Sox Sweep Away the Yanks

We swept the hated Yankees over the weekend and every game was a typical Sox-Yankee game. On Friday night, down 4-2 in the ninth and Mari OH-No Rivera on the mound, I thought we were were pretty well done for. But it seems Rivera just has trouble closing out games against us doesn't it? With two outs, JBay hit a 2 run home run to tie it up and Youk hit the game winning home run to win it in extra innings. This is the type of game that takes years off my life, but it was worth it. An opening game win against the Yankees is always worth it.

The Saturday game was a slugfest. Before I knew what was going on, we were down 6-0 and it looked like AJ Burnett was pitching too well for our hitters. But in the 4th, Tek hits a grand slam and then we were just down 1 run. We battled back and forth and after over 4 hours of baseball, we won 16-11. The Yankees just don't have any pitching do they?

The Sunday night game we won 4-1, but the biggest play was Jacoby and his steal of home plate. It was the prettiest steal I have ever seen, but the ugliest slide too. It looked like he just fell on the plate. Anyway, we have now won 10 games in a row and knocking on first place on the Blue Jays door, but probably more importantly, we have knocked the Yankees further down the division.

I can only imagine what the Yankee papers are talking about this week. Here is a sample of some of the headlines. Let the good times roll!!! HA HA!!!

A Twin Killing at Fenway

The Sox swept the Twinkies in a doubleheader today 10-1 and 7-3. The first game was a makeup from yesterday which was rained out. Wakefield pitched another complete game (7 innings - called due to rain) and Penny pitched a good game in game 2. Our bats are coming together and just in time too, the Yanks are coming to town for a 3 game series over the weekend.

I don't understand NESN and their rain delays. On Tuesday, during the rain delay, NESN ran a replay of their beatdown of the Orioles on Patriots day. Now I enjoy watching a good replay of a good game, but I think NESN is missing the boat on this. Instead, I would have loved to see NESN cover about a half hour of Remy running his hot dog booth outside Fenway. Then they could go into the clubhouse and show Youk trying to wash raw meat and nickel beer out of his beard as Pedroia whacks him with a towel and the Big Papi laughing uncontrollably on the floor. And then to settle things down, wouldn't it have been nice to see about an hour of Heidi and Amalie Benjamin roaming the seats asking fans what their favorite Red Sox memory was while handing them a towel in order to dry off with? Now that would have been a great rain delay!



They did do a good job of covering the Dave Roberts return to Fenway though. He threw out the first pitch of game 2 and everytime I see him, I remember The Steal and how that one moment changed everything for us. I am sure not a day goes by that a Sox fan doesn't come up to him and tell him thank you for that 2004 season. Of all the Sox memories I have, that one will always stand out the most. They should put a statue out front of Fenway beside the Ted Williams statue of Roberts stealing the base - it was that big.

Now we have to get ready for the weekend series with the Yanks. Now I get really fired up when we play the Yanks (The Empire Formerly Known as Evil) which is probably why my wife will never allow me to go to a Yankee game. I would need a good bondsman or a good doctor, or maybe both after the game. Friday night they have Joba the Hutt Chamberlain pitching against Lester. I expect to see some fireworks especially when Joba starts throwing again at the head of Youk. I really dislike Joba the Hutt. Burnett is pitching game 2 against Beckett which will probably be the best game of the weekend. Game 3 has Pettitte against Masterson. Do you think Teixeira will get booed?? He only strung us along all offseason, and then signed with the Yanks. It is alright though, the 180 million dollar man is batting his weight - around .220! I only wish we could have CC SoBADthia pitch over the weekend against us. I would like us to put another 20 spot on the board.



Anyway, a big series coming up this weekend. It will be full of drama and tension, a lot booing of Yankee players and possibly a bench clearing incident, but in the end, I hope we are closer to the Jays and we push the Yanks further down the division. GO SOX !!!

Nothing But W's Against the O's

We just came off a 4 game sweep of the Orioles over the weekend to move from last place into second place. That game Friday night was crazy, coming back from down 7 runs to win 10-8 was unbelievable. It seems like we always have this type of game at least once per year against the Orioles. Remember the Mothers Day Miracle a couple of years back?

Monday was the annual Patriots Day game so the game started at 10 am at our house. Since I had to work, I had the game on the computer and had to watch dots move around the screen. From what I was able to interpret, Masterson pitched well giving up just one run over 5.1 innings and our bullpen continues to shut down the opposition. It looks like Papi is starting to hit (he even had a triple) and Tek hit another home run. Little Pedroia had a 4 hit day and finally Jacoby is starting to hit too. It looks like things are starting to come together - and just in time too - the Yankees are coming to town this weekend.

Beckett had his suspension knocked down to 5 games so it looks like he will be ready to pitch Saturday against the Yanks, and speaking of the Yanks series, I would be surprised if the Yanks throw out Wang against us on Friday. We very well could score 20 runs that night.

On Saturday, we had a Porsche Club rally and we had a lot of fun driving around but the highlight was after the rally, we stopped for pizza and on the TV was the Indians-Yankees game. It was 22-4 Indians! What a perfect way to end the day!

Also, what is it with the Washington Nationals? Did you see where some of the players were wearing their jersey and the team name was misspelled? Now how in the world does something like that happen? Doesn't even the players look at their jersey before putting it on? The equipment guy, seamstress, somebody should lose their job over that one. What an embarrassment! So whenever I think things couldn't get any worse, I guess I could be a "Natinals" fan.

Now a short 2 game series against the Twins, then the Yanks!

WakeField of Dreams - Almost

I left work early in order to catch the afternoon game against the A's today and what a game it was. Tim Wakefield took a no hitter into the 8th inning, saving our bullpen which was greatly needed, and took the win 8-2. I don't know what to think about Wakefield. There are days when I can't stand to watch a single pitch because he is walking every batter in sight, the catcher is running around trying to stop the knuckler from rolling to the backstop, and hitters are peppering the wall with every pitch that does land in the strike zone. And then there are days like today. One where he is almost perfect.

He knew going into the game he had to stay in past at least 6 or 7 innings to save our bullpen because of them pitching 11 innings the night before. I sat down and quickly saw Lowell hit a two run home run in the second to put us up 2-0. Then, slowly, Wakefield was like a machine going through their lineup. It was going into the 4th inning when I realized that he had the no-no going and this time I was not going to blow it for him. In the past, I have been known to blow the no hitter for the Sox pitchers by calling everyone I know about the game, and usually, by the time I hang up the phone, they give up the base hit and the no-no is gone. I did that for Schilling 2 years ago and I know it was my fault he didn't get the no hitter. So this time I refused to say a single word about it, not even to my kids who were watching the game with me.

In my mind, I kept thinking, "This is going to happen." Usually, with any no hitter, you can point to several key defensive plays that kept the no hitter alive and in this game the first one was the off-target throw by shortstop Nick Green that was handled by Youkilis, who tagged Mark Ellis, in the second inning. Then there was the warning track catch by Ellsbury in right-center in the sixth. After that catch, I just knew Timmy had the no hitter going. Then in the seventh, I saw a defensive play that confirmed the fact I was going to see a no hitter. There was that brilliant leaping, twisting, tumbling play behind second base by Green which prompted Wakefield to raise his arms and point to the Sox shortstop. He was smiling and pointing and down deep I knew it was going to happen and I was not going to say anything about the no hitter to anyone until the game was over.

Then I blew it. I knew the score going into the top of the 8th was still just 2-0 so I opened my mouth and knowing not to say anything about the no-hitter said, "It sure would be nice if we could get just a couple of runs." And sure enough, we batted around and scored 6 runs to take a 8-0 lead. The bad thing was, it took us nearly 30 minutes to score the runs and throughout the inning Wake was sitting there, trying to stay loose and surely thinking about the no hitter. When he came out to pitch the bottom of the 8th, he walked the first batter. Then got an out and then he gave up the base hit to ruin his no hitter. He eventually pitched a complete game and gave up 2 runs on just 4 hits.

So sorry Sox fans, this one was on me again. Just like the Schilling almost no hitter, I blew it for them again. Next time we are having a no hit bid, I think I will turn off the TV and check back in a couple of hours. Then we will get another no hitter.

Another Loss

We lost again last night this time to the Oakland A's 8-3. It is bad enough I have to stay up until past midnite hoping to see our bats get going only to see us continue to struggle at the plate. Lester was horrible, leaving pitches high in the strike zone and giving up home runs. It was good to see Nomar again even if he does now play for the other team. Tonight we have Dice so we will see how that goes.

I heard on the news that one of my favorite players as a child died today. He was Mark Fidrych and he played for the Detroit Tigers. I remember that he would actually talk to the baseball before throwing it and would pile mounds of dirt on the pitchers mound, or all of a sudden would start digging a hole. I remember one game where he stood behind the mound and took off his shoes, banged the dirt out of them and then took his time putting them back on. When he was done, he would motion to the crowd and to his teammates as if saying "sorry for taking too long, I just had to do it." The best thing about him was all of his antics were not for show, it was really how he was. He was like a 12 year old kid playing in the Majors. I remember the Monday Night game against the Yanks in 76, when he ran back onto the field after the game because the fans refused to leave until they saw him again. He ran onto the field in his socks and started to shake the fans hands, he hugged a policeman, and then he broke down and started to tear up. During the interview, he looked around the stadium with his "big bird" eyes in astonishment, and stated "I dont know how I feel, I have never pitched in front of this many people before."



He was a breath of fresh air for all of baseball for the short 5 seasons he played. I mostly remember the Sports Illustrated issue with him on the cover with Big Bird. Hey I was a kid, just like he was! Thanks for making baseball fun for me when I was young, I will always remember Mark "The Bird" Fidrych.

Too Manny Holes in Our Offense

We were only able to take one game from the Angels over the weekend as our offense continues to struggle and with Manny no longer in our lineup, we are continually leaving too many men on base. On Friday, we lost 6-3 and about the only thing I could see good about this game was that Wake pitched well, considering he throws a knuckleball, and I sort of liked our new "special" jerseys. The "Hanging Sox" hat looked a lot like a Christmas Tree ornament, but I did like the blue jerseys.

On Saturday, the Red Sox played a national televised game. Well, I guess it was nationally televised, I guess everywhere but here in the beef jerkey triangle. Here we had to watch the Cardinals play the Astros and watch a complete blow out game while having to watch dots on a computer screen to keep up to date on the Sox game. We won 5-4 on Bay's 2 home runs and although Papelbon gave up a run in the ninth and also loaded the bases, we hung on for the win. Paps probably won't be cleared to pitch again until July after throwing 35+ pitches in the game, but hey, a win is a win.

On Easter Sunday, we sat down with all the Easter chocolate and candy and started to watch the rubber game and immediately a semi-fight broke out between the Angels and Sox. Evidently, Abreu thought Josh was throwing at him after Abreu called a late time out and the benches cleared. Of course, the umps knew he did nothing wrong and then kicked out 4 Angels including their manager. Now when this happened, I knew that Josh, being the Josh we all know, was going to get fired up and not only were the Angels going to get beat, but there were going to get demolished. Instead, Josh just never got it going and instead took the loss in another 5-4 game. Oki now scares me when he comes in, it seems he always gives up at least one run, and this time it hurt us as we came back to make it close in the ninth, but again, we just came up a little short.

Now onto Oakland and it will be fun to see Nomar again play against us. We need to start stringing together some wins and pretty soon too. With the A's and Orioles on the horizon, I can see some "W's" coming our way.

Rays Shake the Dice

Our 9th inning rally came up a run short and we lost again to the Rays 4-3. DiceK gave up 3 home runs which does not look good considering he has the tendency to give up the long ball (see 2007). He seemed to settle down last year, but maybe the old Dice is back?

Some positives to get out of this series is that Tek has hit 2 home runs which is about 2 more than I thought he would have at this time and Beckett is still our ace. I can't wait to get Lowrie out of there and get back Julio Lugo and each passing day brings him one day closer to coming back. Also, Youk is batting a solid .667 after 3 games and his stats look like he is playing against little leagers. Hopefully, his hitting continues.

On another note, I heard last night on MLB channel that Nick Adenhart, pitcher for the Angels died in a car crash last night after his start against the A's. He was 22 years old and just starting to live out his dream in the big leagues. I guess we never know when we have it coming. What bothered me was Scott Boras, his agent, getting up there and crying as if trying to show all of us he does actually have one ounce of heart in his body. I watched the video several times and he comes across as a fake. I really hope I am wrong, but I don't think that guy was sincere about anything that came out of his mouth.

Anyway, it will be a different type of series this weekend against the Angels. I read that someone left a ball at the stadium that said that Adenhart plays for another team of Angels now. Hope we can win a few in Anaheim over the weekend and hoping the Angels (team and family) get through this devestating news ok.

Lester gets banged around

Game 2 of the season started off well but ended around the 5th inning. I sat down expecting to see a nice pitchers duel and it looked that way with Lester striking out 5 batters the first 2 innings. But with our offense not able to muster up near enough runs and with the home plate umpire calling strikes that were over a foot outside, we didn't have a chance, we lost 7-2. I guess this is what they meant by our offense being "Mannyless". It was nice though to see Rocco in our lineup, I think he will be a good addition to our lineup and he made a real nice catch in the outfield to rob the Rays of a base hit. Jacoby will need to get on base more, and Tek looked lost once again at the plate. We will have to see what DiceK brings to mound our next game.

We will going to the west coast on Friday so it will be a late game for us here. I like the late games on the west coast on the weekend.

Fun to see the Yanks keep losing to the "slugging" Orioles. Will the Yanks win one this year?

BecKKKKKKKKKKett is Back

First Pitch

Opening day just like we all dreamed it would be. Josh Beckett went 7 innings, giving up just 2 hits and striking out 10 while getting the win 5-3 over the Rays. I think we should see great things from Josh this year - much better than last year anyway. And how about little Dustin hitting a home run in his first at bat this year? Even Tek got a home run, which hopefully is a sign of things to come from him this year. Paps came in and got the save striking out 2 batters in the ninth to close it out. All in all a great way to start the new season.


Dutin hits a monster shot.

Every opening day I like to think back of some of the other memorable opening day games that I have watched. Remember the 1986 opening day game where Dewey Evans hit the very first pitch of the season for a home run? This was after a horrible 1985 season and after that home run, I knew we were in for great things that year. Who would have known that the season would end with Wade Boggs crying in the dugout? Also that unbelievable comeback in 1998 when we were down 7-2 in the ninth and scored 7 runs in the bottom of the ninth capped by Mo Vaughn's grand slam to win it.

Anyway, the season is back on. It's like welcoming home an old friend who will be at your side throughout the long, lazy summer and into the early fall. It is now NESN 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, hot dogs on the grill, the sound of Remy and Orsillo in the background, Sullivan Tire commercials every 10 minutes, and the occasional report from Heidi. April is here!


Papelbon closes it out.

Opening Day Washed Away

The real games began today, well except for us. Our game was rained out and rescheduled for tomorrow. So instead of watching the Red Sox, we had our fun watching the Orioles beat up on the Yankees. CC Sabathia was wild and was walking people left and right and even threw some wild pitches. It was also nice to see Teixeira being booed by the fans in Baltimore.

I wonder why whoever does the scheduling didn't schedule us to open the season in Tampa instead of Boston. The weather is still cold in Boston in April and Tampa plays in a dome. Doesn't make sense to me. Anyway, the games are beginning to count now and for the next six months it will be nothing but us, Heidi, Remy and Orsillo every day. This is the best time of the year!