Cardinals Looking for Payback Sweep from Red Sox

With yesterday's 9-3 victory over Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Cardinals have a chance to sweep the Red Sox today and earn a little payback for the sweep the Red Sox put on them in the 2004 World Series. Yes, the victory was over Dice-K. Take the Dice-man out of the equation, and the Sox may have won that game. It was Matsuzaka's first outing coming back from the disabled list, and he simply had nothing to offer. How's this for a first inning? A walk, 3 singles, a double, and a home run resulting in a 4-0 lead for St. Louis right off the bat. In the inning, all nine Cardinals batter got to bat.

Not wanting to dip into the bullpen too early, Terry Francona sent Dice-K back out for the second inning, hoping he might settle down and keep them in the game. The first inning started with a walk to lead-off batter, Skip Schumaker, and the second started identically with another walk to Schumaker, followed by a single and another walk to load the bases with no out. Well, Francona finally threw in the towel, realizing that his starter had nothing to offer.

Earlier in the season the Red Sox had two pitchers in the bullpen who could handle long relief situations, Kyle Snyder and Julian Tavares, but both of them were cut loose. So, yesterday, Francona gave a rookie, Chris Smith, a chance to throw his very first pitch in the major leagues. Chris had been brought up from Pawtucket to add some depth to the bullpen when Dice-K was on the DL, and was allowed to stay after Dice-K's return by sending Mike Timlin to the DL with "knee tendinitis". For you non-medical professionals, I think you can translate "knee tendinitis" to mean "has been pitching like crap lately and we need an excuse to get him out of the bullpen".

So, Chris Smith has a chat with Jason Varitek on the mound, takes a deep breath, and gets ready to throw the most memorable pitch of his life to this point. That pitch was beautiful, an excellent slider that Rick Ankiel swung at and missed. It worked so well, that Varitek said, "throw another one just like that". Smith did just that, hitting nearly the exact same spot with the exact same result. Well, if it is working, it is working. Third pitch, another slider, exact same location, Ankiel swung and missed, and Chris Smith's career is forever in the books as starting off with a three pitch strikeout.

Varitek must have thought to himself, "the kid has a nice slider, let's see what else he has". So, bases still loaded with one out, Varitek called for a fastball. Way outside to the dangerous Troy Glaus. Okay, that did not work. How about a curve ball? Chris Smith threw the curve, it hung there like a pinata at a birthday party, and Troy Glaus clobbered it into the Green Monster seats for a grand slam. Welcome to the big leagues, Chris. Smith went on to turn in a very nice outing after that. Unlike Dice-K, he did settle down and showed us why he deserved a chance to pitch in Fenway Park as he retired the next nine batters in a row. He lasted 4 innings, which is incredible for a debut appearance by a rookie reliever, keeping St. Louis from scoring again off of him.

The Sox had one inning where they rallied for 2 runs, and even JD Drew, who smashed yet another home run, a solo shot in the 6th inning, could not help catch up to the enormous lead Dice-K had given the Cardinals.

The loss is the second in a row to the Cardinals in this series. This afternoon, the Cardinals have a chance to sweep the Red Sox and exact a little revenge for the 2004 World Series sweep the Red Sox handed them. However, to do so they'll have to get past Jon Lester. Lester has been pitching better and better this season, having won his last three starts, and you'll see the determination in his eyes as he bears down on the Cardinals lineup as he tries to make it four in a row. The win would give Lester a 7-3 record, tying him with Josh Beckett for the second most wins on the team, one shy of Dice-K's 8.

(Photos Courtesy of ESPN)

Phillies Draw First Blood - Pound Red Sox Pitching

Yesterday, I said that Red Sox pitchers will have to prove they can stop a truly potent offense when they face the Philadelphia Phillies, and they would have to do it with a depleted offense. Last night, the Phillies proved they do indeed have a potent offense, and theirs is not depleted. Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins lead the way last night. Rollins started the fireworks with a lead off home run, followed 3 batters later by a 2 run shot from Howard. Howard was only just getting warmed up as he homered again in the 3rd inning, feasting on Bartolo Colon's change up both times. Later, in the 6th inning, Howard came up facing Mike Timlin with two outs and a runner on first. Guess what pitch Timlin and Jason Varitek decided to go with? A change up. Guess what Ryan Howard did with that change up? He hit it 395 feet to center field and even a diving Jacoby Ellsbury could not catch up to it. Howard ended up on third base with a triple, and his fourth RBI of the night.

How do you stop a guy like that? Well, for one thing, maybe be careful with the change up. Another way is to send a left handed pitcher in to face the left handed hitting Howard. Javier Lopez treated Howard to a steady diet of curve balls in the fifth inning, and struck him out. Hideki Okajima also struck out Howard in the 8th inning. With two strikes, Okajima threw Howard a curve ball, which Howard watch go by for a ball. But, now Okajima had him thinking curve, and the fastball he threw next was swung at and missed. Today's starter for the Red Sox is none other than Jon Lester, a left handed pitcher, who has a decent curve ball. Don't worry fans, Lester is a regular reader of this site (I think), and he now holds the keys to taming Ryan Howard.

The Sox did get Manny Ramirez back in the lineup last night, but they lost Kevin Youkilis to back spasms. One step forward, one step back. Manny was ineffective going 0 for 4, and the only runs the Sox could put on the board were from back to back solo home runs in the 5th inning from Dustin Pedroia and the surging JD Drew. The National League format also hurt the Sox offense last night. In the second inning, the Sox had runners at first and second with two outs, but Bartolo Colon was the next batter. Colon did his best, but struck out swinging to end the threat. Then again, in the 4th inning the Sox were threatening with runners at second and third with two outs, and again Colon stepped up to the plate, and again Colon struck out swinging. Only this time, he not only ended the inning, he also ended his night. He took a huge cut on his final swing, and pulled a muscle in his back. The injury took him out of the game behind 4-0 after only throwing 70 pitches. The prognosis is good though. With physical therapy during the week, the expectation is that Colon will make his next start.

The bullpen had mixed results in total. Javier Lopez and David Aardsma both had strong scoreless outings. Hideki Okajima, coming off of two sub-par performances, pitched an easy 1-2-3 8th inning. But, Mike Timlin, coming off of two strong outings turned in a sub-par inning in the 6th inning, giving up 4 runs on 4 hits and two walks. Timlin and Okajima have both been on a roller coaster, trading good outings with bad ones. Okajima has been on top more often than Timlin, who is struggling to get in a consistent groove. I don't expect either will be used tonight to support Lester. Tonight's bullpen lineup should feature Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen, and finally Jonathan Papelbon if a save is needed.

Tonight will be another struggle for the offense with Jamie Moyer on the mound for the Phillies. As a lefty starter, Moyer has confounded the Sox in the past, and even though he's old enough to be Timlin's big brother, he is having a solid year. Hopefully our own lefty starter can keep us in the game, and maybe our offense can break out a bit more than last night.

(Photos Courtesy of ESPN)

#24 is Now 24th

With a tremendous swing of the bat, Manny Ramirez (number 24) moved into a tie for 24th on the all time home run list. It was home run number 493 for Manny tying him with Fred McGriff, and the legend Lou Gehrig (whose number 4 I wore on my back for most of my baseball playing days). I am sure that swing rubbed a lot of already irate Indians fans the wrong way. If you had not heard, there has been a movement in Cleveland to bean Manny for his "transgression" of watching his home run in game 4 of LAST YEAR's playoff series against Cleveland. Have you ever heard of fans holding a grudge like that? Sheesh.

There were a number of heroes yesterday, and for me, a notable one was David Ortiz. I have mentioned a number of times that the Sox offense has been weak, in part due to Big Papi's slump. That does not mean he has to hit home runs all the time, but when he goes 'o-fer' it leaves a big hole in a critical part of the lineup and shuts down the offense. Just look at the ninth inning last night. Two outs, bases empty, tie ball game. Ortiz gets on base with a bloop single, then Manny wins the game. Had Papi struck out, we lose that opportunity. Nice job Papi!

Jon Lester, I thought, was very heroic. Yes, he had a mediocre night all together, but battled well in the 4th. It looked like the Indians were about to completely blow the game open, but even though Lester was against the ropes, he did not go down. He kept the damage to 2 runs, kept the bullpen off the field a little longer, and kept the team in the game. His stuff was good again, but he needs to stay closer to the strike zone - his big issue.

The middle relief out of the bullpen was great (sigh of relief). Julian Tavarez was tremendous, coming into the game in the 5th inning with bases loaded and only one out. He proceeded to strike the next two batters out to save the day, and then went two more innings of overwhelming shutout ball to stymie the Indians. Mike Timlin, who has looked incredibly hittable recently, followed Tavarez with a snappy 1-2-3 8th inning, setting up the late heroics for Manny in the ninth.

All in all a fun game to watch. It was encouraging to see the Sox put up a great fight like that. The Sox are now 5-5 on this very challenging 13 game stretch in the schedule. We all realized that if they go roughly .500 in this stretch, they'll be doing fine. So far so good.

A few days ago I pondered how the Sox would use Jed Lowrie, who is primarily a shortstop, as an aid to the ailing Mike Lowell, who plays third base. Tonight we will find out as Terry Francona has indicated Lowrie will be in the starting lineup. Terry has not committed to where Lowrie will play, but he seems to be leaning towards putting Lowrie in at third, moving Kevin Youkilis back to first, and giving Sean Casey the night off. Always fun to get a look at the young talent. Let's hope he has a good, and memorable night.

(AP Photos/Mark Duncan - from ESPN.com)