Sox take two of three from the Yankees

In a rematch of the series from last weekend the Sox came into the Bronx and took two of three games from the Yankees to extend their lead in the AL East to 4 1/2 games and their lead over the Yankees to 6 1/2 games. For a review of each game here are the box scores: Game 1 Game 2 Game 3

It was a very good series – for Sox fans at least. Dice – K and Julio Lugo carried us in the first game, Wakefield was a hard luck loser in the second game receiving only one run of support and in the third game Papi, Manny and Alex Cora all hit home runs. Its been the same story for the Sox strong consistent starting pitching with a solid pen to finish games with good run support. The Yankees pitching woes continue, and who is complaining. The starters are ineffective and the pen even more so. Rivera did get the save n Saturday. Jeff Karstens injury didnt look that bad but breaking a leg off a line drive is brutal. On top of that Wang has a broken fingernail and may miss his next start for the Yanks.

One thing that still needs to be worked out is consistency in the heart of our order. Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell each had two hits, but the heart of the order David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and J.D. Drew — went a combined 0-for-9 in the the second game. We need them to be get it together. Manny especially. Just when you think he has turned the corner he disappears for two or three games. Alex Cora has certainly made the most of his playing time hitting .360 with two home runs. He is the best bench/platoon player we have until Wily Mo Pena can be more selective at the plate. One player that needs more recognition is Hideki Okajima, he has been stellar in relief for the Sox and has been lights out for us. He has been just as valuable as Dice – K to this point.

Lets also remember it is early in the season and a lot can and will change. The AL East is a strong division with three teams really contending, the Sox, Yankees and Toronto. We have a long way to go. Taking 5 of 6 from the Yankees is gratifying and proves this team is capable and can win the big games and series. It needs to prove it can do it series after series and the middle of the lineup needs to get it together day after day. Manny, are you listening?

Sox take series from O’s with Pena slam

The Red Sox took the series from the O’s last night with an 8th inning grand slam from Wily Mo Pena that was the game winner sending the Sox to New York for their weekend series with the Yanks on a winning note. Pena showed his promise with two hits and the four RBI, if he could just do this on a regular basis. Youkilis, Drew, Ortiz and Lowell were the other Sox hitter with a hit. With his hit Lowell extended his hit streak to twelve straight games last night. Sadly, Manny went hit less again. Adam Loewen, the O’s starter, held the Sox in check for the most part but Chris Ray out of the pen in the eigth inning let the game slip away after walking the bases loaded before surrendering the grand slam to Pena.

Josh Beckett improved to 5-0 and joined an exclusive club in Red Sox history. He joins Babe Ruth (1917) and Pedro Martinez (2000) as the only Red Sox pitchers to go 5-0 in April. Beckett was previously unaware of Ruth’s pitching ability, however, he was aware of Pedros saying “I don’t know how elite Babe Ruth was as a pitcher, but he was an elite hitter. Pedro Martinez was, maybe for seven or eight years there, the most dominant player.” Beckett went eight innings allowing two earned runs and striking out three. Paplebon came on in the ninth for his seventh save of the year.

It’s official, hitting four consecutive home runs is hard

In Gordon Edes column for the Boston Globe today there are calculations on how rare and remarkable Sundays home run barrage was. Take a look at the calculations. Couple that with the fact that J.D. Drew has been apart of this feat twice and you come away impressed.

Here is some feedback by Richard Sandomir of the NY Times about ESPN’s editing of the footage through the night. Yankees fans and media spent a lot of time looking at this I’m sure.

A clean sweep and an incredible final game

THE BEST RIVALRY IN SPORTS PERIOD!!!

And this series proved it without a doubt. If you dont think so you didnt watch the three games I watched this weekend.

The Sox came back in each of the games to win and swept the Yankees at Fenway for the first time in 17 years. After the five game sweep at the hands of the Yankees last year in Fenway this is a bit of redemption. This series had it all, come backs, key hits, good pitching, bad pitching and most of all home runs and more home runs.

I dont want to review each game, however, here are the box scores from each game: Game 1 Game 2 Game 3

The series came down to pitching and the Red Sox pitching was just plain better. Schilling, Beckett and Dice – K all took their lumps but came out with a win against a great Yankees line up. The Yankees pitching was mediocre to say the least. Pettitte had the best outing of the three starters for the Yankees. Where our pitching really shined was in the bullpen. Our pen was lights out and the Yankees just seemed to fall apart, especially Mariano Rivera who came apart in Game 1 for Yankees. We have owned him lately and that continued in this series. Torre even used Pettitte again in a relief role last night. Paplebon and Okijima are a dangerous duo to deal with along with Timlin and Donnelly out of our pen.

The Sox offense really came alive in the series, especially the bottom third of the order. Varitek and CoCo Crisp all had key hits and scored runs for us. But the one big piece that was missing seemed that came alive was Manny and finished the night with three hits and got his average above .200 for the season. Manny, Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek all homered in consecutive at bats for the Sox off of Yanks starter Chase Wright in the bottom of the fourth inning.  This is he fifth time in MLB history this has occurred.  Of note here is that J.D. Drew was one of the hitters on the Dodgers team that accomplished this last year, just not off the same pitcher.  The rest of the heart of the order also came up big, Big , Youkilis, and Alex Cora all had key hits for us and J.D. Drew continues to hit well.

Our pitching and hitting won the games but the Sox showed lot of heart and some grit in this series. Usually when faced with a deficit to the Yankees we seem to fold and die. Not this time, we came back in each of the games and showed some mettle that had not been seen in quiet some time – the 2004 ALCS to be exact. This is a good building block to the rest of the season for the Sox. There is definitely a buzz around this team this year.

We are now four games up on the Yankees with a big series coming against the Toronto Blue Jays starting tonight and an even bigger series at Yankee stadium this weekend. But take a look who is in second place in the division, the Baltimore Orioles who are only a game back of us. As fantastic as this series was there is still a lot of season left and the AL East could shape up to be one of the most contested division in baseball. We all know the Yankees pitching will come back at some point. I still believe that it will come down to the Sox and Yankees dueling it out for the division with the loser getting the wild card.

Where is Manny Ramirez?

We are three weeks into the season and Manny Ramirez is a no show. Hard to believe that one of the most prolific hitters in recent memory has had such a horrible start to the season – again. This is the third season he has started slow, he didn’t have his first homerun last year until 16 games in and he is on track for that this year as well. Check the numbers .191 avg, 9 hits in 47 at bats, 4 runs scored, 6 RBI’s, 7 walks and 8 strike outs and ten total bases. This is not Manny being Manny. He has struggled so severely at the plate this season one has to wonder what is going on.

Tito does’nt seem worried though, “I don’t think he looks bad”, and continued with “He got into a period last year where it was early and he couldn’t stay back. He’s tracking balls, he’s taking some swings where he’s lining out. I actually think he looks pretty good. He hit that ball to center field last night. That’s just a hang with ‘em. It’s a lineout that he just scorched. Remember the night in Texas he hit three balls hard [for outs]? It’s unfortunate. But he looks OK.” Ok is not what Manny is capable of. Ok is what we expect from lesser players in the league.

We need Manny to start hitting and quickly. The bottom of the lineup has been hard pressed to make a difference so far this year. CoCo, Varitek and Pedroia (a goose egg in RBI’s and HR) are all struggling mightily. Lowell has been good on some occasions and has hit safely in six consecutive games. But the heart of the order, Ortiz, Ramirez and Drew is where our offense generates most of our runs and right now a huge piece of that missing.

Maybe it was the BBQ that did’nt sell, maybe it was the missed opportunity to attend a car auction, maybe its the cold weather, maybe the dreads are getting to long, maybe its the red he added.  I don’t know what it is but Manny needs to get it straightened out and quick.

Dice – K takes a tough loss

Dice – K took a tough loss last night after walking in the winning run in the fourth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays, a critical mistake.  Dice went six innings and allowed three hits and two runs while striking out 10. Three of his walks — and both Toronto runs — were in the long fourth inning, and that was enough to undo him and put him on the losing side of a close game for the second straight time.

Gustavo Chacin baffeled the Red Sox offense and improved to 6-0 lifetime in eight starts against the Red Sox. He allowed six hits and one run. CoCo Crisp and Wily Mo Pena each had two hits for the Sox, with Pena accounting for the Sox lone run with a home run in the 3rd inning. Lugo, Ortiz, Youkilis and Pedroia all went hitless for the Sox. Here is the complete box score.

Sox Notes: 
Dice – K became the first pitcher since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981 to register 10 or more strikeouts in two of his first three Major League starts.

CoCo Crisp was put into the second spot in the batting order last night and as mentioned about came through with two hits. I have been tough on CoCo so far this year, hopefully this is the start of a turnaround for him.

Jon Lester continues to progress in Class A Greenville. Lester threw 75 pitches against teammates on Monday. He has one more start at Greenville and the Red Sox will re-evaluate him afterwards. Look for him to have starts at both AA Portland and AAA Pawtucket before joing the Sox.

J.D. Drew had another day off yesterday to keep Drews legs off of artificial turf for three days and allow Wily Mo Pena a chance to get some game time in.

Tim Wakefield will make the next start for the Sox against former teamate Tomo Ohka. Wakefield (1-1 .38 ERA) is looking for his third solid start of the season. Tonights game starts at 7:07.

Boston takes first game in series 10 -1

With a six run 8th inning Boston ran away with the first game in the series with the Angels winning 10-1. Doug Mirabelli, David Ortiz, Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew each had a multi RBI game. Manny struggled at the plate with no hits and three walks. Tim Wakefield went seven innings allowing only five hits and striking out three. Papelbon had an impressive strike out of Vladimir Guerrero striking him out with a 97 mph heater. Check the entire box score.

Nice to see the bats come alive to start the series. 10 runs and 14 hits is impressive considering our recent woes at the plate. Julio Lugo had three hits while CoCo went hitless again, wonder how long Tito is going to stick with him.

Sox and MLB news

Sox News
Saturdays game against the LA Angels is going to be televised on FOX. The game starts at 3:55 pm. This should be a great series. The Angels are the arguably the best team in the AL right now and Vladimir Guerrero is in mid season form already hitting .382 with 3 HR and 10 RBI coming in the series.

The Sox may be interested in working a deal with Texas for reliever Akinori Otsuka should Eric Gagne win the closers role outright. Not holding my breath on this one as Gagne has not looked good up to this point after coming off of surgery. Florida and Cleveland are also believed to have interest. The same three teams would also have interest in recently demoted Houston closer Brad Lidge.

J.D. Drew to get regular rest. Tito has decided to give Drew a day off every 10 days regardless of schedule or Drew’s performance in hopes of keeping him fresh all year. “Again, I told J.D. a couple of days ago, ‘We’re kind of leaning toward doing this,’” Francona said. “It looks like it makes sense. We’ve got Wily Mo, who we really want to get at-bats. We have J.D., who we want to play a lot of games because he’s a good player. If you go up about every 10 games or so, depending on travel, night game, day game, I think the math works out pretty well. I think he agrees and understands it.” I am a tad skeptical at this point in the sense that Drew is our only hitter doing anything and replacing him with Wily Mo Pena is a sharp drop off.

Dice – K’s next start moved back to Tuesday against the Blue Jays in Toronto due to yesterdays rain out.

MLB News

The above mentioned Eric Gagne was officially activated from the disabled list and is available for the Rangers for tonights game in Seattle.

Braves pitcher Mike Hampton has been lost for the year again after elbow surgery on Tuesday. This is the second season Hampton will miss due to injury and or surgery. Hampton hopes to pitch in the Winter League this year to be ready for next year.

Dodgers SS Rafael Furcal tweaked his ankle in a rehab start possibly delaying his return to the Dodgers.

Sox are rained out

The Sox got rained out yesterday giving us a day off to get it together. Granted Felix Hernandez threw a fantastic game against us in Wednesday, but our hitting leaves a lot to be desired. Of the nine starters J.D. Drew is the only one with an average over .300 (.393), Manny is hitting .214 one hundred points below his career average, has 3 RBI’s and has not hit a home run. Big Papi is hitting .207 and has only 4 RBI’s. Seven RBI’s between them is not going to get it done. The rest of the lineup is just as bad right now. Lowell is hitting .233, Varitek .217, Pedroia .227 and last but not least CoCo is at a measley .143.

Speaking of CoCo I have to say that the way it looks now this was a bad decision on Theos part. CoCo has not filled the void left by Johnny Damon in centerfield or at the plate. Now before you flame me for mentioning Damon here lets look at the numbers averaged for the last three years:

Coco: .287 avg, 144 hits, 13 hr’s, 58 RBI’s, .335 OBP, 218 TB, 72 k’s, 19 stolen bases and played in 130 games
Damon: .301 avg, 185 hits, 18 hr’s, 83 RBI’s, .368 OBP, 283 TB, 75 k’s, 20 stolen bases and played in 149 games

Four items really stick out here, the hits, RBI’s, OBP and total bases. Over the last three years Damon has been the better player. Theo may have conceded that fact when he decided to let Johnny go but CoCo has been abysmal since being here. Since being a full time player CoCo had career lows in games played, runs, hits, avg, RBI’s and total bases last year. Some of that can be attributed to lack of playing time due to lack of production. What we have seen so far this year we have no indication a turn around is immanent. Theo made a decision to replace an aging player with a younger player, I understand that but but the aging player has outperformed the younger player. Add to that the fact that we gave up a highly regarded prospect at third base in Andy Marte that could have replaced Lowell at third at the end of the season.

I hope that Theo is keeping a close eye on things in Minneapolis as Torii Hunter becomes a free agent after the year and I really hope he did some scouting on Ichiro while he was in town as he is a free agent at the end of the year as well.

Spring is finally here

The signs are everywhere. Flowers blooming, trees sprouting leaves, people out and about and oh the sunshine!! In DC the cherry blossoms are almost at peek (visiting on Wednesday), the grass is green and renewal is in the air. But the tell tail sign that spring is finally here is…..are you ready….BASEBALL is back. More importantly the BOSTON RED SOX are back after a short winter hiatus. Yes I am huge fan – like you couldn’t tell. But I am a baseball fan as well. I love watching, talking and reading baseball. I even have a fantasy team – yeah I’m a geek. So as I prepare for the first game of the season against the Kansas City Royals I’m looking over the team one last time and have to say we have a good shot to win the division. We have solid pitching with the addition of Dice K, Papelbon is back in the pen, we upgraded the lineup in a few spots with Julio Lugo and J.D. Drew (sorry to see you go Trot). I know this is a bit optimistic, check with me at the break and see how I am doing. I cant wait to get to RFK for a dog, beer, peanuts and to hear the crack of the bat!!! See got a DC reference in there.