Patriots 19, Texans 17

I know we said we weren’t doing game blogs…but in a game that had a 10 run lead blown, a 4 run blow save and a rookie knuckle ball pitcher that gave up 8 runs and didn’t get the loss… it is hard to pin down what the most messed up part of the night was.

Papi hit two 3 run homers in the first inning. Read that again and remember that the Sox had to COME BACK and win this game. Now pick up the pieces of your brain. Thank God for Youk (also 2 HR) and his go ahead bomb. These two goliaths combined for 11 of the total RBI and should be feasting on Texas long horn continuously as the week progresses. Too bad the pitching didn’t follow suit.

Zink might have been overwhelmed by the Texas offense, the bright lights of the big leagues or the fact that he was spotted a 10 run lead… but he fell apart quick. That’s only trumped by the awful outing by Aardsma and Delcarman. These two looked like late scratches from the Western Mozambique Olympic softball team rather than major league pitchers. Not what you want to see when October rolls around.

But if you really want to highlight who I felt bad for, it was a tie between:

Kevin Cash who was the only starter without a hit.
Feldman who’s ERA absorbed the 10 run barrage.
And
Any poor sucker dumb enough to bet the under.

What a wild one. Let’s hope next time the Sox don’t play down to the level of the team they are trouncing. It’s just embarrassing.

Game 98: Playoff Atmosphere?

Final Score: Boston Red Sox 3, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 11
Don't look now, but I think Buchholz, Aardsma, and Lopez were a little less than effective last night. Actually, that's not fair: Aardsma hadn't pitched in seven days and he came into the game with men on first and second looking for the out to end the fifth inning. Giving up a walk and hit, especially in the scheme of things with the Angels scoring runs left, right, and sideways? That's small potatoes.

Last night was a warmup; it was a return to tough working conditions (best team in the AL West, game on the west coast) after an extended break, a time to get back into form with only a team workout to prepare. Sure, the Sox blew the chance mightily, but it's not a time to fret. Just get mad, and get even. The Angels announcers kept calling it a playoff atmosphere last night; let's get one of the best playoff pitchers of the Wild Card era on the mound and make that playoff atmosphere a reality. Let's beat the Angels but good.

Game 50: The Closest Blowout Ever

Final Score: Boston Red Sox 11, Kansas City Royals 8

You know what’s NOT supposed to happen? A save situation in a game were your team hits 2 GRAND SLAMS. When 2 gannys are hit… saves should go out the window. Looks like someone forgot to tell that to the Boston Red Sox. Not only did Papelbon get the save here, but he let the tying run step to the plate before he could close it out.

How did this happen? The Sox led by 8 in this game so isn’t that pretty much an assured victory? Well nothing is assured when the pitching sucks this bad.

Dice-K was one out away from going 6 innings, walked a small village of batters, but still managed to get his record to 8-0. The bullpen (besides Lopez) was God awful. Hansen proved he isn’t good from much of anything while Aardsma was just as bad. One of the worst relief performances ever by a winning team. Ick. Just don’t do it again. Ok?

As I said before, the bats were tremendous. Drew and Lowell both went deep with the bases jacked. Reminded me a lot of Bill Mueller when he got his two Grand Slams in a game in 2003. An amazing feat.

All in all, the Sox squeaked by and somehow they were able sweep the Royals and the home stand. Not too shabby. Now the Sox take their MLB leading record and zoom over to Oakland where the games start at an ungodly hour. Thanks timezone shift... now I'm gonna get less sleep than normal.

Game 38: The Blame Game

Final Score: Boston Red Sox 6, Minnesota Twins 7

I've been cursing at Julio Lugo the whole game, ever since he picked up error number eleven by dropping yet another ground ball to short and missing the opportunity to gun down Carlos Gomez for what would have been the third out. In my head - particularly if they lost, I thought, although I had no qualms about ripping Lugo's fielding again no matter what the final score - the two runs that scored that inning should have been added to Lugo's total, not the Red Sox, making the score an unusual (if all too correct) Red Sox 2, Twins 2, Julio Lugo 2.

Unfortunately, while it's never as easy as it seems to assign goatitude to a particular player, no matter how much he's done to deserve it, Boston played tonight's game so poorly that I must calm my irrational impulses to murder the shortstop in prose and spread the blame to his teammates, where, as we'll see, it most definitely belongs.

Let's start with Lester, who added a new touch to his repertoire of suck: rather than walk everyone, he gave them hits (and then runs) instead. How he managed to survive more than five innings is a mystery for the ages, but after two straight quality outings, Lester returned quickly to his evil ways. And Lord knows [he]'s got to change. Fortunately for him, he avoided the stigma of a loss thanks to the one solid element of tonight's contest: the non-closing relief. Aardsma and Okajima, my hat's off to you: you kept Minnesota off the base paths and off the scoreboard for the better part of three innings, and while Papelbon couldn't seal the deal, your efforts made his appearance possible. Would that everyone else had been like you two tonight.

Like, say, the offense. Sure, they managed to chase the Boof after four innings plus by pounding his pitches back into the Stone Age, but though his backup allowed five hits and two walks over the next five innings, the Sox couldn't mount an effective bombardment program and score some badly-needed runs. Instead, they left 11 men on base, including an almost criminal 7 men in scoring position, setting up the tragic circumstances where a utility player knocks in the winning, walk-off (just to twist the knife a little further) runs off one of the best closers in baseball.

So, as you can see, Lugo's not the only goat left staked out in front of the T-Rex pen after tonight's game: from top to bottom, nearly everyone played their crappy part to create another Metrodome loss. Halle-frickin'-lujah; I'm going to bed.

Game 25: I Abuse Alcohol, the Sox Abuse Me

Final Score: Boston Red Sox 4, Tampa Bay Rays 5

Let’s put it this way… I took a drink every time the Red Sox should have scored and a shot every time they allowed a run they should have prevented.

Wake… runs… no… Cash… damn… crap… allowed. DRINK.

Sox basses juiced and (hey can I have a triple shot of…) damn no runs again… what the hell is wrong here… DRINK.

Hey look! It’s my favorite punching bag Lugo taking a routine ground ball off the heel of his glove! Another run? Fill me up barkeep!

Aardsma+Lopez+Corey=NO DRINKS? Must be getting buzzed cause that doesn't make any sense.

Extra frames… big Papi you are so clutch when you… what? Why are you sliding head first into first base? I know I’m wasted but… Huh? DRINK.

I think Timlin is trying to kill me. Oh my god… here he is again. What do I have to sacrifice to make him go away forever? Forget the 2004 and 2007 games… what can I do to make him leave now? Nothing? Damnit… I would have paid good money for something… DRINK another cause the game is over… ugh.

Fantastic. It’s my first “Pass out drunk” game of the year. A few more of those and I can get a Red Sox logo tattooed on my liver. Happy days! Now excuse me while I make a head first offering to the porcelain God.

Game 16: Vomit Inducing Hideousness AKA Another Series in New York

Final Score: Boston Red Sox 9, New York Yankees 15

There is ugly, butt-ugly, fugly, SUPER fugly and then there is this game.

But wait, are we doing this again already? This weird home/away schedule means that the Sox play the Yanks 5 times in 7 games. It’s almost enough to wear down the hype a bit. I guess the biggest problem I have is the fact that Buchholz gets stuck going up against Wang again. Kind of unfair that the rookie has to take on the Yankees ace twice in a week.

Well he didn’t have to suffer long. The Yanks beat him soundly and early for 7 runs in 3 and 2/3 innings. The fast ball didn’t have the bite and hits were sprayed all over the field. It was hard to watch.

And then Wang followed suit almost to the letter. He was walking every Sox hitter, giving up big doubles and left with 8 runs of his own in just 4 innings. Combined line for these two? 7 2/3 innings, 17 hits, 15 runs, 4 BB, 4 K. Yeah… and then it REAL ugly…

Both the Sox and Yanks pens were less than perfect, which is like saying Paris Hilton’s SAT scores were less than perfect. Olendorf couldn’t hold the lead for the Yankees as he replaced the troubled Wang. This would have put a smile on my face if Tavarez didn’t give it right back to them that INNING! The throwing error by Lugo (who needs to be run out of town… seriously… he brings nothing to this team) didn’t help, but the heap of the blame needs to be put on Tavarez. His pitching was as rough as his complexion and even more uneven.

It took Aardsma for the Sox and Hawkins for the Yanks to put some ICE on this fire. Both pitched very well and tamed the rampaging bats in these lineups. Then, like adding gas to smoldering ashes, Timlin came in to put the game WAY out of reach. Boy oh boy does he look toasted. After the dust cleared, the Sox couldn’t get it done against the Yankees bullpen… you know… ACES like Olendorf, Hawkins and Bruney. Meanwhile the Yankees stomped all over Tavarez and Timlin.

I can’t stand it. Just so many disasters in this one, but it always seems this way when the Sox venture into the Bronx. I cannot wait for them to knock that freaking building down. I only hope they accidentally destroy the new one too.

Game 13: Don't Give Dice-K a Big Lead

Final Score: Boston Red Sox 8, New York Yankees 5

In between the bouts of mind-numbing idiocy that Joe Morgan regularly injects into his broadcasts, he made an interesting point (I know: I was shocked, too): Dice-K doesn't seem to have the same intensity when he's pitching with a big lead that he does when things get close and tight. Not that Matsuzaka was pitching particularly well before Boston staked him to a big lead - he'd surrendered four walks of his six by the end of the third inning, when Boston's lead was only three runs - I wondered if there might be some statistical validity to Morgan's statement: does Dice-K need to keep his head in the game when he's acquired a large lead?

According to these stats I dug up on Baseball Reference, a change in focus might not be a bad idea: as the difference in score increases up to four runs (winning by or losing by), Dice-K's stats get worse and worse in all relevant categories: more hits, more walks, and most importantly, more runs. Compare those stats with high stress situations like close and late (tie game, ahead by one, or tying run on deck in the seventh inning or later) or (for a larger sample) with two outs and runners in scoring position, and Matsuzaka becomes much harder to hit, as if he needs the right pressure to perform at his highest level.

Hitting that extra level would have helped tonight. The Sox got lucky with Phillips Hughes' inexperience, and even luckier that David Aardsma and Javier Lopez had ten outs between them to stave off the Yankees' ever present offensive threats, but they scraped the bottom of the bullpen barrel a bit tonight right before going off to Cleveland. We'd better see the good side of Jon Lester tomorrow, or the relief pitching will revert to Red Scare faster than you can say, "ridiculously tough April schedule."

Totally unrelated, but way to go Gabe Kapler! The Hebrew Hammer strikes again!

Game 9: Can’t Lose Em All

Final Score: Boston Red Sox 2, Detroit Tigers 7

Maybe it’s Detroit Walk City. The Tigers pulled 8 free passes between Lester, Aardsma, Corey, Tavarez and Lopez. Every one made me want to pull my hair out. Lester continues to frustrate. He takes forever on the mound, he throws ten thousand pitches and manages to walk a guy an inning. He gave up a 2 run double to the detestable Renteria and a SHOT into the monster seats for Thames. Not a good start...

After a pretty good 2 inning band aid from Aardsma, Corey pretty much pitched himself onto waivers. To save a roster move, DC suggested that when Timlin comes back he should just shoot Corey and bury him under the backstop.

Tavarez added some excitement by loading the bases, but with a slow tapped back to the mound from Sheffield, he and Tek combined for a 1-2-3 double play. Tavarez celebrated by eating a fetal pig. Good times. Oh and Lopez gave up a solo shot in the 9th. Bad times.

The Red Sox bats looked patient and hot to start (Bonderman looked ripe for a shelling) but the could get nothing done with men on. After a bases loaded walk, Lugo (who had a good night) muscled in a single for another run in the 2nd… but that was as good as it got. Lots of guys left on, lots of bad breaks, lots of squanders. Now factor in Mike Lowell’s thumb injury (just a sprain, Casey filled in) this was pretty much a downer all the way around.

The biggest disappointment at the plate HAS to be Ortiz. He is now 1 for the last 19 and is making everyone wince a little when he comes to the plate. Besides the fact that he is getting nothing to hit, he just looks uncomfortable out there.

So the Tigers finally get one in the win column. You had to figure they weren’t going to lose 162 games… I’m just pissed the drought happened to end in Boston.

Anyway, tomorrow it is the return of Wake to Fenway and a special guest game blogger! Our own angry commenter DC will be in attendance and will bless us with his first-hand recap. Couldn’t be more excited!

Trades! No... Really!

Here's a measure of how little is going on with the Sox: Robin and I both wrote posts about David Aardsma coming to Boston at the same time, without telling each other until after the posts went up. Comedy of errors, we know. Because we love all of our written children equally, we're proud to present both takes in one post. Enjoy.

Robin's Take:
I was sitting at a bar with DC pondering the movement of Santana to the Mets (out of the AL!) and Bedard to Seattle (out of the East!) when he informed me of something I was not aware:

DC: Did you hear the Sox made a move this week?
Robin: Oh yeah? We get a backup infielder?
DC: No no no. We got David Aardsma from the White Sox for like two nobodies! He's gonna fill the spot Gagne left on the bullpen.
Robin: Not like that's a hard job... but I don't know who this guy is.
DC: He was a MONSTER in the first part of the season. I had him on my fantasy team.
Robin: Cool. Then what?
DC: Then... well.... not so much.

I guess "not so much" means +5 ERA. Yikes. Well at least it's a move. And he did get off to a hot start. And it's not like he could be WORSE than Gagne. One thing I know for certain is that I will mispronounce this guy's name.

Whatever. It's a move. I guess someone is running this team after all. Now let's shore up the bench.


Eric's Take:
Here's how little is going on with the Sox right now: I happened to go to RedSox.com last night and the news of a trade involving David Aardsma coming to Boston actually made me stop short and read with interest. Is this what keeping a championship team together means? That I get news-happy over a trade involving a 26-year-old journeyman reliever (not a contradiction: four teams in four years screams either journeyman or clubhouse cancer, no matter how young he is) and two Class A "prospects" whose chances of breaking into the bigs seem about as likely as my getting struck by lightning twice while winning the lottery? If so, maybe we should bring back Hot Stove Winter '04/'05 style so I'd have something to obsess about besides pitchers and catchers reporting in 17 days, 1 hour, 25 minutes, and 9...8...7...6 seconds. But hey, I have Aarsdma instead. That's cool...maybe he'll be good beyond this Spring this year.

Total topic shift, but congrats to the Mets on ending the Santana Sweepstakes - having that deal-that's-not-a-deal hang around (will he go to Boston? Will he go to the Yankees? What ridiculous combination of prospects will the Twins demand?) was like storing fish in the refrigerator a couple of days too long: it was starting to smell something fierce. This way, Johan's out of the AL, and I don't have to worry about this terrible scenario. Everybody wins!