Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Floats Like a Butterfly, Stings Like a Bee

"Hitting that thing is like trying to catch a butterfly with a pair of tweezers." - Tim McCarver
Tim Wakefield That must have been the general feeling last night in the Tigers' clubhouse as Tim Wakefield's knuckleball floated, dipped, and dived all around the strike zone, guiding the Red Sox to a 5-0 win in the second of their four game series in Detroit. Not only does the knuckleball dance all over the place, but Wakefield was able to greatly vary the speed of his pitches between 57 and 73 mph (as per MLB Gameday) mixing in the curve and fastball more than usual. That is a deadly combination and kept batters off balance all night. Wakefield pitched 8 shutout innings with 6 strikeouts, walked no batters, and allowed only 3 baserunners all night; Carlos Guillen reached first base twice on a single in the 1st and an error by Dustin Pedroia in the 7th, and Ivan Rodriguez reached 2nd on a double in the 8th.

With a 5-0 lead, Terry Francona handed the ball to Mike Timlin in the 9th, providing Jonathan Papelbon with a well timed night off. Timlin allowed a lead off single to Curtis Granderson, but Granderson was erased when the next batter, Placido Polanco, hit into a double play to Julio Lugo at short. Timlin then closed out the game by inducing Carlos Guillen to fly out to Jacoby Ellsbury in center. Good to see Timlin have a nice clean inning. Timlin's fastball topped out at 90 mph, but after being hypnotized by the cobra-like stare of Wakefield's knuckler all night, it must have looked blinding to the helpless Tigers' batters.

The Sox did not need a lot of offense to win this one, but got plenty with Manny Ramirez and Kevin Cash leading the way with 3 hits each. The Red Sox scored 3 in the second inning, sending 7 batters to the plate and driving Tigers' starter, Nate Robertson's, pitch count up. A pair of Kevins (Cash and Youkilis) accounted for a pair of doubles, combined with a lead off walk by Mike Lowell and an RBI single by JD Drew to start the scoring, was all Boston really needed.

Big PapiBut, what better way to celebrate Wakefield's tremendous outing than with some fireworks? Fast forward to the 7th inning. Robertson, whose fastball was less than menacing all night, was tiring out, and David Ortiz took advantage, forcing Robertson to throw eight pitches in the at-bat. Most of the pitches were tantalizingly close, but well placed, until Robertson finally wore down and tossed his final pitch of the night like a boxer wildly flailing at his opponent before dropping to his knees for the TKO. The pitch was right in Papi's wheelhouse, and he sent it high into the Motown night sky for his 7th home run of the year, providing sox fans with the fireworks. But any good fireworks show has a grand finale, right? Enter Manny Ramirez...

Manny RamirezAfter what seems like months, Manny finally broke out his home run swing and took one step closer to history with home run number 497 for his career off of the first pitch thrown in the game by Tigers' reliever Freddy Dolsi. Nothing says Grand Finale better than Big Papi and Manny going back to back!

So, the Tigers are down, losers of 5 in a row, and struggling to get their talented lineup all rowing together. Perfect time for the Sox to stop by for a visit. But before you start to break out the brooms, beware of Tigers in the rushes ready to pounce. In particular, be very wary of tonight's starter for Detroit, Armando Galarraga. He has been sharpening his claws and has been very aggressive this year, touting a skimpy 1.88 ERA with a 2-1 record in 4 starts. He spent a short time in his first big league debut last year with the Rangers, and has never faced the Red Sox in his young career. The Red Sox counter with Clay Buchholz, who has been brilliant in his last 3 starts, and has likewise never faced the Tigers in his young career.

Should be quite a match up! But, beware of sleeping Tigers - and do not, under any circumstances, pull their tail!

(Photos courtest of ESPN)

5 comments:

gingerly said...

Your description of tonight's game made me salivate. It sounds like it'll be a grand baseball war between the two pitchers. I'm thinking Buchholz will be in even better form tonight. You can sort of see him figuring it all out in his head. Lester too, for that matter. I think both will be even better as the season progresses.

Nice to finally stop by your blog. Looks great, and it's about my favorite topic so I guess I'll be back. Go Red Sox!

Rooster said...

Thanks for the great feedback - I really appreciate that, and hope to see you around often!

I am very interested in tonights matchup - two rising young stars, etc. I agree, you can just Clay and Lester starting to figure out how to transform their talent into major league talent. I just am amazed by Theo's success with the improvements to the Sox player development system.

Not only are we drafting talented players, but the system is preparing them to step right in and contribute! Fantastic!

Anonymous said...

I've heard that over the years (minors included) Galarraga can struggle with control. He tries to be aggressive so if he's on he could easily zip through the Sox lineup, as strike throwing pitchers facing patient lineups for the first time often do. But if his control isn't their he'll be in for a long night. He'll walk guys like he's trying to pull a Dice K. So either way, some one (Sox offense/Galarraga) is in for a long night.

Rooster said...

Sorry for the late reply - busy night and morning!

Galarraga did a nice job, bu tthe Sox did get to him and got him out in the 6th. From that point of view you would have thought we'd be in control of the game. But, the Tigers' bats finally came alive. I was afraid of that - tough to sweep a 4 game series!

Rooster said...

Sorry for the late reply - busy night and morning!

Galarraga did a nice job, bu tthe Sox did get to him and got him out in the 6th. From that point of view you would have thought we'd be in control of the game. But, the Tigers' bats finally came alive. I was afraid of that - tough to sweep a 4 game series!