Red Sox Steal Another One Run Game From Twins

The Twins sure do make for exciting baseball. Two games into the three game series have featured excellent pitching, terrific defense, smart base running, strategic managerial moves, and (thankfully) two one run wins for the Red Sox.

One of the most frustrating areas for the Red Sox recently has been the ineptitude of the bottom of the order. In tough situations, the 7-8-9 batters have not been getting it done. So, Terry Francona mixed things up a bit last night. Rather than Crisp, Varitek, and Lugo at the bottom of the order, last night's lineup featured Brandon Moss, Julio Lugo and Kevin Cash. Lugo was typical Lugo, and Cash mostly served to give Varitek a night off. However, Moss was able to provide the spark at the bottom of the lineup that had been sorely missing.

In the 7th inning, with Kevin Youkilis on third form a well hit triple and one out, Moss came through with a sacrifice fly to plate Youk for Boston's second run of the game. Then, in the 8th inning, after Manny Ramirez had already tied the game with a much needed 3 run home run, Youkilis hit a two out double to keep the rally alive. Recently, we would have expected You to get stranded on 2nd base with a strikeout or a weak ground out. But, Moss was batting with confidence and sliced a single back up the middle to score Youk for the go ahead run.

Yes, Manny Ramirez is starting to look like he's breaking out of his recent slump. When Manny keeps his head down and drives the ball solidly to right center field, you know he's starting to get locked in. That is exactly the type of hit he has been starting to reconnect with. His two run homer in the 8th to tie the game was a breath of fresh air to Boston fans. Just what the home crowd needed to see.

It got Jon Lester off the hook for the loss. Lester had a decent night, pitching into the 8th inning. His one big blemish was the 4th inning when it seemed like no matter what he threw, it got hit. The Twins hitters just looked locked in in that inning. Lester's pitches were not that bad, but the Twins were able to make contact and put three runs on the board. Lester battled through it and, again, went deep into the game to take the pressure off the bullpen.

How about poor Sean Casey? I'm starting to wonder if Tito wants to get a left handed reliever into the game. It seems every time Casey steps out of the dugout to pinch hit, the opposing manager yanks his righty off the mound and sends in a lefty. Then, Tito sends Casey back to the bench. Casey shouldn't even bother grabbing a bat or helmet, just step onto the field, wave to the opposing manager, and take a seat. And by the way, does anyone else see a strong resemblance between Dennys Reyes and El Guapo (Rich Garces)? Must be long lost brothers!





The Yankees were helpful last night in beating the Rays 5-0 behind a terrific outing from Andy Pettitte. The Rays are having a strong season, but at some point, they will need to win the big games on the road. The Rays' loss moved the Sox up to 3 games out of first place. Can the Yankees take another from the Rays behind the drunken Aruban (Sidney Ponson) tonight to give the Sox a shot at moving up to 2 games out? To do so, the Sox will have to do their part by beating the Twins this afternoon behind ace, Josh Beckett. Sounds like a plan!

(Photos Courtesy of Yahoo Sports)

Red Sox Snag First Place From Tampa Bay

They were the wettest of times, they were the coldest of times. My daughter and I arrived at Fenway Park at 6:20 and were greeted with clouds, cold, and drizzle. The field was empty and covered by the tarp. Yellow-clad security guards stood sentry to thwart the likelihood of 30,000 people spontaneously starting the world's biggest game of "slip-and-slide" (which we were very tempted to initiate). We wandered around, took in all the Fenway sights, sounds and smells. We said "hi" to Jerry Remy and Tom Carron out by RemDawgs, and we looked for Luis Tiante who must have been indoors keeping warm. And we waited. And the rain drifted down, and we waited. Fans filled the concourse like the tide slowly rising up the beach. And we waited.

The Red Sox front office did NOT want to give up on the opportunity to play last night. We were occasionally informed that the game was delayed due to "inclement weather" (duh!) and that the Red Sox were "hopeful" that they'd be able to get the game in. And we waited. At 7:30 the Red Sox put the Yankees-Mariners game on the big screen. That was fun, except for the fact that the Mariners spent the first three innings proving they are more inept than the injury-depleted Yankees. At 8:05, the Red Sox thankfully switched the big screen to the Celtics game and we actually got to watch the entire first half of the game, while we...waited.

At 9:00 just as everyone was counting down to their decision to flee, the announcement came out that the game would start at 9:30! A cheer went up, and a swarm of worker bees gave an impressive demonstration in the art of clearing a 100 foot soaking wet square of tarp off of a baseball field. Now, we were all glad to see some baseball, but a 9:30 start is pretty extreme. If we had been playing the Yankees, the game could have easily gone until 2:30 in the morning. But, we were not playing the Yankees, we were playing the Light Beams from Florida.
We did, however, have to leave at 11:45 after the 6th inning, to make sure we made our subway connections. But, the 6 innings we saw were fun.

Clay Buchholz looked good, but a little stiff from the cold and late start. He twice allowed the first two batters to get on base, but seemed to bear down and pitch brilliantly to get out of the trouble. Brandon Moss, who had a great game, got Clay out of his jam in the second inning. With two outs, Evan Longoria tried to score from second base on a hard single to Moss in right field. Longoria had turned the corner around third as Moss was setting up for the throw - it looked like he was going to make it, until Moss launched a rocket to home, easily getting there a step ahead of the runner. Jason Varitek fielded the throw cleanly on one hop and applied the tag.

There was more excitement at home plate in the fifth inning. Jason Bartlett had already scored from third on a wild pitch, and the speedy Carl Crawford now stood on third base with one out. The Rays thought they had the momentum, and apparently thought Crawford had "Ellsbury speed". Crawford did not have Ellsbury speed (or at least Ellsbury smarts). Jonny Gomes hit a ground ball to Mike Lowell at third base, who was playing a step behind the bag. Lowell fielded it cleanly and looked Crawford back to the bag. Lowell timed it perfectly. As soon as Crawford took his step back towards third, Lowell fired a strike to first, and to everyone's surprise Crawford took off for home. Kevin Youkilis secured the out at first, stepped off the bag and fired home, Varitek applied the tag, inning over!

The exciting news for Sox fans is that the offense finally broke out. They almost got a big inning going in the third. Julio Lugo and Dustin Pedroia both doubled accounting for one run, but no one else was able to chip in. But, in the fourth inning, something finally clicked and the Sox managed to score 5 runs with two outs! Brandon Moss (remember I said he had a good game?) started the fireworks by crushing a home run to center field bouncing off the camera booth. That got the crowd fired up, and the bats too.

Jason Varitek singled and Lugo walked to set the table for Jacoby Ellsbury, who took advantage and laced a single to center scoring Varitek and sending Lugo to third. Then, Jacoby (who DOES have Ellsbury speed) was off with the pitch and stole second base as Pedroia swung at and missed strike two. Dustin hung in there and laced a single to left fielder Carl Crawford. Ellsbury was around third base as Crawford was scooping the ball. He dutifully fired to home in a futile attempt to gun down Ellsbury, who easily scored standing up. In fact, I think the throw crossed through the wake left behind Ellsbury and the wake knocked the ball off course. With Pedroia on second base, and still two outs, Big Papi got into the action guiding a single through the "shift" and into right center field, scoring Dustin. The Sox' offense was back! The surprise was that the coldest bat of the night was Manny Ramirez'. Manny struck out to end the inning, and went 0 for 5 with 3 K's on the night.

Clay Buchholz came out of the game in firm possession of a 6-1 lead with one out in the 6th. Javier Lopez and Manny Delcarmen stumbled through the remainder of the 6th and 7th, giving up 2 runs, but hanging on to the lead. That set things up for the Red Sox 1-2 punch of Okajima and Papelbon who sent down the Rays' batters 1-2-3 in the eighth (Okajima) and the ninth (Papelbon).

So, the Sox steal first place back from Tampa Bay (I can't believe I just wrote that - tip your hat to the Rays!), and all is well in Boston again (unless you are a Celtics fan and have chewed all of your fingernails to the bone by now).

Josh Beckett matches up against Scott Shields today and will try to keep the Rays from jumping back into first. Shields pitched a fantastic game against the Sox last week, and if he can repeat that, we are in for quite a pitcher's duel. I am still waiting for Manny to launch home run number 497, and can't imagine we'll have to wait much longer for that.

On the injury front, expect JD Drew to be available tonight, and Ellsbury is already back and running fine. Bartolo Colon has gone to Florida to begin an extended spring training. He'll join the Sox in Detroit this week and be examined by the medical staff. If all is well, he'll be inserted into the Pawtucket rotation to increase his pitch count in preparation for a call-up later possibly later this month. Curt Schilling, meanwhile, is on the verge of starting to throw for the first time since shutting it down early this spring. Keep those pitchers coming!

Deja Vu for Red Sox

Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched his best game of 2008 last night as the Red Sox treated fans to a near identical game as the one the night before. Does this sound familiar? Low scoring pitching duel, game is tied, last of the ninth inning, Papelbon has just preserved the tie in the top of the inning, Big Papi is on second base, Manny Ramirez is on first base, the batter hits a single to center field...

The night before, the batter was Kevin Youkilis, and Vernon Wells bobbled the ball to let Papi score from second to end the game in walk-off fashion. Last night was a bit different, but not a lot. Last night, Terry Francona pinch ran Jed Lowrie for David Ortiz (thank you Terry), and Brandon Moss hit the single to center. But, this time Wells did not bobble the ball and he threw a strike to home nailing Lowrie for the second out of the inning. That brought Jason Varitek to the plate with Manny now on second, and Moss at first, with two outs. The Captain proceeded to rip a single to center, Vernon Wells fielded it cleanly and fired home. This time his throw was a little up the first base line, pulling the catcher away from the plate and Manny took advantage and slid in for the walk off run.

David Ortiz belted his 5th home run of the season in the 7th inning to give the Sox a 1-0 lead, but Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima combined to allow the Jays to tie it at one in the eighth inning, setting up the drama in the ninth.

I still say the cold weather has slowed down the bats, allowing the pitchers to get a slight edge. Nothing wrong with that, and it was fun to see Dice-K submit a masterful performance, pitching 7 shutout innings, allowing only 2 hits to go with 4 strike outs and 2 walks. This is the fourth such pitching start for the Red Sox in a row. The last four starters went as follows:

Buchholz : 8 innings, 3H, 2R, 9K, 1BB
Beckett: 7 innings, 4H, 2R, 13K, 1BB
Lester: 8 innings, 1H, 0R, 6K, 4BB
Matsuzaka: 7 innings, 2H, 0R, 4K, 2BB

Before you get too excited about that, remember that you need at least a little bit of offense to win a game. Over the last 45 innings that the Red Sox have played, they have ONLY SCORED 5 RUNS! If you are a math expert, you already know this is an average of one run per 9 inning game. If I recall, Albert Einstein had identified that as the classic formula for a losing streak. Luckily for the Red Sox, they have won 2 games in those 45 innings.

Tonight, all the pressure is on for Tim Wakefield to match the feats of his fellow starters. My recollection is that cold weather does not create the best conditions for the knuckle ball. The Jays send potential ace, AJ Burnett to the mount to face Wakefield, and in my book, the pitching match up leans in favor of Toronto. The one thing to hope for is that the law of averages is enforced, and the runs once again start flowing.

Are you worried about injuries? You should be. Last night the Red Sox had NO extra outfielder available for the game. Julio Lugo would have been recruited had there been an emergency need. Let's hope Jacoby Ellsbury is available tonight off the bench at least. JD Drew will probably need a couple more days.

I leave you with a joke my daughter made up tonight...

"Why did Jason Varitek suffer with a such bad case of the flu?"

"Because he catches everything!!!"