Sox win with Manny homer News and Notes for 5/4

The Sox won the rematch with the Mariners last night with an eigth inning Manny Ramirez homerun that broke a 7-7 tie and proved to be the winning run. That was Manny’s second home run of the night. Along with Manny’s two dingers Wily Mo Pena went 4-4. CoCo was the only Sox batter without a hit last night ending a semi hot streak for him.
Dice-K struggled with his control all night lasting only five innings, giving up seven runs, all earned, walking five and fanning only one. Clearly his worst outing of the season. Seattle’s starter Horacio Ramirez didn’t fare much better lasting only four innings giving up seven earned runs and eleven hits.

News and Notes:

Manny Ramirez’s two homers last night tied him for 27th on the career list at 475 with the two Hall of Famers, Willie Stargell and Stan “The Man” Musial.

Mike Timlin 24 hours removed from his first save of the season was placed on the 15-day disabled list prior to Thursday night’s game against the Mariners with right shoulder tendinitis. In a corresponding roster move, the Sox recalled right-hander Devern Hansack from Triple-A Pawtucket.

Jon Lester confirmed it was just a cramp that took him out of his Triple-A start after just three innings on Wednesday night. This will more than likely slow his return just a bit.

Tim Wakefield will open up a six-game road trip for the Sox when he takes the ball Friday night at Minnesota. He’ll be opposed by Carlos Silva, who is 2-1 with a 3.10 ERA. First pitch is slated for 8:10 ET.

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 news and notes 4/30

With a two-run shot in the eight inning of a 7-4 win over New York, Boston’s Manny Ramirez became only the fifth player to hit 50 career homers against the Yankees, joining Jimmie Foxx (70), Ted Williams (62), Hank Greenberg (53) and Carl Yastrzemski (52).

Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who is Boston’s best position prospect, is off to a sizzling start at Double-A Portland. In the first 15 games of the season, Ellsbury is hitting .455 with 13 runs, 10 doubles, two triples and six stolen bases. This is good motivation for CoCo…

Jon Lester will make at least one more start for Pawtucket on Wednesday after turning in another strong rehab outing — this one at Pawtucket. Though the rehab clock expires after that outing, Terry Francona cautioned the media not to simply assume Lester will rejoin the Red Sox after that.

Terry Francona was impresed with Mike Timlins outing on Friday night. He pitched a scoreless 7th innin and threw nine if his eleven pitches for strikes. Francona said “Timlin’s a huge part of our bullpen.” “We want him to be a huge part of our bullpen. He didn’t have much of a Spring Training, and he’s coming off kind of the first time since I’ve known him, a tough second half of the year. We’re trying to get him into a little bit of a rhythm. We’ve all seen what he can do when he’s good. He threw the ball very well last night.”

Sad to hear of Josh Hancocks death. He started with the Sox and made his first MLB appearance in 2002 with them. He died in a car accident early Sunday morning.

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.

Sox cruise past O’s and Gary Thorne causes a stir

The Sox scored three runs in the seventh and two runs in the ninth to win the first of a two game series at Camden Yards against the Orioles. Curt Schiling went 7 innings giving up 5 hits, one run (earned) and striking out three. Hideki Okijima looked great in middle relief striking out two. As of yesterday the Sox pen has the lowest era in the majors. That is quiet a statement as the pen was the biggest cause for concern going into the season. Okajima has certainly been a star so far this year for the Sox. Both Manny and Mike Lowell had two RBI’s and Kevin Youkilis went three for four and an RBI. Here is the boxscore.

The real story of the game though was not on the field but in the announcers booth. In the fifth inning while the Orioles were batting Gary Thorne a nationally known broadcaster said:

“The great story we were talking about the other night was that famous red stocking that he wore when they finally won, the blood on his stocking,” Thorne said to his on air partner Jim Palmer, the Hall of Fame pitcher, in a conversation that had begun with a discussion of Schilling’s blog of all things.

“Nah,” Thorne said. “It was painted. Doug Mirabelli confessed up to it after. It was all for PR. Two-ball, two-strike count.”

Palmer: “Yeah, that was the 2004 World Series [sic].” Thorne: “Yeah.”

During a break two innings later, Thorne confirmed that’s what he said, and that Mirabelli had told him so in a conversation “a couple of years ago.”

“Go ask him [Mirabelli],” Thorne said.

Mirabelli was shocked, then angry, when relayed Thorne’s comments.

“What? Are you kidding me? He’s [expletive] lying. A straight lie,” Mirabelli said. “I never said that. I know it was blood. Everybody knows it was blood.”

The sock has been scrutinezed previously before making its way to Cooperstown and into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The performance Schilling had that night was one of the greatest in MLB history. Thorne has thrown into question the validity of the injury and in some respects the performance itself. Where and when did Thorne get this statement from Mirabelli? And why did it just come out now? The Sox have indicated they will seek a retraction from Thorne. Unless Thorne can come up with concrete evidence that the substance on the sock is not blood an apology is in order as well.

Sox swept by Blue Jays and hit the road

Dismal, that is how I would describe last nights game against the Jays. Julian Tavarez lasts just 4 2/3 innings giving up seven hits and six runs. Kyle Snyder tried to keep it close but he allowed four unearned runs in the sixth inning and the game turned into a blow out. Offensively we just stunk getting only five hits, the only highlight was Mike Lowells 4th homer of the season. Manny, Julio Lugo and the bottom of the order posted yet another goose egg. It is going to be a long season if this does not change and soon. Defensively the Sox committed four errors on the night, with Wily Mo Pena dropping a liner in the sixth with two outs that opened the flood gates for the Jays and put the game out of reach for the Sox. All of this when Fenway hosted 37,161, the largest attendance at Fenway Park since World War II.

The Sox really need to find a fifth starter and quickly, Tavarez is just not getting the job done. He is more suited to coming out of the bullpen. Scary to think he is going to start against the Yankees this weekend. Jon Lester’s comeback is ahead of schedule but rushing him may not be the answer. We also have Devern Hansack who has been brilliant in the minors so far this year.

And we are back to earth and Sox News and Notes

From the high of sweeping the Yankees to a dismal loss to the Blue Jays at home, sigh…

Julio Lugo, David Ortiz and Manny all go hit-less and Dustin Pedroia accounts for the two Red Sox runs last night. Wakefield got roughed up over 6 innings of work giving up eight hits and four runs and our bullpen looked average last night. Both Wakefield and Timlin gave up homers to the Jays. Here is the boxscore.

Manny went 0-5 last night dropping his average back down to a paltry .209, we really need him to get going and stay going. Going 0-5 against the pitchers the likes of Tomo Ohka and the rest that they threw out there is just hard to watch. I thought Manny might have begun a hot streak after Sundays game against the Yankees but obviously not. He has feasted on Toronto pitching during his career with 52 homers, the most the Blue Jays has allowed to any opposing player in its history. He also has 129 RBIs against Toronto, just two behind Harold Baines for the most against the Jays.

Sox Notes
After a relatively good series against the Yankees CoCo Crisp sat out last nights game against the Jays with a minor oblique injury

Julian Tavarez will face Jays ace Roy Halladay in a rematch of last Thursday’s encounter in Toronto on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. ET. Tavarez took a no-decision in that one, but the Red Sox rallied back from a 3-1 deficit to win after Halladay’s left the game.

There is a lot of banter on sports radio and in the media about the Sox going after A-Rod this offeseason if he indeed opts out of his contract. We would be foolish not too. Our only significant free agent at the end of the year is Curt Schilling. Don’t you think Theo is thinking about really getting rid of Manny yet again for a player that is two years younger and produces more than Manny? Also don’t forget that Lowell is going to start declining as well. A-Rod would fill two holes for the Sox. The big question around A-Rod is can he produce in the playoffs? To this point the answer is no, but he is having an MVP season yet again and is a threat in any line up. Not only that but taking him away from the Yankees sure would be gratifying.

Matt Clement is still in Florida for extended spring training.  He had his labrum and rotator cuff operated on last September and the Sox are taking a slow gradual approach with him.

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.

Angels swept away on Patriots Day

Josh Beckett had another fantastic game after a first inning homer by Orlando Cabrera. Beckett improved to 3-0 for the second straight season, allowing just the one run on six hits while striking out five and walking one in his six innings. Manny Ramirez singled in two runs, while David Ortiz, Mike Lowell and Alex Cora all doubled home a run against Los Angeles starter Ervin Santana. Ortiz also hit his fourth homerun of the season in the 7-2 rout of the Angels sweeping the 3 game series.

Next up is a trip to Toronto to take on the Toronto Blue Jays who are only a half game back in the AL East from the Sox. Dice – K gets the call tonight to open the Series against Gustavo Chacin.

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.