season starts, CC has a 4.40 ERA and a 1.500 WHIP (4.5 BB/9). 61.1 IP, 61 H, 31 BB, 8 HR -- and those pedestrian numbers have received a big boost from three solid outings in last year's ALDS and ALCS.

Cafardo wonders:

Did Jason Varitek's absence behind the plate lead to a subpar season by the Red Sox pitching staff?

Cafardo admits this is "a tough thing to quantify", so he does not do any research. None at all. Not even pitchers' ERA with Varitek and not-Varitek. He does, however, quote an anonymous scout* who says the confidence Varitek gives a pitcher "sometimes doesn't show up in the numbers"

* 95% of everyone Nick quotes is anonymous, even though they never say anything remotely interesting or controversial.Here are the Boston's staffs numbers with three catchers:

                        OPPONENTS
G   ERA   AVG   OBP   SLG
Varitek    36  4.07  .237  .317  .367
Martinez  100  4.26  .256  .327  .408
Cash       24  3.90  .240  .317  .385

           IP     ER   ERA (includes today!)
Varitek   249.2  113  4.07
Not-Tek  1090.0  509  4.20

It took me about one minute to find this information (and maybe two minutes to add up the stats for the five non-Tek catchers). You can't learn much from it -- maybe Kevin Cash is as good (or better) than Varitek at coaxing solid performances out of Boston's pitchers! -- but it's better than nothing.

If a baseball player showed as little effort in his job as Cafardo does in his, he would hit the ball and then lay down in the batter's box and take a nap.

G149: Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 0

Blue Jays - 000 000 000 - 0  5  1
Red Sox   - 000 150 00x - 6  9  0

Lester (7-4-0-4-4, 112) was brilliant -- though he did escape two bases-loaded jams, in the third and fifth -- and Victor Martinez got the Sox on the board with a solo dong in the fourth.

Boston opened the fifth with four straight hits (Jed Lowrie, Bill Hall, Daniel Nava, and Yamaico Navarro) and J.D. Drew capped the scoring with a two-run homer.

The Orioles beat the Yankees 4-3 in 11 and the Angels beat the Rays 6-3.

Shaun Marcum / Jon Lester

Kalish, CF
Drew, RF
Martinez, C
Ortiz, DH
Lowell, 1B
Lowrie, SS
Hall, 2B
Nava, LF
Navarro, 3B

Adrian Beltre was taken to Mass General this morning to have his left wrist examined.

Yarrrr. Make these scurvy dogs walk the plank!AL East, 1:30 PM:

Yankees/Orioles
Angels/Rays

September 19:

1945 - The Red Sox sweep a doubleheader from Philadelphia 11-10 and 3-0. In the top of the third inning of Game 1, Boston CF Tommy McBride mistakes a pigeon for the ball and Sam Chapman's double bangs off the Wall about 30 feet away. In the bottom of the inning, Skeeter Newsome doubles and A's RF Hal Peck's throw into the infield kills the pigeon. (However, redsox.com states that while the bird was hit with the ball, it was not seriously harmed. I wonder if McBride's "I thought it was the ball" incident is also not quite true.))

1972 - Oakland uses 30 players, including six second basemen and 10 pinch-hitters, in an 8-7, 15-inning loss to the White Sox.

G148: Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 3

Blue Jays - 100 102 000 - 4 10  1
Red Sox   - 010 002 000 - 3 11  1

Crappy game. Beckett (7-10-4-2-4, 111) pitched like poop and the Sox wasted a number of scoring chances. They left the bases loaded in the second, stranded two men in both the sixth and seventh, wasted a leadoff single in the eighth, and left the potential tying run at third in the ninth.

One huge gaffe was Ryan Kalish getting picked off first base by Jose Molina with one out in the ninth. Victor Martinez followed with a stand-up triple to left-center, though there is no guarantee that would have happened had Kalish been able to get back to the bag.

Another error was the Globe's Julian Benbow reporting that Jays closer Kevin Gregg "caught [Kalish] napping". I guess Benbow was also snoozing. Maybe if he wasn't busy thinking of ways to slyly insult various Sox players ("a well-rested JD Drew"), he could have actually followed the game.

The Yankees beat the Orioles 11-3 and the Rays beat the Angels 4-3 in 10 innings. ... Boston is 8 GB in the East and 7.5 GB in the WC with 14 games to play.

Ricky Romero / Josh Beckett

Scutaro, 2B
McDonald, CF
Martinez, 1B
Beltre, 3B
Ortiz, DH
Lowrie, SS
Drew, RF
Hall, LF
Saltalamacchia, C

Beckett's only start against Toronto this year was back on April 26, on my only trip to Skydome this season. He faced 21 batters in 3+ innings, allowing nine hits and eight runs. The Red Sox won the game 13-12.

AL East, 7 PM:

Yankees/Orioles
Angels/Rays

September 18:

1977 - Boston's Ted Cox goes 4-for-4 in his major league debut and the Red Sox beat the Orioles 10-4. Cox starts the next day's game with two hits, setting a record for the most consecutive hits at the start of a career. (I can remember listening to this game on the radio. I would have sworn it was on a weekday night, but it was played on a Sunday afternoon.)

1993 - New York's Mike Stanley flies out to left field, ending the game and giving the Red Sox a 3-1 win in the Bronx -- but the umpires rule that time had been called because a fan had run onto the field. Stanley gets back in the box against Greg Harris, and singles to left. Wade Boggs singles, Dion James walks, and Don Mattingly singles, and the Yankees win 4-3. (I was at this game. In fact, I had moved down to the third or fourth row on the third base side, past the dugout, and was sitting on the aisle when he came running down past me. If only I had stuck out my left foot...)

The Pale King - April 15, 2011

"The Pale King" - an unfinished novel by David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide two years ago - will be published on April 15, 2011. (More about the book here.)

The Tax Day release date is appropriate because the novel is set in an IRS tax-return-processing center in Illinois. Michael Pietsch, who edited the novel, says it centers on "a crew of entry-level processors [in the mid-1980s] and their attempts to do their job in the face of soul-crushing tedium."

A year ago, Pietsch described the novel this way:

The thrust of it is an attempt to look at the dark matter of tedium and boredom and repetition and familiarity that life is made of, and through that to find a path to joy and art and everything that matters. Wallace has set himself the task of making a moving and joyful book out of the matter of life that most writers veer away from as hard as they can. And what he left of it is heartbreakingly full and beautiful and deep. He was looking at how one survives.

Karen Green, Wallace's widow, created the cover art for the US edition (above).

The King of Clubs may symbolize "foresight ... the ability to predict what is coming". Another website (cluttered with ads) says the card

represents a male who is older in age or spirit with brown hair and hazel eyes. ... Suit of Clubs Personality Traits: Inventive, creative, visionary, altruistic. ... Clubs are generally associated with agreements, business pursuits, governmental matters and events with dynamic impact in terms of our lives. Frequently, the Clubs will herald the beginning stages of a new course in life. They usually signify self-growth and accomplishment.

The UK cover has the title written on the height of a huge stack of papers, representing both the enormous amount of work the IRS workers have to do and the way DFW stacked the manuscript before his death.

It also notes the book is "an unfinished novel".

In other DFW news, his papers are now available for researchers at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

The archive includes:

Infinite Jest (novel, 1996)

Container
15.4-7  Handwritten drafts, undated
16.1-6  'First two sections,' typescript drafts
           and photocopy, undated
16.7    Typescript draft fragments, undated
17.1-3  Typescript draft fragment (continued)
17.4-8  Typescript draft, with corrections, undated
18.1-6  Typescript draft (continued)
18.7    Draft for copyedit, undated
19.1-6  Draft for copyedit (continued)
20.1-4  Draft for copyedit (continued)
20.5-6  Typescript, copyedited, May-June 1995, undated
21.1-5  Typescript, copyedited (continued)
22.1-3  Typescript, copyedited (continued)
22.4-6  Proof set, 5 September 1995
23.1-5  Proof set, 6-22 September 1995
23.6    Notepad with corrections list

Sigh. Why couldn't his papers be in Toronto or Buffalo? Or Detroit? Somewhere within driving distance...

Old Socks

Tim Wakefield's relief appearance on Friday night made him the second oldest player to wear a Red Sox uniform.

Deacon McGuire, 1908     44 years, 280 days
Tim Wakefield, 2010      44 years,  46 days
Carl Yastrzemski, 1983   44 years,  41 days

McGuire's time with the Red Sox in 1908 was one pinch-hit appearance on (if my calculations are correct) August 24. He was released four days later and played one game with Cleveland, then returned two years later to play another game with Cleveland, and finish his career with one game with the 1912 Tigers (catching, at age 48).

Wakefield will have to play on or after May 10, 2011 to pass McGuire.

G147: Blue Jays 11, Red Sox 9

Blue Jays - 020 053 100 - 11 17  0
Red Sox   - 200 003 022 -  9 12  1

We actually had a brief lead in this one, thanks to the first of Victor Martinez's two home runs. But to no one's surprise, Lackey (4.1-8-7-2-3, 83) gave it back, immediately -- and then some.

Boston trailed 10-2 in the sixth, but clawed back and had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was Martinez, who had driven in the Sox's third run with a groundout in the sixth, then belted another two-run dong in the eighth. He came up empty this time, however, ending the game with a pop-up to shortstop.

The Yankees rallied for three runs in the top of the ninth and beat the Orioles 4-3, while the Angels broke a tie with a run in the top of their ninth and beat the Rays 4-3.

Boston lost a half-game in both standings, and are 7 GB in the East and 6.5 GB in the WC. 15 games to go.

Brett Cecil / John Lackey

Scutaro, 2B
McDonald, RF
Matinez, C
Beltre, 3B
Ortiz, DH
Lowell, 1B
Lowrie, SS
Hall, LF
Kalish, CF

Boston is 11-4 against Toronto this season. Two of those four losses were in games started by Lackey, who has allowed 24 hits and 10 walks in 18.2 innings (three starts, 7.71 ERA) to the Blue Jays this year.

Toronto has lost seven of its last eight games.

AL East, 7 PM:

Yankees/Orioles
Angels/Rays