Red Sox 2008 Game 69 Recap

Final

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

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Baltimore	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0		2	7	0
Boston	0	1	0	0	4	0	2	2	-		9	9	9

W: J. Lester (5-3) L: J. Guthrie (3-7)
HR ➢ ➢ ➢ Bos: M. Lowell (10), K. Youkilis (10), J.D. Drew (10)

☼ Sun - Lester - 7 solid innings and only walked one batter
☁ Cloud - Lugo - quit booting routine balls!!!

Game thoughts!

When the Sox are at home I am seriously considering following NHL rules and giving out 1-3 stars of the game. Lester, Lowell, Youkilis and the blistering hot J.D. Drew all shined tonight.

This game started off like a pitchers duel as Guthrie gave up a run in the second on a single by Youkilis, a ground out and rbi single by Lugo but was otherwise keeping the Sox in check. Lester was matching him pretty well as he only faced three batters over the minimum in the first five innings. That all changed though in the bottom of the fifth as the Sox knocked Guthrie out of the game.

Ellsbury started off the fifth with a single to right and after the still struggling Pedroia flied out to right the hottest everyday player on the Sox walked to the plate. On a 2-1 pitch Drew doubled to center field and it was men on 2nd and 3rd with only one out and Mr. Manuel Aristides Ramirez striding to the plate. Of course, this being the Orioles they decided to set up a double play and immediately walked him, loading up the bases.

Doctor doubles though made that look like the biggest miscalculation since the Yankees started celebrating the pennant after game three of the ALCS in 2004. On the second pitch the Sox third basement promptly hit his second grand slam of the year. The rout was officially on and three batters later Jeremy Guthrie was out of the game. The Sox finish the home stand on a winning note and have won their last four series (10-3).

Factoid - Drew, J.D. Drew - check out the last 7 and 14 day splits. You will not be disappointed.

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

Red Sox 2008 Game 69 Preview

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J. Guthrie		3-6, 3.40		J. Lester		4-3, 3.50
Orioles		32 - 32		Red Sox		41-27

Thursday, June 12  Fenway Park  ✠ 6:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	41	27	-	7-3	10	8	39	29
Tampa	38	28	2.0	4-6	10	7	36	30
Toronto	34	35	7.0	3-7	10	16	37	31
New York	33	33	7.0	5-5	11	9	32	34
Baltimore	32	32	7.0	6-4	14	9	31	33

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Orioles: Guthrie completed seven innings for the sixth time this season in his most recent start. The right-hander also had his first four-run lead of the year and made it stand up. Guthrie has given up two earned runs or less eight times in his first 15 starts of the year.

Red Sox: In a game that will be remembered for Coco Crisp charging Rays starter James Shields, Jacoby Ellsbury injuring his wrist and Manny Ramirez driving in five runs before leaving the game in the eighth nursing his right hamstring, Jon Lester quietly shut down the Tampa Bay lineup. Lester scattered eight hits over 6 1/3 innings, giving up just one run and striking out five. It was his first win in three starts since his May 19 no-hitter against Kansas City, and the young lefty turned in a strong performance in the 7-1 stomping of the Rays..

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and 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	7	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.286	.286	.286	.571
D. Pedroia	9	5	1	0	0	0	2	1	.556	.636	.667	1.303
J.D. Drew	10	2	1	0	0	0	1	5	.200	.273	.300	.573
M. Ramirez	12	5	1	0	1	3	1	1	.417	.462	.750	1.212
M. Lowell	13	2	0	0	0	3	0	1	.154	.154	.154	.308
K. Youkilis	16	3	1	0	0	0	1	5	.188	.235	.250	.485
J. Varitek	9	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	.222	.222	.222	.444
C. Crisp	13	4	0	0	0	0	1	2	.308	.357	.308	.665
J. Lugo	10	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	.100	.100	.100	.200
Totals	99	26	4	0	1	6	6	17	.263	.305	.333	.638

Actually not bad numbers versus Guthrie. The team has had some success against him in the past, especially Pedroia (snap out of this slump little guy) and Manny. I would not be surprised to see Casey playing instead of Lowell (lefty / righty) especially since Casey has success against Guthrie. It is also possible that Varitek (who left the last game due to illness) will be replaced by Cash. That is also an improvement since Cash has success against this pitcher.

Pitching Comparisions Career vs Respective Teams

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Guthrie	5	1	0	0	33	37	10	3	10	24	2.73	1.42	6.20
Lester	5	3	0	0	29	31	11	3	13	15	3.41	1.52	5.8

Guthrie has had some good success against the Sox, but it does not carry over in the Win column. Lester does have success in the win column amazingly to me when you look at that WHIP and K/BB ratio.

I Would like to see Lester attack the zone tonight, since the Sox will be hitting the road after this game. He needs to go deep in this game to spare the bullpen.

Pitching stats for this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Guthrie	14	3	6	0	90	84	34	11	24	59	3.40	1.20	6.43
Lester	14	4	3	1	82.33	77	32	7	36	54	3.50	1.37	5.88

Guthrie is killing lester in all of the stats. I am really not comfortable with this match up except that it is in Fenway. Of course that only easing the mind a little bit since it is obvious that Guthrie has had some bad luck. Only 3 wins, yet he has had 11 quality starts this year.

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

Red Sox 2008 Game 68 Recap

Press Pass ✠ Recap✠Box✠P -by- Play

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

W: B. Colon (4-1) L: G. Olson (5-2) SV: J. Papelbon (19)
HR ⇛ Bal: L. Scott (10) Bos: J. Varitek (7), M. Lowell (9)

☼ The Sun - Colon - 6 innings, 5 hits, 1 Earned Run, 1 Walk and 7 Strike outs.
☁ The Cloud - Olson - 6 earned runs in 5 1/3 innings, but I'm not complaining!

Idle thoughts

Bartolo was outstanding and J.D. Drew and Varitek provided all of the offense need in the first inning. The Sox are well on their way to another outstanding home stand and a win tonight will just seal the deal.

Colon is the steal of the year and another reason why Theo should be considered for executive of the year. I'm seeing a post season rotation of Beckett, Matsuzaka, Schilling and Bartolo with Wakefield and Lester in the pen. I've said it earlier this year but I really do think this will be another special season.

Just think about how crazy the Sox travel and the number of games they had to play at the start of the season while other teams were getting travel and off days. Only Toronto has played the same amount of games yet the Sox are playing 2 games above expected wins while the Jays are 3 games below expected wins. I truly am liking this team this year.

♊ - When all else fails get a bigger hammer!

Red Sox 2008 Game 68 Preview

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G. Olson		5-1, 3.86		B. Colon		3-1, 3.91
Orioles		32 - 31		Red Sox		40 - 27

Wednesday, June 11                 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
Boston	40	27	-	7-3	10	8	38	29
Tampa Bay	38	27	1.0	5-5	10	7	35	30
Baltimore	32	31	6.0	6-4	14	9	31	32
Toronto	34	33	6.0	3-7	10	15	37	30
*New York	32	32	6.5	5-5	11	9	31	33

* Yankee record as of 12:39 a.m. 6/11

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Orioles: Olson is four or five starts behind most of his peers, but he's already managed to tie for the team lead in victories. The southpaw has allowed three earned runs or less in seven of his eight starts and has only been knocked out once before completing five innings. Olson has worked into the seventh inning in half of his starts and appears to have sealed a long-term job.

Red Sox: Colon lasted just five innings in his last start against Seattle, picking up his first loss of the season. Colon gave up just three earned runs but committed two costly errors early in the contest that led to three unearned runs for the Mariners. It was his first less-than-stellar performance of the season, however, as the 2005 American League Cy Young Award winner posted strong outings in his first three appearances after his contract was purchased from Triple-A Pawtucket on May 21.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and 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	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	.000	.667	.000	.667
D. Pedroia	11	3	0	0	1	1	1	0	.273	.333	.545	.879
J. D. Drew	4	2	1	0	0	2	1	1	.500	.600	.750	1.350
M. Ramirez	4	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	.000	.200	.000	.200
M. Lowell	9	2	1	0	0	0	1	1	.222	.300	.333	.633
K. Youkilis	7	1	0	0	0	0	4	3	.143	.455	.143	.597
J. Varitek	6	2	1	0	0	0	2	0	.333	.500	.500	1.000
C. Crisp	10	2	0	0	1	4	0	2	.200	.200	.500	.700
J. Lugo	10	4	1	0	0	3	0	1	.400	.400	.500	.900
Totals	62	16	4	0	2	10	12	10	.258	.378	.419	.798

Not a whole lot of history against Olson, then again he has only faced the Sox four times in his career, so we probably shouldn't expect much. Still, the Sox have had some good success, of course the Sox had good success against Cabrera also and they lost that match up last night.

Since I said I was going to treat last night as an aberration, I fully expect the Sox to beat Olson soundly.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Olson	4	0	2	0	20 1/3	23	15	3	15	18	6.64	1.87	5.08
Colon	18	9	6	0	119	113	45	9	52	80	3.40	1.39	6.61

Not much good from Olson and that WHIP, ERA and K/BB ratio is most assuredly in the Sox favor. Colon has had some good success though against the Orioles. I like the Sox chances here.

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Olson	8	5	1	0	44 1/3	47	19	3	16	32	3.86	1.42	5.54
Colon	4	3	1	0	23	26	10	1	6	15	3.91	1.39	5.75

Olson has been real good this year. Lets just hope he reverts to the pre 2008 Garrett Olson tonight. (hey, Cabrera sucked last night when I said the same thing, so why not try that with Olson also, eh?)

Colon has had two rough outings of the four he's started this year. Of course the worrisome thing is that they have been the last two outings. I don't think he will make it three in a row tonight though.

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

Red Sox 2008 Game 67 Recap

Final

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

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Baltimore	0	4	0	0	0	0	3	0	3		10	15	0
Boston	1	0	2	0	3	0	0	0	0		6	8	1

W: D. Sarfate (4-1) L: H. Okajami (1-2)
HR ➢ Bos: J.D. Drew (9), M. Ramirez (15)

☼ Sun - The Orioles offense.
☁ Cloud - Okajima absolutely sucks versus the Orioles.

Game thoughts!

What looked like a win quickly became a loss as Okajima absolutely sucked. Mr. Terry Francona, do me a favor and sit Hidecki for the next two games, please, I'm begging you.

Game got off to an auspicious start as the Sox loaded the bases with nobody out on a single by Ellsbury, a double by Pedroia and a walk by Drew. Normally with Manny coming up I would feel pretty confident that this team would break out with a big inning especially since Manny is .333 with 20 home runs over his career, but this year he is only 2 for 7 in that situation and has not hit a granny since 2005. The struggles continued in this at bat as he hit into the first of four that is right, I said four double plays tonight. Nope it was not a good night for the middle relief or the offense.

Still, there were a couple of bright spots as Pedroia went two for three ending his zero for eighteen hitting streak. Manny and J.D. also continued their hot hitting streaks by going a combined three for six, knocking in three runs and scoring three runs. So, I am going to just mark this game as an aberration and get ready for tomorrow’s game or in the words of well, to be honest I can’t remember but someone has said it, “time to turn the page”.

Factoid - Prior to tonights game, Okajima had made 12 appearances vs the Orioles with a 5.40 ERA and an 0-2 record. His overall record was 4-3 with a 2.14 ERA. The Orioles absolutely own him as of tonight he is now 0-3 with a 7.24 ERA lifetime versus the O's.

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

Red Sox 2008 Game 67 Preview

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D. Cabrera		5-2, 3.98		J. Beckett		6-4, 4.07
Orioles		31 - 31		Red Sox		40 - 26

Tuesday, June 10                 Fenway Park  ✠ 6:05 p.m. ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	40	26	-	8-2	10	8	38	28
Tampa Bay	38	26	1.0	6-4	10	7	35	29
Toronto	33	33	7.0	3-7	10	15	36	30
New York	32	32	7.0	5-5	11	9	31	33
Baltimore	31	31	7.0	5-5	14	9	30	32

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Orioles: Cabrera struggled with the Twins on Wednesday, allowing eight hits and six earned runs in six innings. The big right-hander, who had improved his control up to this point, hit two batters. He threw 102 pitches while laboring during the 7-5 Twins loss. Cabrera will next take the hill against the Red Sox, who he faced on May 30, a 5-2 Orioles loss. Cabrera went seven innings and gave up two earned runs.

Red Sox: The Red Sox ace easily handled the Rays in his last outing, a six-inning performance in which he allowed just one run on seven hits and recorded five strikeouts. While he wasn't entirely impressed with his outing, Beckett did manage to get the victory and catapult the Sox past the Rays in the American League East standings. Beckett has allowed five earned runs in his last 19 innings of work, a stretch that includes 24 strikeouts.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Cabrera

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
J. Ellsbury	14	7	2	0	1	1	0	1	.500	.500	.857	1.357
D. Pedroia	11	4	2	0	0	1	0	1	.364	.364	.545	.909
J. D. Drew	9	3	1	0	0	0	3	1	.333	.500	.444	.944
M. Ramirez	16	4	1	0	0	3	3	3	.250	.368	.313	.681
M. Lowell	15	7	2	0	2	9	3	0	.467	.500	1.000	1.500
K. Youkilis	19	6	5	0	0	3	3	6	.316	.391	.579	.970
J. Varitek	20	4	1	0	1	4	4	9	.200	.333	.400	.733
C. Crisp	13	4	0	0	0	2	2	3	.308	.375	.308	.683
J. Lugo	19	3	0	1	0	1	3	3	.158	.273	.263	.536
Totals	136	42	14	1	4	24	21	27	.309	.401	.515	.916

Lugo is killing the starters with his .158 average but if you replaced Lugo's numbers with Cora's (who is batting .440 / .462 / .680 / 1.142) well the starters would go up to .352 / .429 / .577 / 1.006. I fully expect Alex Cora to start this game. I also would not be surprised to see Casey as the DH in place of Manny. Should be interesting to see what Francona does.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Cabrera	13	2	9	0	63 1/3	75	48	5	45	56	6.82	1.89	4.87
Beckett	8	4	2	0	54 1/3	51	21	6	9	53	3.48	1.10	6.79

Cabrera until this year has been a whipping boy for the Sox. That walk to strike out ratio just about explains everything. This year though Cabrera has been pretty good against the Sox with two starts he has a 3.21 ERA and a 2.5 K/BB ratio and a 1.29 WHIP.

Josh has either been very good (5 of 8 starts quality starts), 6 of eight starts he has allowed only 2 or less runs, but when he has been bad (both of his losses) he has been horrible as he has allowed 10 earned runs in 14 1/3 innings. Of course one of those bad outings was on 5/13 of this year.

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Cabrera	13	5	2	0	86	78	38	10	32	47	3.98	1.28	6.62
Beckett	11	6	4	0	73	66	33	11	14	80	4.07	1.10	6.64

Cabrera has been real good this year, but if I was the Orioles I would still be worried about his K/BB ratio. As a whole though, he has looked really good. Lets just hope he reverts to the pre 2008 Daniel Cabrera tonight.

As for Josh, well, when he has been good, he has been good. I am expecting the good tonight!!!

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

Red Sox 2008 Game 66 Recap

Final

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

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

W: J. Masterson (3-0) L: S. Green (3-5) S: J. Papelbon (18)
HR ➢ Bos: J. D. Drew (8)

☼ Sun - Drew for the offensive support and Masterson for well being masterful.
☁ Cloud - None, zip, nada, a very clean game by both teams.

Game thoughts!

The offense was provided by Drew who knocked in the first Sox score by getting hit by pitch while the bases were loaded. The second run came off of his home run to deep center field after Bedard was lifted in the sixth.

It was a hot day in Boston and the game moved pretty quickly, both Masterson and Bedard were good, but Justin was just enough better for the Sox to win this game as Bedard was gone at the beginning of the sixth inning. You can thank Dustin for that as in two at bats he faced 19 pitches. On a 98 degree day, 99 pitches was enough for the left handed Bedard and the Sox were able to make the lead (once they took it) last as Hansen, Okajima and Papelbon were lights out.

Okajima and the Bot only faced six batters and retired the side in the 8th and 9th on fourteen pitches (9 and 5). A good way to finish the series against the Mariners.

Factoid - Masterson is the first Red Sox pitcher to not lose a game in his first four starts at Fenway.

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

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

			@
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

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

			@
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

ESPN.Com Preview .
Yahoo's Preview .
ESPN.Com after the game Recap.
MLB.Com Press Pass
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!