Red Sox 2008 Game 66 Preview

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E. Bedard		4-4, 4.47		J. Masterson		2-0, 2.95
Mariners		22 - 40		Red Sox		39 - 26

Sunday, June 8                 Fenway Park  ✠ 1:35 p.m. ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	39	26	-	7-3	9	8	38	27
Tampa Bay	37	25	.5	6-4	10	7	34	28
Baltimore	31	30	6.0	5-5	14	8	29	32
Toronto	32	32	6.5	4-6	9	14	35	29
New York	31	31	6.5	6-4	11	8	30	32

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Mariners: Bedard will be looking to bounce back from a lackluster performance against the Angels. The left-hander worked 3 1/3 innings at Safeco Field and three of the five runs he allowed came with two outs. He has been on a good-bad routine for this last five starts, looking sharp one outing and rocky the next.

Red Sox: While it wasn't his most dominant performance of the season, Masterson filled in for injured Daisuke Matsuzaka Tuesday against Tampa Bay by holding the Rays to four runs on six hits in six innings. Masterson, a young, talented hurler who was called up from Triple-A Pawtucket to make the appearance, has made spot starts three times this season filling in for injured members of the rotation. His first two starts raised eyebrows as Masterson allowed just two runs and five hits in 12 1/3 combined innings against the Angels and Royals.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Bedard

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
J. Ellsbury	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	.000	.333	.000	.333
D. Pedroia	12	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	.083	.154	.083	.237
J. D. Drew	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
M. Ramirez	23	5	1	0	0	3	2	8	.217	.269	.261	.530
M. Lowell	16	2	1	0	0	3	3	0	.125	.250	.188	.438
K. Youkilis	18	1	0	0	0	1	5	9	.056	.261	.056	.316
J. Varitek	17	3	0	0	0	2	4	9	.176	.364	.176	.540
C. Crisp	11	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	.000	.083	.000	.083
J. Lugo	32	8	1	0	0	0	3	4	.250	.314	.281	.596
Totals	131	20	3	0	0	9	20	33	.153	.266	.176	.442

Fugly looking batting stats, not even sure where to begin since almost no one hits this guy well. Here's hoping that Fenway is alive and so are the bats!

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Bedard	11	5	4	0	67	51	33	4	36	55	4.43	1.30	5.73
Masterson	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---

After seeing the Bedard versus the batters split I was quite surprised to see that the Sox are over .500 agains this pitcher. Need Fenway to be home friendly and loud today!

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Bedard	10	4	4	0	56 1/3	49	28	8	26	49	4.47	1.33	5.63
Masterson	3	2	0	0	18 1/3	11	6	3	9	14	2.95	1.08	6.11

Not much to say here as Masterson has been pretty good almost every time he has taken the mound this year. Looking forward to seeing how he does again today.

♊ - When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

Red Sox 2008 Game 62 Recap

As the shower crisis continues!

Got a chance to catch most of the game as the family loaded up and went to the in-laws to take showers and relax. Of course it was the in-laws so, well, you figure it out!

Final

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

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

W: J. Beckett (6-4) L: E. Jackson (3-5)

☼ Sun - Pitching - Beckett went six innings allowing only one run and seven hits, followed by Delcarmen (three K's), Okajima (one hit, two K's) and Hansen (one walk). All four pitchers struck out ten Rays and only walked one. Liking that!

☁ Cloud - Clashes - Pedroia was loud and upset with the home plate umpire, Coco with a rough (but clean slide) and just general nastiness. If you are going to talk, make sure you walk the walk.

Game thoughts!

Drew continues to be hot as he went two for three again and drove in the second run of the third inning. Ellsbury is also starting to show signs of life as he went two for five. With Papi out, these guys and others need to continue to step up and perform.

Really, after the third inning you just felt that this game was well in hand. Beckett seemed to be in perfect command and normally would have went out for the seventh inning, but he caught / slipped on a delivery (my heart stopped) in the sixth and even though he said he felt fine, Francona just said, screw it I'm pulling you!

After the Coco situation, I expect the game on the 5th to be quite chippy and oh yeah, don't dig in to deep Coco, because I fully expect you to be thrown at in the final game.

♊ - Morbid and creepifing I can handle as long as we do it quiet like.

Red Sox 2008 Game 61 Recap

Well so there I was, finishing up the prep work and about to enter stats and everything for this #1 versus #2 showdown when the dreaded words were heard, "Did somebody spill some water?" Well, now, here it is two mornings later and I have a hole in my kitchen ceiling and I was reduced to listening on the radio with mlb.com replays after the game. Needless to say, since I still have a hole in my ceiling I am not a happy camper about the hole in the ceiling but I am a happy camper about the Sox being at home and playing well!

Still, I need to give a recap and what my feelings are so here is game 61 recap!

Final

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

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

W: J. Masterson (2-0) L: M. Garza (4-2) S: J. Papelbon (17)
HR ➢ T B: A. Iwamura (4), C. Pena (11)
HR ➢ Bos: M. Lowell (8), J.D. Drew (6)

☼ Sun - Another tough call, you have Masterson acting like a seasoned pro, Lowell hitting a 2 run home run, J.D. Drew being on fire as he went 1-3 with a home run and scored twice. I'm going with Masterson though, for being cool after a lead off home run and a moon shot from Pena. The rookie is good!!!

☁ Cloud - Some trouble from the bull pen as Lopez started the eighth and couln't get anybody out. Good thing Hansen was able to get the side retired with out giving up a run.

Game thoughts!

Looked like it may be trouble when Masterson gave up the lead off home run but the Sox were able to take a short lived lead in the second with Mike Lowell knocking a ball over the wall with Manny Ramirez on base. 2-1 and Masterson was dealing as he retired seven batters in a row.

The fourth though started off with trouble when Upton's double was followed by a double by Pena. Drew though was able to get that run back when he homered into the bull pens and Masterson was still being good as he retired six of the next seven batters.

The sixth inning was another indication that this Rays team will not quit though. Upton singled to right, stole second and then Pena (listen local boy, quit killing your home team) hit his moon shot to right. 4-3 going into the bottom of the sixth and it looked like the sox would need to be reaching their now suspect bull pen before the Rays had to go to theirs. How, quickly things changed though!

Youkilis started the sixth by getting hit by a pitch, Ramirez then reached on a bobble by Bartlett and we had runners on 1st and 2nd and no outs. Lowell fouled out to first though, making me wonder if we would be able to get the tying run home. No worries though as a walk by Drew loaded the bases and Varitek (finally) came through with a hit with the bases loaded this year. His single tied the score at 4-4 and bases were still loaded for Mr. Coco Crisp!

Coco did his job as he came through with a double off of the wall scoring Manny and Drew and after Garza was pulled for Balfour, Lugo walked and Ellsbury hit a sacrifice fly to center and the Sox were able to add some runs. 7-4 after six and I felt comfortable.

The bull pen was superb except for the Lopez part in the eighth. Delcarmen issued a lead off walk but retired the next three batters. Lopez started the eighth issuing a lead off walk and a single, but Hansen came into the game and got a fielders choice, a strike out and an inning ending ground out to short. Game over as you knew Papelbon was going to start the ninth.

Papelbon did not disappoint as he started the inning with a strike out which was followed by a ground ball out and then finished the game off with another strike out. Twelve pitches for the bot and nine were for strikes. That is the way I like to see games finished. Sox trailing the Rays by a half game. Yeah, boy!!!

Factoids -
• 11th straight win at home for the Sox, longest since 2005.
• The Red Sox are 4-0 against the Rays at Fenway Park this season and have won six straight at home against them overall.
• Coco Crisp, who didn't have an RBI in his last 10 games, had two on Tuesday.
• Akinori Iwamura homered for his fourth HR this season, three of which have come against the Yankees and the Red Sox.

♊ - Morbid and creepifing I can handle as long as we do it quiet like.

Red Sox 2008 Game 60 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	0	0	1	1	1	0		3	10	0
Baltimore	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	4	x		6	9	0

W: J. Johnson (1-2) L: H. Okajima (1-1) S: G. Sherrill (18)
HR ➢ Bos: M. Ramirez (12)

☼ Sun - Jones - his three run bases clearing double was the nail in the coffin.
☁ Cloud - Okajima who once again gave up four runs in an inning in Baltimore. This time, he earned all the runs.

Game thoughts!

A quick moving game until the 8th inning. Wakefield was absolutely good, and after the Sox scored a run in the top of the 8th to take a 3-2 lead it looked like he might be able to get a win on this road trip. Was not meant to be though as Okajima coughed it up pretty quickly.

Before the 8th I was thinking that you would have to give big atta boys to both Cash, who doubled home Alex Cora in the seventh on a hit and run that tied the game. Then when the Sox took the lead in the eighth I thought that this game was in the bank and the Sox would be able to have a respectable road trip. Not meant to be though.

4-6 on this road trip and Papi goes on the DH, not a whole lot of good came out of this trip.

Factoid - The Sox have yet to sweep a road series this year.

♊ - Morbid and creepifing I can handle as long as we do it quiet like.

Red Sox 2008 Game 60 Preview

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T. Wakefield		3-4, 4.70		J. Guthrie		2-6, 3.64
Red Sox		35 - 24		Orioles		26 - 29

Monday, May 12  Oriole Park at Camden Yards  ✠ 7:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Tampa	35	22	-	8-2	9	7	32	25
Boston	35	24	1.0	5-5	9	8	34	25
Toronto	31	28	5.0	7-3	9	12	33	26
New York	28	28	6.5	7-3	9	6	27	29
Baltimore	26	29	8.0	2-8	12	8	25	30

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Red Sox: With Daisuke Matsuzaka experiencing shoulder fatigue, Wakefield will likely be moved up one day to pitch the finale of this four-game series against the Orioles. Thanks to Thursday's day off, Wakefield would be on regular rest. The knuckleballer was brilliant in his last start, yielding just a run and five hits over eight innings. He walked none and struck out eight. The bad news? It came in a losing effort on a night the Red Sox were stifled by Seattle's Erik Bedard. Wakefield had pitched well at Camden Yards over the years, going 7-5 with a 3.58 ERA in 22 appearances.

Orioles: Guthrie lost another close game in his last outing and is currently mired in a string of hard luck. The right-hander has allowed three earned runs or less in nine of his 12 starts, but Baltimore has scored a total of eight runs in his six losses. Nine of Guthrie's 12 starts have been decided by two runs or less, but he's 2-4 with three no-decisions in those games.

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

Sox Batting vs Guthrie

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBP	Slg.	OPS
J. Ellsbury	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.250	.250	.250	.500
D. Pedroia	9	5	1	0	0	0	2	1	.556	.636	.667	1.303
D. Ortiz	12	4	3	0	0	1	1	3	.333	.385	.583	.968
M. Ramirez	9	4	1	0	0	2	1	1	.444	.500	.556	1.056
M. Lowell	10	1	0	0	0	3	0	1	.100	.100	.100	.200
K. Youkilis	13	2	1	0	0	0	1	4	.154	.214	.213	.445
J. Drew	7	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	.143	.250	.286	.536
K. Cash	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
J. Lugo	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
Totals	71	18	7	0	0	6	6	11	.254	.312	.352	.664

If I was Francona I would play Cora and Crisp tonight. Combined they are 5 for 21 with a couple of walks. But hey, that is better than Lugo's 0-7.

Pitching Comparisions Career vs Respective Teams

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Wakefield
Guthrie	4	1	0	0	26 2/3	29	8	2	9	19	2.70	1.43	6.17

Guthrie has been lights out vs the Sox. Today would be a good day to look for defense as opposed to offense, because you just ain't going to get the offense versus Guthrie.

Wakefield has lost his last three starts at Camden Yards. Each start was progressively worse than the previous. Here's hoping the wind is blowing the right way tonight to get that knuckleball to really knuckle.

Pitching stats for this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Guthrie	12	2	6	0	76 2/3	70	31	10	23	48	3.64	1.21	6.39
Wakefield	11	3	4	0	67	63	35	10	30	44	4.70	1.39	6.09

Actually, Wakefield and Guthrie have pitched better than their stats. Wakefield has 6 Quality starts and has only allowed 3 runs or fewer 8 times. Of course when Wake has been bad he has really been bad. Lets hope he's more like the Seattle start then the Minnesota or Oakland start this year. Wake has also lost 3 of his last 4 starts with a No decision thrown against Milwaukee.

Guthrie has 9 Quality Starts this year. 2-6 does not equate to that, so, a little of bad luck and some mistake pitches have definitely cost him this year. Here's hoping he makes a bad mistake or two tonight.
♊ - When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

Red Sox 2008 Game 59 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	1	3	3	0	0	2	0	0		9	16	0
Baltimore	0	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	0		4	9	0

W: B. Colon (3-0) L: B. Buress (4-5)

HR ➢ Bos: M. Ramirez (11), M. Lowell (7), J.D. Drew (5) Bal: L. Scott (7)

☼ Sun - With a 9-4 result, where do you begin? Manny hitting his 501th? Lowell going back to back with Manny? J.D. Drew knocking in 3 runs? Dustin Pedroia, diving, barehanding and otherwise making web gems? How about all of the above?

☁ Cloud - Nothing for the Sox, but Baltimore's starting pitching has basically sucked so far this series.

Game thoughts!

Well that was an enjoyable game as the Sox brought out the bats and started hammering Burres. 3 home runs including a by Manny and Lowell. Yep, totally enjoyable.

Colon was good as he reached 100 pitches in the 7th and only allowed four earned runs. Best of all he only walked two while striking out 5. 3-0 for the big man with quick feet (just watch his pick off moves). Best of all his fastball is reaching the mid 90's. Right now this is the steal of the year by Theo.

Ellsbury stole another base but was also thrown out for the third time this year. Of course the three times he has been caught stealing are almost special. Just in case you've forgotten, it took a pitch out and a perfect throw, an over slide of the bag and today, a lefty made the perfect pitch and the catcher made a perfect throw to barely get him in the first.

Factoid - even at 14-19 so far on the road, the Sox are now 5-5-1 in road series. I will take that!!!

♊ - Morbid and creepifing I can handle as long as we do it quiet like.

Red Sox 2008 Misc. Post 3

Dr. Strangeroad or how I stopped caring about road losses!!!

Watching the game and decided to go ahead and work on a road woes post. It has been well documented that the Sox have basically sucked on the road this year, in fact since the opening series versus the A's in Japan and Oakland the Sox have been, well, fragging abominable on the road. 10 and 18 since that 3-1 start. Thank god for the O's and their horrendous defense or it would be even worse this year.

So, should we be concerned with this teams inability to have a winning road trip? Is this an abnormality or is it reality?

Well, these are good questions to ponder but are they relevant questions? Lets take a trip and look at this years road trips:

Dates	1st T.	Rec.	2nd T.	Rec.	3rd T.	Rec.	W's	L's	Series W	Series L	Splits
3/25 - 4/6	Oakland	3-1	Toronto	0-3			3	4	1	1	0
4/14 - 4/17	Cleveland	2-0	New York	1-1			3	1	1	0	1
4/25 - 4/29	Tampa	0-3					0	3	0	1	0
5/5 - 5/14	Detroit	3-1	Minnesota	1-3	Baltimore	0-2	4	6	1	2	0
5/23 - 6/2	Oakland	0-3	Seattle	1-2	Baltimore	2-0*	3	5	1	1	0
Totals							13	19	4	5	1

* Sox are up 7-3 as I type this post in the 3rd game of the this series.

Not pretty by any stretch of the imagination, not pretty at all. Still, when you look at the number of series that the Sox have won so far on the road, being under .500 by 1 series is not bad. In other words, as bad as they have sucked this year, they are still winning series, and that is what you want. If you are going to be troubled by anything in that table, it is the fact that they have been swept three times on the road so far, and have yet to sweep anyone on the road.

So, I am starting to feel better about this team on the road, but 13-19? Well, in order to win 96 games, if the Sox continued to lose at this pace on the road, the Sox would need to go 42-13 at home. Impossible? Not really, that would mean that they would cool off at home as they are presently winning 81% of their home games and that rate would be a 76% rate. Still a 76% winning percentage at home seems awfully high to maintain for a baseball team.

No peace of mind yet, though I am starting to get a tingle up my leg. Is there anything else that will make me feel better? Have you ever heard of a rhetorical question? Lets look at the last five years of road records for the various teams:

Team	W's	L's	W %
Chicago	15	5	.750
Baltimore	30	16	.652
Cleveland	11	6	.647
Detroit	10	9	.526
Tampa	24	23	.511
Texas	12	12	.500
LA Anaheim	9	10	.474
New York	22	25	.468
Kansas City	7	8	.467
Oakland	9	11	.450
Toronto	21	26	.447
Seattle	8	16	.333
Minnesota	5	10	.333
NL Teams	26	19	.578
Totals	209	196	.516

There are some eye opening stats in that table. Seattle and Minnesota just absolutely kill the Sox in their parks. Now I am starting to down right love the road. True the Sox are 13-19 on the road, but over the last five years against the teams played this year the Sox are 140-142.

If the Sox just do their average against the other teams on the road, they will end up around .500 on the road. Just regress to the mean and they will be ok! Just win 29 more road games and they will be playing .600 on the road for the rest of the year. Looking at their schedule, they do not play Oakland again on the road and they have six games at Seattle and LA Anaheim.

Just regress to the mean and the Sox will be oh, so shiny!!!

Red Sox 2008 Game 59 Preview

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B. Colon		2-0, 2.25		B. Burres		4-4, 4.15
Red Sox		34 - 24		Orioles		26 - 28

Sunday, June 1              Oriole Park at Camden Yards  ✠ 1:35 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Tampa Bay	34	22	-	7-3	8	7	31	25
Boston	34	24	1.0	5-5	9	8	33	25
Toronto	31	27	4.0	8-2	9	11	32	26
New York	28	27	5.5	8-2	9	6	27	28
Baltimore	26	28	7.0	2-8	12	8	25	29

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Red Sox: Two starts into his season, Colon has been everything the Red Sox had hoped thus far. In his last start, he allowed five hits and a run over seven strong innings, beating the Mariners. In Colon's season debut against the Royals, he gave up six hits and two runs over five innings. This will be Colon's first start against an American League East opponent. Lifetime against the Orioles, Colon is 8-6 with a 3.27 ERA in 18 starts. At Camden Yards, he's 3-5 with a 3.53 ERA in nine starts.

Orioles: Burres got smashed for eight earned runs and a career-high four home runs in his last outing but still wound up with a no-decision. Burres is 4-0 with a 1.05 ERA when he allows two runs or less and 0-4 with an 8.18 ERA in his other five starts. Burres had allowed three home runs all season before his last start.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Burres

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
J. Ellsbury	2	2	1	0	0	2	0	0	1.000	1.000	1.500	2.500
D. Pedroia	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.200	.200	.200	.400
D. Ortiz	5	1	0	0	0	0	4	1	.200	.556	.200	.756
M. Ramirez	4	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	.250	.400	.250	.650
M. Lowell	5	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	.400	.500	.400	.900
K. Youkilis	6	2	0	0	0	1	1	2	.333	.429	.333	.762
J. D. Drew	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	.500	.500	1.00	1.500
J. Varitek	7	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	.143	.143	.286	.429
J. Lugo	5	2	1	0	0	1	0	0	.400	.400	.600	1.000
Totals	41	13	4	0	0	5	7	5	.317	.417	.415	.831

41 at bats vs Burres, so not a lot of history here, the best thing is that the OBP has been high vs this player. The question is whether Drew and Ortiz will play today. Ortiz hurt his wrist, x-rays negative, but he heard something pop which is usually a bad thing. Drew did play last night in the 9th as a defensive replacement so I fully expect him to play.

No Tito today as he is in Boston for his daughters graduation.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Colon	17	8	6	0	113	106	41	8	50	75	3.27	1.38	6.65
Burres	1	1	0	0	14 2/3	14	5	0	9	9	3.07	1.57	5.0

Burres has made 8 appearances vs the Sox but has only one start in that time. It was a pretty good start as he went five innings and allowed only two earned runs. That was also his only win vs the Sox.

Bartolo has been very good against the Orioles in the past as he has went at least five innings in every start. A good veteran pitcher who seems to have regained his touch this year. Knock on wood, this will be his third good outing.

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Colon	2	2	0	0	12	11	3	0	3	8	2.25	1.17	6.00
Burres	10	4	4	0	60 2/3	64	28	7	18	29	4.15	1.35	5.97

Burres has made eleven appearances this year. Every win has been a quality start and three of his four losses has been a poor start. His two no decisions have been against the Yankees and he was good in the first start but horrible in the second start versus that team. Of course that was his last start, so lets hope the Sox can get to this guy early and often.

Sox are 7-2 this year versus Left Handed pitchers.

♊ - When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

Red Sox 2008 Game 58 Recap (Manny's 500th)

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	2	0	0	1	2	1	0		6	9	0
Baltimore	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0		3	9	2

W: D. Aardsma (2-1) L: L. Cormier (0-2) S: J. Papelbon (16)
HR ➢ Bos: D. Pedroia (4), D. Ortiz (13), M. Ramirez (10) Bal: B. Roberts (4)

☼ Sun - #500 by Manny provided the cushion!!! Ellsbury had 3 steals and a triple!!!
☁ Cloud - Lester - as he made his case once again as a #4 starter. 103 pitches over 5 innings the day after the relievers had to pitch 7 innings. Not the way you want your starter to pitch. First pitch strikes on only 12 of the 24 batters he faced.

Game thoughts!

Lester started off strong with a 9, thats right a 9 pitch, 1-2-3 first inning. This being Lester though, it was being just good enough to keep the team close after that. 4 K's, with the last one coming in the 5th (after he walked two straight O's) and 3 walks in 5 innings is not the stuff of aces. Still, he only allowed the 2 runs in the 2nd and the 1 out home run by Roberts in the 5th.

Of course the big event of the night was in the 7th inning when Manny went deep to right field for his 500th home run. First ballot hall of famer baby, firts ballot.

Factoid - The 500-home run club has only two dozen members, but Ramirez also joined an even smaller fraternity. He is only the seventh player in baseball history with 500 homers, 1,500 RBIs, 1,000 walks, 475 doubles and a .300 batting average. The others are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth, Frank Thomas and Ted Williams.

♊ - Morbid and creepifing I can handle as long as we do it quiet like.

Red Sox 2008 Game 58 Preview

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J. Lester		3-3, 3.55		G. Olson		4-1, 4.09
Red Sox		33 - 24		Orioles		26 - 27

Saturday, May 31            Oriole Park at Camden Yards  ✠ 7:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Tampa Bay	33	22	-	7-3	8	7	30	25
Boston	33	24	1.0	5-5	9	8	32	25
Toronto	31	26	3.0	8-2	9	10	32	25
New York	27	27	5.5	7-3	8	6	27	27
Baltimore	26	27	6.0	3-7	12	8	25	28

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Red Sox: Lester's first start since throwing a no-hitter turned into his first loss in six weeks when the Oakland Athletics got the better of the left-hander in a 6-3 decision. Nonetheless, Lester allowed three earned runs in five innings, extending to six the number of consecutive starts in which he's given up three or fewer earned runs. Lester had a solid outing in his last appearance against Baltimore on May 14. He allowed two runs on five hits and two walks while fanning four, leaving after six innings with the Red Sox leading 3-2. But the Orioles scored four times over the final two innings, leaving Lester with a no-decision.

Orioles: Olson avenged his only loss of the season by blanking the Yankees through seven innings in his last outing. The southpaw had never gotten through a start without allowing a run before, and he tied a career high by striking out seven batters. Olson wound up retiring 12 of the final 14 batters he faced and handing his bullpen a six-run lead.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Olson

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
J. Ellsbury	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
D. Pedroia	8	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	.250	.333	2.50	.583
D. Ortiz	7	2	1	0	0	4	2	2	.286	.444	.429	.873
M. Ramirez	3	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	.000	.333	.000	.333
M. Lowell	7	2	1	0	0	0	1	1	.286	.375	.429	.804
K. Youkilis	5	1	0	0	0	0	4	2	.200	.556	.200	.756
J. D. Drew	4	2	1	0	0	2	1	1	.500	.600	.750	1.350
J. Varitek	4	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	.250	.500	.250	.750
J. Lugo	8	4	1	0	0	3	0	0	.500	.500	.625	1.125
Totals	45	14	4	0	0	9	12	7	.311	.456	.400	.856

Actually pretty good stats vs Olson by the starters. After all any time a team is getting on base almost 50% of the time, you have a good chance of scoring some runs, and on this road trip, runs are at a premium.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Lester	4	3	0	0	24	24	8	2	10	12	3.00	1.42	6.00
Olson	3	0	2	0	15 1/3	20	13	1	13	13	7.63	2.15	5.11

Lester actually does pretty good against the Orioles, including this year when he left after six innings with a 3-2 lead. The only worr is that 10/12 ratio of BB's to K's. Would like to see him get a better ratio in that category.

Olson on the other hand has never given up less than 4 runs in each of his three starts against the Sox. I like our chances against this guy, then again, I liked our chances vs Cabrera last night but the Sox struggled against him, but for some reason, I expect them to come out hitting vs Olson.

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Lester	12	3	3	1	71	62	28	6	33	45	3.55	1.34	5.92
Olson	6	4	1	0	33	36	15	1	13	26	4.09	1.48	5.50

Olson has been pitching very well this year, but Lester actually has better numbers except for the home runs and the k/bb ratio. Still, if Lester can attack these hitters, then he should be able to outlast the O's. One other thing, Orioles are 5-7 vs left handers this year while the Sox are 6-2.

♊ - When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

Red Sox 2008 Game 56 Preview

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T. Wakefield		3-3, 5.19		E. Bedard		3-3, 4.70
Red Sox		32 - 23		Mariners		19 - 34

Wednesday, May 28                 Safeco Field  ✠ 10:10 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Tampa Bay	32	21	-	7-3	7	7	29	24
Boston	32	23	.5	6-4	9	7	31	24
Toronto	28	26	4.0	7-3	8	10	28	26
Baltimore	26	25	4.5	4-6	12	8	25	26
New York	25	27	6.0	5-5	7	6	25	27

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Red Sox: The veteran knuckleballer will try to recover from a rough start in Oakland, when he gave up eight hits and eight runs over four innings. Wakefield said after that outing that there are some mechanical things he needs to work on. In six road starts this season, Wakefield is 1-2 with a 5.88 ERA. He is aiming for his first career win at Safeco Field, where he is 0-2 with a 3.73 ERA in six outings. In fact, Safeco is the only American League venue Wakefield has never won in.

Mariners: The left-hander got his wish and worked with backup catcher Jamie Burke in his last start, hoping to duplicate his previous start when he allowed just two runs over seven innings and struck out 10 in a game against the Padres. But the tandem did not click against the Yankees as Bedard was pummeled for eight hits and nine runs in less than five innings. In 11 career starts against the Red Sox, the lefty has a 4-4 record and 4.95 ERA.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Bedard

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
J. Ellsbury	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	----
D. Pedroia	9	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.111	.200	.111	.311
D. Ortiz	22	5	1	0	1	4	5	5	.227	.379	.409	.788
M. Ramirez	20	4	1	0	0	3	2	8	.200	.261	.250	.511
M. Lowell	14	1	1	0	0	3	2	0	.071	.176	.143	.319
K. Youkilis	18	1	0	0	0	1	5	9	.056	.261	.056	.316
J. D. Drew	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
K. Cash	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
J. Lugo	30	8	1	0	0	0	3	2	.267	.333	.300	.633
Totals	116	20	4	0	1	11	18	25	.172	.283	.233	.515

A .172 BA, yeah, my team has lost 4 out of 5 and that is what I want to see from my offense. Does the word Fugly ring a bell?

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Wakefield	13	3	8	1	111 1/3	115	54	15	52	78	4.37	1.50	6.72
Bedard	10	4	4	0	60	49	33	4	33	47	4.95	1.37	5.60

The vagaries of the Knuckleball, 3-8 for Tim, and yet his ERA is not that far different then his career ERA. Still, you have to like the fact that he goes out and gives this team almost 7 innings per start vs the Mariners. Hey, we are grasping at straws here!

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Wakefield	10	3	3	0	59	58	34	9	30	36	5.19	1.49	5.90
Bedard	8	3	3	0	46	40	24	8	20	40	4.70	1.30	5.75

Not a good outlook when you compare the two pitchers this year. Bedard has Tim beat in just about everything. Fugly!!!

♊ - When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

Red Sox 2008 Game 55 Preview

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D. Matsuzaka		9-0, 2.40		M. Batista		3-6, 6.47
Red Sox		32 - 22		Mariners		18 - 34

Tuesday, May 27                 Safeco Field  ✠ 10:10 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Tampa Bay	31	20	-	7-3	7	7	29	22
Boston	32	22	.5	7-3	9	6	30	24
Toronto	28	25	4.0	7-3	8	10	28	25
Baltimore	25	25	5.5	4-6	11	8	24	26
New York	25	26	6.0	5-5	7	5	25	26

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Red Sox: Matsuzaka struggled mightily in earning his eighth win of the season May 22 against Kansas City. The righty went 5 2/3 innings, scattering six hits for three earned runs while surrendering six walks and two wild pitches. Still, Matsuzaka pitched out of jams when necessary and earned the victory in an 11-3 win. His eight wins lead the American League. Matsuzaka will get the nod against Seattle having gone 1-1 with a 4.33 ERA against the Mariners in his career. His lone win against the Mariners came at Safeco Field.

Mariners: The first-inning blues that have haunted Batista this month were somewhat solved in his last outing as he held the Tigers to one run. But a three-run second inning, and another run in the third, sent the veteran right-hander to another early shower, the third time in his past six starts that he never made it to the fourth inning. He has used a short-arm technique since tossing 7 2/3 scoreless innings against the Angels on April 20 and it might be time to scrap it and go back to his old style.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Batista

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
J. Ellsbury	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
D. Pedroia	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
D. Ortiz	17	6	2	0	2	7	6	1	.353	.522	.824	1.345
M. Ramirez	22	9	2	0	2	6	2	4	.409	.440	.773	1.213
M. Lowell	19	5	2	0	1	3	2	5	.263	.391	.526	.918
K. Youkilis	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.200	.000	.200
J. D. Drew	24	6	3	0	1	3	5	2	.250	.379	.500	.879
J. Varitek	14	4	0	0	0	2	3	4	.286	.412	.286	.697
J. Lugo	22	5	2	0	0	1	2	3	.227	.292	.318	.610
Totals	122	35	11	0	6	22	20	20	.287	.397	.525	.922

A .922 OPS, I like the way those numbers look! Of course most of the damage has been done by the big two, but the last couple of games it looks like the big two of Ortiz and Ramirez are starting to hit at the same time. Would be sweet to see #499 tonight!

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Matsuzaka	4	1	1	0	27	22	13	2	9	23	4.33	1.15	6.75
Batista	8	4	5	0	53 2/3	69	37	5	34	33	6.20	1.92	5.50

Daisuke has actually pitched very well against the Mariners in Seattle. Last year he went 15 innings striking out 18 while only walking 3 batters at Safeco. Oh, yeah, he also only gave up three earned runs in those two outings. If he can just come close to those numbers tonight, you have to like the Sox chances.

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Matsuzaka	10	8	0	0	60	41	16	4	38	53	2.40	1.32	6.00
Batista	10	3	6	0	48 2/3	65	35	4	31	35	6.47	1.97	4.77

Batista has made 1 relief appearance this year (a save vs texas), which actually improves his stats. The man has been horrible this year, and since he is historically bad vs the Sox, you have to like the teams chances.

♊ - When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

Red Sox 2008 Game 54 Preview

A Prayer to all in Harms Way, and a thank you to those who have paid the Utlimate price.

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B. Colon		1-0, 3.60		F. Hernandez		2-4, 3.34
Red Sox		31 - 22		Mariners		18 - 33

Monday, May 26                 Safeco Field  ✠ 10:10 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Tampa Bay	30	20	-	7-3	7	7	28	22
Boston	31	22	.5	7-3	9	6	30	23
Toronto	28	25	3.5	7-3	8	10	28	25
Baltimore	25	25	5.0	4-6	11	8	24	26
New York	25	26	5.0	5-5	7	5	25	26

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Red Sox: Colon performed exactly how Boston wanted him to heading into his last start against Kansas City. After having his contract bought from Triple-A Pawtucket earlier in the afternoon, Colon gave up two runs in five innings while striking out four. He hurled 74 pitches in the outing while sprinkling six hits throughout. And while he didn't hit the high-90s velocity he did during his dominant years, Colon managed to escape jams in the third and fifth innings. Lifetime against the Mariners, Colon is 12-10 with a 4.40 ERA. But he tends to pitch well in Seattle; the righty is 8-1 with a 2.17 ERA at Safeco Field.

Mariners: The young right-hander, whose start was pushed back two days because of a calf injury, has pitched better than his record indicates. The 22-year-old has allowed two or fewer runs in six of his 10 starts but takes a three-game losing streak into his start against the Red Sox.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Hernandez

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
J. Ellsbury	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
D. Pedroia	6	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.167	.286	.167	.452
D. Ortiz	8	3	0	0	0	1	1	1	.375	.444	.375	.819
M. Ramirez	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	.167	.167	.167	.333
M. Lowell	9	2	0	1	1	4	0	1	.222	.222	.778	1.000
K. Youkilis	6	2	0	0	0	2	1	2	.333	.429	.333	.762
J. D. Drew	9	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	.333	.333	.333	.667
J. Varitek	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	.167	.167	.167	.333
J. Lugo	7	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.143	.250	.143	.393
Totals	57	14	0	1	1	6	4	13	.246	.295	.333	.628

In the Navy we would call those number Fugly, think about it and the name fits. After getting killed in Oakland, I just don't have a lot of faith in the Sox going into Safeco and doing any damage. In the last five years the Sox were 12-11 in Oakland, and they just got swept. During that same time period the Sox were 8 and 16 in Seattle. In fact not one Sox starter has more than 1 win in that time period. Needless to say, Safeco has not been very safe for Sox pitchers.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Colon	26	12	10	0	161 2/3	165	79	17	42	111	4.40	1.28	6.22
Hernandez	3	2	0	1	21 2/3	16	7	2	6	17	2.91	1.02	7.22

King Felix has never been beaten by the Sox, in fact he has had two stellar games against the boys in red. It would be nice to see him get hit around in this game, but I am not counting on it.

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Colon	1	1	0	0	5	6	2	0	2	4	3.60	1.6	5.0
Hernandez	10	2	4	0	67 1/3	70	25	6	28	57	3.34	1.46	6.73

Even though King Felix has a losing record that 3.34 ERA looks pretty good. His walks appear to be up this year, so I would expect the Sox to try and be patient tonight against the young pitcher.

♊ - When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

Red Sox 2008 Game 51 Preview

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T. Wakefield		3-2, 4.33		R. Harden		2-0, 2.91
Red Sox		31 - 19		Athletics		25 - 23

Friday, May 23                   ✠ 10:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	31	19	-	7-3	9	6	29	21
Tampa Bay	27	20	2.5	6-4	6	7	26	21
Baltimore	24	22	5.0	6-4	11	7	23	23
Toronto	24	25	6.5	7-3	8	10	24	25
New York	22	25	7.5	4-6	6	5	21	26

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Red Sox: After getting shelled at Minnesota, Wakefield made a nice recovery in his last start, surrendering six hits and three runs over 5 1/3 innings. Wakefield left in position to get the win, but the bullpen couldn't hang on, so he was left with a no-decision. In four May starts, Wakefield is 1-2 with a 4.70 ERA. Lifetime against Oakland, he is 9-5 with a 4.03 ERA. At McAfee Colisuem, Wakefield is 5-3 with a 5.47 ERA in 15 starts.

Athletics: Harden baffled Atlanta on Saturday night, Braves manager Bobby Cox said Harden was "as good as advertised." Tim Hudson, who was teammates with Harden in Oakland, said his team saw firsthand how devastating Harden's stuff can be. Harden allowed one run on four hits in seven strong innings for the A's, who snapped a season-high four-game losing streak. Making just his second start since returning from the disabled list, Harden struck out eight and walked one. He is showing no ill effects from the strained right shoulder that landed him on the DL.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Harden

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
J. Ellsbury	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
D. Pedroia	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	.167	.167	.167	.333
D. Ortiz	8	5	1	0	2	4	3	2	.625	.727	1.500	2.227
M. Ramirez	8	3	0	0	3	5	3	4	.375	.545	1.500	2.045
M. Lowell	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.200	.200	.200	.400
K. Youkilis	4	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	.000	.333	.000	.333
J. D. Drew	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500	.500	.500	1.000
K. Cash	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.333	.000	.333
J. Lugo	13	3	1	0	0	0	3	6	.231	.375	.308	.683
Totals	48	14	2	0	5	9	11	17	.292	.433	.646	1.079

48 at bats is about a game and 1/2. Still 1.079 OPS is pretty good. Of course the main batterers are the usual duo of Ortiz and Manny, and so far this year when one is hot the other is not, but maybe, this matchup will get the juices flowing in both of them.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Wakefield	24	9	5	0	174 1/3	158	78	24	64	120	4.03	1.27	6.38
Harden	4	1	1	0	18 2/3	18	16	5	20	24	7.71	2.04	4.67

Wakefield has a solid record vs the A's in his career. With all of the decisions being as a starter (made 11 relief appearances). The only worry would be his ERA which is a so so 4.29.

Harden has not been great against the Sox in Fenway, but at home he is lights out. Both of his home starts are this year and his .82 ERA is, needlessly to say, quite good. So is his 12.273 K's per 9 IP. The good news is that he only won the one game this year, his first start and the Sox won his second start (a no decision) against him. A tough pitcher but they do have some success against him in the past.

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Wakefield	9	3	2	0	54	50	26	7	26	32	4.33	1.401	6
Harden	4	2	0	0	21 2/3	19	7	1	12	28	2.91	1.431	5.42

Except for ERA I really think Tim has done a better pitching job this year. Remember, that 6.0 IP/GS includes a game that he only lasted 2 2/3 innings. If Wakefield can just keep the score close, the bats should chase Harden and then it is the bullpen time.

I expect the Sox to make it 8 straight tonight.

♊ - When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

Red Sox 2008 Misc. Post 2

There are times when being a dad, can make you miss certain things. Last night was one of those nights. B-fly had an induction ceremony for NHS, so of course being the dad, I went to that instead of staying home to watch the Sox. After the ceremony a quick check of the score had the Sox up 5-0, but nothing was said about a no-no. Still, the after ceremony was followed by meet and greet and general milling around while sipping coffee, eating treats so we didn't get out until the bottom of the sixth.

Driving home the Sox were up to bat, and J.D. Drew got hit by a pitch that was quickly followed by a Varitek home run to right field. Hand slaps were given in the car, but still nothing about a no-no until we pulled into the driveway. Being a dad also means you get to sit with the family and watch the last 9 outs of a no-no. It is great to be a dad!!!

Be sure to check out Joe Posnanski's blog entry on this game. A must read.