Game 131 - A's game 8 of 10

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

So, how do you follow up a sweep by one of the worst teams in baseball? If you are Boston you start a 3 game series with one of the hottest teams around against one of the hottest pitchers around. Maalox here I come. Tonight we have Kason going against Loaiza. That is a rookie who has pitched in 3 games going against a veteran who has started over 300 games. Furthermore said veteran is 3 and 0 in 5 starts during August with a 1.77 ERA.

Of course it doesn't help that the A's are one of the hottest teams in baseball, 18 and 6 in August, and winners of 6 of their last 10. Hmmm, six of their last ten? Maybe this team is starting to cool down.

Loaiza has made 9 starts against the Red Sox in his career. His record is 3 and 2 with a 4.17 ERA. This ERA is better than his career ERA of 4.63. The bad thing about Esteban's starts against the Sox is out of 9 starts he has thrown 7 quality starts. The good news is in his last start against the Sox on 7/13/2006 of this year he went 5 innings in a now decision giving up 3 earned runs. Unfortunately that was the start where Loretta muffed a ball in the 11th inning which allowed the A's to win.

What to say about Kason? Not a lot, he has never faced the A's in his to short major league career. In fact he has only started one game. That was against Seattle, a loss but he did pitch respectably, going 5 1/3 innings only allowing 2 earned runs.

How will this team do tonight? Well, not sure, it seems to be imploding right before our eyes, with signs of even Tito losing his patience with Manny. Remember, in 2004 it was Tito who went out faced the music after every loss and then after every win with the same stoic face and passion. Our job is just to win tomorrow. We can't look pass tomorrow. Just win tomorrow and the rest will take care of itself. For Tito to use four letter words to reporters about one of the players (quick name the last time Tito ripped some one in the press), means even Tito is getting tired of the B.S. and is barely hanging on to calm and coolness. Should be an interesting 3 games.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Pitching woes should make for an interesting off season

The Douglas from Obstructed Seats has posted a post about Excuses for this team.

The following is part of our ongoing conversations about the pitching woes and hopefully where the pitching staff should be headed in the off season.

Oh I agree, the pitching staff was put together with baling wire and hopes and dreams.

If you go back to almost any of my posts on Clement you will see I have never liked him, in fact I call him the DIHL for Deer in head lights. He was and is an inning eater though and that does help the bullpen.

As for Wells, I think he has shown that he is still a good quality starter, if you can get him out there. Unfortunately for him, his last year (or so he says) was a bit unlucky and a bit expected since he has never been Mr. Jack Lalaine about taking care of his body.

Lester is a rookie and the best thing about rookies, to paraphrase a well known former basketball coach is that they become sophomores. The question is will he become a Lily or a Zito?

As for the up and down Beckett, I have taken the wait and see attitude, since he has shown me enough good things to make me want to believe that he is the ace of the future. I also like his competitiveness, which successful power pitchers have to have.

Wakefield is what he is, a knuckleball pitcher which means when his ball is fluttering it is almost impossible to hit, but if it is not knuckling then watch out in the bleachers. The age factor with a knuckler is also less important as long as they are aerobically fit. The rib injury was just a little freakish as it seems he hurt it while sleeping?

Of course with the way this season is quickly imploding in front of our eyes, it will be interesting to see what happens to the pitching staff in the off season. Right now I am guessing that Clement will be shipped off with the Sox picking up a sizable portion of his contract. A big run will be made for Zito, but with Boros being his agent you just don’t know (Kevin Millwood anyone). The other free agent pitchers don’t impress me.

Right now for the 2007 season I see our starters being Schilling, Beckett, Wakefield and Lester. It is possible that Papelbon may become the fifth starter even though he has been effective as a closer. However, you have to have a solid starting rotation so that you can get to the closer and too often Papelbon has been sitting in the pen with no chance to come in, see saturday night for the latest of that. What may make the difference is who they can get as either a starter or closer type in the off season.

As for the bullpen, look for it to be Foulke, Delcarmen, Hansen, Tavaras and Snyder plus some other type of middle relievers that they find on the market.

Right now all I can say is bring on the football season as both my Razorbacks and Cowboys look to be decent this year.

Game 130 - Mariners 10th of 10 (M's lead 5 - 4)

Seth says that if Timlin had just held the line the over the last week plus the Sox would be 2 1/2 games out. (Ed- why can't you come up with stats like that? (because I am a freaking moron while he gets paid the big bucks smart***!!!)).

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Ok, we have Snyder going against ??? Baek???, give me a freaking break, another pitcher that these hitters haven't faced before because he has only pitched in 8 games in his career and only made 6 starts. As if this weekend and last weekend weren't bad enough we get to sit through another (most likely), new pitcher baffling the boys from 1 through 9. Sheesh

Snyder has pitched against the M's earlier this year. Getting the win by going 5 innings and not allowing any earned runs. You might remember that game. Seems like just about everbody went deep agains Moyer. Of course it was a typical start for Snyder, as he went 4 innings giving up four hits and only facing 3 men over the minimum before struggling in the 5th. Both runs that he allowed came in the 5th and Hansen came in to start the 6th. If the dude could get past five innings he probably would have a couple of quality starts this year.

Fortunately the team plays 500 behind his starts, but they only average 4.3 runs per game in his starts. As a Sox Snyder has a 5.35 ERA in 11 appearances with a 5.61 ERA in his 5 starts. His shortest outing as a starter was against Oakland where he went 4 2/3 innings.

Baek only appearance this year was against the spankees, in which he pitched 5 innings only giving up 3 runs in a no decision. Overall his career record is 2 and 4 with a 5.40 ERA.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass (if there is a new one for today is here, otherwise look at yesterdays here.

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As a side note, there has been a lot of talk about how the Sox can't use inuries as an excuse for falling out of 1st place. As a whole I agree, injuries are part of the game and the Yankees have had their share of them this year also. At the risk of sounding like a New England Liberal I have a but to throw in to the discussion.

The yankees have used a total of 10 pitchers to start games this year, 4 of those pitchers have started 104 (all of them have started over 20) games combined or 81% of all their starts, which would be exactly what you want in a 5 man rotation. Only 6 of their starters have pitched in 5 or more games and that sixth one is Cory "freaking" Lidle and he just got there. The Sox, on the other hand, top 4 (only 2 of them have started over 20 games) pitchers have made 89 starts out of 129 games which is 69%. Nine, count them, nine pitchers have made 5 or more starts. Injuries killed this pitching staff and that always has a bigger impact on your record than the loss of position players.

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Game 129 - Mariners game 9 of 10

3 freeeaaakkkking K's in the ninth. Mariners win their 3rd straight against pitchers who have over 200 wins and started against them. Mariners also lead the season series 5 games to 4. SHEEEEESSSSSH.

Let me get this straight - the first 2 batters are batting 300 against Timlin, so let's bring him in anyway? Geez Tito, do you have a freaking clue???? Top of the ninth and Hinske and Lopez go down by the K. What a waste of a good pitching performance by Wells.

Wells gets out of another jam and we go to the top of the 7th at 2 - 1. Lots of agita being generated. (what else is new - ed.).

Ingame - Coco went deep in the third, the M's tied it up, Loretta gets a 2 out single to score Kapler and now Wells just got out of a major jam to keep it 2 to 1 Sox.

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As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Wells vs Meche tonight.

Surprisingly Wells is only 11 and 11 against the Mariners in his career and he has never faced the M's as a Sox. 2 of his 11 losses came in relief appearances, making him 11 and 9 in 27 starts. At Seattle he is 6 and 5 in his starts. As a starter vs the M's he has made 12 quality starts winning 7 of those starts. In his other starts he usually goes 5 innings with various results. Let us hope tonight is quality start night.

Meche is 3 and 1 versus the Sox with a 4.73 ERA (the same as Wells vs the M's) in 5 games only 2 of those games were quality starts with one complete game in his past. In his last 2 starts against the Sox he has went 6 innings giving up 4 earned runs in 2005 and this year. Let us hope this is a trend that goes upward tonight.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

game 128 - Mariners game 8 of 10

Sometimes I just want to bash my head into a brick wall. What a fiasco, Schilling goes out and pretty much matches Woods pitch for pitch in the first 4 innings only to watch this team bite the bullet in the field and at the plate:

1) in the first 2 innings the Sox have men on 1st and 2nd with 1 out and get zero runs by going 0 for 4 (2k's in the first, infield fly in the second followed by another k).

2) 1 - 2 - 3 innings in the 3rd and 4th.

3) A freaking triple because Coco tries to be a superman in the 5th instead of playing it safe.

4) For the second time in 2 nights Cora tries the backhand flip of the ball to the second baseman only for it to be wide of the mark. Of course if Schilling had just picked up the ball instead of trying an off balance throw to 3rd it would have been 1st and 3rd with 0 outs instead of a run scored and a man on 2nd (looked like a little league game being played). This is just another reason in my book why the Sox should resign Gonzalez. In my opinion on both nights he would have gotten at least one out both times (don't get me wrong, I like Cora as a backup not as an every day player).

5) The bats disappeared again.

The only bright spot is that the spankees and White Sox lost, but the Mariners are now 4 and 4 against the Sox this year. Sheesh!!

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As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Schilling goes against Jake Woods. Woods has only pitched against the Sox in relief apperances, so it will be interesting to see how he does as a starter tonight. Schilling has made apperances as a reliever (with Baltimore) and 3 starts with the Red Sox against the Mariners.

First looking at Woods, we see that this will be his second major league start (a no decision on 8/20 against the Angels was the first). In his three relief appearances against the Sox he has pitched 4 1/3 innings giving up 4 hits, 2 runs, walking 2, striking out 3 and only 1 loss (while with the Angels). It should be noted that in 4 1/3 innings this year he has not allowed any runs and only 3 hits.

From MLB.Coms probable pitchers:

In his first Major League start, Woods -- who took the place of Joel Pineiro in the rotation -- tamed the Angels on Aug. 20 to the tune of one run on five hits over 5 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out two. Better yet, of the 74 pitches that he threw 52 were strikes. Woods got a lot of mileage out of his breaking ball and changeup against his former team.

Schilling will be going for his 3 win in 4 starts against the M's as a Sox. His one no decision was in 2004, a 12 inning win for the Sox. Curt went 7 2/3 inning in that game and only allowed 4 earned runs. His two wins came in 2004 and this year. Both of these were good quality starts. Overall as a Red Sox he has a 2.78 ERA in 22 2/3 innings with 16 K's. The K's might be big tonight, as he is only 8 K's short of 3,000 for his career.

From MLB.Coms probable pitchers:

Once again, Schilling provided the only consistency in Boston's starting rotation. In the biggest game of the season, Schilling allowed three runs and six hits over seven innings against the Yankees, leaving in position for the win before the bullpen blew the lead. Schilling has not picked up a win in his last three starts.

Should be an interesting game but I look for Schilling to follow Beckett's stellar performance of last night with one of his own. The key will be if the boys brought the bats that have some hits in them on the plane.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Game 127 - vs Angels game 6 of 6

Updated:
2 in a row and from Ian Brownes column "Of Ortiz's 46 blasts this season, 26 have either tied the game or put the Red Sox ahead"

ESPN.com recap is here.
Yahoo sports recap here

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Just consider the previous post as a quick take on the day with the wrong starting pitcher for the Red Sox. Since then have had some time to really look at Beckett vs 500 teams this year and was surprised at the result. So lets look at what he has done vs 500 teams:

In 17 starts he has 8 quality starts of which he has won 7 of them. His record is 8 and 5 with a 6.22 ERA. He has not lost any quality start against these teams.

Now compare that to his starts against 500 teams:

He has made 9 starts and has pitched 7 quality starts. He has won 5 of those starts. His record is 5 and 3 with a 3.81 ERA and he has not lost any quality start.

In some ways he has actually pitched better against teams over 500. The killer is that in less than 50% of his starts he pitches quite well. When he does pitch well he wins 7 out of 8 times, when he pitches bad he loses 5 out of 9 times. Unfortunately though he has just been plain terrible lately with his last 2 starts against 500 teams he has given up 14 earned runs in 11 2/3 innings. Not good at all.

So, has he turned the corner who knows, what I do expect is that this team might be getting the feeling that everyone is against them and that can be good. Stay tuned tonight to find out which Beckett will pitch, the one who can be lights out, or the one from 8/19 against the spankees.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass is currently for the 23rd. If there is a new one for today it will be here.

Game 2 of the Angels series

Well, not much to say, Weei was rampant with speculation about the HAMMY. All I have to say, is if it is true that Manny is putting his wants above the teams, why should any one be surprised. Manny is Manny, and this would not be anything new so just let it go. Nothing we say, the coaches say, WEEI says or the management says will change Manny's attitude.

Big disappointment, otherwise known as Josh Beckett takes the mound tonight. Since the Angels are over 500 and since his record is not great with teams over 500 I fully expect this to be a nail biter. Hey, he could surprise me but I sincerely doubt it.

95 wins now looks impossible. In order to reach that this team will have to win 26 out of their last 37 games. Just ain't happening (what happened to the opptimism - Ed? hey that went out the window a few days ago). Would like to see them do it of course, but with 10+ games left against the Jays and the spankees I don't see a lot of hope for it.

Take care, as I need to go work on the munckin's computer since she has been having problems with the virus scan and such. See you later.

Massacre 2 is over

Thank god this weekend is done. The Sox had chances to win 3 games out of the 5 and blew each and every one. The bullpen stunk, each and every pitcher in it should be hanging their heads, except for Schilling and Wells the starters stunk, the batting was pathetic with runners in scoring position, especially today and the 9th inning last night. Truly a pathetic performance in front of the home crowd. YECCH. This season is over, there is no chance of the division, no chance at the wild card. What a waste of talent.

Says it all

Its Sunday and its obvious Hail Marys don't work

Have been sitting here, cruising through the usual places and finding that everyone is pretty much down on the Sox right now and who can blame them. The last three games have been atrocius. One bright spot of course is that sometimes great minds think alike but my mind right now is just mush. However, as you can see here I had a feeling that these five games would go badly, I just didn't figure it would be this bad. Pathetic, pathetic, pitching from 1 - 11, and the way the others have pitched, you have to figure that even Papelbot might have gotten lit up.

Schilling pitches tonight against Mussina, but the moose has a pretty decent record at Fenway.

MLB.com's press pass is still showing Fridays but if they do one for today it will be here.
ESPN's preview is here.
Yahoo sport's is here.

See how depressed I was, I didn't even give you any stats on Schilling or Mussina. Now excuse me as I break out the bottles of bud, corona's and whatever else I have in the house because the sun is up over the yardarm and its time to become a sailor again so that I can watch tonights game with bleary eyes, hopefully, it will improve the outcome of the game because the animal sacrifices and the hail mary's sure didn't work.

As my knees hit the floor to do hail mary's etc.

Update: fixed links

Well, 5 games in the next 4 days against the hated spankees. The latest probables show Johnson vs Wang, Lester vs Ponson, Beckett vs Johnson, Schilling vs Mussina and Wells vs Lidle. If you look at ERA's only the series would go Yankee Win, Boston Win, Yankee Win, Yankee Win and Yankee win. What does that remind me of? Of course if that was to happen then the spankees would leave town 4 1/2 games ahead 5 games in the loss column and with 6 weeks left in the season that would mean looking at the wild card again.

If you looked at the pitchers winning percentages then it would go Yankee Win, Boston Win, Boston Win, Boston Win, and a tie. That would be better result for everybody in Boston for sure. Of course the problem is that Denton at Surviving Grady has said 4 wins for the good guys, which means that the first scenario is more likely to happen.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Now, just because I am a sucker for punishment I did a little digging over at Baseball Musings and dug up these for you (caution strong stomach required):
Stats from the Sept. 1978 massacre at Fenway:

Yankee Batting Stats here:
Yankee Pitching Stats here:

Red Sox Batting stats here:
Red Sox Pitching stats here:

Those four games were not pretty so lets hope we have better success here.

Idle thoughts since the spankees got spanked today. I took a look at the next few games after the Yankees lost by 10 or more runs this year.

On May 9 the Yankees lost 14 to 3 to the Sox then won their next game (Mussina over Schilling), lost one game (Wakefield), won 2, lost 2, won 2 and then lost 1 at Yankee stadium.

On July 4th at Cleveland the Yankees lost 19 to 1 and then won the next 4 on the road.

On July 29th they lost to the Devil Rays 19 to 6 and then won 5 straight at home.

As you can see, when the spankees lose big, the next day they pull on their pants, shrug their shoulders and forget all about the loss and then start winning games. That was not was I was hoping to find out when I looked at their schedule. Oh, well!

Espn.com's previe here.
MLB.coms press pass should be here sometime before the game 1.

Game 119 in the books

Well, been absent for awhile due to some personal problems. Of course the lackadaisical play of the Red Sox have done nothing to pick up my spirits. 16 and 16 since the All Star break which had 21 games at fenway during those 32 games and watching them just blow a 3.5 game lead and are now 2 games back with 3 more losses just makes me want to relive my Navy days and go on an all night bender that ends with me not remembering anything during the night while I end up praying to the porcelain gods.

Of course this weekend could rejuvenate me, but my feeling is that the Yankees are going to come in and win 4 of the 5 this weekend. The question is can we win 95 games this year, which was my preseason prediction.

Later

Game 108 - Devil Rays 15th of 19

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Schilling vs James Shields tonight at the beginning of a Six game road trip, followed by an eleven game homestand with the last 5 being against the spankees (1 double header). The Sox need to go no worse than 4 and 2 on this trip and then real off a string of wins. The next 2 and half weeks can make or break this team for this year.

Shields has started one game against the Sox earlier this year. In 5 innings he gave up 5 runs, 3 hrs, 3 walks and 5 k's. Overall in his career he has a 5.43 ERA in 12 starts and a 4 and 5 record. Half of his games have been quality starts and he is 4 and 0 in those starts. Its simple with him, get him out before the 6th inning and you can win baby win.

I am not going to give you any stats for Schilling. I will tell you that he has lost both games at the Trop this year. A recap of the games can be found here and here. The first one was against Kazmir who is not facing us this series. The Devils are 5 and 2 against the sox at the trop. and 1 and 6 in boston. This is a little bit better than against all teams as they are 2 games over at home (27 and 25) and 18 and 39 on the road. Still this is a team that the Sox should stomp all over. Lets go for 3 in a row here boys.

Tonights game will mark the 2/3 point of the season, will be working on a review of the second third to go along with my first third of the season review, which you can find here. I expect to post that sometime on sunday.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
Not sure if there will be a press pass before this game but if there is it will be found here.

Game 107 - Indians 7th of 7

UPDATE: Well that sucked, the Indians win this years series 4 games to 3. grrrrrr

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Game 107 tonight which closes out the Indians for the year. So far 3 and 3 against these turkeys. We need to get this one badly especially since the Spankees have already won their getaway game today against the Blue Gags. It is definetly turning into the usual 2 team race in the division with the boys in red chasing the pinstripes (however, I think we are alright since we have more wins, can't take those wins away).

As for last nights game well, what can you say, another meltdown by the Indians and another walk off by Loretta. Hey, 12 more and he will catch up with Big Papi. Lets look at today's starting pitchers.

We have Westbrook pitching for the Indians. In his career he has made 4 starts against the Red Sox. You could say that he has had an up and down career against the boys. He has started 1 game at Fenway and was terrible. 6/22/2000 while pitching for the Spankees he went 2 2/3 innings giving up 4 runs for a 13.50 ERA and took the loss. Overall he is 2 and 1 with all of but one his starts in Cleveland being quality starts. In 3 games in the Jake he is 2 and 0 with a 1.59 ERA. Career against the boys he has a 3.20 ERA.

The troubling stat is that this is a sub 500 pitcher (48 and 50) with a 4.39 ERA in 159 games (119 starts). That means he has the soxes number. Let's hope his fenway stats hold out as opposed to his career stats against the boys.

Beckett was pummeled by the Indians earlier this year. This was his first start after the meltdown in Toronto. He went 3 2/3 innings with a one game ERA of 19.64. He only struck out 6 while walking 5. In the last three games Josh is 2 and 0 with a 2.7 ERA. All three of these games have been quality starts. (the last 2 barely qualify). The thing to remember is that he can bounce back after getting drubbed. On 7/14 of this year he got pounded by the A's but on the 24th he got the win by going 6 innings and only gave up 3 runs in his six innings. One, we know that Josh is ultra competitive and he just watched Lester gut out a solid effort last night. Two, Beckett normally gets good run support, as in 5.9 runs per in 22 starts. Thirdly, he is 6 and 1 in 10 starts at Fenway with a very respectable 3.22 ERA. The previously mentioned debacle against the A's has been his only loss at home. He also has seven of his 14 quality starts at home. I look for a big night from the former World Series MVP.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Game 105 - Indians 5th of 7

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Tonight its Jason Johnson (one of 3 sox starters who have team records under .500) vs CC Sabathia. Did Johnson rediscover his sinker ball in the minors? His record with the PawSox was 2 and 0 with a 3.32 ERA. This will be his first start at Fenway as a Sox. Has started 16 games with the Indians and the Sox this year with a 3 and 10 record ( 0 and 2) and a 6.35 ERA. Can he duplicate Snyder and knock off a run on his ERA?

CC is 7 and 7 this year with a 3.82 ERA. Sabathia has started 5 games against the Sox since 8/29/2001. 3 of these games were quality starts with his first game being his only win. Overall he is 1 and 3 against the Sox pitching 33 1/3 innings giving up 36 hits, 20 runs (19 earned), 7 home runs, 7 BB's, 20 K's, 3 HBp with a 5.13 ERA. His career Stats are 76 and 52 with a 4.07 ERA. This year he has had 11 quality starts in 17 starts. However, his defense has let him down as he has 9 unearned runs in 4 games. All have been losses.

At Boston CC is 0 and 1 in 2 starts with a 3.00 ERA. Both of his starts were quality starts.
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As for last night's game? What can we say, as you can see I added Coco's quote to the top of the blog. That says it all.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.