2009 Red Sox Game 94 Preview

Buchholz vs Nippert, 3 game of this series and the Sox have sucked. Time to turn this boat around boys. 8:05 be there or ...

Scouting Report:
Red Sox: Buchholz replaces Tim Wakefield, who was placed on the disabled list with a strained lower back. This is Buchholz's second stint with the Red Sox in less than a week. He started against the Blue Jays on July 17 and beat them, 4-1, in Toronto. He allowed one run on four hits and three walks with three strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings. Buchholz is 7-3 with a 2.36 ERA in 17 games, including 16 starts, at Triple-A Pawtucket. He is 6-10 with a 5.35 ERA in 21 career Major League games, including 19 starts. He threw six scoreless innings in an 8-3 victory over the Rangers in his only start against them on April 21, 2008.

Rangers: Nippert replaces Vicente Padilla, who was scratched because of the flu. Nippert earned his first victory with two scoreless innings in relief in a 5-3 victory in 12 innings over the Twins on Sunday. He has a 7.36 ERA in two starts for the Rangers this year and is 3-5 with a 6.75 ERA in 13 career starts. He is 0-1 with an 11.05 ERA in three relief appearances against the Red Sox in his career.

2009 Red Sox Game 93 Preview

Beckett vs Hunter - Ballpark at Arlington 8:05 (et)

Scouting Report:

Red Sox: Beckett earned his 100th career victory on July 12, firing a three-hit, complete-game shutout against Kansas City at Fenway Park. The 33rd active player to reach that plateau, he allowed just three hits to the free-swinging Royals. A native of Spring, Texas, Beckett is 2-1 with a 3.63 ERA and a 23/4 strikeout-to-walk ratio in four career starts against the Rangers.

Rangers: Hunter earned a tough-luck no-decision after throwing six shutout innings against the Mariners last time out. That was his second-longest outing of the season. In four consecutive outings this season, he has allowed three runs, two, one and no runs. Hunter is 1-2 over five starts with a 5.81 ERA over 26 1/3 innings pitched in his career at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. This season, however, he's posted a 3.18 ERA over 17 innings there.

Time for this team to get its act together. Be there or ...

2009 Red Sox Game 92 Preview

Smoltz vs Millwood at the Ballpark in Arlington. 8:05 p.m. (et)

From MLB.com -

Scouting Report:

Red Sox: Smoltz closed out the first half by earning his first victory since April 17, 2008 -- a span of 450 days. The 42-year-old righty tossed five innings of one-run ball against the Royals on July 11 at Fenway Park, striking out a season-high seven. In one career appearance at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Smoltz recorded a three-out save.

Rangers: Millwood allowed four earned runs over six innings against the Mariners in his most recent start on July 11. He has run into a rough stretch, seeing his season ERA steadily increase to 3.46 from 2.64 over his past three starts. Manager Ron Washington decided to give Millwood some more time to rest -- he will be going on eight days after his last start. Millwood entered the All-Star break atop the American League in innings pitched and only one-third of an inning behind Adam Wainwright for the Major League lead. He has thrown 110 pitches in 13 of 19 starts this season.

Be there or be ...

2009 Red Sox Game 91 Preview

Sunday, July 19     Rogers Centre 1:07 PM ET
Jon Lester, LHP (8-6, 3.87) Red Sox (55-35)
    @    
Roy Halladay, RHP (10-3, 2.85) Blue Jays (45-47)

Scouting Report:

Red Sox: Lester enters the second half of the season on a bona fide hot streak. The 25-year-old lefty has allowed three runs or fewer in each of his past eight starts since May 31, yielding one run or fewer in six of those outings. Just 21 strikeouts shy of last year's career-high total of 152, Lester is 3-2 with a 3.25 ERA and a 39/20 strikeout-to-walk ratio in seven career starts against the Blue Jays.

Blue Jays: Fresh off a start for the American League in the All-Star Game, Halladay returns to the Jays' rotation in search of his first win since June 7. Over his past four starts, including an injury-shortened outing on June 12 that led to a two-week stint on the disabled list with a right groin issue, Doc has gone 0-2 with a 4.30 ERA. Halladay allowed three runs on nine hits with eight strikeouts and no walks over seven innings in a losing effort on July 9 at Tampa Bay.

Hallady is 7-4 vs the Sox at Toronto, with a 4.65 ERA. Which means he is 5-8 at Fenway.
Lester is terrible at Toronto though. 1-2 in 4 starts with a 5.73 ERA. Jon needs to step up and compete today.

2009 Red Sox Game 90 Preview

Am sorry, but these numbers do not inspire me with confidence



Penny vs Rzepczynski at 1:07 p.m. be there or ...

2009 Red Sox Game 87 Preview

Mech vs Smoltz in game 3 of the KC Series, game 9 of the homestand (4-4), Smoltz makes his 2nd start at Fenway this year, I totally expect a better result 7:05 p.m. be there or ...

As for game 86, I think this picture pretty much sums it up!!!

2009 Red Sox Game 86 Preview

Bannister vs Lester game 2 of KC Series, game 8 of the homestand (3-4), Lester faces the Royals for the first time since his no hitter. 7:05 p.m. be there or ...

2009 Red Sox Game 85 Preview

Hochevar vs Penny - 7:05 p.m. be there or ...

Mr. D D'onofrio weighs in on the Halladay speculation, while I may not agree with him it is always a good read!!!

2009 Red Sox Game 84 Preview

Tonight Timmy goes for win 11, at home Mr. Knuckleball is 4-2 vs the A's. 7:05, be there or ...

2009 Red Sox Game 83 Preview

Time for Beckett to show he is the stopper. 7:05, be there or ...

2009 Red Sox Game 82 Preview

Smoltz makes his Fenway debut as a Sox. Be there or ....

2009Red Sox Game 79 Preview

Wakefield overall vs the Mariners -

Games	W	L	IP	H	BB	K	ERA
25	4	9	126.3	125	54	92	4.06

Wakefield at home -

Games	W	L	IP	H	BB	K	ERA
14	3	5	73	72	25	50	3.45

I like him better at home than on the road vs these guys

2009Red Sox Game 72 Preview

Tonight it is on, Smoltzie joins the Rotation.

Senior Pictures

Pics of B - Fly :

Senior Picture

One I liked but she didn't

Another one that I liked.

2009 Red Sox Game 7 Preview

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J. Lester		0-1, 9.00		D. Braden		0-1, 4.50
Red Sox		2-4		Athletics		2-4

Monday, April 13, 2009       Oakland Coliseum    ✠ 10:05 p.m. ET

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Red Sox:  -  Lester tries to bounce back from a shaky first outing, in which he gave up eight hits and five runs over five innings to the Tampa Bay Rays. Lester came out strong in that one, striking out five over the first two innings. This is his third career start at the Colisuem, where he is 1-1 with a 2.31 ERA. Lifetime against the A's, Lester is 2-2 with a 3.94 ERA. He hopes to perform better on the road than he did last year, when he went 5-5 with a 4.09 ERA.

Athletics: - In the first Opening Day assignment of his career, Braden -- at 25 the oldest member of Oakland's starting rotation -- held the host Angels to three runs over six innings but was outpitched by Halos lefty Joe Saunders, who blanked the A's on three hits over 6 2/3 innings. Braden gave up nine hits, none bigger than Howard Kendrick's opposite-field homer in the fifth inning. A soft-tossing lefty who relies heavily on command, Braden walked one and struck out three on 97 pitches. He faced the Mariners twice last season, both times in relief, and allowed two earned runs in two innings. He's 0-1 with an 8.71 ERA over 10 1/3 innings against Seattle for his career.

?WTF? Beats me what they are talking about, the day by day shows Braden pitched once against the sox, last August when he went 3 1/3 allowing 4 earned runs at Fenway in a loss. ?WTF?

Filed under the Baseball is a funny game, especially when it comes to stats column.

Last three years the Sox are 6-11 at Oakland with a 4.14 ERA with Beckett, Schilling, Matsuzaka, Okajima and Lester getting the wins. Only Matsuzaka and Schilling have a .500 record or better as starters though.

The funny part, if you look at the last five years though the Sox are 10-13 (4-2) with a 4.46 ERA. Almost 1/2 of a run increase in the ERA and they won almost as many games in those two years than they have won in the last three years. Some times you just never know in this game.

♊ -   Insanity is part of the times. You must learn to embrace the madness. Let it fire you.

2009 Red Sox Week 1 Stats Recap

Ok, so week 1 is in the books and not a moment too soon. The Season is not off to the best of starts but hey, what are you going to do jump off a bridge? A long season has just started and we are only 4% through the season, plenty of time to make up lost ground.

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

Batting Stats

	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR	RBI	BB	K	GDP	BA	OBA	Slug%
Opp	198	54	13	1	9	27	26	42	7	.273	.362	.485
AL	2954	760	164	14	98	398	314	602	71	.257	.334	.422
Red Sox	198	48	10	1	8	20	24	36	7	.242	.329	.424

Not very good splits for the Sox. Those opposing numbers means that the Sox Pitchers have not been doing their job either. The problem for the Sox is the batting average. They just need to get more hits (doh!). Surprisingly, it was the Angels that really kills the pitchers. .289 / .375 / .485 against the Angels this past weekend and that included two Quality Starts by Wakefield and Penny.

As bad as the Sox were though, it was even worse when they had runners in scoring position - 8/46 with a .174 / .304 / .261 in that situation. Opponents were 20/66 with .303 / .392 / .409. No wonder they went 2-4 for the week.

Pitching Stats -

	GS	CG	W	L	W Pct	SV	SHo	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	HBP	BK	WP	ERA
OPP	6	0	4	2	.667	4	0	53	48	22	19	8	24	36	2	0	1	3.23
Red Sox	6	0	2	4	.333	2	0	52	54	29	29	9	26	42	3	1	1	5.02

That is UGLY - a week to forget!!!

♊ -   Insanity is part of the times. You must learn to embrace the madness. Let it fire you.

2009 Red Sox Game 6 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	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	1		4	9	0
LAA	0	0	3	0	1	0	0	1	X		5	10	2

W: D. Moseley (1-0) L: J. Beckett (1-1) S: B. Fuentes(2)
HR ➢ Bos: J.D. Drew (1), K. Youkilis (1) LAA: V. Guerrero (1)

✫       - B. Abreu - His two run single made got the lead for the Angels and they never gave it up.
✫✫     - V. Guerrero - His solo bomb gave the final winning margin
✫✫✫   - Youkilis and Drew for their back to backs

⋔ Fork - The entire offense, another day, same song, different verse - 1-10 RISP and 10 LOB.

Game thoughts!

Beckett looked good until the third. The third saw the Angels get a couple of seeing eye singles and then the big hit was the Abreu single to right that scored two runs. Of course if Drew hadn't missed the cut off man on the previous play, there would have been only one run scored on that hit.

I have to be honest, this is getting old though, another day and another game and the Sox are absolutely sucking with Runners In Scoring Position. I know this team is better than it has shown so far, but geez, it is tough to think of the last place Red Sox.


♊ -   Insanity is part of the times. You must learn to embrace the madness. Let it fire you.

2009 Red Sox Game 6 Preview

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Josh Beckett		1-0, 1.29		Dustin Moseley		0-0, 4.50
Red Sox		2-3		Angels		2-3

Sunday, April 12, 2009     Angel Stadium of Anaheim  ✠  3:35 p.m. ET

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From MLB.com Scouting Report

Red Sox:  Beckett was in top form on Opening Day, firing seven strong innings against the Rays, allowing two hits and a run while striking out 10. Beckett has struck out 10 or more in a game nine times in his career. Beckett pitched well on the road last season, going 7-5 with a 2.85 ERA. In his career against the Angels, the righty is 2-2 with a 3.99 ERA. At Angel Stadium, he is 1-1 with a 3.21 ERA.

Angels:  Moseley delivered a solid season debut, yielding three earned runs on nine hits across six innings against the A's on Tuesday while striking out four men and walking none. All the damage came in one inning when the A's bunched together four singles for three runs. Making good use of his two-seam fastball, Moseley got ground-ball outs when he needed them. He has faced the Red Sox twice in his career and has no record and an ERA of 8.10.

♊ -   Insanity is part of the times. You must learn to embrace the madness. Let it fire you.

2009 Red Sox Game 5 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	2	0	2	0	1		5	8	0
LAA	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1		4	8	0

W: B. Penny (1-0) L: J. Saunders (1-1) H: R. Ramirez (1) S: J. Papelbon(2)
HR ➢ Bos: M. Lowell (1), (2) J. Bay (2) LAA: (2) M. Napoli (2), T. Hunter (1)

✫       - J. Bay - Two, count them, two HR's with 3 RBI's. The Sox needed every one of them.
✫✫     - M. Lowell - His two run shot (with Bay on base) got the Sox offense going.
✫✫✫   - B. Penny - 6 innings pitched and only 84 pitches thrown, yeah boy!!!

⋔ Fork - None, but Papelbon was threatening.

Game thoughts!

Tightly played game with all of the Sox runs coming off of the Home Runs. A much needed win and good game by everyone. If Penny gives us 30 more starts like this one, the Sox will be more than happy with him this year.

After 35+ pitches Papelbon is done in this series, but man did he struggle. The fastball was all over the place today.

Factoid - A nine game losing streak to the Angels was broken.

♊ -   Insanity is part of the times. You must learn to embrace the madness. Let it fire you.

2009 Red Sox Game 5 Preview

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Brad Penny		0-0, 0.00		J. Saunders		1-0, 0.00
Red Sox		1-3		Angels		2-2

Saturday, April 11, 2009      Angel Stadium of Anaheim ✠ 4:10 p.m. ET

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report 

Red Sox:  -   The right-hander is determined to recover from his injury-plagued 2008, when he went 6-9 with a 6.27 ERA for the Dodgers. Penny would love to get back to the level when he won 16 games in 2006 and 2007, making the All-Star team in both seasons. This is Penny's first season with the Red Sox. He has a career record of 94-75 with a 4.06 ERA. Penny is 1-3 with a 4.99 ERA in five career starts against the Angels. At Angel Stadium, he is 1-2 with a 5.68 ERA.

Angels:  -   Saunders is coming off a dominant performance in the season opener against the A's on Monday in Anaheim. The 2008 AL All-Star yielded just three hits and two walks while striking out two, coming out of the chute firing bullets just as he had last season when he beat the Twins in his debut en route to a 5-0 April and 6-0 start. In fact, you might call him Mr. April. No ordinary Joe, Saunders is 8-0 with a 1.84 career ERA in the opening month of his two seasons and 14 days of Major League service time. His two-seam fastball was a big pitch against the A's, jamming hitters and inducing grounders in key situations. Intensely competitive, Saunders has enjoyed some of his best games and biggest moments against the Red Sox. He's 4-0 against Boston in his career with a 2.89 ERA in six games. He was 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA in three outings against Boston in 2008. O great another guy who owns the Sox. Just beam me up now scotty!