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 :)

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.