Manny Being Manny - 2007 ALDS Game 2 is over!

Manny Being Manny!!!!!

'Nuff Said - Sox take 2-0 lead!!!!

Red Sox 07 ALDS Game 2

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K. Escobar		0-0, 0.00		D. Matsuzaka		0-0, 0.00
Angels		0-1		Red Sox		1-0

Friday, October, 5      Fenway Park  ✠ 8:30 PM ET

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Angels: Few starters in the game have a wider repertoire of pitches to draw on than the veteran Escobar, who throws 95 mph with a deadly split and changeup when he's on his game. Escobar was in the Cy Young Award derby before encountering a late-season slump, created at least in part by shoulder inflammation. The hope is that a layoff over the last few weeks enabled Escobar to regain life in his shoulder and that he goes to work in the postseason with the high level of confidence he carried into the season's final month. Escobar is admired by teammates and respected by opponents for his toughness, his competitive nature. He and John Escobar pushed each other to previously unvisited heights this season. They talked during the spring about combining for 40 wins and 400 innings, and they came remarkably close.

Red Sox: Matsuzaka's first Major League season had its share of ups and downs. The right-hander was at his best in June, when he posted a 1.59 ERA over five starts. Matsuzaka struggled for much of September, going 2-1 with a 7.62 ERA in five starts. However, his last start of the regular season was one of his best, as he went eight innings and allowed two runs while striking out eight in a 5-2 win over the Twins. Matsuzaka went seven innings or more 10 times before the All-Star break. After the break, he went that many innings just four times. Matsuzaka didn't pitch against the Angels this season. He will make this start following six days of rest. Matsuzaka is 8-4 with a 4.86 ERA at Fenway Park

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

Hitting History vs Escobar

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
D. Pedroia	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
K. Youkilis	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	.167
D. Ortiz	26	5	1	0	1	3	3	10	.192
M. Ramirez	34	8	3	0	1	5	6	9	.235
M. Lowell	15	5	1	0	0	1	0	3	.333
J.D. Drew	5	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	.200
J. Varitek	22	7	0	0	0	4	8	4	.318
C. Crisp	14	5	2	0	0	1	3	1	.357
J. Lugo	7	4	0	0	1	3	2	2	.571
Totals	133	36	7	0	3	17	23	34	.271

While the .271 Batting Average looks ok, you have to look closer at the numbers. There are only four batters who have an average above .300. After those four the next highest on the team is Mirabelli who has a .250 average.

The question is where will the offense come from in this game. Surprisingly it most likely will come from the 7-9 hitters. Tek, !!!!ocoC and Slugo combined have a 0.372 / 0.509 / 0.488 Ba, OBP and Slugging %. That is much higher than the Ortiz, MBM and Lowell part of the order (closest is Slugging where the bottom three are .102 higher).

The good news is looking at Escobars splits this year he is not getting lefties out at the same rate as previously. In his career he has .250/.332/.404 (BAA/OBP/Slug) numbers against left handers, while this year he is .264/.332/.396 (slight dip in slugging). That means the Tek, !!!!ocoC, Drew and Papi part of this team should be able to do better than past history would indicate.

Another thing I noticed though, is he is better at getting righties out. While his career numbers are .250/.317/.373 fairly close to each other his success against right handed batters is better this year at .233/.292/.323. That is some very good numbers for a pitcher.

Historical Pitching Lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Escobar	11	6	7	0	99	94	51	9	49	91	4.64	1.44	6.36
Matsuzaka	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

This Years Pitching Lines
Neither pitcher has faced the other team this year.

These are not good career numbers for Escobar. In fact these numbers are better than his starting pitcher totals. As a starter he is 3 and 4 with a 4.76 ERA in 70 innings. His Starting WHIP is a 1.37 and his BB / 9 is a whopping 4.11.

Not good numbers at all, however the Sox have not faced him this year, so he could be a totally different pitcher. Of course the Sox have an advantae also, since Matsuzaka has never faced these players. Will be interesting to see what happens.

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

Red Sox 07 ALDS Game 1 Recap

ALDS - game 1
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Final

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

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Anaheim	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	4	0
Boston	1	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	X		4	9	0

W: J. Beckett (1-0) L: J. Lackey (0-1)
HR ➢ Bos: K. Youkilis (1), D. Ortiz (1)

☼ Sun - Beckett - After a lead off hit by Figgins, 19 straight, yes 19 straight batters were retired
☁ Cloud - Lackey - All four runs allowed by Lackey

Game thoughts!

A very quick game that was over in the first. Well, it was over at the end of one, once you realized that Joshie had the fire and his A game. This kid is the real deal and make no doubt about it, is quickly becoming a big game pitcher.

Everybody but Dustin and Coco got a hit tonight. Coco was not really a surprise since he does struggle against Lackey. Pedroia looked like a rookie though. Of course since he is a rookie, you have to let him get used to this post season stuff though so cut him a break.

Really, this was a boring game, quick also as it only went 2:37. So, with that its good night, more tomorrow and Friday as we prepare for a second win (at least I hope it is a second).

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

Red Sox 07 Post Season AL Division Series Game 1

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J. Lackey		0-0, 0.00		J. Beckett		0-0, 0.00
Angels		0-0		Red Sox		0-0

Wednesday, October, 3      Fenway Park  ✠ 6:37 PM ET

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Angels: You want big-game pedigree? In John Lackey's rookie season, he started -- and won -- Game 7 of the 2002 World Series. Since then, he's blossomed into one of the best pitchers in baseball, and there can be no better choice to start Game 1 of the ALDS for the Halos. The 6-foot-6 right-hander did struggle against the Red Sox this year, however, losing both of his starts while allowing nine runs in 9 2/3 innings.

Red Sox: Quite simply, the ace right-hander is in the midst of the best season of his career. Beckett has been a force all year long, producing his first 20-win season in the process. The 194 strikeouts are a career high and the 40 walks are Beckett's fewest for a full season. After giving up 36 homers in 2006, Beckett allowed just 17 this year. Beckett pitched well in his two starts against the Angels this season, going 1-0 with a 1.38 ERA and striking out 13 over 13 innings. In his career against the Angels, Beckett is 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA. In 17 Fenway starts this season, Beckett is 9-5 with a 4.17 ERA. Beckett's only previous postseason experience was memorable, as he helped guide the Marlins to the 2003 World Series championship by posting a 2.11 ERA in six outings that October.

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

Hitting History vs Lackey

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
D. Pedroia	6	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	.333
K. Youkilis	10	3	0	0	0	0	0	2	.300
D. Ortiz	29	11	3	1	2	9	4	8	.379
M. Ramirez	23	10	3	0	4	11	7	4	.435
M. Lowell	12	3	0	0	0	1	0	4	.250
J. D. Drew	11	5	1	1	0	1	1	3	.455
J. Varitek	18	5	3	0	0	2	3	8	.278
C. Crisp	22	4	0	0	2	2	2	4	.182
J. Lugo	18	4	1	0	0	0	2	4	.222
Totals	149	47	12	2	8	26	19	36	.315

Historical Pitching Lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Lackey	11	1	6	0	60 1/3	90	42	10	26	48	6.27	1.92	5.48
Beckett	4	2	0	0	25	19	6	1	8	22	2.16	1.08	6.25

This Years Pitching Lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Lackey	2	0	2	0	9 2/3	20	9	2	1	9	8.38	2.17	4.83
Beckett	2	1	0	0	13	11	2	1	2	13	1.38	1.00	6.5

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

Red Sox 07 Game 151

No time to do the usual. Will put up the links for the recaps and etc. later. Right now I have a board of educatuon meeting to go to due to b-fly. Fortunately for her its a good thing so she gets to be the daughter for one more day at least.

Game threads will be at http://threadsox.com/. Enjoy

Red Sox 07 Game 150 Preview

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R. Clemens		6-6, 4.45		C. Schilling		8-7, 3.93
Yankees		84 - 64		Red Sox		90 - 59

Sunday, September, 16      Fenway Park  ✠ 8:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	90	59	-	6-4	22	23	94	55
New York	84	64	5.5	8-2	14	18	88	60
Toronto	74	75	16.0	4-6	26	24	78	71
Baltimore	64	84	25.5	3-7	11	28	66	82
Tampa	62	87	28.0	5-5	20	18	62	87

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Yankees: Could it finally be? Clemens insists it will be, though after having a pair of cortisone injections in his right elbow, his first Fenway Park start since 2003 could be a game-time decision. The Red Sox faithful are certainly salivating for a chance to bat around the Rocket, but the Yankees are just hoping that Clemens has a few more bullets left in his 45-year-old arm. Clemens claimed his last start was like throwing with a piece of wood. He'd need to be wary of a Boston lineup that can certainly wield the lumber.

Red Sox: Despite being winless in his past three starts, Schilling has been pitching well. In his last outing, he allowed just one run and five hits in a 1-0 loss to Scott Kazmir and the Devil Rays. Schilling has allowed seven runs in his past four starts. He is 3-2 with a 4.21 ERA in 11 starts at Fenway Park this season. Schilling is 0-2 with a 5.76 ERA in four starts against the Yankees this season.

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

Hitting History vs Clemens

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Ellsbury	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
D. Pedroia	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Ortiz	22	5	0	0	2	2	2	5	.227
M. Lowell	14	2	0	0	0	0	1	4	.143
J.D. Drew	4	1	0	0	0	0	2	2	.250
J. Varitek	20	3	1	0	0	0	4	8	.150
E. Hinske	14	2	1	0	0	0	2	6	.143
C. Crisp	9	2	0	0	0	0	0	4	.222
J. Lugo	12	1	1	0	0	0	0	4	.083
Totals	96	15	3	0	2	2	11	33	.167

.167 BA for these guys, not good, but was that against this Clemens, the 45 year old or the old but younger Clemens before he went to the NL. Only Drew can say he faced the younger Clemens of the NL and the others, well they faced the dominating Clemens. With a .282 BAA vs Righties and a .255 BAA vs lefties, this year I say we see the old, old Clemens.

Historical Pitching Lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Clemens	20	9	5	0	125 1/3	107	52	8	42	134	3.73	1.19	6.27
Schilling	18	7	7	0	122 1/3	126	64	26	32	100	4.71	1.29	6.52

This Years Pitching Lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Clemens	1	1	0	0	6	2	1	1	5	2	1.50	1.17	6
Schilling	4	0	2	0	25	35	16	8	3	14	5.76	1.52	6.25

Clemens has been good this year vs the Sox, but then it was only one freaking game. Of course it took a Papi home run to break up the no hitter in that game so you could say he has been on fire. Schilling's problem has been the home runs. 8 homers in 25 innings is not good and that is why he is 0-2 this year. Still, the last time he pitched he was just as good as Wang was in Yankee stadium. I also think he will be good tonight.

Last five times that Clemens has pitched at Fenway in the Regular Season he has gone 26 2/3 innings with a 5.74 ERA and 1.69 WHIP. Makes you wonder how he is 3 and 1 in those games.

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

Red Sox 07 Game 149 Recap

Final

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

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
New York	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	4	0
Boston	1	0	0	0	1	3	4	1	X		10	12	0

W: J. Beckett (19-6) L: C. Wang (18-7)
HR ➢ Bos: E. Hinske (6) NYY: D. Jeter (10)

☼ Sun - Beckett - A home run in the first and then after that, zip, zero, nada.
☁ Cloud - Wang - A melt down in the sixth ended the suspense of this game.

Game thoughts!

About freaking time this team got its act together when playing the Yankees. Finally the team beat them and in a resounding fashion. It would be best of course if they made this a habit and repeated it tomorrow night.

The nice thing is that after last nights game and after Jeter's first inning home run, the Sox immediately responded in the bottom of the first. Of course if Drew or Tek had gotten a hit right after Lowell's rbi single they might of been able to knock Wang out in the first. Wait what am I saying, Drew and Tek failed with RISP, nothing new there.

After the long first inning Beckett really settled down with 1-2-3 innings in the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th innings. It looked like it would be another one in the 7th until he hit Giambi with 2 outs (about freaking time also). Since Youkilis had been hit earlier in the game, it was easy to think this was pay-back. The home plate umpire thought so, and I also think it was intentional. About freaking time I say.

What I was surprised about was how close this game was until the sixth. Neither team had scored after the first and it looked like it would be a game that would turn on some freak play (usually to the detriment of the Sox). It especially looked this way after with two outs Wang walked the bases loaded for Jason Varitek who swung on the first pitch and on the next pitch popped out to second. I was ready to freaking throw a brick through the TV set.

Fortunately the Sox got a little bit lucky in the fifth. Ellsbury pinch ran for Youkilis (after he was hit by Wang) and on Ortiz's single to right, he went to third. I don't think that Youkilis would have been able to make it to third on that hit, which is why they were lucky. 1st and 3rd with 1 out and Lowell up to bat, you felt like the Sox would score, but Lowell lined out to Jeter which made Drew's at bat crucial. His at bat in the third was the first time that J.D. had reached base vs Wang, making him 0-10 in his career. This time he swung at the first pitch, a sinker on the outside corner and lined a single to right. 2-1 Sox and the lead would only grow after that. Yeah, boy!!!

The rest was just icing on the cake. Eight runs later this game was over and the Sox lead in the division was back to 5.5 games.

Player watch:
Lugo 0/4 .239
Crisp 2/5 .273
Drew 1/3 .265

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

Red Sox 07 Game 149 Preview

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C. Wang		18-6, 3.69		J. Beckett		18-6, 3.27
Yankees		84 - 63		Red Sox		89 - 59

Saturday, September, 15      Fenway Park  ✠ 3:55 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	89	59	-	6-4	22	23	92	56
New York	84	63	4.5	8-2	14	18	88	59
Toronto	73	74	15.5	3-7	26	24	77	70
Baltimore	63	83	25.0	4-6	11	28	65	81
Tampa	61	87	28.0	4-6	20	18	61	87

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Yankees: Wang was a winner once more in his last effort against Kansas City, twirling seven innings of three-run ball to win his 18th game and fifth straight start. Now comes a true matchup of Cy Young candidates, both having terrific seasons in the midst of the baseball's biggest rivalry. Wang last faced Boston on Aug. 30 at Yankee Stadium and beat them 5-0, limiting the Red Sox to one hit while striking out five for win No. 16.

Red Sox: Beckett has been a machine for the Red Sox all year long. A leading contender for the American League Cy Young Award, Beckett is coming off a 3-2 victory over the Orioles. In that one, the righty gave up two runs over seven innings while striking out eight. Beckett is holding opponents to a .245 average. Beckett is 1-1 with a 5.49 ERA in three starts against the Yankees this season.

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

Hitting History vs Wang

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
D. Pedroia	6	3	2	0	0	1	0	0	.500
K. Youkilis	19	7	3	0	0	1	8	1	.368
D. Ortiz	27	12	3	0	2	8	5	4	.444
M. Ramirez	22	13	0	0	2	5	4	3	.591
J.D. Drew	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
M. Lowell	22	4	1	0	0	0	3	2	.182
J. Varitek	13	1	0	0	1	1	2	3	.077
C. Crisp	20	5	0	1	0	0	1	2	.250
J. Lugo	28	6	1	0	0	1	5	5	.214
Totals	166	51	10	1	5	17	28	20	.307

A .307 average would be pretty good but this can be so much better. First I would sit Lowell and his anemic average and move Youkilis to third and add Hinske. Hinske is 10/22 with 2 home runs against Wang. I also might switch Lugo and Cora since Cora is 5/18 with home run. Mirabelli is also better than Varitek but I don't expect Doug is able to play, still Cash has to be better than Tek's anemic .077 batting average. I also would sit Drew.

Just by adding Cora and Hinske you raise the line ups average to .359 with a .603 Slugging %.

This year Wang has a .280 BAA left handed batters. Load up the Lefties! Overall his BAA is .262.

Historical Pitching Lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Wang	10	5	4	0	65 1/3	73	31	6	31	26	4.27	1.59	6.07
Beckett	7	3	3	0	39 2/3	54	33	6	22	32	7.49	1.92	5.67

This Years Pitching Lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Wang	4	3	1	0	25	24	9	2	12	12	3.24	1.44	6.25
Beckett	3	1	1	0	19 2/3	30	12	1	6	18	5.49	1.83	6.56

Overall Wang does not have bad numbers vs the Sox. A 4.30 ERA will win you a lot of games if you are a Yankee pitcher which makes it hard to believe that he is only 5 and 4. This year though he has been lights out as his 3.24 ERA is over one run less and he has gone deeper into games, though that is not much of an improvement.

Beckett has improved more though as ERA is two runs better and he goes 1 inning deeper. Still, what worries you is that he has no as in none as in zero quality starts. Another slug fest in the making? Yes I think it is as Wang has a career 5.83 ERA at Fenway in five starts and 29 1/3 innings. Those numbers include two quality start numbers (his record at fenway is 2-2).

Beckett at Fenway vs the Yankees has a 8.20 ERA in three starts (18 2/3). Hard to imagine that he is 1-1 at Fenway. Actually after last nights fiasco, right now I have no, zip, none, as in zero confidence in this team. It would not surprise me if this game ended up being a blow out for the spankees.

This Date in History:

2005 W  L  GB  RS   RA
Bos  85 61  -  823  733
NYY  83 62 1.5 786 700

1978 W  L  GB  RS  RA
NYY  89 57  -  673 522
Bos  87 60 2.5 716 608

2007 W  L  GB  RS  RA
Bos  89 59  -  794 601
NYY  84 63 4.5 866 697

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

Red Sox 07 Game 148 Recap

Final

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

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
New York	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	6	0		8	12	2
Boston	0	1	1	3	0	2	0	0	0		7	13	2

W: B. Bruney (3-1) L: J. Papelbon (1-3) S: M. Rivera (27)
HR ➢ NYY: J. Giambi (14), R. Cano (17)

☼ Sun - A. Rodriguez - The go ahead run scores on his single.
☁ Cloud - Francona - Misuse of the bullpen from the seventh on.

Game thoughts!

The Sox jump out to the lead in the second, added a run in third, gave up a run in the fourth and then increased the lead in the bottom of the fourth. When the score is 5-1 your favor after four, you should not lose that game (unless you are Baltimore or Tampa Bay).

If a 5-1 lead should be safe then 7-2 should be even more safe, but on Friday night Mr. Terry Francona found a way to blow the lead and the game. Now you can argue that Terry followed his plan and that Okajima and Papelbon blew the lead but that would not be correct. He made two critical mistakes in his bullpen management.

The first mistake was in the seventh inning. After Lopez started the inning with two outs he allowed a walk to J. Posada, remember the lead is 7-2, so why bring Okajima right then to face Matsui? Last time I looked Lopez is a left handed pitcher? Didn't make sense when he did it, and doesn't make sense now.

Second mistake was having Okajima start the eighth with only Papelbon warming up. What happened with Gagne or MDC, you can't expect Papelbon to get you six outs? Idiotic in my opinion, absolutely idiotic. Six runs later and still no outs and now you have a tired Okajima and a tired Papelbon that you probably won't go to for Saturday's (today) game.

IDIOT!

Player watch:
Lugo 1/5 .241
Crisp pr
Drew 2/5 .264

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

Red Sox 07 Game 148 Preview

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A. Pettitte		13-8, 3.78		D. Matsuzaka		14-12, 4.44
Yankees		83 - 63		Red Sox		89 - 58

Friday, September 14  Fenway Park  ✠ 7:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	89	58	-	7-3	22	22	92	55
New York	83	63	5.5	7-3	13	18	87	59
Toronto	73	73	15.5	3-7	26	24	77	69
Baltimore	62	83	26.0	3-7	11	28	65	80
Tampa	61	86	28.0	5-5	20	17	61	86

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Yankees: Pettitte continued his incredible second half with another strong performance Saturday night against the Royals. He allowed two runs in 6 1/3 innings and earned his 13th win this season. Pettitte, who won for the seventh time in eight starts, is one win shy of 200 for his career. Pettitte also captured his 162nd win as a Yankee, which tied him for Herb Pennock for seventh on the all-time Yankees list and fourth among left-handers. Pettitte is 9-2 in 12 second-half starts and has allowed three earned runs or fewer 11 times. Pettitte is 2-1 with a 4.75 ERA in six games, five starts, against the Red Sox this season, and he holds a career mark of 15-6 with a 3.32 ERA versus Boston.

Red Sox: Once a leading contender for American League Rookie of the Year, Matsuzaka has fallen on hard times of late. Over his last four starts, Matsuzaka is 1-4 with a 9.57 ERA. In particular, his last two outings have been bad. The Orioles hit him for six hits and eight runs over 2 2/3 innings on Saturday. In the outing before that, Matsuzaka gave up 10 hits and seven runs over 5 1/3 innings against the Blue Jays. Matsuzaka is 2-1 with a 6.98 ERA in three starts against the Yankees.

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

Sox Batting vs Pettitte

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
D. Pedroia	14	4	1	0	0	3	0	0	.286
K. Youkilis	11	5	1	0	1	2	3	2	.455
D. Ortiz	36	11	3	0	1	6	3	10	.306
M. Ramirez	72	31	8	0	4	19	6	7	.431
J. D. Drew	17	6	1	0	2	2	1	6	.353
M. Lowell	14	4	1	0	0	2	1	0	.286
J. Varitek	48	17	1	1	2	7	5	14	.354
C. Crisp	16	4	0	0	0	0	1	5	.250
J. Lugo	22	6	0	1	0	0	3	3	.273
Totals	250	88	16	2	10	41	23	47	.352

Sometimes you have to wonder how somebody beats a team so many times. Look at those numbers, those are outstanding numbers vs a pitcher yet he wins over 4 games per 7 games started. You just have to wonder.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Pettitte	26	15	6	0	171	174	63	8	49	133	3.32	1.30	6.41
Matsuzaka	3	2	1	0	19 1/3	19	15	3	8	16	6.98	1.40	6.44

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Pettitte	5	2	1	0	30 1/3	36	16	4	12	19	4.75	1.58	5.87
Matsuzaka	3	2	1	0	19 1/3	19	15	3	8	16	6.98	1.40	6.44

Pettitte's numbers (for this year) were actually helped by pitching 1 inning of relief this year vs the Sox. If you take out that inning his ERA goes up to 4.91. Still he has been on a roll and his last start vs the Sox was more than adequate. Once again the spankees expect him to step up big vs the Sox, the Sox though need to come out swinging and make him pay for every mistake. I say its 50/50 for that to happen.

This year Pettitte does not have very good numbers vs right handed or left handed batters. Lefties are batting .291 / .358 / .477 and righties are .280 / .327 / .392. How does this guy have a winning record? Simple he has an outstanding offense.

Not a lot to say about Matsuzaka, if I had my druthers I would go with another rookie here, one who just so happened to pitch a no-hitter this year. At least then I would think that the Sox have a chance to stop the Yankee hitters. It would not surprise me to see Tavarez in this game by the fourth inning.

This day in 1978
ALE W L GB WP RS RA
NYY 88 57 - .607 669 522
BOS 87 59 1.5 .596 716 604

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

Red Sox 07 Game 147 Recap

Game 147
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	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		4	9	0
Boston	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	2		5	9	0

W: J. Papelbon (1-2) L: A. Reyes (2-3)
HR ➢ Bos: D. Ortiz - 2 (26) TB: B. Upton (24)

☼ Sun - PAPI - Two home runs for all of the runs
☁ Cloud - Reyes - His third blown loss this year

Game thoughts!

So I sat down ready to watch and do a little bit of talking over at threadsox.com. Of course this being a game that Lester was starting it seemed like the game had barely started and Sox were down by four runs, not a good way to start the night.

Lester's line for the night - 93 pitches in 3 2/3 innings, walking 4 and striking out 5 and allowing all of the runs in this game. Hey bonus baby, my advice is for you to go buy that bullpen some fine wine and steaks, because basically you sucked in this game.

Oh, yeah, you might also go over and give that guy known as Big Papi a great big bear hug. Steaks might be good for him also, bud because that is the only reason why you still have a zero in your loss column.

As for Papi, what more can you ask of the guy. In the third with two on and no outs he deposited a pitch into the bullpen. Just like that the Sox had some life and were only trailing by one. It was now a ball game.

Of course since I am telling Lester to buy various people some good food and wine, he needs to make sure that Julian "Sexy Lips" Tavarez is very happy. After being up twice early in the game, Francona brought him into the game in a very key situation. Top of the fourth men on the corners and the Sox needing to stay close, he got the job done. 2 1/3 innings later he was walking off the mound to a rousing ovation after retiring the first nine batters he faced. Yep, a good outing turned in by Julian.

MDC, Okajima and Papelbon finished the game by only allowing a hit in the eight batters they faced while walking none. Yep a good quality performance from the bullpen, the second game in a row.

Of course it wouldn't have been that important if the Sox had actually figured out how to hit Jackson. Another good start from him in this game. In fact it was the second straight quality start vs the Sox. A 6.00 ERA for the year and a 5.87 ERA vs the Sox lifetime and the Sox could only get the three runs off of Papi's bat.

Papi's bat struck again in the ninth. Thanks to a leadoff walk by Reyes to Lugo, the Sox had the tying run on base. Pedroia failed to advance him to second (which might very well have been a good thing since 1st base was occupied). Four pitches later this game was over as Delmon Young misplayed the ball that settled into the first row seats. Red Sox win, Red Sox win!

Player watch:
Lugo 1/4 .241
Crisp 1/3 .272
Drew 2/2 .263

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

Today in History 9/10 - 9/13 1978

Have been meaning to post these look backs in game recaps but I keep on forgetting.
Some times it is good to remember the past.

1978 - Standings in AL

9/10 -

1. Boston - 86 - 56 (B. Sprowl lost a 7-4 Game to E. Figueroa)
2. New York - 86 - 56 the massacare was complete

9/11 -

1. Boston - 87 - 56 (B. Stanley beats O's 5-4 J. Kerrigan was the loser)
2. New York - 86 -56 (off day)

9/12 -

1. Boston - 87 - 57 (Loss to D. Martinez by M. Torrez)
2. New York - 86 - 57

9/13 -

1. New York - 87 - 57
2. Boston - 87 - 58 (D. Clyde of the Indians beats Eck 2-1)

Will start putting this in the recaps of the games as we go forward! Chow!!

Red Sox 07 Game 147 Preview

			@
E. Jackson		4-14, 6.00		J. Lester		4-0, 4.47
Devil Rays		61 - 84		Red Sox		88 - 58

Wednesday, September, 12      Fenway Park  ✠ 7:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	88	58	-	7-3	21	22	91	55
New York	82	62	5.0	7-3	13	17	86	58
Toronto	72	72	15.0	4-6	25	24	76	68
Baltimore	61	82	25.5	2-8	11	28	64	79
Tampa	61	84	26.5	6-4	20	15	60	85

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

Devil Rays: Jackson looked untouchable through 4 2/3 innings Friday night while holding to Blue Jays to no runs and no hits. But the good karma didn't last as the Jays scored seven runs and chased Jackson before he could get the last out in the sixth. Jackson continues to pitch off his fastball, spotting the heater with a much-improved slider and changeup. Jackson is 1-1 with a 5.87 ERA in five appearances against the Red Sox.

Red Sox: The left-hander is coming off perhaps his best start of the season, as he fired seven shutout innings in a 4-0 win over the Orioles. In fact, Lester, over his last two starts, has allowed just two runs over 13 innings. This is Lester's ninth start of the season. Remarkably, it will be the fourth against the Devil Rays. In those first three outings against Tampa Bay, Lester is 1-0 with a 4.74 ERA. This will be Lester's 12th career start at Fenway Park, where he's 5-1 with a 4.19 ERA.

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

Hitting History vs Jackson

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
D. Pedroia	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Ortiz	4	2	1	0	0	0	4	1	.500
K. Youkilis	4	1	1	0	0	0	1	1	.250
J.D. Drew	5	2	2	0	0	1	1	2	.400
J. Varitek	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000
B. Moss	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
C. Crisp	8	2	0	1	0	0	0	1	.250
E. Hinske	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	.000
Totals	34	7	4	1	0	1	9	11	.206

Well this team average is pretty terrible. Still there is not a lot of history there for this starting nine since only Mike Lowell (out due to some type of stomach bug) has faced Jackson at least ten times. So, what should we think of this. Keep the fingers crossed and hope that a pitcher who has a .280 batting average against for right handers and allows left handed opponents to hit .295 will continue that trend. I say that coming off of last nights big win the Sox smoke this guy.

Historical Pitching Lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Jackson	2	1	1	0	15 1/3	18	10	1	11	12	5.87	1.89	5.50
Lester	3	1	0	0	19	12	10	4	6	11	4.74	.95	6.33

Jackson figures include three relief appearances last year against the Sox. In those four innings he allowed two runs and walked five batters while K'ing 4. That has been his problem, a high number of walks to K's. The only win he has was on 8/22 of this year when he walked five batters while striking out three. That was a game in Tampa and he only allowed the one run. His last appearance at Fenway (7/4) he gave up seven runs even though he only walked one batter while striking out five. Look for that pitcher to show up tonight.

Lester has been hot and cold vs the Rays this year. What has hurt him is the long ball. If he can stay away from giving up the home runs then he should do fairly well.

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

Red Sox 07 Game 146 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	0	4	0	4	1	0	0	0	1		10	18	1
Boston	0	0	1	4	3	6	2	0	X		16	20	0

W: B. Corey (1-0) L: J. Switzer (0-1)
HR ➢ Bos: D. Ortiz (29), J. Ellsbury (3), D. Pedroia (7), J.D. Drew (8) TB: B. Harris (11), C. Pena (39)

☼ Sun - The Offense - Down 8-1 the sox came storming back to take the lead in the sixth.
☁ Cloud - Wakefield and Snyder - Tim was battered in his second start going for win #17 and Snyder gave up a three run homer to Pena making the score 8-1.

Game thoughts!

Where to start, should we start with the second consecutive lousy outing by Wakefield? How about the suckiness of Snyder? By the bottom half of the fourth the abysmal pitching had placed the Sox in a deep, deep 8-1 hole. With the spankees beating Toronto handily, this had the earmarks of being one very bad loss.

After the fourth though you quickly got caught up in an offensive explosion as the Sox scored 15, yes that is correct, 15 runs to take the lead. Our heroes were both familiar and unexpected.

The fourth inning started off with a single by Lowell, a check single by Drew and suddenly the Sox were in a position to score. After Youkilis flied out to right, Coco loaded the bases with another single. Lugo then plated one of the runners with a single to left and it was starting to look better for the team. The question was whether Kevin Cash, as in the Kevin Cash who was in a 0 for 12 hitting slump could help the cause.

Ka-ching, he came through by singling to right scoring both Drew and Coco. While that made the score 8 – 4 Rays, it also did something more significant. It caused the Rays to go to their bullpen. Things were really starting to look up. Ellsbury did his thing by drawing a walk and Pedroia finished off the scoring by hitting a sacrifice fly to center. 8 – 5 Rays after four.

Of course Snyder set up things by walking two batters with two outs in the fifth. Lopez though only allowed one of them to score, so the Sox were not as bad off as they could have been. 9 – 5 going to the home half of the inning.

Again the Sox started off with two singles by Lowell and Drew. A Youkilis walk loaded the bases for Coco. A sacrifice fly by Coco, a double by Lugo and a sacrifice fly by Cash brought the team back to a 9 – 8 deficit. That made the third straight inning in which the Sox had scored.

Finally, the Sox bullpen only faced three batters in an inning by getting an inning ending double play in the sixth. In relatively short order the Sox were back in the dugout ready to swing the bats. At this point it was not a matter of how but when would the home team either tie or take the lead.

As for the tie, well Pedroia handled that quickly as he led off the inning with a home run into the monster seats. Papi then did his part by singling to left. Lowell, for the third straight inning singled also bringing up the unexpected help of the night to the plate. In the first inning J.D. had watched a call third strike to end the first inning with runners on first and second base, which of course was nothing new this year from this particular player. Would he be able to keep his hot night going? Could he finally come through in the clutch? Those questions and more were going around in my head as he walked to the plate.

Those questions were answered in what felt like an eternal at bat. Starting with two balls J.D. took a strike, then a ball, then proceeded to foul off six straight pitches before drawing a bases loaded walk on a ball that was way up in the zone. Bases loaded, no outs and the score tied at nine for the only player who had not had a hit in this game, Kevin Youkilis. The second pitch ended that drought as he drove a pitch to deep center by the garage door clearing the bases on his triple. It was twelve to nine Sox and before the inning ended two more runs would score. Ten batters to the plate and a horrific loss now had the possibility of being a tremendous win.

With the outcome no longer in doubt, Drew and Ortiz added home runs in the seventh and Gagne pitched the ninth allowing one who cares run to score. A 16 – 10 win was in the books and the division lead was no longer in danger of becoming smaller. Magic number is now down to thirteen.

Player watch:

Lugo  2/5 .241
Crisp 2/4 .271
Drew 3/4 .259

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

Red Sox 07 Game 146 Preview

			@
A. Sonnanstine		5-9, 5.73		T. Wakefield		16-10, 4.39
Devil Rays		61 - 83		Red Sox		87 - 58

Monday, September, 11      Fenway Park  ✠ 7:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	87	58	-	7-3	21	22	91	54
New York	81	62	5.0	7-3	13	17	85	58
Toronto	72	71	14.0	5-5	25	24	76	67
Baltimore	61	81	24.5	3-7	11	28	64	78
Tampa	61	83	25.5	7-3	20	15	60	84

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

Devil Rays: Sonnanstine picked up his fifth win of the season on Wednesday night when he held the Orioles to two runs on nine hits while striking out six in six innings. The right-hander could easily have continued since he had thrown only 83 pitches when he was lifted, but the Rays were winning by a large margin. Sonnanstine relied mostly on a cut fastball that he kept down in the zone, which set up all of his other pitches nicely. Sonnanstine has now won four of his last five starts. He is 1-1 with a 7.71 ERA in two career starts against the Red Sox.

Red Sox: Wakefield had his streak of 26 straight starts with a no-decision snapped in his last outing. The Red Sox did come back to win the game over the Orioles by a score of 7-6. In Wakefield's first turn in the rotation since missing an outing with back woes, he gave up nine hits and six runs over 3 2/3 innings. If ever there is a team Wakefield would seem primed to rebound against, it's the Devil Rays. Wakefield has owned Tampa Bay in his career, going 19-2 with a 2.72 ERA.

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

Hitting History vs Sonnanstine

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Ellsbury	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
D. Pedroia	6	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	.000
D. Ortiz	6	2	0	1	0	1	0	1	.333
M. Lowell	5	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	.400
J.D. Drew	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.167
K. Youkilis	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	.167
C. Crisp	4	1	1	0	0	2	1	1	.250
J. Lugo	4	1	1	0	0	2	0	0	.250
D. Mirabelli	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	36	8	4	1	0	5	2	5	.222

Since the Sox have only faced Andy twice this year, there is not a lot of history here. Still what is here is a-ok. The only way you could improve this would be to let Varitek and his 3/5 start tonight. Of course, we could see Cash tonight for Mirabelli, but replacing zeros with zeros will not help this teams average against Sonnanstine. Still I like the teams chances here as the line-up will be as left handed as possible (only Hinske and Cora left on the bench). Sonnanstine's splits show lefties batting .304 with a .483 slugging percentage. Righties are at .260 with .446.

Historical Pitching Lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Sonnanstine	2	1	1	0	11 2/3	12	10	1	2	8	7.71	1.20	5.83
Wakefield	26	17	2	0	168 1/3	132	53	16	55	107	2.83	1.11	6.47
(T.W. at Fen)	13	9	2	0	85 1/3	72	32	9	22	48	3.38	1.10	6.56

Tim owns the Devil rays. While his numbers at Fenway are worse than overall still he does quite well there. The question is how will the bats do against the rookie. The last time Sonnanstine pitched at Fenway he got the win. Still I like our chances against the kid.

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