Sunny day, sweepin' the clouds away

"Today's episode was brought to you by the letters C and O."

I don't know whether the 11-game winning streak creates higher expectations, but when David Wright hit that ball into the gap it was like a balloon being burst. I had about half a second to think: "Damn - there goes the lead and maybe the streak" before Coco made his jaw-dropping catch. I'm a sucker for great catches anyway, especially in the outfield, but this one had that "Holy shit!" factor reserved for truly amazing athletic feats.

Whereas big bats and home runs have been a constant part of the Red Sox makeup over the past few years, this whole "stellar defense" thing is still a new concept and has taken some getting used to, but I have to say it's now "The more I see you / The more I want you."

One louder*

I had a lot of mixed emotions watching Pedro get shelled by the Red Sox last night, and I was struggling to find the right words to express them. Thankfully, Beth came up with a beauty of a post, which perfectly captured the moment:

I wanted the Sox to win, of course. But the game I wanted to win wasn't like this. The game I'd envisioned, looked forward to for months, was a duel between the young phenom and the old master; the game I'd envisioned was something like the one-run beauty between Pedro and David Wells, pitching for the Padres, back around this time in 2004. A game deserving of both its pitching headliners--a game, in other words, in which there is a loss, but no defeat.

In the end the game was nothing like that. Instead, you sat there instnctively grinning as the Red Sox piled on a ton of runs, only to think to yourself a second later: "This shouldn't be happening to Pedro." Like Beth, there came a point where I just wanted Willie Randolph to get Pedro out of there (just about the time you could hear the mocking "Pe-dro" chant echo around Fenway, just as it has done in the past for "Ro-ger.")

Once he was gone, it was as if a weight had been lifted from our shoulders:

The young, invincible, mean Pedro Martinez was once and for all a thing of the past.

A ghost.

We could finally get on with the business at hand, namely adding another game to this unbelievable streak the Sox have going. That's the bottom line, but you can't get on with real life (baseball life, at least) if you're still exorcising your ghosts.

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Just one brief observation from the game: if ever the RemDawg decides to call it a day in the broadcast booth (which I hope won't happen until about 2020), then I propose that the Sox make a pitch for Ron Darling. I enjoyed listening to him doing color for the Nationals last year and it was good to see him do an inning of last night's game on NESN. He has good insights into the game, and is one of that rare breed of announcers which knows that it's all about the game, not the guys announcing it.

*The title was originally intended as a musical nod towards Baseball Desert contributor DBF, but I've just read Jere's take on last night's game and am starting to hear that spooky Twilight Zone music somewhere deep inside my brain.

Welcome back

I like seeing Pedro back at Fenway, but I like even more the four runs the Sox have put up in the bottom of the first inning.

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Lastings Milledge may have the coolest name in baseball, but right now I bet he's busy thanking the baseball gods that the Mets only have one more game to play in this series after today, because he is once again having a nightmare out there in left field.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Fenway Park...

Déjà vu

I would have preferred that the Red Sox not cough up a six-run lead over the last three innings of the game, but if that's the price you have to pay for some more walk-off magic, then so be it.

All that you can say about David Ortiz has already been said, so at the risk of being all blasé about the walk-off hit, I'd like to give credit to the players who got the game to that point in the 12th: Coco, who led off with a double; Youk, who, despite having seen more pitches this year than any other player in the American League, hit the very first pitch he saw into center to drive in the tying run; Loretta, who worked a crucial walk to bring Papi to the plate. Papi will get all the headlines, but without those guys, he doesn't even get to come to the plate.

And it's not just the guys hitting in front of Papi who get the credit - if you want to single out the real reason Papi got that chance, then look no further than the guy hitting behind him. The Phillies had already pitched around Ortiz in the ninth and it had worked, but here they had no choice - do you really want to load the bases for the active career leader in grand slams? I think not... Credit Papi with the game-winning RBI, but credit Manny with some Fear Factor points.

So, nine consecutive games for me, nine wins for the Sox - a pretty good streak on which to take on the best team in the National League. I'm not going to be greedy and ask for another sweep, because that's unlikely, but two out of three would be nice. Whatever happens, there's going to be some pretty good baseball at Fenway over the next three days.

I kid you not

You could make this shit up, but I guarantee that no-one would believe you:


You sit there thinking, "Nah - there's no way he could do it again." And then, after looking foolish on two consecutive pitches, he does.

Can somebody just remind me, as I'm not sure I've got this straight - this guy doesn't get the MVP vote because he doesn't play defense?

Internal memo

To all Red Sox pitching staff:

If at any time during next week's series with the Marlins you intend to give Miguel Cabrera an intentional walk, make sure the pitches are well away from the plate.

Six straight

Not just a sixth straight win, but six straight games that I've seen over six days, which I think has to be a personal record. The last time I watched six or more consecutive Sox games was probably Games 5, 6 and 7 of the '04 ALCS and Games 1 through 4 of the World Series, but they weren't on consecutive days. My consecutive days streak will be broken with today's off day, but with one night game and two day games (yes!!) over the weekend, the consecutive games streak could well go to nine (and possibly more, with the Mets in town after that).

Last night's game was a beauty - six fine innings from Lester, a grand slam from Papi and another bunch of runs scored with two outs. The Sox are looking pesky right now - long at-bats, not that easy to strike out, contributions from all the lineup, dangerous with two outs - and I like it like that. Bring on the Phillies!

iPod, iPitch

A nice baseball meets technology story (hat-tip to Gizmodo for the link).

Something must be working somewhere - the Rockies' pitching staff, despite pitching half its games in homer-friendly Coors Field, ranks tenth in the major leagues in ERA. Power to the Pod!

Solid

Random thoughts on Wally's nocturnal habits, explanations of the yellow card system in soccer, gratuitous promotion of RemDawg merchandise... Yup, you guessed it - it's a Red Sox blowout, as broadscast by NESN.

The more I watch this team, the more I like it. Last night 's lineup had five guys hitting over .300 (Youk, Loretta, Trot, Lowell, Cora) and two guys (Manny and Papi) who have combined for 38 home runs so far. Add Coco (who is starting to warm up), Gonzo and 'Tek / Mirabelli into the mix, and you've got a team that looks pretty good. They hit the ball, they catch the ball, and we're starting to see some new arms that can throw the ball as well.

Methinks the season is far from over.

At the end of the day

When Seanez came in and gave up a three-run home run on the first pitch he saw, I was about ready to call it a day, but since it was too late to go back to bed, I thought I might as well stick with the game. Six two-out eighth-inning runs later, and the Sox were back up on top, 9-5.

The end result was the one we wanted, but the route the Sox took to get there was tortuous, to say the least. Schilling gave up just two earned runs over 6 innings, but the bullpen once again made things interesting by giving up 5 earned runs over the following 1 2/3 innings. After an evening of inanities from the ESPN broadcast team (Joe Morgan: "You can't hit a two-run home run with no-one on base"), I hate to attribute the quote of the game to Jon Miller, but he nailed it in the bottom of the eighth: "Papelbon comes on and puts an end to the foolishness." Yes, indeed. 23 saves and an ERA of 0.25 - I'm glad he's pitching for us and not against us.

Tip of the Kap

In tough times, all good news is welcome, and this definitely qualifies as good news. I don't know what Kapler can bring to the team on the field, but his mere presence in the clubhouse should be enough to give the Sox a much-needed boost right now.

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In other news, the Sox may be throwing yet another new face out there on Monday against the Nationals. I'm thinking that it can't be any worse than seeing Matt Clement moping around on the mound, so I say why the hell not give it a shot? It's going to take some creative thinking for the Sox to make headway right now, so I'm all for it.

One step at a time

That was much better. Still too many oh-fers in key spots for my liking (Coco, Papi, Manny), but the pitching from Lester was good enough to keep the Braves from doing too much damage.

You know your starter's having a good night when even the other team's broadcasters are giving hm props - the phrase "big league pitcher" cropped up on more than one occasion during the game, and it was easy to see why Lester has been the jewel in the Red Sox farm system's crown.

The only real offense from the Sox came from the bat of Varitek, but his timing was impeccable, coming up big with the bases loaded in the third. The captain seems to be finally coming around - over the last seven games he has 11 hits and 8 RBIs - and hopefully this can jump-start the rest of the offense, which is looking decidedly lean right now. The Atlanta Braves of 2006 - right now, at least - are not the Atlanta Braves we have become accustomed to over the past few seasons, so it would be good to put a few wins up on the board and try to get a little momentum going. It's still unclear right now whether 2006 is going to be a transition year for the Sox, or whether they can put together a decent enough run to make the playoffs, but a bunch of interleague wins would certainly help things along.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt

What sweep? What are you talking about? Did you not read yesterday's post? Come back and see me when we've taken a couple from Atlanta.

Ostrich

New policy here The Baseball Desert as from today: if I didn't see it, it didn't happen.

So, moving swiftly on to other baseball news and trivia... The Mets rang up their seventh consecutive win last night, with a 9-3 victory over the Phillies. That's a nice streak, but I was more interested in the box score, which shows that each member of the Mets' starting nine - including El Duque - scored exactly one of those nine runs. Check it out - it's definitely a candidate for Box Score Of The Week.

Flight of fancy

You're on your way to Minneapolis on business, hoping that you're not going to get stuck next to a little old lady who spends the whole flight complaining about her varicose veins, when suddenly this happens.

Your day suddenly got a hell of a lot brighter.

Pop quiz

Spot the odd man out:

Schilling 8 IP 6 H 1 R 1 ER
Papelbon 2 IP 2 H 0 R 0 ER
Timlin 1 IP 0 H 0 R 0 ER
Tavarez 0.1 IP 2 H 4 R 4 ER

Yup - in one-third of an inning, Tavarez manged to give up more runs than the eight other pitchers in 23 combined innings.

Up until that point, it had been "an absolute flawless gem of a game". Santana consistently made some very good hitters look very bad, and Schilling matched Santana's efficiency, if not his dazzling brilliance, over the first 8 innings. Seeing Santana on top of his game last night, throwing that wicked changeup of his, reminded me of Mariano Rivera and his cut fastball - you know what's coming, but there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

After those eight masterful innings, I was hoping that the Sox could get to the Twins' relievers, yet at the same time, I was also ready to accept that this was a classic game that we might possibly lose by a single, pesky, scratched-out, small-ball run. But when innings 9, 10 and 11 slipped by without either side scoring I began to hope that the Sox might actually be able to pull off a win. The top of the twelfth had me more than hoping - Alex Gonzalez beat out a double play ball at first and plated the go-ahead run. I repeat: Alex Gonzalez drove in the go-ahead run! The gods were definitely on our side. Unfortunately, so was Julian Tavarez, and this one went from thriller to chiller in the space of four batters: HBP, double, walk, grand slam, ballgame.

I don't mind losing the game, but losing it like that was like getting sucker-punched whilst you have your back turned. By a member of your own family.

I don't know how the Sox solve their bullpen woes, but until such time as they do, what is needed are a couple of hard-core bouncers on the top step of the dugout, checking the names and numbers of players who go out on the field. Since bouncers are not always known for their high IQ, there will be a simple directive: "Check for Z's. If there's a Z in the name, ask: "Hit or pitch?" If he says "Hit", let him go. If he says "Pitch", TIE HIM UP AND FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T LET HIM ANYWHERE NEAR THE MOUND!"

I don't care if it means sending Alex Cora out there to pitch - I don't want Seanez or Tavarez anywhere near the mound unless a) we're leading by at least 25 runs or b) we're playing the Pittsburgh Pirates. Only then will I be able to sleep easy at night.

I'm Tired, Joey Boy

I'm tired. Not of baseball, but because of baseball. There are still two-thirds of the 2006 season to go, but I'm already pretty sure that I will watch more regular-season games this year than I have ever done before. I used to reserve my "go to bed at 9, get up at 1, go back to bed at 4" routine for the postseason, but it has become more the rule than the exception this year, to such an extent that I'll probably end up watching more games than I'll miss.

However, I am getting to the point where I look forward to an off-day almost as much as the players themselves do, and the games I do watch will be selected according to who's pitching. With Matt Clement being bumped from at least two starts recently, I just assumed he would be starting tonight in Minnesota and I could get a rare two consecutive good nights' sleep. A quick glance at the schedule just now showed me that I got it all wrong - it's Schilling vs. Santana tonight. I know there's no such thing as a sure thing in baseball (who could have predicted Pauley vs. Wang turning into a pitchers' duel?), but this could turn out to be a pretty good game, so I guess I'm going to have to be there, black coffee in hand.

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The tiredness also seems to have blinded me to the fact that after we leave Minnesota, we have about a bazillion interleague games against the NL East: Braves, Nationals, Phillies, Mets and Marlins. I was vaguely aware of the Mets series because of the whole "Pedro back at Fenway" angle, but I hadn't realised we were playing the whole damn division for the next two-and-a-half weeks. I don't know whether to be relieved that I'm not enough of an anal-retentive to know the Sox schedule by heart, or worried that I appear not to know WTF is going on half the time.

Hmmmmm...2:30pm - time for a quick siesta, maybe?

Don't give up

Two little words for you: walk-off.

Bottom of the ninth, down by two, Harris, Gonzalez and Crisp due up - I didn't like the odds, but the Sox proved me wrong and had me jumping around the living room. Great job by Trot and Coco to get on base and give Papi a chance to win the thing.

And Papi? What is there left to say about Papi? Bottom of the ninth, down to his last strike and he hits it over the fence. I was too busy jumping around to catch all of Don's home run call, but it sounded to me like: "How many times can you go to the well?" Damn good question. This guy is un-be-friggin'-lie-va-ble...

Let's play two!

Yesterday's doubleheader didn't materialise, so the Sox are trying again today. Two Sox games in the space of five hours - both of them at reasonably watchable times - is about as good as it gets around here. What a great way to squeeze out the weekend's last drops.

Papelbon: bon

So Papelbon's inevitable first blown save is finally out of the way. And those who wondered how it would affect him had all of one inning to wait before findng out. That key go-ahead run added by the Sox in the bottom of the eighth gave Papelbon a chance to come back out there right away with another one-run lead and save the game. How did the inning go? K, K, single, K.

And thanks to my daughters (who are slowly but surely learning the names and numbers of the Sox players as the season progresses) we have a new rally-cry chez Iain, to go along with "Yooooooouk!". Repeat after me: "Il est bon, le Papelbon!"

Short-term win

I can't say that I'm looking forward to all the games the Red Sox are going to have to make up later in the season, but on a purely personal level, I was mighty pleased, on getting up at 1am to watch the game, that it had been postponed due to bad weather.

I am lucky enough to not need eight hours' sleep a night, and I can get into a fairly good rhythm with games at 7pm ET, but even so, three consecutive games on worknights would have been pushing the envelope a little too far, especially with a business trip kicking in later today. I won't see tonight's game, but I'm counting on Schilling to take care of business.

A fine line

I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to read 'crushing defeat' posts on last night's game, but I actually feel good about the game, even taking into account that this was the Sox' fourth consecutive loss against the Yankees.

The facts are these: we threw a rookie out there in Yankee Stadium for his second career start and then basically ran for cover behind the sofa, only to see the rookie give up just one run over 6 2/3 innings. The game was actually lost by about a total of 10 inches: two inches higher and Cairo's ground ball goes into Pauley's glove; two inches away from Giambi and the bases-loaded walk is an inning-ending strikeout; six inches further and Manny's home run is beyond Cabrera's glove.

Anyone who's a regular on here knows that I'm a sucker for great defense - more specifically stellar catches in the outfield - and, much as I hate to do so, I have to tip my cap to Cabrera for last night's gem. Unlike Monday's nightmare last night's game was a close, well-played affair - I'm actually going to agree with YES's Jim Kaat, who said it was one of the best regular-season Yanks-Sox games we've seen in a while - and it deserved to be decided on a spectacular catch like that.

I went back to bed feeling that we gave it our best shot and just came up short - there was no massacre, no ironic standing ovation for a Sox starter, no wailing and gnashing of teeth, even when Pauley loaded the bases and Seanez came in (why no Papelbon? If there was ever a non-save save situation, this was it). By that point, we'd gotten much further than anyone could reasonably expect, which goes down in my book as a good day, no matter what it says in the win-loss column.

It only counts for one...

... but it was nonetheless an ugly train-wreck of a game.

It was one of those games that are so morbidly fascinating that you continue to watch. You stick with it partly in the hope that the Sox pull a 12-run-sized rabbit out of their hat, but mainly out of curiosity, wondering whether the Yankees are not going to break some franchise / major league record for runs scored.

In the end, it was all about efficient hitting and the long ball - the Yankees had just one more hit than the Sox but put 8 more runs on the board. If there was a silver lining to the cloud, it would be that the back end of the bullpen pitched 5 scoreless innings, but that's about it, folks.

Tonight we throw young Pauley out there, hopefully remember to pack the big bats and cross our fingers.

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Anyone who thinks Terry Francona is not the perfect guy to manage in the pressure-cooker atmosphere that is Boston should read what he had to say about Beckett:

Not surprisingly, both Francona and Beckett were asked after the game if the pitcher was having any health issues.

"No, we had some hit issues, but no health [issues]," said Francona.

Like every other person who saw it, Tito knows it was a fugly game, but he's smart enough to know exactly how to approach the situation: don't avoid the issue, don't throw anyone under the bus, deal with it - preferably with a wry smile - and move on. That, my friends, is called perfect pitch.

Pitching 101

I hope that Tim Wakefield is not an avid reader of Baseball Musings, as this might kill the poor guy off.

It's a great stat, though - Bray comes in to pitch in his first major league game, throws one pitch for a strike and gets the win. If only everything in life were that simple.

Sunday haiku

Wake pitched pretty well,
But the Sox got him no runs,
So he lost, again.

It ain't over...

YOOUUUUUUUUK!

I had the post all set to go in my head: "pitching duel...beaten by better pitching...at least it didn't drag on for four hours...", and then Youk pulled me back in. I was actually allowing my body to drift back into sleep mode as the ninth inning progressed, but then all of a sudden the ball was over the fence, a on-run deficit had become a one-run lead and I was sat on the edge of the sofa, willing Papelbon to finish it off.

On balance, it was a game we probably shouldn't have won, but those are the sweetest kind, especially on the road. We got the 'W', but we also reminded the Tigers that we're never going to just give it up - we'll keep playing until the 27 outs have been recorded. We may be down, but we're never quite out.

Oh ye of little faith

Beth and I chatted prior to last night's game, and we basically agreed that it was potentially a nightmare waiting to happen. Clearly the baseball gods were monitoring our Google Talk conversation and decided to show us that, in baseball, you don't never know nothin'.

The result of the game was enough in itself to bring a big smile to my face this morning, but then I read Beth's post, and the smile turned into goosebumps.

To those who find rooting for sports teams strange, those goosebumps will seem ridiculous. "How can you be moved by a bunch of multi-millionaires chasing a little ball around a field?" is usually the quesion that is asked. And it is not an unreasonable question. As Beth herself says: "There's still a war on; the gas prices are still through the roof. Etcetera." But that is precisely the reason why we watch sports - they allow us to put all that to one side for an hour, a day, a season, and root wholeheartedly for the good guys. Just like in real life, the good guys don't always win, but sometimes, just sometimes, they come through against the odds and we come away smiling.

You can talk all day about the ridiculous salaries, the juiced-up players and all the rest, but that you can't take away the genuine smile that crosses your face in moments like that. To quote Red: "Just friggin' amazing".