College Football picks week 5

Well another Saturday and we know what that means. Yep, that's right, its time for College Football. Just as a recap, last week I went 10 and 0 which brought my season picks to 32 and 8. My picks this week in the College Pickem at ESPN are as follows:

Away Team	Confidence	Home team	Pick
Navy	1	Connecticut	UCONN
Bowling Green	2	Ohio	BG
Purdue	6	Notre Dame	ND
Boise St.	5	Utah	Utah
Alabama	8	Florida	Florida
Oregon	4	Arizona St.	Oregon
Northwestern	7	Penn State	Penn St.
Georgia	9	Mississippi	Georgia
Washington	3	Arizona	Washington
Ohio St.	10	Iowa	Ohio St.

Really no surprises here unless you want to say that #22 Boise State being beat by Utah is a surprise. This was really a tough choice for me, but I feel like Utah has the advantage by being at home.

Another tough game to pick was the Navy - Uconn game. As you can see from my email address being an ex swabbie I almost always root for the goats, but I live in Connecticut. In this case the home town team wins.

Possible blow out of the week, Florida over Alabama. I watched the entire Bama Arkansas game last week (and yes I had my hog hat on) and I really think that the loss in double overtime of a game that everybody who follows College Football knows they should have won will just devastate the Bama team. Plus I have no faith in the coaching abilities of Shula.

game 160 - Vs Orioles 16th of 18

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

The final 3 games of the season (thank god) start tonight. There is only one reason to watch these last three games. BIG PAPI. Can he drive over 55? We'll, see, but I hope he knocks out 8 in these three games (before the massacre had him picked for 62). Tavarez tonight against Bedard who is 2 and 1 this year against the sox with his las 2 games being Gems.

Go Sox, Go razorbacks, Go cowboys. See you tommorrow.

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

game 159 - Vs TB 19th of 19

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

A couple of thoughts on Becketts year:

1) 32 games started this year, for his career 135 starts.
2) Career highs in starts, wins, losses and innings.
3) A 4.82 ERA this year which is not great, but is not horrible either.
4) Last 10 games he is 3 and 5 with a 4.95 ERA.
5) Last 5 games he is 2 and 2 with a 2.91 ERA.

What does all of this mean? Beats me, but it looks like as the team went so did Beckett, but since that Angels game where he got the split finger, Beckett has been a different pitcher.

Only reason to watch this team right now is to see how many Ortiz smacks out of the park this year. Was good to see Gammons being loquacious last night on NESN, one of the few Red Sox Nation prayers that were answered this year.

Playoffs, is it the Padres? or the Dodgers? Decisions decisions. Right now I lean toward LA LA land.

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

game 158 - Vs TB 18th of 19

No stats, not much to talk about as the season continues to wind down. I really wish the Sox had been able to do a Tejada for Manny trade this spring. At least then we wouldn't be filled day in and day out on Manny watches.

As a side note, the Rays have to take both games to have a winning record vs the Sox this year. Look at that sentence again! The Sox have to win one of these two games to avoid a losing record vs the Rays. A team that only has 1 winning record vs any teams (any guesses?). What a disater this year became.

Oh yeah, thanks to that dismantling of the Falcons last night I ended up going 9 and 5 vs the spread last week. YEAH BOY!!!!

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

Game 157 - Vs Jays (19th of 19) and other crap.

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

Today's matchup has Wakefield vs Marcum. Wakefield's history against the Blue Jays looks fairly good, while Marcum's is good but is small with no start's.

Wakefield will end up with a losing record this year. Which is too bad because he has pitched better than his record indicates. Against the Blue Jays in Toronto, Timmy looks fairly good. Let us hope he pitches one of his better games today because a loss would drop the Sox into 3rd place in the division.

Moving on to other things:

1) Went 10 and 0 on the College Picks

2) Am 8 and 5 so far on the Pro's

3) Just heard Gammons interview on WEEI from Friday?, not sure when it was originally but it appears that Coco never fully recovered from his finger injury. After watching Manny pull his Manny being Manny crap over the last 20 + games while at the same time Coco, Schilling, Loretta, Lowell, Youkilis and others were out there playing while hurt because they know that not only is it a game but it is also their JOB, just makes me want to puke about this season.

4) Only six more games this season and part of me wants the Jays to finish in second just to break the streak.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here (Sunday's pass). If there is one for today it should be here.

NFL - Week Three

Well its week 3 of the NFL and time for my picks of today's games. Last week I went 11 and 5 to bring the total to 18 and 14 for the first 2 weeks. Of course what I would really like is to be as good as I was yesterday in the college games (yeah, baby, 10 and 0).

Here are my picks for this week:

Favorite	Spread	Underdog	Pick
Inianapolis	- 8 1/2	Jacksonville	Jacksonville
Chicago	- 3 1/2	Minnesota	Chicago
Washington	- 3 1/2	Houston	Washington
Buffalo	- 5 1/2	New York J	NY Jets
Miami	- 10 1/2	Tennessee	Tennessee
Carolina	- 3 1/2	Tampa Bay	Carolina
Pittsburgh	- 2 1/2	Cincinnati	Pittsburgh
Detroit	- 6 1/2	Green Bay	Green Bay
Baltimore	- 6 1/2	Cleveland	Cleveland
Seattle	- 3 1/2	New York G	NY Giants
Philadelphia	- 6 1/2	San Francisco	Philadelphia
Arizona	- 4 1/2	St. Louis	Arizona
New England	- 6 1/2	Denver	Denver
Atlanta	- 3 1/2	New Orleans	N'awlins

As far as upsets, I think Green Bay, Jacksonville, Ny Jets, and the Giants to win outright.

Saturday games - football and sox

Ok, sorry, but I have nothing to say about the loss at Toronto because it was on at the same time as my Razorbacks. Was too busy sweating bullets and yelling at the freshman QB for the hogs to even go back and forth. How about them Hogs.

Game 155 vs Toronto 17 of 19

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

MLB.Com's pitching matchup:

Scouting Report:

The 28-year-old from Nicaragua will make his first Major League start. Hansack is fresh off of pitching Double-A Portland to the Eastern League Championship. He went 8-7 with a 3.26 ERA in 31 games for Portland this season, 18 of which were starts. Hansack was signed by the Red Sox last December as a Minor League free agent. He previously spent four years in the Astros' farm system.

Burnett threw a solid seven innings against the Yankees last time out but was hurt by two-run homers by Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. The loss was just Burnett's third in his last nine starts. The Blue Jays right-hander has recorded 29 strikeouts compared to just eight walks in his last 31 innings.

Burnett has been a pain this year against the sox throwing a complete game in a 5-1 win on the 2nd of this month. Even though he is 8 and 8 he has a very respectable ERA of 3.97.

This is really a thank you start (in my opinion) for Hansack since he just helped the minor league team to a championship. Not sure what to expect but it would be nice to see Manny in the lineup to help protect Ortiz.
ESPN's preview here.
Yahoo's preview here.
MLP.com's press pass is here.

College Picks week 4

Well another Saturday and we know what that means. Yep, that's right, its time for College Football. Just as a recap, last week I went 6 and 4 which brought my season picks to 22 and 8. My picks this week in the College Pickem at ESPN are as follows:

Away Team	Confidence	Home team	Pick
Wisconsin	5	Michigan	Michigan
Minnesota	4	Purdue	Purdue
Iowa St.	8	Texas	Texas
W. Virginia	3	E. Carolina	W. Virginia
Kentucky	6	Florida	Florida
Boston College	1	N. C. St.	N. C. St.
Notre Dame	7	Michigan St.	Notre Dame
USC	9	Arizona	USC
Arizona St.	2	California	Cal
Penn ST.	10	Ohio St.	Ohio St.

surprising Picks This Week: NC ST. over BC. I just don't think that BC is that good, but am not that confident about it since I only have this as a 1 pick. The rest are pretty much by the board (#20 Cal would be a slight upset over #18 Arizona ST.). The game I think is most likely to become a blow out is the Notre Dame game. Look for ND to come out steaming in this one.

Game 150 vs the Twins

From MLB.com:

Talk about big shoes to fill. Garza will step in for Francisco Liriano, who will miss the rest of the season with a sore elbow. The Twins don't expect Garza to give them the same results, of course, but they will need him to keep the team in games. The Twins are 2-4 in his six starts and only two of his outings have been considered quality starts.

The dependable knuckleballer took a 4-0 loss to the Orioles in his return from the disabled list last week. The big thing was that Wakefield suffered no ill effects from the stress fracture in his right ribcage that kept him off the mound for seven weeks. Wakefield is 3-3 with a 3.33 ERA in 10 starts at Fenway this season. He lost his only previous start to the Twins this season, giving up eight hits and three earned runs over six innings.

As usual all stats are from the Day by Day database at Baseball Musings.

Wakefield goes tonight and I expect big things from the knuckler. Timmy is 5 and 0 in 11 games (8 starts) against the Twinkies at Fenway Park. His Era is a sparkling 3.36 and half of his starts against the Twins have been quality starts. He averages 7.8 k's per 9 in those games and only 2.2 average BB's. Look for Tim to dominate tonight.

Yahoo's preview here.
ESPN's preview here.
Mlb.com's press pass is currently showing Sunday's game here. If there is a new one it will be here.

NFL football week 2

***** Tuesday's Update *****

Finished the week 11 and 5 Atta boy

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*** Updated - So after Sunday's games I went 10 and 5, not great, but not horrible. It was good to see three of the four dogs that I had picked to win out right to do so. Only surpises of the day for me were the results of the Tampa and Skins games. Is Tampa Bay's offense really that bad? Will the Redskins beat anybody in the East with that offense? Both teams looked simply horrible. ***

Along with playing the college pickem at ESPN, I am also playing the Pigskin Pick'em. Last week I won a whopping 7 games (all picks are against the spread). Can't do much worse than that, but this week is a different story. Home team underdogs are in bold.

Favorite	Spread	Underdog	Pick
Carolina	-2 1/2	Minnesota	Minnesota
Chicago	- 8 1/2	Detroit	Chicago
Indianapolis	- 13 1/2	Houston	Indianapolis
New Orleans	- 1 1/2	Green Bay	Nawlins
Philadelphia	- 3 1/2	N Y Giants	Giants
Baltimore	- 8 1/2	Oakland	Oakland
Atlanta	- 5 1/2	Tampa Bay	Tampa Bay
Cincinnati	- 10 1/2	Cleveland	Cincinnati
Miami	- 6 1/2	Buffalo	Buffalo
Seattle	- 7 1/2	Arizona	Arizona
St. Louis	- 3 1/2	San Francisco	San Fran
San Diego	- 10 1/2	Tennessee	Tennessee
Denver	- 10 1/2	Kansas City	Kansas City
New England	- 6 1/2	N Y Jets	New England
Dallas	- 5 1/2	Washington	Washington
Pittsburgh	- 1 1/2	Jacksonville	Jacksonville

I expect Minnesota, NY Giants, Tampa Bay, and San Francisco to win out right. All other underdogs I just expect them to cover the spread.

Last 2 games vs the Yankees

***** UPDATE: Thanks to Youkilis, the spankees have to keep the champagne on ice one more day. ********

The last two games vs the Yankees this year. Right now Yankees lead 11 games to 6 in this season series. My only hope is that the Sox get at least a split, yes I know the division race is over, but hey, let them celebrate later in the week.

First game has Snyder versus Wright. Two up and down pitchers facing each other. For Kyle's career stats you can see them here. Jaret Wright's stats are here.

This is just the type of game that the bats should be out in force. Wright's stats vs the Sox are horrofic. A 6.45 ERA in 12 games (11 starts) with a 2 and 5 record. The good news with Snyder is he has had ok, bad, ok, bad games. His last game he got lit up, so he should be due for a good game. Let us hope so.

Yahoo's preview of the games is here.
Espn.com's preview of game one is here.

As for the Second Game, I know Tek played last night, but I am begging you Tito, play him in the first game, not the second game today. The man is like 0 forever against Mussina. Please, please, don't have him playing the second game.

Espn.com's preview of game two is here.

1st game done

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

First game done and the Sox won. This was the Beckett we expected to see this year, 6 innings pitched, in and out of jams but only gave up the two runs on a (what else), Cano home run. In the last 5 games (including todays), Josh has pitched 32 innings with a 3.38 ERA. 4 of the 5 starts were quality starts and he went 2 and 2 in those games.

ESPN.com's 1st game recap is here.
Yahoo sports recap here.

2nd game ESPN.com preview is here.
2nd game Yahoo sports preview here.

College Picks

UPDATED: ********************************
My worst week yet, but I actually moved up in to the upper 3rd of the game. Went 6 and 4 yesterday with the Clemson and Florida wins being my big shockers. Of course Florida had to come from 10 down to win by one, and Clemson scored a TD with 8 seconds left in the game. Oh, well, that is the way it goes.

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Have been playing College pickem at ESPN.Com fantasy. So far I have gone 16 and 4 in my picks. So I feel like I have done a pretty decent job, until I realized that 39 percent of the people playing have done a better job. Oh, well, what can I say, just have to put the nose to the grindstone and do hours of research (right!!!), and pick better. So, here are my picks for this week:

Away Team	Confidence	Home team	Pick
Brigham Young	4	Boston College	Boston College
Iowa State	2	Iowa	Iowa
Michigan	3	Notre Dame	Michigan
LSU	1	Auburn	LSU
Miami (fl)	5	Louisville	Miami
Oklahoma	6	Oregon	Oregon
Texas Tech	7	Texas Christian	TCU
Clemson	10	Florida State	FSU
Nebraska	9	USC	USC
Florida	8	Tennessee	Tennessee

Really the surprise picks would be #13 Michigan over ND, #7 LSU over #4 Auburn, #15 Miami over #12 Louisville, #18 Oregon over #11 Oklahoma, and #17 Tennessee over # 6 Florida.

Notre Dame hasn't impressed yet this year and this rivalry tends to go in streaks. Right now Notre Dame has the winning streak (3 of last 4) but I look for that to end today. However, would not be surprised if touchdown jesus helped the home team, thus my low confidence of 3 out of 10.

LSU's quarterback is 16 and 2 as a starter. He also appears to be one of those kids who lives his life right. After reading the story about him in USA Today this week LSU has became my feel good root team (except for the day after Thanksgiving) for the rest of the year.

I expect Corker beat his players senseless this week preparing for this game. Middle of the road game since my confidence is 5 out of 10. Louisville has a good offense but I really think that Miami has the better players and the better team.

Oregon over Oklahoma in my view is not an upset. I really think that Oklahoma is rated way to high and Oregon could easily be a top 10 team by the end of the year.

Tennessee is playing at home, barely won last week against Air Force and Fulmer probably brought out the ice picks, the cattle prods and every other torture device available in the Volunteer state. Florida has not impressed me yet and I think we will soon see another fire coach website sprouting soon.

Back with a vengeance

Been a busy and also a horrible last couple of weeks. Unfortunately I get this way leading up to that DAY. The last few years, there was escape because of the Sox, but not this year.

So, here we are, coming down the home stretch, and there is no hope for the Sox this year to pull it out and make the playoffs. Personally, I think the loss of Wakefield was the beginning of the end this year. So, what do we look forward to in these last 3 weeks. I personally, think the Yankees, will not win the Series this year, I still have doubts about thier pitching in the playoffs. Will be interesting to watch that. Tonight we start the last 4 games against the Yankees this year. I fully expect to see them celebrate thier east division championship with the Sox in the other dugout.

Next year I want the following, A-Gon back at shortstop, Lowell at third, Youkilis at 1st, Wily Mo in right, Coco in center, Pedroia will be Ok as the second baseman. Keep Hinske as the Left handed bat off the bench who can play Right, 1st and 3rd. Would love to have Loretta stay around, but I expect he will be gone. Cora will be still available to come off the bench also. Lots of talk about Soriano at second base, but I just don't see it.

As far as pitching goes, I expect Foulke to be gone, Timlin gone. For starters I expect it to be Beckett, Schilling, Wakefield, Snyder and maybe Zito. Look for a big push by the Sox to get him. Papelbon, Hansen, and Delcarmen will be the anchors in the Pen.

********Breaking News - Game postponed tonight. 1 o'clock game tomorrow.****

Game 131 - A's game 8 of 10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pitching woes should make for an interesting off season

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

t

Game 129 - Mariners game 9 of 10

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

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

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

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

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

Wells vs Meche tonight.

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

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

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

game 128 - Mariners game 8 of 10

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

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

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

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

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

5) The bats disappeared again.

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

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

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

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

From MLB.Coms probable pitchers:

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

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

From MLB.Coms probable pitchers:

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

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

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