Red Sox 2008 Game 107 Preview

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J. Weaver		8-8, 4.08		D. Matsuzaka		11-1, 2.63
Angels		64-40		Red Sox		61-45

Monday, July 28      Fenway Park  ✠ 7:05 p.m. ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Tampa	61	43	-	6-4	17	15	56	48
Boston	61	45	1.0	5-5	14	17	62	44
New York	58	46	3.0	8-2	20	11	57	47
Toronto	53	52	8.5	6-4	16	22	56	49
Baltimore	49	55	12.0	4-6	18	20	50	54

ESPN.Com Preview .
Yahoo's Preview .
ESPN.Com after the game Recap.
MLB.Com Press Pass
From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Angels: Weaver had his shortest start of the season when he pitched just three innings against the Indians on Tuesday, exiting with back stiffness. He allowed two runs on three hits, walking two and hitting another. The only positive from his start was that he struck out four of the 15 batters he faced. His outing broke a streak of four straight starts in which pitched at least five innings and allowed two earned runs or fewer. Weaver is 0-2 with a 5.46 ERA in five career starts against the Red Sox.

Red Sox: Matsuzaka turned in one of his best performances of the season in his last start, allowing five hits and two runs over 7 1/3 innings in a 4-2 win over the Mariners. After struggling in his first start back from the disabled list, Matsuzaka has allowed two earned runs or fewer in each of his past five starts. The righty is 6-1 with a 3.02 ERA in nine starts at Fenway Park this season. Matsuzaka is holding opponents to a .202 average. This is his first start of the season against the Angels.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Weaver

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
D. Pedroia	8	3	2	0	0	0	1	2	.375	.444	.625	1.069
K. Youkilis	15	5	0	0	2	4	1	1	.333	.375	.733	1.108
D. Ortiz	13	6	0	0	2	8	2	2	.462	.500	.923	1.423
M. Ramirez	9	1	0	0	0	1	1	5	.111	.182	.111	.293
M. Lowell	7	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	.286	.375	.286	.661
J. D. Drew	9	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	.444	.444	.444	.889
J. Lowry	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
J. Varitek	8	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	.125	.125	.250	.375
J. Ellsbury	3	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	.333	.333	1.333	1.667
Totals	72	23	3	0	5	14	6	12	.319	.367	.569	.937

Not much to say here, those are great numbers against one of the good young pitchers in the league. The bench, except for Cora stinks against this guy and Cora has only faced him 4 times so not much history.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Weaver	5	0	2	0	28	17	17	5	6	23	5.46	1.46	5.60
Matsuzaka	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---

Wow, I was sure that Daisuke had started a game in the regular season vs the Angels, but I guess not, however this Angels team should be made to order for him since they are not exactly known for their patience.

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Weaver	20	8	8	0	119	116	57	13	35	92	4.08	1.27	5.95
Matsuzaka	17	11	1	0	95 2/3	70	28	5	60	83	2.63	1.36	5.63

Edge Daisuke. All the way except for that WHIP (thanks to the BB's). Would be nice if we saw a blow out tonight.
♊ - Well, let's hope we get some funny hats too.

Red Sox 2008 Game 94 Recap

Final

Press Pass ✠ Box Score ✠ Play - by - Play ✠ Game Recap

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Minnesota	3	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0		5	14	1
Boston	0	0	4	0	2	1	7	4	X		18	23	2

W: J. Beckett (9-5)   L: L. Hernandez (9-6)
HR ➢   Bos: K. Cash (2), K. Youkilis (14)  Min: J. Morneau (13)

✫     - Manny - Third straight game that the "being" has came through.
✫✫    - Lowell - Followed Manny's double with a two run single.
✫✫✫   - Casey - Followed Lowells single with an rbi single himself.

⋔ Fork - Beckett - Just like Lester last night, the Ace of the staff stunk up the place by allowing 5 earned runs in 5 innings.

Game thoughts!

Just like his last game Beckett struggled right off the bat. Three runs scored in the first inning off the right-hander and the Sox were in the hole right away. The game just felt weird all day. After the first, just like in the Bronx, Beckett settled down and became the ace again. Well, until the sixth inning.

Thanks to Beckett competing, to use Mr. Terry Francona's favorite phrase, the Sox were able to scratch back into this game. Zeroes on the board in the second, third and fourth innings allowed the Sox to take the lead in the third.

With two outs Manny doubled in Lugo, Lowell then singled in Lugo and Manny and thanks to the Twins throwing error moved to third base. This allowed Casey to single in Lowell and the Sox were in the lead and would never look back.

The fifth inning saw Manny and Casey have two more RBI hits. At this point you just felt like the team would not be challenged the rest of the game.

The Twins made it a one run game in the sixth, but Youkilis got it right back in the bottom of the inning. So, the game was still close until the wacky, weird, and laugher of the seventh.

The bottom of the seventh started off simple enough. Lowell walked and moved to third on Sean Casey's ground rule double to right. Then the wacky happened.

Jason Varitek hit a sinking liner to center field. Denard Span slid for the ball, backhanding it as it one-hopped into his glove.

The base runners took off, but after the umpires belatedly signaled a catch, Span threw to second to double off Casey. Second baseman Alexi Casilla leisurely threw to third to get Mike Lowell, who had already crossed the plate.

Originally it was called a triple play, but then the Umpires conferred at Francona's request and correctly reveresed the call. Gardenhire went balistic was tossed and then the Sox just kept on adding on the runs.

Moss struck out, Lugo walked, Ellsbury singled, Pedroia hit a three run double, Youkilis doubled, Ramirez singled, Lowell hit a fielders choice and then Casey grounded out to first. Seven runs scored in the inning and the game was officially declared a rout as the inning ended with the Sox up 14-5.

Of course more wackiness happened in the top of the eighth. With Hansen pitching he walked the lead off hitter. Grind, grind, grinding my teeth on that one. Terry, sensing the game was wacky yanked Hansen after Span singled and brought in Delcarmen.

Casilla then hit into a double play, that should not have been a double play. Remember there are two on base and no outs which makes the infield fly rule a possibility. Casilla hits a soft pop up that goes up about twenty feet in the air and lands about a foot (Lugo allowed it to drop) on the outfield grass.

On the hop he throws to Pedroia at second forcing Span and Dustin, after looking at first base throw to third where Harris is tagged out by Lowell. Obviously the Umpires did not call the infield fly and the Twins went from runners on first and second with one out to a runner on first with two outs. Then Delcarmen did the same thing that Hansen did, he walked a Mauer. Look, you are up by nine runs in the eighth, do not walk people!

The bottom of the eighth saw the Sox add two more runs on a pinch hit homer run by Cash, a Moss triple, a Lugo ground out, a Pedroia single and then Youkilis hitting a home run. Cash's homer was a bomb as the ball ended up in the parking lot, an absolute bomb that was his first pinch hit home run. Thankfully the ninth ended with Timlin getting three outs only allowing a one out single by Young. The WATER WAS SO DIRTY.

Factoid - The 18 runs were the most for the Sox since Sox scored 25 against Florida in 2003.

Factoid - Season highs in winning margin, most runs in an inning, hits and runs.

♊ - Then don't strain your brain trying. Might break something.

Red Sox 2008 Game 93 Recap

Final

Press Pass ✠ Box Score ✠ Play - by - Play ✠ Game Recap

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Minnesota	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	1	0		5	11	0
Boston	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	x		6	11	1

W: D. Aardsma (3-2) L: M. Guerrier (4-4) S: J. Papelbon (27)
HR ➢ Bos: M. Ramirez (17)

✫     - M. Ramirez - His home run in the eighth tied the game.
✫✫   - J. D. Drew - two rbi's the second one getting them close in the eighth
✫✫✫ - Moss - A game winning rbi, his second of the night.
Just in case it escaped you, all six runs were knocked in by these three players, thus the star's.

⋔ Fork - Lester - 7 1/3 innings but five earned runs ouch.

Game thoughts!

Another one run game, and another win for the Sox. As bad as this team has been on the road in these close games, they have been spectacular at home in these situations. Overall they are now 13 - 16 in 1 run games. 2-14 on the road, 11-2 at home.

The Sox started off well as they scored in the first thanks to an Ellsbury single and a J.D. Drew double to left field. It especially felt good since the Twins had stranded two runners, thanks to two walks issued by Lester, in the top of the inning. Both pitchers settled down though as they both had 1-2-3 innings until the top of the 4th.

The Twins finally broke through as they got three straight hits off of Lester after two outs. The big blow was triple to right field by Harris which scored two runs and was followed by a single by Punto. All of a sudden the Sox went from being in control to being behind and Blackburn responded by having a 1-2-3 inning for the third time in a row.

Lester continued to struggle though as he allowed two more batters to reach in the sixth inning. Thankfully the Sox were able to retire the side without any runs scoring when Mauer hit into a double play to end the inning.

Blackburn was still dealing. To recap he had a 1-2-3 inning in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th innings and only allowed a Youkilis single in the 5th and a Pedroia single in the 6th before finally allowing the Sox to score again in the 7th after a Youkilis triple with one out followed by Moss's sacrifice fly.

The Sox were finally back within two runs only to have Lester and Aardsma give up the Twins fifth run of the night. I was ready to chew bricks and throw them at the television but the best part of the game was still to come.

After Ellsbury doubled down the left field line to start the eighth inning Pedroia then singled to center and Drew got his second rbi of the night on a ball that Morneau barely got some leather on which allowed the second baseman to throw out Drew. One inch to the left and I think that ball goes through to right field but that is why it is a game of inches.

Manny followed up Drew's at bat by crushing a ball to left center field and just like that the game was tied at five. Fenway park went nuts, the vibrations in the park even made the center field camera shake. At this point you had to feel like the game was going to be won by the Sox.

The only question was which inning would see the winning run pushed across for the Sox lead. One out later, Youkilis and Moss answered the question as Youkilis doubled to center and after a wild pitch moved him to third, Moss singled up the middle.

Papelbon was warming up in the pen and even after he allowed a lead off double I was sure that he would get the save. Sure enough, he did by getting a strike out and a ground out for the last two outs. The water was dirty!

Factoid - The Red Sox improved to 33-10 at Fenway this season.

♊ - Then don't strain your brain trying. Might break something.

Red Sox 2008 Game 92 Recap

Final

Press Pass ✠ Box Score ✠ Play - by - Play ✠ Game Recap

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Minnesota	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	6	0
Boston	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	x		1	7	0

W: H. Okajima (2-2) L: B. Bass (3-3) S: J. Papelbon (26)

✫ 1st star - D. Matsuzaka - 7 1/3 innings, 3 walks, 5 k's and oh yeah only 6 hits.
✫✫ 2nd star - H. Okajima - 2 men on with 1 out in the 8th and first batter walks. Meltdown in the making? Nope, a foul out and a fielders choice later and it was still 0-0.
✫✫✫ 3rd star - M. Ramirez - a clutch single with 1 out in the 8th scored the only run.
⋔ Pitchfork - none, nada, both teams played well

Game thoughts!

What can you say about tonights game? A pitchers duel, helped by some terrible batting by both teams at key times but was overall a very good game. I will take 1-0 wins every day and twice on Sunday, especially after seeing the Sox lose like six straight 1 run games on the road.

Matsuzaka was dealing tonight. 71 pitches for strikes and he was challenging the hitters with his fast ball all night. More importantly, he went deep in the game, which is what this team needs. With Beckett, Lester, Wakefield and Matsuzaka as the starters, the strength of this teams pitching is the starters. They need to get 7+ innings. If they do that, then the bullpen will be just fine.

Pedroia continued his hot hitting tonight by leading off the eighth with a wall ball double. The man is smoking right now and his double came at a very good time. Drew moved him to third on a ball he pulled but it took a diving stop by the second base to get the out on a very close play. For once the Sox actually got the runner home from third on Manny's single. As I said at the time at Joy of Sox "This game was over".

Now lets do the same thing tomorrow night!!!

♊ - Then don't strain your brain trying. Might break something.

No Previews or Recaps or Much of Anything for Awhile

Well, thanks to some activity by BH at St. Francis on 7/1, only caught the 8th and 9th innings of game 86. For awhile, though I probably will be able to watch or listen to most of the games I will not be posting. I love the Sox, but BH still has my heart and always will. So, until she is fully mobile and functioning again this will probably be the last post until next Monday. Cheerio and go SOX!!!

Red Sox 2008 Game 86 Preview

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T. Wakefield		5-5, 3.88		M. Garza		6-4, 3.76
Red Sox		50-35		Rays		50-32

Tuesday, July 1      Tropicana Field  ✠ 7:10 p.m. ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Tampa Bay	50	32	-	7-3	15	10	47	35
Boston	50	35	1.5	4-6	11	13	50	35
New York	44	39	6.5	4-6	14	10	44	39
Baltimore	41	40	8.5	4-6	17	13	40	41
Toronto	41	43	10.0	6-4	12	20	45	39

ESPN.Com Preview .
Yahoo's Preview .
ESPN.Com after the game Recap.
MLB.Com Press Pass.
From MLB.Com Scouting Report.

Red Sox: Wakefield was in top form in his last start against the D-backs, holding Arizona to just two hits in seven shutout innings. He fanned six batters and never allowed more than one runner on base at a time. He allowed three runs on six hits in his lone matchup with Tampa Bay this season, earning a no-decision in a 5-4 loss on April 25. He has allowed three runs or less in each of his last six outings.

Rays: The right-hander is coming off a masterful performance on Thursday afternoon in which Garza gave the Rays a preview of just how good he can be. The 24-year-old held the Marlins to just one-hit -- a solo home run by Hanley Ramirez -- en route to his first-ever complete game. Garza threw all four of his pitches for strikes and retired the first 10 straight Fish before walking Jeremy Hermida in the fourth inning. Tuesday will mark Garza's third outing against Boston this season, (he is 0-1) and he will look to continue the momentum found against Florida. The right-hander has arguably the best stuff on the Rays staff and if he can keep his emotions in check, he is a force on the mound.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Garza

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
J. Ellsbury	7	2	0	0	0	1	1	0	.286	.375	.286	.661
D. Pedroia	8	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	.125	.222	.250	.472
J. D. Drew	3	2	1	0	1	1	2	0	.667	.800	2.000	2.800
M. Ramirez	8	5	1	0	0	1	1	0	.625	.667	.750	1.417
M. Lowell	9	2	0	0	1	2	0	2	.222	.222	.556	.778
K. Youkilis	8	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	.125	.222	.125	.347
K. Cash	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1.000	.500	1.000	1.500
B. Moss	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
J. Lugo	5	1	0	0	0	1	1	1	.200	.333	.200	.533
Totals	53	16	3	0	2	8	6	7	.302	.393	.472	.865

Not bad averages, but it is time to face the facts. The Rays have the Sox number at the Trop. I just have no faith in this team right now to come up with the big hit. It is time for Manny to start being Manny, but right now, I think this is the Manny. Win probability - 10%.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Wakefield	29	19	3	0	202 1/3	166	71	19	67	139	3.16	1.15	6.29
Garza	4	2	1	0	21	20	11	2	11	13	4.71	1.48	5.25

Wakefield has made 39 appearances against the Rays. As a starter he is 17-3 with a 3.31 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP. You have to like those numbers, but the Rays are playing like a team possessed while the Sox are playing lethargically. Normally, if they wher facing a pitcher who has a 1.48 WHIP I would give the edge to the Sox, but not right now. Calling this matchup even.

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Wakefield	16	5	5	0	102	86	44	14	42	69	3.88	1.25	6.38
Garza	14	6	4	0	83 2/3	72	35	9	29	55	3.76	1.21	5.98

Splits on the the stats this year, just reaffirming my even call. I have a bad feeling about tonight's game. Wakefield is usually very good in the Dome and he is on one of his hot streaks but I just don't know.

The Sox need to take a hard look in the mirror and decided if they are going to continue this win three lose three, suck on the road be great at home type of playing. This team should be doing better than what they are doing. It is time to step up!

♊ - Well, let's hope we get some funny hats too.

Red Sox 2008 Game 85 Recap

Final

Press Pass ✠ Box Score ✠ Play - by - Play ✠ Game Recap

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Boston	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	2		4	8	1
Tampa	1	0	0	2	1	0	1	0	x		5	6	0

W: J. Shields (6-5) L: J. Masterson (4-2) S: J. Howell (2)
HR ➢ Bos: J.D. Drew (16) TB: B.J. Upton (6), G. Gross (6)

✫ 1st star - Gabriel Jordan Gross - His two run home run in the fourth put the Rays ahead to stay
✫✫ 2nd star - J Shields - 6 1/3 innings of two run ball
✫✫✫ 3rd star - Upton - First pitch lead off home run set the tone
⋔ Pitchfork - Masterson - six innings, five walks, five hits, four earned runs allowed. Not good

Game thoughts!

Upton set the tone by hitting the first pitch to deep center field and the rest was pretty much down hill. Actually, Masterson wasn't horrible after the first pitch until the fourth and fifth innings. Once the Sox had tied the game in the top of the fourth he retired the first two batters and then walked Navarro, and then allowed the Gross home run to right field (a bomb). The man is having problems with left handers.

After that, it seemed like the Sox would get close only to allow another run. As Terry says, the Rays just kept on tacking on to the lead. If the Sox wanted to send a message to the Rays, this was not the way to do it.

♊ - Then don't strain your brain trying. Might break something.