Red Sox 07 Week Stats Week 3 & 4

Weekly Looks at Batting and Pitching Stats

Week 3 Batting

Team	G	AB	R	H	2b	3b	HR	TB	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	BA	OBP	Slug
Sox	7	229	38	67	12	2	13	122	37	28	30	3	2	.293	.415	.948
Opp.	7	234	25	53	14	0	7	88	23	21	59	2	0	.226	.230	.376

Week 4 Batting

Team	G	AB	R	H	2b	3b	HR	TB	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	BA	OBP	Slug
Sox	7	236	36	58	7	2	8	93	34	39	50	5	0	.246	.411	.394
Opp.	7	239	30	62	14	1	7	99	25	22	40	6	1	.259	.230	.414

Week 3 Pitching

Pitchers	G	W	L	SV	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	K/9	BB/9	HR/9
Bullpen	20	2	0	5	0	17	9	2	1	10	17	1.06	9	5.29	.529
Starters	7	4	1	0	0	45	44	22	6	11	42	4.40	8.4	2.2	1.2

Week 4 Pitching

Pitchers	G	W	L	SV	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	K/9	BB/9	HR/9
Bullpen	18	0	0	2	0	20	22	4	2	5	16	1.80	7.2	2.25	.9
Starters	7	4	3	0	0	42	41	22	5	17	25	4.70	5.36	3.64	1.07

Red Sox 07 Game 24 Recap

Final Score - Bos 7 NYY 4

Hero - Alex Cora for his 2 for 4 with 3 RBI's and 2 runs scored.

Goat - Chein-Ming Wang who couldn't hold the 3 - 2 lead that Doug Mientkiewicz provided for him in the 3rd by giving up the 2 run homer to Cora in the 5th.

The game started off right when David Ortiz hit his 7th home run of the season in the top of the 1st. Wang left a pitch thigh high on the inner side of the plate and there was no doubt about the ball reaching the bleachers in right field. This was the 9th hit off of Wang in 18 hits for Ortiz and his 2nd home run against Wang.

Provided with a 1 - 0 lead Tavarez was dealing the first 2 innings as he set down the Yankees on 29 pitches. Of course this is Tavarez so in the 3rd inning he ran into trouble. After getting ahead of Posada 0-2 he threw 11 straight balls, walking Posada and Cano. The first two balls he threw to Mientkiewicz, Doug was trying to bunt but the passed ball by Varitek changed Torre's strategy.

Ahead 2 - 0 Mientkiewicz watched ball 3, took strike 1, fouled off strike 2 and then on a pitch that definetly caught to much of the plate launched a 3 run home run to right field just above the 385 mark. The rest of the inning he cruised on 11 pitches. Only to come back out in the 4th and allow lead off singles to A-Rod and Giambi. At this point I am thinking the wheels are about to come off but once again Julian surprises me by getting the always dangerous Matsui to hit into a pretty double play started by Cora, followed by a K of Posada.

It was at this point in the game that Wang became unglued. On the third pitch of the 5th Wang hit Coco sending him to first base. On the 2 - 0 pitch Alex Cora hit a ball into the right field seats and just like that the Sox are ahead 4 - 3 and never looked back.

In the 6th Tavarez was pulled after an error by Lugo allowed lead off batter Jeter to reach first. With the left-handed Abreu coming up next Tito went to HID Okajima in relief of Tavarez. Sandwiching a single by A-rod with K's to Abreu and Giambi he was able to get Matsui to ground out 1 - 3 ending the threat.

Game hero Cora struck again in the top of the 7th. After a lead off fly out to left field by Coco, Cora tripled off the wall in right and scored on Julio Lugo's sacrifice fly to Abreu. The score was now 5 - 3 Sox and you could start counting the outs until Papel-bot. The only question was how would the Sox get to him. Would Timlin come in the 7th, Donnelly? Once again Tito rolled the dice by sending HID out for another inning and he answered the call by setting them down 1-2-3 on 9 pitches with 2 K's.

David Ortiz and Manny decided to make things a little easier by leading off the 8th with a single by Papi and a Home Run by Manny to right. 7 - 3 and Papel-bot starting to warm up in the bull pen. The only question left wwas whether Lowell could extend his hitting streak, he couldn't.

The bottom of the eighth saw Timlin coming into the game. A three pitch K of Damon was quickly followed by Jeter's home run to left field. What is up with Timlin and the Gopher Balls???? Abreu quickly followed with a single, his first in 19 at bats, good thing Papel-bot was already warming up, because this could have got ugly quick, but the once torrid hitting A-rod grounded into an inning ending double play started by Lowell.

Surprisingly on a 1 - 2 pitch Papelbon gave up a lead off double to Giambi. No worries though, as Matsui struck out, Posada grounded out to second and Cano ended the game on another ground out. Game over, Series over and the Sox leave New York after winning 2 of 3 games. Both wins coming against the "Aces" of the Yankees staff.

Next game Tuesday as the A's come into town for a short two game series.

Today's press pass is here.

Red Sox 07 Game 24

Sunday, April 29 Yankee Stadium 1:05 PM ET

Julian Tavarez, RHP (0-2, 8.36) Red Sox (15-8) @ Chien-Ming Wang, RHP (0-1, 5.68) Yankees (9-13)

Boston is 3 1/2 games ahead of Baltimore, 4 ahead of Jays, 5 1/2 ahead of D Rays and 5 1/2 games up on NYY . 3rd game of 3 game series (1-1) Boston leads the season series 4 - 1.

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.

From MLB.Com Scouting Report:

Red Sox: With starting pitcher Jon Lester soon to return and a combination of recent struggles -- he gave up six earned runs to the Blue Jays in 4 2/3 innings on Tuesday -- Tavarez is fighting to show that he belongs in the Red Sox's rotation. Boston's do-everything man would do well to recover in his next start, as the rest of the rotation did a little better in a stretch through the Yankees' and Blue Jays' lineups.

Yankees: Wang makes his second start of 2007 after coming off the disabled list to pitch Tuesday at Tampa Bay. The results, for a first time out, were solid enough, as Wang induced his trademark ground balls from the first inning on and gave New York 6 1/3 strong innings before reaching a predetermined pitch count. A good sign for the Yankees: Wang would have stayed in the game longer, which they may ask him to do in this game.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and this year at Baseball Reference.

Expected Batters vs opposing starter

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	18	5	1	0	0	0	4	2	.278
K. Youkilis	9	3	1	0	0	1	4	0	.333
D. Ortiz	17	8	2	0	1	5	3	2	.471
M. Ramirez	13	9	0	0	2	5	4	2	.692
J.D. Drew	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
Eric Hinske	16	10	4	0	2	3	1	0	.647
J. Varitek	9	1	0	0	1	1	0	2	.111
C. Crisp	11	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	.182
D. Pedroia	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
Totals	93	38	8	0	6	15	16	10	.409

This game is the perfect game to give Lowell a day off as he is batting a meager .214 against Wang and it would be good to let him relax so he will stop making errors, also Hinske owns Wang. Actually, this line up would be outstanding from the plate.

Historical Pitching lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Tavarez	1	0	0	0	12 1/3	12	4	0	7	7	2.92
Wang	6	2	3	0	40 1/3	49	22	4	19	14	4.91

Tavarez numbers are from last year. Wang went 2 and 2 last year against the Sox in 5 starts.

The spankees finally won a game vs the Sox and have their ace on the mound. Sinkerballer vs Sinkerballer, the question is which one will be able to keep the ball in the park and on the ground. Hopefully, Hinske will be playing which will give the Sox a better chance of beating up on this guy.

Red Sox 07 Game 23 Recap

Final - Boston 1 NYY 3

Hero - Kei Igawa - came in with almost no warm up and shut down the sox for six innings starting with a dp on Papi, the first batter he faced.

Goat - none, Lowell's errors didn't hurt the team, Posada hit a good pitch off his fists into the cheap seats and the last run was scored on a bloop that just landed fair and bounced into the stands.

Well, the Yankees finally get a win against the Sox and break the losing streak. Now they are 5.5 games back of the Sox.

Mariano gets his first save of the season with Cora standing on second and Papi on deck when he got Youkilis to pop up to Robinson Cano. The question is whether this will get the Yankees started on a long winning streak?

A quick look at their schedule shows a three game series in Texas and then a seven game home stand against Seattle (4) and Texas (3). Those are the type of teams that can make you look good. I wouldn't be surprised if they went 8 and 2 in the next ten games.

As for the Sox, well, they get two games against Oakland and one with Seattle in the Fens. After those three games they will have three in Minnesota and three in Toronto. 5 and 4 is probably a realistic number for those games as they will face tough pitchers in Minnesota including Santana (of course the spankees missed him when they went to Minnesota) and probably Chacin and Halladay in Toronto.

The Yankees are back in the AL East race with a win tomorrow.

Press pass is here.

Red Sox 07 Game 23

Saturday, April 28 Yankee Stadium | 3:55 PM ET
BOS Tim Wakefield, RHP (2-2, 2.08) Red Sox (15-7) @ NYY Jeff Karstens, RHP (0-1, 14.54) Yankees (8-13)

Boston is ahead of Toronto by 4 games, Baltimore by 4.5, Tampa Bay by 5.5 and the Spankees by 6.5

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.

From MLB.Com Scouting Report:

Red Sox: Wakefield faces a familiar foe, albeit for the first time this season. This will be career appearance No. 43 lifetime for Wakefield against the Yankees. At Yankee Stadium, Wakefield is 5-5 with a 3.18 ERA. Wakefield is the only member of the Boston rotation to go 4-for-4 thus far in quality starts. In his last start, he gave up eight hits and three earned runs to the Blue Jays over six innings of a loss.

Yankees: Karstens gets his second crack in a week at the Red Sox, who trounced him pretty handily in a Saturday effort at Fenway Park. Making his season debut after a bout with right elbow tendinitis, Karstens allowed seven runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings to Boston, with David Ortiz collecting four RBIs via a double and a homer. The Yankees opted to go with Karstens over lefty Kei Igawa, who will miss one turn through the rotation to work on his command.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and this year at Baseball
Reference.

Since Karstens just pitched last week at Boston no expected batters against today. Instead just go to the box score from last week and see for yourself all of his previous work.

As for the Historical Pitching lines I have a breakdown of Wakefield as a starter in Yankee Stadium and overall vs the Yankees.

Wakefield

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Yankee Stadium	11	5	4	0	67 2/3	48	26	8	41	50	3.46
Overall	25	9	13	0	188	161	96	32	93	128	4.60

Tim does pretty well as a starter in the Bronx, with a lower ERA of over 1. In those 11 starts he has 7 quality starts and has went 6 + innings 6 times. Let us look at his last five starts in the Bronx.

Last Five Games Started in the Bronx.

Date	W	L	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	HBP	QS?
6/30/2004	0	0	6 1/3	3	2	0	0	3	2	2	Y
4/6/2005	0	0	6 2/3	3	2	2	2	2	4	0	Y
5/27/2005	0	1	5	4	4	4	1	7	3	1	n
9/11/2005	0	1	8	3	1	1	1	1	12	0	Y
5/11/2006	1	0	6	6	3	3	0	3	9	0	Y
Totals	1	2	32	19	12	10	4	15	31	3	ERA 2.81

In his last 5 starts at Yankee stadium he has given up 0, 2, 4, 1 and 3 earned runs. The 1 run game was a complete game that he lost, if memory serves me right to Randy Johnson. Tim is a stud at Yankee stadium. We have a real good chance of making this 5 in a row if Tim doesn't get his usual non support from the offense.

Cheers.

Red Sox 07 Game 22 Recap

Final Score - Bos 11 NYY 4

Hero - Lugo for his wild night at the plate and for shaking off his error and coming right back to get the Double Play.
Honorable mention - Daisuke Matsuzaka - After giving up the lead on 4 runs in the 4th coming out and shutting down the spankees in the 5th and 6th.

Goat - Pettitte - If you get four runs from your teamates which puts you into the lead you can't come back out and give up three runs and surrender the lead.

Good to see that Coco was not affected by the lay off last night. Here's hoping he does the same or better today.

Pedroia looked more comfortable at the plate last night and cranked out a solid double in the 8th. Keep it up kid.

Daisuke looked better than the last time he faced the spankees, but he has to start solving his second time through the batting order problems. Once he gets that solved we can then expect him to be a dominant pitcher every time out.

As I have said / commented at other sites, I will count the spankees out when they are buried with the wooden stake sticking out of the grave so that we can drive it in every once in awhile to make sure they stay dead. This offense is too good to be struggling as much as they are.

So, I didn't need those six reasons to be worried, except I can pretty much move them to game 23 worries. However, I did hit on a couple of the why the Sox will win points.

Papi and Lugo both had big hits, though Manny is continuing to struggle. The spankee bullpen imploded again as Pettitte couldn't get through five innings. Daisuke did pitch better but still has to work on getting through the second time of the line - up better. Drew and Papi however did not pull one down the right field line. Oh, well!

Game 23 preview up later.

Press Pass here.

Red Sox 07 Game 22

Friday, April 27 Yankee Stadium 7:05 PM ET

Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP (2-2, 4.00) Red Sox (14-7) @ Andy Pettitte, LHP (1-0, 1.78) Yankees (8-11)

Boston is 3 ahead of Jays, 3 1/2 games ahead of Baltimore, 5 1/2 ahead of D Rays and 5 1/2 games up on NYY . 1st game of 3 game series.

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.

From MLB.Com Scouting Report:

Red Sox: Matsuzaka felt fortunate to come out with a win in his last start, in which he allowed eight hits and six runs over seven innings. He gets another crack at the Yankees five days later, this time in the Bronx. This will be Matsuzaka's third start on the road, where he is 1-1 with a 2.09 ERA. Matsuzaka has 31 strikeouts and six walks over 27 innings.

Yankees: Pettitte will be pitching on a little extra rest after his scheduled start vs. Toronto on Wednesday was washed out. He got the job done on Friday night in his first start against the Red Sox since 2003, twirling 6 1/3 innings of eight-hit ball. The left-hander lamented just one pitch -- a two-run homer to Jason Varitek -- and felt as though he still had some steam even when he yielded to the bullpen after 100 pitches. Pettitte has left three straight starts with a lead but the bullpen has held just one.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and this year at Baseball Reference.

Expected Batters vs opposing starter

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	11	4	0	0	0	0	1	2	.364
K. Youkilis	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.500
D. Ortiz	25	9	3	0	1	3	3	6	.360
M. Ramirez	62	25	7	0	3	18	5	5	.403
J.D. Drew	11	6	1	0	2	2	1	4	.545
M. Lowell	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.250
J. Varitek	39	15	1	1	1	6	3	12	.385
Wily Mo	8	3	1	0	0	2	0	3	.375
D. Pedroia	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	164	64	13	1	7	31	14	32	.390

Ortiz, Drew, Varitek, Lugo and Ramirez are a combined 59 / 148 with 7 Hr's, 29 RBI's, 13 BB and 29 K's. Their cumulative BA is .399 with a .635 slugging percentage. Can Pettitte throw another gem in a week?
Historical Pitching lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Matsuzaka	1	1	0	0	7	8	6	1	1	7	7.71
Pettitte	22	13	5	0	148	146	49	5	40	117	2.98

In Pettitte's 22 starts he has 16 quality starts and went at least six innings. His last start was on 4/20 and his last appearance was on 4/22 for one inning.

Why we should be worried:

1. The Yankees have lost six straight games. Monday the Sox faced the Blue Jays on a five game winning streak while the Jays had lost five straight. The sox quickly lost.
2. The Yankees are closer to being at full strength as Matsui has returned to play off of the DL.
3. It is hard to beat the Yankees four straight times.
4. If you read the New York papers this past Monday, it was generally felt that Daisuke can be hit, and hit hard.
5. The Sox have faced two teams who had losing records (Texas and the Blue Jays) and are one and four in those games.
6. This will be the eleventh game in eleven days for the Sox, while the Yankees had a rain out yesterday.

Why the Sox will win:

1. Papi, Manny and Lugo are due to start hitting and the wish to shut up 55,000 people will be an added incentive.
2. The Yankee bull pen is still being over worked as the Phenom only lasted 4 1/3 innings.
3. Shame will play a factor. I fully expect that Daisuke will rebound from a horrible outing last time out.
4. Drew and Big Papi will put one in the upper deck along the right field line.

Other thoughts - against teams who were .500 or better at game time the sox this year are 13 and 3.

The bull pen is once again well rested with Papelbon, Okajima and Donnelly having pitched once in the last two days. They should be sharp and yet well rested for this series.

The bloody Sox issue will be the topic of the New York press but in stead of disrupting the Sox club house it will help make an us vs the world feeling.

Manny is close to busting loose and he likes hitting in the Bronx. Expect a couple of back to backs with Manny being the common factor.

Red Sox 07 Game 21 Recap

Final - Bos - 5 Bal - 2

Hero - Wily Mo Pena (third straight game Wily has won something first time its hero).
Honorable Mention - Josh Beckett who went eight innings and only gave up 2 runs.

Goat - Ray who gave up his second grand slam this year.

After the first inning when Lugo, Youkilis and Ortiz struck out only to have Roberts lead off the bottom of the inning with a double, stolen base and run scored you had to wonder if this was going to be a King Felix or Chacin type of an outing.

Things only looked worse after a 1-2-3 inning by both Loewen and Beckett was followed by a weird third inning. The third started with Varitek reaching on an error only to have Wily Mo finally hit the ball hard, unfortunately it was hit right at Aubrey Huff who basically stepped on 1st base as he was catching the ball doubling up Varitek. This was followed by three straight base on balls (Youkilis's being on four straight). Of course this brought up David "Mr. clutch" Ortiz who grounded out to the pitcher ending the threat.

Of course in the bottom of the inning Hernandez doubled on the first pitch and two outs later scored on a Mora double down the third base line. Score was now two zip and Loewen retired three of the next four batters, with J.D. being the one who broke up the no hitter and being stranded on first. Beckett was up to the challenge however as he retired seven of the next nine batters. Which led to the top of the sixth.

The sixth was really the first chance where some damage could be done. Youk led off with a single, Ortiz and then Manny walked loading the bases with no outs. However, just like the last two games the Sox struggled with RISP. J.D. popped up to third on the second pitch bringing up last out Lowell. On the fourth pitch Mike hit a ground ball to third which fortunately was on a broken bat that prevented Mora from even trying for an inning ending double play. Youkilis scored though, bringing the Sox within one run. The threat was over though as Varitek struck out on five pitches.

Now that the Sox were within one run you just hoped that Beckett could continue to hold the Oriole bats quiet, only Mora led off by doubling to right field on a 2 - 2 pitch. This though was where Beckett really came through as he struck out Markakis (his first of the night) on four pitches, got Tejada to ground out to Lowell on the first pitch and then had Huff ground out to Lugo on a 1 - 2 pitch. Inning over and the team was still within one run. This was where the game changed though, at least in my opinion.

Seventh saw Wily Mo hit his second hard ball, which was a double into left center off of the new Oriole pitcher, Baez. Starting the inning with a man on second and you have to think that the Sox will at least tie the score. A recent trend would continue though as the Sox would see Pedroia move Pena to third on a ground out to second base, watch Lugo ground out to the pitcher preventing Pena from even trying to score, watch Youkilis walk on four straight pitches bringing up big Papi. Again though a Baltimore pitcher (Parrish) was able to get out of the jam as Papi hit into another inning ending grounder to the pitcher, the Sox were now 0 - 7 with RISP.

At this point I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get a clutch hit. A quick look at the day by day database at baseballmusings.com showed that the Sox were now 24 - 6 with RISP since the weekend series with the Yankees. In the bottom of the inning Beckett was again challenged as Payton led off with a single on the first pitch only to have Pedroia save him on the next batter as Gibbons hit a ball that Pedroia gloved on the edge of the outfield grass and threw a strike to Lugo getting the lead runner.

Of course the next batter was Hernandez again who quickly singled to left field placing runners on first and second with only one out. The next batter was now the speedy Patterson. Beckett quickly fell behind 0 and 2. The next two pitches Patterson couldn't make any contact evening the count. The fifth pitch was a comebacker to the mound but Beckett had to double clutch and his throw to Lugo was to late to get the double play. Runners on the corners and the lead off hitter Roberts was again in the batters box but Beckett was up to the task and got the fly ball to left field. Inning over and we were still in a one run ball game.

The Orioles were now six outs from tying the series and staying within 1 1/2 games of the Sox. Only once again the Baltimore bull pen imploded. Manny led off with a walk, the struggling Drew hit a fly ball to center and the Orioles brought in their closer Chris Ray to get the five out save.

Last out Lowell was again up in a clutch situation with his 11 game hitting streak on the line, so of course he once again failed to live up to the name by hitting a ground rule double into the left field stands. Once again it looked like the team should be able to score the tying run, only the implosion was not complete, as the Sox went for more than the tying run. The captain was intentionally given a pass to load the bases and bring up the .120 hitting Wily Mo Pena. On the 1 - 1 pitch a fast ball was thrown into the power zone of Pena and it was look out Red Sox bullpen. Just like that it was now 5 to 2 Red Sox and the tenor of the game was changed from frustration to euphoria.

There was no doubt that the way Beckett was pitching and Papel-bot waiting in the pen to take over the ninth inning that the Orioles were going to come back. Sure enough the ball game would end with the three run margin as six of the last eight Orioles were retired easily as Beckett K'ed 2 and Papelbon ended the game on a check swing strike. Ball game over! The Sox now go to New York on a two game winning streak and with the Blue Jays winning their game to night the sox stayed three games ahead of the Jays.

This was the third series in the last four that the #1 team in the East faced the #2 team. In those series the Sox are now 7 and 1 with two sweeps. Thats the good news, the bad news is that this year when the Sox have faced a team with a losing record (going into the game) the Sox are 1 and 4. The win came in Arlington against Texas. Of course the Sox lost the first two games in that series and their were two games that were lost against the Jays in Fenway. In all of the other series the opposing team was at .500 or greater.

Press pass for this game here.

Red Sox 07 Game 21

Thursday, April 26 Oriole Park at Camden Yards 7:05 PM ET

Josh Beckett, RHP (4-0, 2.55) Red Sox (13-7) @ Adam Loewen, LHP (2-0, 3.72) Orioles (11-10)

Boston is 2 1/2 games ahead of Baltimore, 3 ahead of Jays, 4 ahead of D Rays and 4 1/2 games up on NYY . 1st game of 2 game series.

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.

From MLB.Com Scouting Report:

Red Sox: Beckett labored a little in his previous outing against the Yankees on Saturday, but he still got the win. Over 6 2/3 innings, Beckett gave up nine hits and five runs, four of which were earned. Beckett won his only start against the Orioles last year, allowing two hits over seven innings. He has 25 strikeouts this season and just seven walks.

Orioles: Loewen has been erratic in his past few starts, but he always seems to come up with the big pitch when he needs it. The southpaw walked a career-high seven batters in his previous outing and left the mound as the new league-leader in walks (19). Despite his inconsistent command, Loewen has thrown at least five innings in three of his first four starts and has only left with his team trailing once.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and this year at Baseball Reference.

Expected Batters vs opposing starter

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000
K. Youkilis	5	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	.200
D. Ortiz	2	0	0	0	0	1	3	1	.000
M. Ramirez	4	3	0	0	1	3	1	0	.750
J.D. Drew	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
M. Lowell	6	2	0	0	0	2	1	0	.333
J. Varitek	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.667
Wily Mo	7	3	0	0	0	1	1	3	.429
D. Pedroia	3	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	.000
Totals	31	11	1	0	1	8	8	5	.355

Small sample size here for the batters. Pena has the most at bats against this pitcher and is tied with Manny for the most hits. Manny has the only home run against him. I really think that they can get to this guy, but with the starters only having 31 AB's its just hard to say one way or the other.

Historical Pitching lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Loewen	3	0	1	0	13	15	13	1	10	10	9.00
Beckett	1	1	0	0	7	2	1	1	0	6	1.29

If you look at the numbers, which with a 9.00 era is terrible you would think that the Sox will have no problems with this pitcher. That may not be true though. Adam had one terrible start (his first start), where he was absolutely horrible on 8/11/2006. In that game he lasted 2 1/3 innings giving up 6 earned runs. The other two games he went 5 1/3 innings each game and has a 5.91 ERA. While that is not great its also not terrible.

Beckett was just outstanding last May in his only start against the O's. The way he is pitching right now, I don't see that changing.

Red Sox 07 Recap Game 20

Final Score - Bos 6 Baltimore 1

Hero - Curt Schilling went 7.0 innings threw ninety pitches allowing only one run (home run by Tejada).
Honorable Mention - Big Papi for his single in the seventh on an eleven pitch at bat against Walker that plated Wily Mo with the go ahead run.

Goat - Bradford who gave up an rbi single to Manny and then walked in a run on a bases loaded walk of Lowell.

Overall Curt set the stage by throwing a gem. His pitching to contact kept the Orioles off the score board and allowed the offense time to get to Cabrera and the implosion of the Oriole bullpen. Make no mistake this was Curt's game and he was not to be denied.

Cabrera looked good until the fifth and sixth innings. His walks were more of good hitting and patience.

What the heck was with Lugo? Not a wise move to p.o. the home plate umpire in a close game and fall behind 0 - 2 when you aren't even in the batters box.

I know Manny is struggling and wants to get his swing going but there are times you shouldn't be swinging. Cabrera has a history of getting wild (especially against the Sox) and in the third with two outs Youkilis doubled and then on 5 pitches (one which was a wild pitch) Ortiz walked. Manny grounds out on the first pitch. In the sixth inning Ortiz led off the inning with a 5 pitch walk, the last four balls thrown to him and again Manny swings at the first pitch fouling out to right.

Minor gripe and some will say I am just being anti-manny but I would do the same thing if it was any other player.

Okajima is nasty, plain and simple. Both Huff and Markakis were simply overmatched. Not with blinding speed but with where the pitch was coming from and where it was crossing the plate. I got the feeling they just have a hard time picking up the ball as it comes from his hand.

Good to see two clean innings by the pen after the fiasco of the last two nights. Hopefully, Beckett can give us 7 or 8 good innings tomorrow so that the pen will be well rested.

Red Sox press pass for this game here.

Red Sox 07 Game 20

Wednesday, April 25 Oriole Park at Camden Yards 7:05 PM ET

Curt Schilling, RHP (2-1, 3.81) Red Sox (12-7) @ Daniel Cabrera, RHP (1-1, 4.10) Orioles (11-9)

Boston is 1 1/2 games ahead of Baltimore, 2 1/2 ahead of Jays, 3 1/2 ahead of D Rays and 4 games up on NYY . 1st game of 2 game series.

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.

From MLB.Com Scouting Report:

Red Sox: Schilling was a victim of Alex Rodriguez on Friday night at Fenway. Four of the five runs the ace allowed over seven innings against the Yankees came courtesy of two A-Rod homers. After going just four innings on Opening Day, Schilling has gone at least seven frames in his past three starts. Lifetime against the Orioles, Schilling is 5-4 with a 4.00 ERA. At Camden Yards, he's 3-2 with a 5.28 ERA.

Orioles: A late rally gave Cabrera a no-decision in his last start. The erratic right-hander seems to have ironed out his control and has only walked three batters in his last three starts. Cabrera has struck out 26 batters this year, and he's only walked seven. Cabrera has worked at least five innings in all four of his starts, and he's gone at least six innings in three of the four. Three of his four starts have been at Camden Yards.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and this year at Baseball Reference.

Expected Batters vs opposing starter

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	13	3	0	1	0	1	3	2	.231
K. Youkilis	6	2	2	0	0	3	1	2	.333
D. Ortiz	13	3	0	0	0	2	4	3	.231
M. Ramirez	7	2	0	0	0	3	3	1	.286
J.D. Drew	4	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	.500
M. Lowell	4	3	1	0	1	5	2	0	.750
J. Varitek	10	1	1	0	0	2	3	6	.100
C. Crisp	10	3	0	0	0	2	1	2	.300
D. Pedroia	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
Totals	67	19	4	1	1	18	17	17	.284

Don't look for any of the Subs to play today, except maybe Cora who has a .563 average in 16 AB's. Tomorrow, I would expect Manny to get a day off. He has been struggling and has played in every game.

Historical Pitching lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Cabrera	8	1	6	0	33	43	34	1	32	35	9.27
Schilling	10	5	4	0	69 2/3	68	31	8	9	60	4.00

Couple of other points. Schilling as a Sox has made six starts vs the O's and is 4 and 1 with a 3.1 ERA. Expect him to come out firing on all cylinders tonight.

Cabrera has a huge walk ratio vs the Sox but so far this year he has been stingy with the BB's with only 7 while striking out 26. Lets hope the bad Cabrera shows up tonight.

This will be the third series in the last 4 where #1 vs #2 has played each other. Sox are 5 and 1 in those show downs.

In the next 33 games we face 11 teams with only 3 of those teams having a losing record right now. So far in this season, facing teams with losing records (at the time of the game) we are 1 and 4. We face those teams again during this time period. Also, we face the Yankees six more times during this period. Overall those 11 teams are a combined 99 - 91.

Red Sox 07 Recap Game 19

Final Score - Toronto 10 Boston 3

Hero - Halladay

Goat - Second night in a row Wily Mo Pena

Not much to say for the second night in a row the Sox got behind early and could never get over the hump. Mike Lowell hit a homer in the the 4th to get the team within 1 run only to have every thing fall apart in the sixth whem mr. cement glove struck to put the game completely out of reach, especially when its Halladay.

A totally disgusting game from a fan standpoint. Tomorrow a two game series starts with Baltimore at Camden yard. Both teams have lost two games in a row.

Press pass for this game is here.

Update: the only good thing about tonight is that Myers gave up a grand slam to crawford and the spankees lose.

Red Sox 07 Game 19

Tuesday, April 24 Fenway Park 7:05 PM ET

TOR Roy Halladay, RHP (2-0, 2.37) Blue Jays (9-10) @ BOS Julian Tavarez, RHP (0-1, 6.75) Red Sox (12-6)

Boston is 1 1/2 games Baltimore, 4 games up on NYY and 3 1/2 ahead of Jays. 2nd game of 2 game series Toronto won the first. For the Year 2 games apiece.

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.

From MLB.Com day by day database at Baseball Musings and this year at Baseball
Reference.

Expected Batters vs opposing starter

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	31	6	0	0	1	2	2	5	.194
E. Hinske	5	1	0	0	0	1	0	3	.200
D. Ortiz	60	17	5	0	5	15	3	9	.283
M. Ramirez	63	17	3	0	3	9	6	15	.270
J.D. Drew	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	.500
M. Lowell	8	3	0	0	1	4	1	0	.375
J. Varitek	50	13	4	0	1	9	6	11	.260
W.M. Pena	4	2	1	0	0	2	0	1	.500
D. Pedroia	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	229	60	13	0	11	42	19	45	.262

Once again Coco is sitting out with his left oblique strain. That means mr. cement glove, can't hit a curve ball W.M. Pena is in center field again. If not for him last night Timlin would have been out of the inning and probably never have faced Hill. Big difference from being down 2 runs and being down 4 going into the ninth. Just like last week, if Tavarez can keep the ball on the ground this team will have a chance as Halladay is hittable by these guys.

Historical Pitching lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Halladay	25	8	7	0	175 2/3	191	88	17	47	129	4.51
Tavarez	4	2	2	0	38 2/3	43	16	5	13	17	3.72

As you can see Doc is not unbeatable and the Sox have had success against him. Still, its hard to beat a teams ace twice in one week. Of course they didn't beat Halladay last week as he had this team on the ropes until he was pulled and Manny came through.

Personally I think this game will unfold just like last week. What I am worried about is our ability to hit with RISP. Last night the team went 1 for 10, the previous day I show that it was also 1 for 10. In order to beat Hallady they have to do better than that.

Red Sox 07 Game 18

Monday, April 23 Fenway Park 7:05 PM ET

Tomo Ohka, RHP (0-2, 7.02) Blue Jays (8-10) @ Tim Wakefield, RHP (2-1, 1.35) Red Sox (12-5)

Boston is 1 1/2 games ahead of Baltimore, 4 games up on NYY and 4 1/2 ahead of Jays. 1st game of 2 game series.

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.

From MLB.Com Scouting Report:

Red Sox: Wakefield's knuckleball has been in top form in his first three starts, as he's allowed one earned run each time out. He'll pitch against the Blue Jays for the second time in a row. Wakefield will try to duplicate his success of Wednesday at Rogers Centre, where he held Toronto to just four hits over seven innings. Lifetime against the Jays, Wakefield is 13-8.

Blue Jays: Ohka turned in his best start of the young season last time out, limiting the Red Sox to four runs on four hits in 6 1/3 innings on Wednesday. The right-hander carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning before yielding the first of three solo home runs he'd allow in the loss. That trip to the mound was Ohka's only career appearance against Boston, but he pitched for the Red Sox for parts of the 1999-2001 seasons. Ohka is 3-8 with a 3.95 ERA in 17 career games at Fenway Park.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and this year at Baseball Reference.

Expected Batters vs opposing starter

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	11	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	.182
K. Youkilis	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
D. Ortiz	6	2	0	0	1	1	0	1	.333
M. Ramirez	18	3	1	0	1	4	1	4	.167
J.D. Drew	11	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	.182
M. Lowell	37	11	1	0	3	6	1	4	.297
D. Mirabelli	2	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	.500
C. Crisp	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Pedroia	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	92	23	3	0	6	12	2	14	.250

Not sure what the status of Coco will be today. He didn't start last night due to an oblique problem but did come in to play defense in the eighth. Wily Mo would not be bad choice to start today though since he has hit 2 home runs in 12 AB's against Ohka. The other subs are pick your poisons, so maybe Hinske gets another start for Youkilis. In fact I would start Hinske the next two days giving Youkilis and Lowell days off.

Historical Pitching lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Ohka	1	0	1	0	6 2/3	4	4	3	1	3	5.68
Wakefield	31	13	8	0	224 2/3	221	96	19	80	176	3.85

This is a rematch from 4/18 of this year. Wake outlasted Ohka picking up the win. Remember Ohka was pitching a gem until the 5th inning when Lowell broke up the No Hitter by homering. Mirabelli also had a very good game that night. Can they break 2:00. Last game lasted 2:24 between these two. I think that it is more likely to be closer to 4:00 though. Since the comeback wins in Toronto by the Sox, the Jays have now lost 5 straight with Baltimore doing the damage to them this weekend. Need to win today though because tomorrow its Halladay vs Tavarez (Sexy lips?).

Red Sox 07 Game 17 Recap

Final Score - Bos 7 NYY 6

Hero - Lowell for giving us 4 runs on his two home runs. Part of the WOW 4 in a row in the third.

Goat - Proctor for the almost cycle.

1st inning a walk and hbp leads to two on double by Giambi. Daisuke looking rattled but get out of the inning without more damage. Bottom of first thinking we can get something going after a BB, SB, another BB only to see pop ups by Ortiz and Manny followed by K from J.D. escapes the first inning jam. Stealing a line from Niel M "I am not overly amused".

2nd inning nothing happens for the spankees thanks to a nice wall banging catch by WMP. Two quick outs by Lowell and Varitek lead to the first head shake of the night. WMP takes four balls and trots to first. Pedroia follows with a double down the line bringing up Lugo with guys on 2nd and 3rd, but he grounds out to Jetes and Wright can breathe easy again. "I am not overly amused".

3rd inning and its 1b by Damon, HBP on the diver and I am thinking the wheels are falling off. K of Abreu, K of A-rod and I'm thinking he's going to get out of this inning with no blood no foul only to see Giambi tick one off of a diving Pedroia's glove, (grow you) leading to Damon scoring. 3 - 0 and the Sox have let Wright off the hook twice already and watching Youkilis line out to Abreu, Papi pop up to left field on about 6 pitches I'm thinking yep, another typical Daisuke game, no offense in support. Manny comes up and Miller is talking about how slumping Manny is when Boom, over the Volvo sign, followed by J.D. Drew who bombs one to the pen and I'm thinking alright we are back in the ga , when LOL launches one over the seats. 3 in a row, quick stop over at Joy of Sox and by the time I write Back to Back, Belly to Belly, can we go for four only to have Tek make it four. BH and daughter hear the yell, and I am now banished to the basement. The WMP that I know shows up and K's.

4th - Doug alphabet doubles to open the inning. Am thinking, look kid, don't know how they do it in Japan, but if your team just hit 4 hr's in a row, don't let the other team score the next inning. He follows my advice by getting a routine grounder to Youk, a liner to Pedroia and has Damon hit a weak grounder to end the inning. Bottom of the fourth starts with a new spankee pitcher as the shell shocked Wright is on the bench. Pedroia flies out, Lugo walks, Youk beats the relay throw to keep the inning alive for Papi and here is where we get screwed. Papi hits a ground rule double to right which prevents Youkilis from scoring. Manny follows with a check swing out and its to the 5th.

5th - Lead off homer by Jetes, K by Abreu, K by A-rod and Foul Pop to Tek for Giambi and its off to the bottom of the 5th tied at 4. J.D. leads off with a walk, I love how patient he is at the plate. Joe C. (I listen to the radio at times only so much of Miller and Morgan) reminds us that Drew was part of a 4 in a row with the Dodgers last year. Lowell flies out and here comes Tek. Drew steals second and 2 pitches later Tek walks to make it 1st and 2nd with 1 out and WMP strides to the plate. BB and K in his first two at bats and he lives up to my standards by K'ing on a curve? Pedroia up to bat with a chance to be the hero. Nope and now the Sox are 0 - 7 RISP.

6th - Cano leads off with a single, Doug alphabet comes up and on the 1 and 1 looks like a little leaguer on the curve followed by the single to right and now its 1st and 3rd with no outs. Time for a K. Nope get the double play and its now 5 - 4 spankees. By far Daisuke's worst outing this year, but then again this is the best hitting team he has faced. Nieves finishes the inning and here comes Pettitte? Hey, its just another game in April right Torre? Pettitte does his job as its 3 up and 3 down, well, Youk did get a walk followed by a tailor made 6-3 double play.

7th - Best inning yet by Daisuke as he K's Damon looking, Jetes grounds out and Abreu K's swinging. Manny starts off the bottom half by singling off of Proctor who is in his 12th game. Drew follows by fighting off a curve ball that hits just above the V in left field. Manny chugs all the way to third on the double by Drew. LOL can't happen unless its the wierdest triple play in history, but Lowell puts the Sox up by two as he hammers a line drive off the bottom of the coke bottle. Proctor is gone before the cycle is completed and replaced by Vizcaino. Tek follows with a ground out and brings up WMP who promptly K's swinging. Pedroia lines a single and Lugo walks but Youk hits the 6-4 grounder and we have to settle for only the three runs. Youks ground out makes it 1 - 9 RISP.

8th - we are set up for a good finish - Okajima? Timlin? We'll see. Nope they bring Daisuke out for the eighth. Coco is now in the game, so the oblique strain worry was probably don't swing the bat. Need him to chase down fly balls. A-Rod starts the inning off and gets a single to right on a 2 - 2 pitch. Tito coming out to the mound, time for HID? Yep, here comes Okajima to face Giambi. He gets Giambi but Cano hits one into center that Coco can't get to, 1st and 2nd 1 out. Posada walks, so bases are loaded and her comes Donnelly. About time you brought in herky jerky in this series. Donnelly has faced the Yankees 17 times with a 3.18 ERA in 17 innings. He has 16 K's in those innings. Cabrera hits grounder to first but Cairo (running for Posada) breaks up the relay. 7-6 Sox with men on 1st and 3rd and they pull Nieves for Phelps who hits a screamer that Pedroia pulls out of the air for the 3rd out. Donnelly does his job!

B 8th - looking good for the Sox, I hope Papelbon is up and throwing because the top of the order is coming up for the spankees. Of course another 2 runs would help tremendously. Nothing from Papi as he flies out to Melky. Manny gets his third hit by singling up the middle. With J.D. Drew coming up you can almost guarantee that Lowell will get another AB. Drew moves Manny to second with a dribbler to A-rod and the only man with a hit RISP comes up to bat. Lowell walks and Tek (grindddd my teeth) swings at the first pitch grounding out to Jetes. Its Papel-bot time.

9th - Damon goesdown after 7 pitches, making Papel-bot work. Jetes goes down swinging. Abreu will not swing unless its a strike and works the walk. Now its drama time, hottest hitter in the majors against power - Papel-bot wins the confrontation by getting a ground out to Lowell on an 0-2 pitch. Bring out the brooms.

Red Sox 07 Game 17

7:19 - UPDATE - Wily Mo in center, Coco scratched due to oblique problem as reported by the Globe.
7:30 - UPDATe - Press Pass available here.

Sunday, April 22 Fenway Park 8:05 PM ET
NYY Chase Wright, LHP (1-0, 5.40) Yankees (8-8) @ BOS Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP (1-2, 2.70) Red Sox (11-5)

Boston 1 1/2 games ahead Baltimore, 3 Games ahead of NYY and 3 1/2 games ahead of Toronto. 3rd game of 3 game series Boston leads 2 - 0.

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.

From MLB.Com Scouting Report:

Red Sox: Matsuzaka is trying to snap a two-game losing streak, though he pitched well enough to win in both starts. Matsuzaka has given up three earned runs or fewer in all three of his outings. Control betrayed him in his start against the Blue Jays on Tuesday, when he walked three batters in the fourth inning of a 2-1 loss. This will be Matsuzaka's first career appearance against the Yankees, officially entering the storied rivalry.

Yankees: Wright is making his second big-league appearance, earning it with a solid five-inning effort in a win over Cleveland on Tuesday. Wright, 24, called up from Double-A to start that game, gave up three runs on five hits and three walks while striking out three.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and this year at Baseball Reference.

Expected Batters vs opposing starter
Has never faced any of the batters.

Historical Pitching lines
Never faced these teams before

Since there is no history for either of these pitchers vs batters or team I thought I would add this table showing how badly the bats have performed in Daisuke's starts:

Situation	AB	H	2b	3b	HR	RBI	BB	K	BA	OBP	Slug
Daisuke Starts	97	19	6	0	1	3	5	19	.196	.235	.289
Other Starts	297	80	20	1	7	49	44	53	.269	.365	.414

As you can see there is quite a difference in the BA, OBP and Slugging. If they had just done the same in his starts as they have in the other starts he would have had 12 more runs to play with in his 3 starts. Since he held the other teams to 3 runs or less that would have made quite a difference. Just something to think about.

Predictions - Which batters will show up? The ones who are averaging 5 runs per game (all games) or the ones who are averaging 1.667 per Daisuke's starts. My bet is on the batters showing up and putting up a 5 spot. The question is can Daisuke hold the Yankees to less than 5? Will be interesting.

Red Sox 07 Game 16 Recap

Final Score Bos 7 - NYY 5

Hero - David Ortiz 4 Rbi's off of a double and a Home Run will do that for you.

Goat - another hard choice here, Beckett started out lousy became unhittable then flagged at the end. Closest we have to one today because of the 4 earned runs in 6 2/3's of an inning. So, No Goat today.

Idle thoughts -

1. 14 runs in two days against your arch rival means the offense is starting to click. Now if they could just do that on the road I would feel a lot better about this team.
2. The Yankee's offense is so good it's scary. You can't hope to stop them, you have to contain them.
3. I really miss Remy and Orsillo, it is so obvious that Buck and his side kick know nothing about this Sox team.
4. Is Coco breaking out of his slump? Sure looks that way. If he continues to go 2 - 4 the next few games we might be able to see the Coco we thought we were getting last year.
5. Robinson Cano is probably going to win the Gold Glove this year for second base, Derek Jeter will not win it at the short stop position.
6. Another error by Lowell today. If this keeps up he will have 50 for the season
7. Don't look now but Big Papi is hitting .300, over the last 8 games he has 4 hr's, 5 doubles, 13 rbi and is batting .387. Not bad, not bad at all.
8. In the last 5 games Coco has 8 hits in 20 AB's with a double, triple and 3 rbi's. That has to help his confidence
9. Manny is still in a slump, and with a rookie on the mound, don't look for it to stop.
   

Preview of game 17 later.

Red Sox 07 game 16 in game posting

In game thoughts of game 16, 2nd game yankees vs sox.

T 1st-

• K of Melky, good start by Beckett.
• 1b by Jetes
• 5 pitch walk to Abreu not good, 2 on for hottest batter on the planet.
• Oh yeah, baby the big K of A-Rod.
• Give me a break, Giambi hits a seeing eye fly ball that just eludes a diving Drew. Spankees up 1 - 0.
• 0-2 to Cano and whew, just missed having a seeing eye double down the line.
• gets a seeing eye single when Youkilis fails to grab his ground ball, 2 - 0 spankees.

B 1st -

• Lugo breaks his 0 - 12 with single into center.
• Youkilis his 3rd hit in last 17 AB's is a double, way to start the bats, now comes big Papi
• Wonder if Kastens is shaking.
• 2 - 2 pitch and Papi ties it up by hitting one over Abreu's head. Papiiiiiii
• No outs and Manny takes a pitch, yea! Pitching match up's favor boston Buck says, does he realize that this is the fricking yankees who are averaging a gazillion runs a game. Match ups mean nothing.
• 3 - 2 pitch to Manny is - a fly ball to Abreu and Papi takes 3rd. Way to go Manny and Papi.
• Nice curve by Karstens that just misses, good eye by Drew.
• Ugly swing on the 3 - 2 but Drew stays alive. A terrific play by Cano, to nail Ortiz.
• Does Drew goes on the 3rd pitch?
• No Drew stays at first.
• Last out Lowell strikes again.
• Nuts Drew's failure to get the ball out of the infield hurts but it is now 2 - 2 going into the 2nd.

T 2nd -

• Ugh - Beckett gives up the lead off double. Looks like the 9 + ERA Beckett has showed up so far today.
• Nieves shows bunt? The way the Yankees own Beckett why would you bunt?
• Posada is the most important Yankee?
• Jeez, the Yankees are really bunting here, just doesn't make sense to me.
• Jeez Lowell throws it away and now 2nd and 3rd with no outs.
• 3 - 2 New York and still no outs.
• Double Play but its now 4 - 2. No ribbie for jetes.
• Lowell has to feel about 2 feet tall right now.
• Abreu goes down on the K.

B 2nd-

• Bunt hit by Coco, yea boy.
• Bunt hit by Cora, yea boy.
• Lugo coming up can we do three in a row?
• Wild pitch, oooh, base hit ties the game.
• Lugo gets the run home by grounding out to second.
• Its up to Youk now. Yooooooook !!! He comes through with a single to left.
• 4 - 4, yep its a Red Sox - Yankee slugfest now. First pitcher who sets down the side in order wins!!!
• Big Papi, wonder if Karstens is shaking in his shoes?
• Papi gives it a ride but Abreu makes the catch. OK Beckett, Let us see the new You, not the crappy You.

T 3rd -

• A-rod at bats are getting the Barry Bonds treatment?
• Lead off double by A-Rod. grrrrrr.
• Giambi K's
• Ground out
• Pop out and Beckett gets out of the Jam, right now I'll take 3 in a row.

B 3rd -

• Manny gives it a ride but its a long out.
• Drew takes the walk.
• Lowell has a chance to make up for the error, come on Mikey!!!
• nope, will have to wait til the next at bat as he fly's out to left.
• Line drive out to Abreu and the 3rd is the first inning where neither team scores.

T 4th -

• Starts the 4th off with a K of Thompson. 4 in a row!!!!
• Beckett scrambles off the mound on a dribbler and its 5 in a row!!!
• Lowellllllllll and its a 1-2-3 inning.

B 4th -

• Coco up first, another bunt?
• nope, a flare, a dieing quail and then a stolen base for Coco!!!!
• Sacrifice bunt by Cora. Man on 3rd and 1 out.
• Lugo needs to get it out of the infield.
• A jammed shot to Jetes and Red Sox lead 5 - 4. Yea boy!!!
• Can Beckett hold the lead though with Jetes, Abreu and A-rod coming up in the 5th?
• Youk walks to keep the inning going.
• I would feel a lot more comfortable with some insurance runs c'mon Papi!
• PAPPPPPPIIIIIIII goes deep around the pole.!!!!!!!
• Quick stop over at Joy of Sox to say Papppiiiiii.
• 7 - 4 and Manny coming up, back to back?
• Nope, Manny flies out.

T 5th -

• 96 mph fastball for strike one and then Jeter grounds out, 7 in a row!!
• Abreu follows with a ground out 8 in a row!!!
• A-Rod, can we get him out?
• oooh, just inches foul on the first pitch or he would have had a lead off double.
• 0-2 pitch is on the way and
• Pop up to cora and its 9 in a row!!!!!

B 5th -

• Drew, Lowell and Varitek coming up, lets add one or two more runs and then I can start to breathe normally.
• Drew makes an out.
• Lowell singles! Can we add another run here in the 5th?
• Tek singles and now it's 1st and 3rd and 1 out. Coco coming up to bat.
• Don't have a guy who can drive the ball, obvious that McCarver didn't see the Jays game on Thursday.
• 3 - 1 pitch to Coco is popped up. Nuts.
• Up to Cora to keep the inning going.
• Cora battling as he fouls off another ball, and another ball (11 pitches), but Bruney wins the battle and the Sox strand a runner at 3rd.

T 6th -

• Giambi goes down looking for the Sixth K for Beckett - 10 in a row!
• Cano doubles and there goes the streak.
• Doug Mientk.... comes up to the plate, can Beckett get back in the groove?
• Doug hits a two hopper so now its 2 out.
• Nice curve to Nieves for 0 - 2 and the next pitch ooooh so close, but the next is the called K. two in a row!

B 6th -

• Lugo, Youkilis and Ortiz - can we get more runs?
• 88 pitches for Beckett through 6.
• Lugo leads off with a single to left
• 3 - 2 pitch to Youkilis and Lugo goes with the pitch and Jeter can only get Youkilis at first base.
• Pitching change for the spankees. Henn coming in.
• Papi K's on a good pitch.
• Manny Walks, need a hit by Drew
• First swing and its hit to left but not off the wall. 2 more runners stranded. grrrr

T 7th -

• Beckett is at 88 pitches, need a clean inning out of him so that the pen can come in clean.
• 3 pitches and Nieves is down on a 4 - 3 grounder.
• 2 pitches and Cabrera is down on a pop up to Lowell.
• Jetes gets another hit. Here comes Abreu with A-Rod on deck.
• This could be the game for Beckett right here.
• Jeez, just like Schilling last night it seems like Beckett can't find the plate.
• Full count - and he walks Abreu
• Here comes Farrel so Beckett gets to face A-Rod. This could be the game right here.
• 1-0, 1-1, 2-1 (low and away), and its a base hit as A-rod gets the rbi. Time for the pen as Giambi comes up.
• No quality start for Beckett as Jeter scored the 4th earned run.
• Okajima is now in the game - Hero in the Dark gets a chance to be the hero again.
• oh baby a nice curve to take it 2-2. and he gets Giambi on a swing. Oh baby!!!!!

B 7th -

• Another freaking warning track fly out by Lowell what is that today 15? 16? geez.
• Varitek singles to left, can Coco help get the lead back to 3?
• geez a wall banging catch in left as we get another warning track out.
• Cora up to bat and he draws the walk. Up to Lugo to extend the inning.
• Lugo walks bases are loaded for Youkilis
• Doug makes a great catch to keep the score at 7 - 5. What was that saying about Doug, will save you 60 runs a year. He just might have save a couple there.

T 8th - Who will start the inning HID or Timlin?

• Its Okajima to face the lefty Cano and Cano starts off in the hole 0 - 2. 3 pitches and we are 5 outs from salting this one away.
• Phelps replaces the alpahabet man so here comes Timlin. You better have Papel-bot warming up, because I just don't trust Timlin any more.
• Timlin gets Phelps to pop up to Lugo and we are 4 outs away.
• Thompson goes down on a pop up to Youk 3 outs away but the #9, #1, and #2 hitters in the 9th for the spankees.

B 8th - Is Papel-bot warming up yet?

• Farnsie gets Ortiz to Pop up on a 3-2 pitch.
• Last year Farnsie put Ortiz and Manny in a slump for a month, I hope that doesn't repeat this year.
• Manny gets a single to right. We could use one more run here just to make it more automatic for Papel-bot.
• 5 for 7 with 3 home runs against Farnsie for J.d. Drew. Could use one of those right now. Ouch hits into a inning ending double play. I guarantee you won't see to many of those from Drew this year.

T 9th - Papel-bot time

• Davidson blows the pitch on 2-2 because Damon was k'ed, but no harm as Lugo throws out Damon.
• Melky up to bat - falls behind 2 - 0. 3 - 0 not looking good and he walks him on 4 pitches. Now the heat is on
• Jeter 1 - 3 against Papel-bot. 1-1 after he missed on the first pitch. 1-2 as jeter is frozen on a good pitch. (96 mph). One in the dirt on a waste pitch. Jeter isn't going to chase need a good pitch here. 3 - 2 now on another close pitch, but it was outside. Jeter is k'ed but Melky takes second. 2 men down
• Abreu up to bat, this is the guy you need to get. Has two walks against paps and 1 k. Fouled off the first pitch. 2nd pitch is hammered to center but Coco tracks it down and Papel-bot saves the game. Another win for Beckett who goes 4 - 0 and save #5 for Papel-bot.

Whew, anothe win for the good guys.