Rockies: Slowly Getting Their Revenge

First it was Jon Lester, our beloved lefty who shut down any last hope the Rockies had of winning a game during the World Series in 2007.

Then it was Papelbon, the closer who danced on all of their playoff dreams. Who's next?

I don't know, but watching Papelbon implode and give up three runs without recording an out rightly pissed me off. I can honestly say I've never been more annoyed with Jonathan. And every time he blows a save, you can be sure that someone will bring up how he isn't Mo Rivera and needs to shut his mouth and pitch before demanding to be treated like Mo. This time, it was me bringing that up. Me and about a thousand other people. It's not to say that Mariano has never blown a save. We know he has. Doesn't mean we want our closer doing that. I think the thing that kills me the most is that he didn't even get an out. Not one. Not a single out on a night where the Sox beat up the front runner for the NL Cy Young. We had Ubaldo Jiminez squarely in the loss column for this one! But no, Paps couldn't shut the door. Instead of continuing to focus on the end of the game, let's go back and look at what went right for the Sox.

Things that went right
1) John Lackey. Sort of. - John, despite his struggles and his inability to make me like him, managed to keep the Sox in the game long enough for them to beat up on Jimenez. No, he wasn't good, allowing five runs on ten hits over the course of 6.2 innings, but he didn't completely implode, so I'll take it. Overall though, he really, truly worries me whenever he's on the mound. On the plus side, though, I feel much better about him being in the batters box. Lackey was able to grab two hits, and he scored a run for his own effort. See? I went back to talking about good things. John Lackey in the batters box was a good thing.

2) The sixth inning - What started with a fly out and a HBP (Beltre), ended with the Sox taking the lead for the first time in the game when they managed to pull together four runs. Nava doubled to drive in Beltre. Ronald homered to drive in Nava, Lackey doubled, and Scutaro singled him in. It was such a happy inning at the time!

3) Getting to Jiminez - The Sox managed to get 6 runs off of 10 hits and a HBP. Jiminez didn't walk anyone and recorded seven strikeouts in 5.2 innings. Sure, the Sox had trouble with the bullpen, but at least they can say that they managed to beat up Jiminez, right?

Man, I wanted this win. I wanted the Sox to win and Steroid Monkey to never have another highlight moment in his career, and both of my wishes were dashed at the end of this game. It hurt. It hurt, but just like the game before, it's only one loss and we have a chance to avoid the sweep tomorrow night (spoiler: we avoid the sweep! This is the benefit of writing about the past). So with lonely, sad eyes, we turn to Dice-K, fresh off the disabled list, and beg for a win. Get it done, Dice.

(Don't worry. He does!)

Smoltz and Baldelli: The Targets of "Sources"

I don't know who these "sources" are, but they are claiming that both John Smoltz and Rocco Baldelli are nearing contract agreements with my beloved BoSox.

Can Baldelli catch? I'm not too sure about that. Kidding aside, if these deals go through, I'll be happy. I not-so-secretly was hoping that John Smoltz would come here. I've had great respect for him throughout his career and would love to see what he could do in Boston. Granted, he would be the sixth starter on a team with fairly good pitching depth (we can always spot start Fetus, or bring up Dahmer, or even Bowden... ). Rumor has is that the Sox are offering him one year, $5.5 million. I feel that's pretty fair for a veteran coming off of shoulder surgery.

As for Baldelli, I liked him in Tampa, even with his limited playing time in the last few years. I don't know much about his mitochondrial disorder, but obviously our GM is confident that it won't be much of a problem.

I do hope these signings work out, because these are two of the guys I kind of hoped we would sign. I guess I'll have to stop picking on Theo for a while if he gets it done.

In other news: Steroid Monkey and his personal steroid trainer are headed back to Oakland.
-JC Romero was suspended 50 games for a positive banned substance test. He denies that he did anything wrong. I actually liked Romero during his time with us, so I'm sort of disappointed on this one...
-Phillies signed Chan Ho Park to a one year deal
-The Brewers, according to "source" are looking to be in line to land Trevor Hoffman. Didn't they already have a closer last year who blew a bunch of saves? What was his name?....
-Carl Pavano signed with the Indians. I think the Indians also signed Kerry Wood a while back. They also got Mark DeRosa from the Cubs. I'm not sure that any of these moves improves them significantly.

Just for the hell of it, I was reading this blog a little while ago. I couldn't tell whether to laugh or shake my head sadly. Specifically this line "It's time for Pettitte to live up to his reputation of being one of the few good, and honest people in sports."

... seriously? This guy is an admitted cheater. Just because he fessed up ONCE HE WAS CAUGHT doesn't make him a good, honest guy. It makes him just like any other player who tried to get ahead the wrong way. What has he done that makes him so good and honest? And why should he care if the Yankees want him to accept their little 10 million dollar offer if he thinks he can get more elsewhere. Loyalty has proven to be a bad move for players. Baseball is a business. Everyone knows that. Pettitte doesn't owe the Yankees anything, and people who think he does are just as delusional as the Steinbrenners.

This blog makes the following points: The Yankees were loyal to Pettitte... except in 2003 when he was looking to re-sign with them. They supported him after he got caught cheating by giving him a few days off. Pettitte can only continue being a good and honest man if he takes a six million dollar pay cut. Andy OWES it to the team (who, as you remember, are loyal to him when it's convenient for them) to take their offer. Incredible. I... I don't even know what else to say about this. I feel sort of sad for the person who wrote it, because it's obvious that he's been brainwashed. NO player owes a team anything after their contract has expired. I don't even like Pettitte and I'm here defending him. This is ridiculous. I'm going to stop now.

That's all for right now. It's still early in the morning. Maybe more will happen towards the afternoon.

WE STILL NEED A CATCHER.

Steroid Monkey: Sucks Big Time

I have never liked Jason Giambi, and no one else should either. I didn't like him before he admitted to juicing. I wouldn't like him if he apologized to me, personally, for ruining many wonderful Red Sox games. Nothing could ever make me like him.

And yesterday... well, that was just a step in the wrong direction, Jason. That right there... those RBI's... that gives me no reason to look any more favorably on you. Asshole.

Paps, well, he was Paps. Fetus did his best, but I don't think an IBB is ever a good idea in tied game. It just never seems to work out for us. However, that was not his call, it was Tito's, and Tito made some pretty bad ones yesterday.

One thing I don't like... if you think Binky is good enough to go out and get the first two outs of the 7th when his pitch count was already over 100, just let him finish the damn inning. As soon as I saw Tito coming out of dugout, I cringed. With our bullpen, inherited runners are dangerous.

But I'll live. We still won the series. Let the Yanks have hope for another day, so when they inevitably do collapse, it will hurt that much more for them.

Funny thing, I was making my blog-rounds this morning, and I stumbled upon this at what once was called Red Sox Chick. I guess yesterday was a good day to have credit cards stolen, because something similar happened to me. Somehow, someone in Michigan got my credit card number and was trying to buy about 80 dollars worth of gas with it. Funny enough, they didn't have my credit card. I have my credit card, and I only ever got ONE. How does this happen? I can't even imagine how that would work... honestly, I'm baffled, and angry, and worried that this creep might have more information on me.

So a Red Sox loss is just a small part of the major suck that yesterday turned into.

Oh, and Commander is pushed back again. Can't say I didn't see that coming, because I so totally did.

Toronto: What A Beautiful Town

The votes are in. Toronto is favored over Montreal 1-0. I hated Montreal, but Toronto.... wow, what a nice little city. Except for the few Jays fans that booed me and my family members after the terrible Saturday game, I found people in Toronto to be just a little bit happier than the people I usually encounter in Boston. Ah, I love being a tourist and getting to see the best of everyone. I'm sure I'll have pictures uploaded within the next year or so.

Yes, Binky was terrible on Saturday. Dice wasn't nearly as bad, but he also wasn't his sharpest. Manny Delcarmen makes me cringe, guaranteed every time. Lowrider and Grumpy saved the Sunday game, CRW took a wall to the face and the Jays fans in attendance (not ALL of them... the ones sitting next to me were very quiet) booed him for being hurt. I was a little surprised about that. I was also surprised when Gaston took BJ Ryan out of the game after one inning and something like 2 and a half pitches. We swung at everything he threw. It was a very quick inning. But then they brought in this League kid who served up Lowrider's mini-bomb. Good ending. Me, and all the Sox fans around me, left the Rogers Centre happy. By the way, that is one cool ballpark. It rained for a while on Sunday, but halfway through the game, they opened the dome back up. I wish we had one of those...

Wakey was not as shaky as I expected him to be coming off the DL. Glassman is on the DL, Aardvark's on the DL, POS MIGHT not play for the rest of the season, we MIGHT be getting Mark Kotsay, the Commander MIGHT have pissed me off by suddenly being ok but not being ok enough to pitch the damn game I went to, the Pawsox are in the playoffs, Yaz is out of the hospital and is doing good, We're only 3.5 games behind the (Devil) Rays, and 2.5 ahead of the Twins, and Steroid Monkey is still an ugly cheater. Oh, and Elephant-Man Pettite got the loss. Yay. Good few days of baseball over all.

Speaking of baseball (aren't I always?)... the baseball HOF in Cooperstown is pretty damn cool. I took a picture with Ted Williams, saw the no-hitter baseballs, went through the 2007 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox display, walked the hall of plaques, and snapped a picture of Barry Bonds' record home run ball, proudly marked and displayed with the giant asterisk it deserves!

Gargoyle is going tonight against Sidney Ponson. Hope for good results. The stupid Rays are surely not going to keep losing, so we need to keep winning. Oh, and apparently this is like the last Red Sox/Yankees series in this incarnation of Yankee stadium, but since it's not even the original stadium, and they're just moving right across the street, I honestly don't see why everyone is making a big deal out of it. Burn the place down already!