This is an actual letter received from a regular reader of Red Sox Rants from China immediately following the 12-2 Red Sox win in Game 6 win over the Cleveland Indians in the ALCS. By way of background, this reader lives in Hong Kong and is a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan and as well as a supporter of the Colorado Rockies (note that this dual loyalty is not in violation of Bill Simmons' Rules for Being a True Fan because of the exception provided under Rule 19).
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Dear Red Sox Diarist:
Now it gets interesting!
Huge win today for Boston. Nancy Drew finally did something positive in addition to collecting his hefty paycheck. The sun's gotta shine on every dog's ass sometime. Lugo also finally hit a ball in fair territory. Even Gagne showed he can hold a 10-run lead!
What role do you think maturity has played in this series? Sabathia, Carmona, and Perez all seem nervous and determined to throw too hard and off the plate, instead of challenging batters in the strike zone as they did successfully throughout the regular season and the Yankees series.
Beckett, of course, has been dominating. Schilling doesn't have great stuff anymore and was just fair in today's game, but the big lead gave him a huge advantage. I think a combination of youthful overexuberance and an effort to be too fine by Cleveland's pitchers and greater maturity and patience by Sox hitters plus Beckett resulted in success for the Beaneaters in Games 1, 5, and 6 (and the beginning of Game 2).
Can Dice-K stop the Tribe tomorrow? He looked confused at times in his last outing. The game is in Fenway and the Sox have the momentum, but Tito better have Beckett ready in the bullpen and keep Papelbon for a save situation, if necessary.
I still like the Rox and Sox in the World Series!
Your Faithful Correspondent
Showing posts with label Dice-K. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dice-K. Show all posts
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Please Look After Your Health
One of the most frustrating losses of the year. Losing 2-1 to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the Red Sox beat themselves in dropping the final game of the three games series at Tropicana Field Wednesday night. The Sox left 14 men on base, had men on base every inning and left men on base every inning. While Dice-K Matsuzaka had another good outing (final line: 6 innings, 2 hits, 2 earned runs, 4 walks and 8 strikeouts), the big blow against him being a two run jack by B.J. Upton in the bottom of the 6th, the Red Sox offense did not do anything to help the cause. Although they won the series, the Sox will await the outcome of the Yankees game against the Angels on the west coast Wednesday night to find out if they go into their four set against the Chicago White Sox 5 or 6 games up in the AL East.
The Red Sox had a big scare in the top of the 3rd when Dustin Pedroia was hit on the left elbow by a tailing fastball thrown by D-Rays hurler Edwin Jackson. Watching the game on Tampa’s FSN, which is THE channel to watch if one is interested in fishing promos—they are so into fishing in Tampa they even interview people in the stands about upcoming fishing events during the game—you could hear the pitch crush into Pedroia's elbow with a loud crack. Pedroia stayed in the game long enough to score the Red Sox lone run but was obviously in pain on the base paths. He was replaced in the bottom of the 3rd by Alex Cora. Pedroia was taken for precautionary x-rays—which proved negative. He returned to the Red Sox bench in uniform later in the game. While he is day to day, an injury that sends Pedroia to the DL for any length of time would be potentially devastating to the Red Sox. He leads the team in batting average and has proven himself as a consistent hitter in the leadoff spot. (In essence of full disclosure, Pedroia going to the DL would also be potentially devastating to me as I own Pedroia in a mixed-league head to head fairly deep Fantasy Baseball League).
At the risk of jinxing this team, the Red Sox have been very lucky during the 2007 campaign in avoiding the injuries that have plagued other teams this year throughout both the American and National League and which also plagued the Red Sox in 2006. Although David Ortiz has been hampered throughout the year with various ailments (knee and shoulder especially), and most likely will require surgery in the off-season, Curt Schilling spent 7 weeks on the DL and Josh Beckett missed two starts because of an occlusion on a finger on his pitching hand. Additionally, Mike Timlin started the season on the DL and Brendon Donnelly went onto the DL in June and has had season ending reconstructive surgery. Only this past weekend, Dave Mirabelli was placed on the 15 day DL with a strained calf. That said, the Red Sox have been spared having a starting position player spend time on the DL. As Red Sox Nation will remember, when Schilling sat he was replaced in the rotation by Kason Gabbard who was 3-0 with Schills on the shelf. Julian Tavarez and Time Wakefield also stepped up nicely in a re-jigging of the rotation to fill Beckett's starts when he was healing. All in all, after 127 games, the Sox have been relatively healthy this year.
Curt Schilling probably said it best in an interview early on in the season when he stated that the team whose starting rotation on opening day pitched the most innings during the season would be the team who would go the farthest. He should have probably also said that the team whose starting position players spend the least amount of time on the DL during the course of the season would also be a the team that is favored to win it all.
The Red Sox had a big scare in the top of the 3rd when Dustin Pedroia was hit on the left elbow by a tailing fastball thrown by D-Rays hurler Edwin Jackson. Watching the game on Tampa’s FSN, which is THE channel to watch if one is interested in fishing promos—they are so into fishing in Tampa they even interview people in the stands about upcoming fishing events during the game—you could hear the pitch crush into Pedroia's elbow with a loud crack. Pedroia stayed in the game long enough to score the Red Sox lone run but was obviously in pain on the base paths. He was replaced in the bottom of the 3rd by Alex Cora. Pedroia was taken for precautionary x-rays—which proved negative. He returned to the Red Sox bench in uniform later in the game. While he is day to day, an injury that sends Pedroia to the DL for any length of time would be potentially devastating to the Red Sox. He leads the team in batting average and has proven himself as a consistent hitter in the leadoff spot. (In essence of full disclosure, Pedroia going to the DL would also be potentially devastating to me as I own Pedroia in a mixed-league head to head fairly deep Fantasy Baseball League).
At the risk of jinxing this team, the Red Sox have been very lucky during the 2007 campaign in avoiding the injuries that have plagued other teams this year throughout both the American and National League and which also plagued the Red Sox in 2006. Although David Ortiz has been hampered throughout the year with various ailments (knee and shoulder especially), and most likely will require surgery in the off-season, Curt Schilling spent 7 weeks on the DL and Josh Beckett missed two starts because of an occlusion on a finger on his pitching hand. Additionally, Mike Timlin started the season on the DL and Brendon Donnelly went onto the DL in June and has had season ending reconstructive surgery. Only this past weekend, Dave Mirabelli was placed on the 15 day DL with a strained calf. That said, the Red Sox have been spared having a starting position player spend time on the DL. As Red Sox Nation will remember, when Schilling sat he was replaced in the rotation by Kason Gabbard who was 3-0 with Schills on the shelf. Julian Tavarez and Time Wakefield also stepped up nicely in a re-jigging of the rotation to fill Beckett's starts when he was healing. All in all, after 127 games, the Sox have been relatively healthy this year.
Curt Schilling probably said it best in an interview early on in the season when he stated that the team whose starting rotation on opening day pitched the most innings during the season would be the team who would go the farthest. He should have probably also said that the team whose starting position players spend the least amount of time on the DL during the course of the season would also be a the team that is favored to win it all.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
The Most Painful Loss of the Season?
It is difficult, if not impossible, to identify a loss this season that was more disappointing or painful than the Red Sox 6-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night at Camden Yards. What began as a pitchers' dual featuring Eric Bedard and Dice-K Matsuzaka going against each other for 7 hard fought innings (the O's leading 1-0 after 7), inexplicably turned into a slugfest in the 8th inning. It was like watching a double header--two different games in one. The Red Sox began the 8th by sending 10 men to the plate--8 of them after there were already two outs--and scoring 5 runs. Wily Mo Pena got the big hit driving in the tying run on a 3-2 count. With the game seemingly wrapped up, Tito Francona turned to his vaunted bullpen, and, evidently intent on not increasing Okijima's already heavy workload, turned to recent addition Eric Gagne to close out the 8th (despite the O's having several lefties coming to bat in their bottom half of the inning). Gagne, continuing the troubles he has exhibited since he was traded to Boston, promptly handed Baltimore back the 4 run lead. In 4 appearances for Boston since the trade deadline, Gagne has given up runs in three of them and compiled a stupefying 16.20 ERA. Opposing batters are hitting .474 when Gagne pitches in a Boston uniform. Perhaps it was to avoid performances like this that the Red Sox passed on Gagne during their search for a Closer during the off-season and instead allowed him sign as a free agent with the Texas Rangers. Okijima, who has been the bullpen's workhorse to date by a wide margin, came in--too little to late--and blew only his second save of the year and earned is first loss of the year when Brian Roberts opened the 9th with a double, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and then scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly to Coco Crisp. Not much else to say other than---Dice-K, who gave up 4 hits, 1 run and struck out seven, has won 3 of his last 4 decisions and has only allowed 5 earned runs in the last 27 1/3 innings--oh, and the Yankees are once again 5 games back in the AL East.
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