How sweep it is!

Can't write for too long, but I wanted to get some thoughts written down before I have to run off to a meeting. Not that there's actually too much to say really... Sox beat the Jays for the third game in a row, 8-0, thus sweeping the series. All the runs came before the 5th inning, which didn't work out too well for me since I didn't get to even check the score until the 6th. Not a very interesting game after the 3rd inning really, after which it was 7-0. It's really interesting looking at some of the graphs they have over at FanGraphs because you can really see how interesting a game was just by looking at how the line swings back and forth between the two teams. I've been learning more about WPA, BRAA, etc and they're really quite interesting statistics. Maybe once I understand more I'll do a mini write up on them, if for no other reason but to drill the definitions into my head.

Props to Youk and Lowell for a kickass game last night. Oh, and as an aside, was anyone else as bothered by Papelbon's comments as I was?!?

It's been a while...

Well, where to begin... it's been almost two weeks since my last post and for that I'd like to apologize. It's hard to build a community if I don't stay active on this blog, so I'll do my best to do that going forward. The main reason for my absence is simply a lack of time and an increased workload at work, but that's no excuse. That said, let's regroup over where the Sox stand today, because that's truly good news.

After winning two of three against the Yankees, one of two against Oakland, a makeup against Seattle, and two of three in Minneapolis, the Sox are in Toronto and have won two games with one more to play before returning home for a 10 game homestand against Baltimore, Detroit, and Atlanta. Aside from the Baltimore series it should be a great measuring stick for how good we really are, as Detroit and Atlanta are two hot teams this year. We're 22-10, good for a .688 win percentage. The closest team in the AL East is the Yankees who just got back to .500 and are still 6 games back. The Jays are in dead last and are 9.5 games back, with Tampa Bay and Baltimore falling somewhere in the middle.

Dice-K pitched last night against Ohka and tossed a beauty. 1 run, 5 hits, 8ks, and 3 walks over 7 innings. Here's the box score for those of you who can read them. Speaking of which, I know what all the abbreviations mean, but I still have trouble figured out who hit in which inning and completely replaying a game in my head based on a box score. If anyone has any tips please leave me a comment!!

I won't delve too far back into the games I haven't discussed here, but it suffices to say that Pedroia seems to be winning back the faith of the fans and his spot at second base, and I couldn't be any happier for him. Varitek's on a huge upswing with the road trip and just got a home run batting lefty either yesterday or the day before. I feel like we're finally starting to gel and it's a pretty impressive thing to see. The only other team in all of baseball with a better record than us is Milwaukee, and if you take a look at their schedule they haven't faced many of the best NL teams yet, so it'll be interesting to see what happens when they do. Good to see that the Cubs are out of the cellar in the NL Central, 6.5 games back of the Brewers but still in 2nd place. I'm really pulling for them this year, I'd love to see a Sox v. Cubs series someday before I die (or they end up knocking down Fenway or Wrigley, whichever ends up happening first).

I'm taking a pass on all of the stuff going on in the media with Schilling and Ortiz right now... except to say that I heard Schilling's interview live on WEEI as I was driving to work that morning and it was pretty nice hearing someone have the balls to say what he did, even if he didn't have all of his facts straight.

Four in a Row

Well, we won last night 11-4, but it wasn't as clean a win as I was hoping to see. Daisuke's fifth start and he fell apart in the 4th inning for the 2nd game in a row. With no outs in the inning he proceeded to walk three in a row and then got tooled for a couple of weak hits, leading to four Yankee runs. We were down 4-2 after that inning, but luckily Yankee pitching fell apart once again - Pettitte this time, including walking in a run, and we took the lead 5-4 in the top of the fifth. Again Dice-K settled down his next trip to the mound, and had removed his thermal shirt. Kinda makes sense he wouldn't be used to wearing one pitching in the stadiums in Japan. Anyway, I know he's working on his delivery from the stretch, I just hope it starts paying off for him soon. At least he moved to 3-2 on the year and the Sox notched another one in the win column.

Sox are 15-7, the only other team who's lost only 7 games is Cleveland, but they're only 13-7 having played two fewer games than the Sox. Game 2 of the series is today, 3:55pm, IN THE BRONX!! :)

Baltiwho?

First off, my apologies for such an extended absence. Work's been pretty crazy as we are preparing to move our entire operation across the street, plus my 50" Samsung DLP is busted and in desperate need of repair, meaning there hasn't been much chance to watch the games lately. Anyway, before we dive in, here's a recap from MLB.com of the past three games:

4/24 (10-3, Sox Lose)
4/25 (6-1, Sox Win)
4/26 (5-2 Sox Win)

The game on the 24th was just a messy Tavarez loss to the Blue Jays... four errors, including a horrible throw by Ramirez that resembled a little league play and a bungled catch in the outfield by WMP (who would end up making up for it last night). The funny thing about this one was that a lot of the odds makers were favoring the Sox, since we were at home. Umm, hello!!! The chances of beating Halliday two starts in a row are never that good, and the Jays always seem to get hot at Fenway... looks like they need to start watching more baseball.

The next game was down in Baltimore against the Orioles. Schilling had a solid game, allowing 1 run on 5 hits with 3K's and 2 walks. Okijima and Donnelly each pitched an inning to close it out. Ramirez and Lowell drove in two, Papi drove in one to break a 1-1 tie, and Cora hit a homer off Cabrera, who he was 9 of 16 against lifetime (if I remember correctly). The real story of the game though was the resurfacing of the bloody sock story. Apparently Gary Thorne, the announcer for the Orioles, said on air that the sock was painted red and not blood soaked. Well, the airwaves were full of comments on it yesterday, people believing one thing or the other. Here's the story and it's conclusion from the Boston Globe:

Bloody Mess (4/26/2007)
Hole Uncovered in Sock Story (4/27/2006)

Hopefully that's the last we'll hear of this for another 2 and a half years...

Last night's game, the finale of a quick 2 game set, went our way again, as in the top of the 8th WMP hit a grand slam off of the Orioles' closer Chris Ray, who gave up a walk-off grand slam to A-Rod on 4/7. You absolutely need to watch the interview with him after the game, it's classic!! Looks like Baltimore might need a new closer, which sucks for them considering how much they spent this off-season rebuilding their pen. I was pretty psyched for Wily Mo as everyone on the radio yesterday was making fun of him, calling him Wiffy Mo. Beckett got the win and joined Babe Ruth and Pedro Martinez as the only Sox pitchers to win 5 games in April - pretty good company!! Papelbon came in to close it out, and picked up his 7th save of the season.

As of this morning, the Sox are sitting pretty atop the AL East, 3 games up on Toronto at 14-7, and still have the best winning percentage in all of baseball at .667.

In other news, Phil Hughes, one of the most highly touted pitching prospects around, made his major league debut for the Yankees last night, losing 6-0 to the Blue Jays. Hopefully he won't be as good as everyone's claiming he is.

Oh, here's one more story from the Globe, via everyone's favorite reporter CHB, about Dice-K and his throwing habits... not sure how much of it needs to be taken with a grain of salt though...

Slinging it with the best of them (4/27/2006)

Tonight we get Matsuzaka against Pettitte at Yankee Stadium. Can't wait for that one!! Let's hope we can keep the streak going and sweep again :)

Hangover Cafe

Well, sorry to say that between driving from Somerville to Boston and back and watching 24 that I really didn't see too much of the game yesterday. I saw us up briefly 2-1, and then suddenly we were behind again. In the first inning I heard on the radio that Mirabelli had thrown one into left field and kinda had a feeling it wasn't going to be our night... guess I was right. I think the following quote sums up the night perfectly.

From Boston.com:

"It was a lethargic day," said a very frank Doug Mirabelli, who went 2 for 3. "It didn't feel like we had the energy we had against New York. It didn't seem like we had anything going. Sometimes you don't have it every single day. A little blah today."

Minor observations: Timlin gave up a 2 run homer in the ninth, I'm really hoping he's got something left in the tank this season. Apparently Coco sat out again because of a strain in a leg muscle, unrelated to the diving attempted catch. Okijima and Papelbon should be good to go tonight after getting the day off yesterday.

Anyway, here's the recap, hopefully tonight will be an improvement...

4/23 (7-3, Sox lose)

Oh yeah, and here's a preview of tonight's game... can Tavarez possibly beat Halliday in two consecutive starts??

Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back! (Lucky Sevens)

What a glorious weekend in Red Sox Nation! Here's a recap of the games from Saturday and Sunday:

4/21 (7-5, Sox win)
4/22 (7-6, Sox win)

On Saturday Beckett benefited from a ton of offense and pitched well enough to hang on to the lead and move to 4-0 on the season. Ortiz hit a two run bomb, Coco went 2-4 and has a higher BA than Manny, Varitek also went 2-4 to continue his offensive recovery, and Pedroia sat out the game. As good of a game as it was, it was the easiest win the Sox had this weekend and probably the least memorable of the set, with the possible exception of Papelbon's save.

Sunday's game was pure insanity. Wright pitched solid through two innings, with Dice-K giving up 3 runs by the time the Sox got to bat in the 3rd. The first two batters were sent back to the dugout with nothing to show, sending Man-Ram to the plate. Then the flood gates opened... Manny homers, JD homers, Lowell homers, & Tek homers, back-to-back-to-back-to-back!! Sox take the lead, 4-3. Dice-K proceeded to give up two more runs, giving the Yanks the lead once more by a score of 5-4. Lowell homered again with two on in the 7th to give the Sox the lead for good at 7-5. One more Yankee run would come in with Okajima in relief for Dice-K in the 8th, but Donnelly came in to get the last two outs and Papelbon shut them down in the 9th with some game-saving help from his brand new best friend Pedroia at second. Pedroia also looked good offensively, slapping a nice double down the left field line past A-Rod and making solid contact in each at bat. Plus it was fitting watching A-Rod fail to step up in the clutch against us yet again, despite his incredibly hot April. Overall, my stomach was in knots the whole time... what a great example of the tension & suspense that makes baseball the best sport there is.

While I have very few negatives to highlight from Sunday's performance, there were a few.

1. Coco started the game on the bench, possibly due to an injury sustained on Friday night, but barring that I thought it was foolish to leave him out in favor of WMP when he's showing signs of coming out of his slump.
2. The Yankees came into town with several key players on the DL. If it took this level of heroics to pull off a sweep in April, there might be cause for concern once the Evil Empire's healthy again.
3. We left 22 men on base and had only one run-scoring hit with men in scoring position, namely Lowell's home run in the 7th. Not good, but at least we still pulled it off.

As of this morning the Sox have won 5 in a row & have the best winning percentage in all of baseball, .706. Beckett leads the majors with 4 wins and Dice-K is 3rd in the majors with 31 K's. Not bad after a 3-game set with the Yankees.

The Jays are in town tonight for a quick two game set starting @ 7:05. We get a repeat of the Ohka vs. Wakefield game we saw in Toronto, and with the Jays on a 5-game slide hopefully it'll have a similar outcome!

Three More Wins

Since I only got to listen to our last two games against the Jays, here's a recap.

4/18 (4-1, Sox win)
4/19 (5-3, Sox win)

Quick thoughts:

Wed: Only 5 hits for the Jays... Mirabelli goes deep... Wakefield gets some love... That knuckleball's working well this year... I might've been a little hard on Lugo in that last game, that runner was damn close to being completely in his way.

Thur: Coco's waking up... Tavarez did a great job keeping us in the game... Manny picked a nice time for his first home run... Another save for Papelbon... Until Friday's game it was easily the most important, confidence-building win of the season.

Friday was an outstanding come from behind win against the Yankees, with Mariano Rivera blowing yet another lead against the Red Sox. It started with Schilling vs. Pettitte. Schilling gave up two homers to A-Rod, who became the fastest to 12 home runs, in 15 games. Aside from Tek's 2-run blast the bats were pretty quiet against Pettitte. Coco almost killed himself slamming into the bullpen wall going after one of A-Rod's home runs. The eighth inning started off 6-2 Yankees and ended 7-6 Red Sox. Okijima came in to close it out and picked up the save since Paps was unavailable.

From ESPN, here's how it all went down:

"J.D. Drew had three hits for Boston, which trailed 5-2 before David Ortiz led off the eighth with a double and Manny Ramirez walked. Drew moved the runners up, then Mike Lowell singled to make it 6-3 and bring in Rivera. Jason Varitek, who hit a two-run homer in the fourth, singled to make it 6-4, then Crisp tripled down the right-field line to tie it. With the infield in, Cora fisted a blooper over Jeter's head to the back of the infield dirt, driving in the go-ahead run."

The Sox wore their green St. Patrick's Day uniforms and apparently it was the first time in team history that the players have had their names on the back of their uniforms while playing @ home. My roommate walked in the door, took one look at the TV, and asked "What, are the Sox celebrating 4/20?". In a way, I guess they were :)

Dice-K's the new Wakefield

You can't help but feel bad for Daisuke after yesterday's game. He was throwing beautifully until it all came unravelled in the 4th. Between the call at the plate that got him rattled (sorry all, that was a ball...), the screw up by Lugo (knew it would happen eventually), and getting robbed on Lowell's throw to first it was a mess. But to his credit he got out of the inning and came back to own the Jays for the next two innings. Hideki pitched an awesome inning too, striking out the side, and even Pinero looked good. But, once again, the Sox bats failed to come to life and give this kid some support. Hell, he's done all we can really ask of any pitcher in his first three starts, and has a record of 1-2 to show for it.

This brings us to the offense... props to WMP for that monster of a homerun up on top of the old restaurant. I don't think I've ever seen a ball hit that far in Toronto. But man, 1 run on 7 hits when the Jays only had three 3 hits the whole game. Manny needs to shave his head or something, the dude needs to wake up already cuz .205 with no homers just ain't his style. Youk, Ortiz, and Lugo all went 0 for 4. Then there's Tek... give up hitting lefty and focus on just one side of the plate, please!!! I really think he'd be way better off spending his time in the cage focused on hitting from one side, but we probably won't see that happen. Ahh yes, and Coco... nice game yesterday going 2-4, got the average back up to .150. Let's hope he can keep it up. Anyway, Wakefield goes tonight, let's hope we can turn it around against Ohka who's 0-1 with a 7.84 ERA. Then maybe we'll have a chance of improving on last year's record of 7-12 against the Jays.

Milano (not the cookies)

So as many of you probably already know, Alyssa Milano launched her own MLB-inspired clothing line last week... I won't say much other than it's nice seeing her decked out in Sox gear :)

Jays Might Be Hurting...

The Detroit Free Press has an article about how the Jays have three key players on the DL - might bode well for this upcoming series.

Lenny?

I was just checking up on one of my favorite players from last year, Lenny DiNardo, and it appears we lost him to the A's back in February on waivers... I'm kinda disappointed about that, he did a good job filling in for Wells (anyone remember who started the Patriots Day game last year?) and overall I really liked his stuff. Anyway, best of luck to Lenny out there on the west coast.

We do still have David Pauley, another prospect that in my opinion has loads of potential... hopefully we get to see him up at Fenway sometime this year!

Wet, Wonderful Weekend

Well, I was pretty busy this weekend and aside from keeping up with the scores of the games I didn't really get to follow any of the action. So, here's a decent recap from mlb.com:

4/13 (10-1, Sox win)
4/14 (8-0, Sox win)

Apparently Papelbon pretty much saved things in the 8th on Friday, so props to him once again. Wake had an awesome game that day too, as the score would indicate, so good for him. Schilling has thrown 14 scoreless innings in a row, so that's good news too.

Rain has again played a role as Tavarez gave up his turn in the rotation so Schilling could go on Saturday and Beckett could go yesterday. But with the rain Beckett got delayed anyway and won't go until today, if we even have a game. It's currently scheduled for 12:05pm, pushed back from 10am because of the weather. Dice-K's set to go tomorrow, which he was gonig to do anyway since Tavarez would've gone today, but we'll see if that ends up happening now. Either way it's pretty annoying and I just want some baseball to happen! Anyway, off to turn on WEEI and see if we have any action!

Oh, I almost forgot, one other thing worth mentioning - Mussina and Pavano are headed to the DL, sorry Yankee fans!! :-p

UPDATE-1: Game time is now sceduled for 12:15pm.
UPDATE-2: Beckett gave up a homer to Cabrera in the first, but the Sox are up and we've already tied it up w/ a double by Lugo and a single by Youkilis.
UPDATE-3: I should've waited for that second update - the Sox batted around in the first and it's 6-1 after the second :)
UPDATE-4: Papi just hit a homer in the bottom of the 4th, it's 7-1 and after one more inning the game will be official if it starts raining again.
UPDATE-5: Final score, 7-2, Sox win! Snyder gave up a homer in the 9th, but oh well :)