Sox split series with the A’s – Mariners return for make up game

 

Boston won last night 6-4 to earn a split against the Oakland A’s in the two game series after losing 5-4 in ten innings the night before. Josh Beckett improved to 6-0 on the year and is the first pitcher to get 6 wins this year. Also worth noting is each starter got at least one hit last night, the first time that has occured this season. Papi, Manny, V-Tek, and CoCo all went 2-4 last night. Beckett went seven innings giving up six hits, three runs and fanning seven, another strong outing for him. Hideki Okijima pitched the eigth inning and Mike Timlin came on in the ninth to get the save. Papelbon did not pitch last night after blowing the save in the ninth inning the night before wasting a solid outing by Curt Schilling.

Dice – K pitches tonight against another AL West team, the Mariners.  This is a make up game from the first series that was rained out.  Dice gets a chance at some redemption after being matched up with Felix Hernandez in his home bebut for the Sox a few weeks back.  Dice pitched well, but Hernandez was lights out.   The Mariners are starting Horacio Ramirez.

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.

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.

Sox vs. Yankees

What else can you say, this is the BEST rivalry in sports today no questions asked. And here we are late April and the first series of this rivalry for 2007 is upon us . The Red Sox and Yankees. The SOX, the Bronx Bombers. This is what baseball is all about. This is what Red Sox and Yankee fans live for. Fenway will be alive this weekend, filled to the brim no doubt.

Lets break the match up down and see what we can expect this weekend.

Pitching:
The edge has to go to the Sox here. Schilling, Beckett, Dice – K (taking away his two tough loses) and Wakefield have been lights out this year. Papelbon and Hideki Okajima have been dominate out of the bullpen this year. The Red Sox are second on the majors with a team ERA of 2.58. The Yankees pitching has been marginal at best. Both Carl Pavano and Mike Mussina are on the DL. Andy Pettitte and Kei Igawa have been shaky in two starts and they are throwing two rookies during the series this weekend. The Yankees are tenth in the league with a 3.67 ERA.

These are the matchup for the series:

Curt Schilling (2-1 2.84 ERA) vs. Andy Pettitte (1-0 1.50 ERA)
Josh Beckett (3-0 1.50 ERA) vs. Jeff Karstens (0-0 0.00 ERA)
Dice – K (1-2 2.70 ERA) Chase Wright (1-0 5.40 ERA)

Offense:
The edge has to go to the Yankees here. The Sox have struggled at times to hit and score runs. We have three starters, Varitek, Coco, and Pedroia all hitting under .200 and one, Manny of all people, is hitting .200 and has one – one – home run. The rest of our lineup is looking good, just not great. Papi has come around of late and, J.D. Drew is hitting very well and is well rested after the weather time off and sitting a game in Toronto. Lugo has done well in the lead off spot and Youk is coming around in the two hole. The Yankees line up is stacked, I have to admit. Up and down that lineup everyone can hit. The heart of the order is scary with Damon, Jeter, Abreu, A-hole, and Giambi are all capable of big things on any given day. I do have to concede that A-hole is having a fantastic April and I am interested to see if that continues in this series.

Pitching wins games and the Sox pitching is just better than the Yankees right now. We are coming off of a strong series against Toronto where we hit pretty well and hopefully Manny will build on the day he had yesterday and start hitting more. Papi, Manny and Drew will have to carry us offensively with spot help from Lugo, Youk and Lowell. I say we take two out of three in this series.

This not just about baseball, this is about two teams whose fans generally do not like each other and whose players don’t like each other as well. The Damon defection to NY, A-Rod pulling out of coming to Boston, the biggest collapse in sports history and yes Sox vs. Yankees are all subplots that will continue to play out over this series. This is what baseball is all about folks. Enjoy it.

Sox win series final in Toronto – Manny comes to life

 

Manny Ramirez showed himself today with a two run home run in the eight and the Sox scored two more runs in the ninth to win the finale in Toronto 5-3. CoCo Crisp also appeared with two hits, scored a run and had an RBI. Varitek struggled again going 0-4 leaving Julian Tavarez went 5.1 innings, giving up 6 hits, three runs and surrendered no walks. The Red Sox spoiled a good game by Toronto’s Roy Halliday who went 7 innings and only gave up two runs.  Jonathan Papelbon walked Greg Zaun to start the bottom of the ninth then retired the side.  This was a nice come back win for the Sox.  They travel home to start a weekend series against the Yankees.

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.