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By Jeff, 5/18/2004 12:48 pm

I’m moving this week, so I’m stealing this post from my post at SoSH…

Offense
c – Toby Hall .275/.306/.338 OR Brook Fordyce .184/.244/.237
1b – Tino Martinez .300/.407/.540
2b – Geoff Blum .208/.256/.390
3b – Aubrey Huff .211/.277/.331
ss – Julio Lugo .284/.322/.485
lf – Carl Crawford .300/.349/.421
cf – Rocco Baldelli .284/.342/.373
rf – Jose Cruz Jr .200/.295/.383
dh – Bob Fick .164/.225/.288
Team – .241/.303/.371
Red Sox – .267/.348/.436

Offensive Efficiency:
Tampa – 95.0%
Boston – 96.2%

‘Clutch number’
Tampa – 4.970
Boston – (-10.788)

Tampa has a shit offense. That’s really the long and the short of it. They have a few pretty good offensive players, but only Tino Martinez is hitting above where he should be, and Aubrey Huff, Bob Fick, Geoff Blum, and Jose Cruz creating a gigantic sucking noise from various spots in the batting order.

Tampa not only doesn’t have a good raw offense, but they are underperforming as well. Tampa has been aggressive on the basepaths, perhaps to a fault. They have stolen 72% of the bases they try to, though.

Fun sample size stat: An offense of 9 Kevin Youkilises (Youkilisi) would be expected to score 2266 runs.

Pitching
Tuesday – Wakefield (10.029) vs. Hendrickson (4.861)
Wednesday – Schilling (19.065) vs. Rob Bell (2004 debut)
Thursday – Lowe (5.677) vs. Zambrano (1.273)

Bullpens – Tampa (21.835) vs. Boston (40.571)
Usage – Tampa 2.7 RpG, 1.22 InnPApp
Boston 2.6 RpG, 1.10 InnPApp

The numbers are runs saved, which I have talked about on here quite a bit.

Bronson Arroyo would be the #1 on this staff by almost 5 runs.

Zambrano’s last two starts have lasted a combined 6.3 innings and 12 runs. He has had mixed success against Boston, posting a 5-2 record, 5.19 ERA, and is 1/3 in save opportunities.

Probably the most interesting match up of the series will be Mark Bellhorn vs. Mark Hendrickson. It’s a player that doesn’t swing at borderline pitches against one that throws little more than borderline pitches.

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By Jeff, 5/17/2004 11:26 am

Baseball is funny file: By the time Memorial Day rolls around, the #1 and #3 pitchers in the Cy Young voting would have faced off four times. Pedro also hasn’t faced a man not named Halladay, Vazquez, Sabathia, or Ponson yet. Except Joquin Benoit. Which one of these isn’t like the other?

ESPN has Cleveland facing off against the White Sox tonight at 7.

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By Jeff, 5/15/2004 12:46 pm

You know, last year I never got caught up in the whole Cowboy Up thing. It was a fun little slogan for the people on the team that actually had seen a horse. It was kinda stupid for 45-year-old accountants to wear cowboy hats and say it, but I think a lot of things are stupid. Plus it gave Yankee fans fodder to distract them from their personality-free brand of DroneBall that the 2003 New York outfit threw on the field.

For the first time of the 2004 season though, the whole ‘spirit’ of 2003 team came through.

The Red Sox staked out a two run first, with some help from a balk (most exciting play in baseball), a Wacky Pitch!, and an infield single (who said small ball doesn’t work. Right, logical people). The Sox tacked on another run with the Mark Bellhorn sacrifice fly plated Pokey Reese.

Par the course so far, in the bottom of the 6th, the Red Sox then promptly gave back the lead when Derek Lowe gave up a single, double, sac fly, and hit by pitch. The score was run to 3-1.

Then the Red Sox sieve defense took over, as, with Vernon Wells on third, and Josh Phelps on first, Eric Hinske grounded a ball to short. Reese flipped to Crespo, who threw it to first. Hinske beat out the relay. Jerry Remy mentioned how far away from second Crespo was positioned, making the double play almost impossible to turn. Lo and behold…

Hinske stole second, Simon Pond walked. Greg Zaun grounded a ball to third, which Mark Bellhorn threw away, scoring Hinske. Showing his typical pose, Lowe hit Chris Gomez with the next pitch. Terry Francona brought in Alan Embree with the bases loaded and two outs.

Embree retired Orlando Hudson with a ground ball to third.

The bats were silent in the 7th.

A funny thing happened in the 8th though. In a tie game, one where the pitching and field had let them down for one inning, the bats woke up, and the defense held. The best part about it was that it was the offense capitalizing on the mistakes of the Toronto defense.

Kerry Lightenberg comes in and Manny Ramirez reached on a infield single, and a throwing error by Gomez moved him to second. Jason Varitek was hit by a pitch. Brian Daubach thought it was 2001, and doubled in Ramirez. Millar thought it was May 2003, and singled in Varitek. Pinch runner Gabe Kapler scored on a Wacky Pitch! and Millar took third on a throwing error, this time by Zaun. Caser Crespo thought it was 1998 (or the last time he could hit, I’m assuming it’s high school) and doubled in Millar.

Valerio de los Santos came in just in time to allow Pokey Reese to sacrifice (!!!), recording the first out of the inning. In a 7-3 game, it is very important to move the runner up to third. Damon struck out. Bellhorn walked, after getting spun around on a very high, very close fast ball. Ortiz doubled in Crespo and Bellhorn. David McCarty remembered the rest of his career and struck out (suck out?).

On the bunt, I don’t get it. No reason, no method. No idea.

The Red Sox then held the Blue Jays the last two innings, using Scott Williamson and Keith Foulke, which was like using two nuclear warheads to kill a fly.

I’m as big a fan of massive retaliation as the next guy, but there was no need to use Williamson for a third day in a row, and use Foulke in a 6 run game. Call me stupid, but isn’t Jamie Brown, the guy just called up from Pawtucket, the perfect guy to eat up those two innings? If not, why is there a wasted roster spot on a 12th pitcher?

I don’t know either.

Several more notes:
*The groundball/fly ball chart on the right has been updated. Hooray!
*Yes, I have heard the Beltran rumors. And no, I will not write about it until it happens. As we learned from ARod, it’s better to say nothing and wait and see.
*Byung-Hyun Kim got knocked around in Pawtucket tonight. I’m more convinced than ever that he is hurt, and the ineffectiveness is due to returning too quickly.
*Bronson Arroyo vs. Pat Hentgen tomorrow at 1:05 pm. Day time in Toronto!

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By Jeff,

Kevin Youkilis makes his major league debut today against Pat Hentgen. He’s playing third and hitting eighth.

Who takes more pitches in this game, Bellhorn or Youkilis?

The answer is Bellhorn, 21 pitches (4.2 PpPA) saw more than Youkilis 16 (4.0 PpPA).

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By Sully, 5/14/2004 4:22 pm

- Gotta feel for M’s fans. With every right to do so, the fellas over at the USS Mariner have been killing Seattle GM Bill Bavasi and manager Bob Melvin. Bavasi threw his team under the bus yesterday, saying;

“They don’t play offense,” he said of his players. “They either don’t know how to play offense or they can’t.

Yes you are right Bill. But more to the point, there is no real sense in publicly making disparaging remarks like that when the team could not have reasonably been expected to hit in the first place. It’s unreal to me that it never occurred to this guy that adding players like Spiezio, Ibanez and Aurilia might not result in the offensive windfall Bavasi obviously thought it would.

See Sox fans, could be worse!!

- I hope folks can stay relaxed over the Sox’s struggles of the last couple of weeks. Frustrating though it may be, this team is too talented to continue to play as they have been. Hang in there.

- Joe Sheehan writes a pretty scathing indictment of San Francisco Giants GM Brian Sabean today. It’s a pay article but who cares? Any true baseball fan without membership at BP is missing out bigtime. Sheehan points out that, like Bavasi, Sabean has placed far too much faith in medicre-at-best players. Surrounding Barry Bonds with the likes of Jeffrey Hammonds, Dustin Mohr, Michael Tucker and company is downright criminal.

- Our old buddy Casey Fossum takes the hill for the Snakes tonight for the first time ever. The guy has been unhittable in three starts in Tuscon and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see Fossum have an excellent season. His peripherals have always been fantastic and I would be shocked if one of these years he didn’t put it all together and become a fine Major League pitcher. Maybe this is the year.

- Soxaholix has one of his best entries ever today. Ridiculous.

- In an unrelated story, my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvnia, makes its first NCAA lacrosse tournament appearance since 1989 on Sunday in Annapolis as they take on the United States Naval Academy, the nation’s #2 team. Exciting stuff.

- I am really busy this weekend so I do not know how much I will be able to post but I will try and get a weekend recap of sorts up before Sopranos time Sunday night.

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By Jeff, 5/13/2004 6:40 pm

There is a plague on the Red Sox, and it involves Mark Bellhorn.

It of course is not Bellhorn the player, but it’s fans that see his batting average, and his strikeouts and say he isn’t any good. The see him non-chalantly toss the ball to first, and say he’s just like Todd Walker.

It’s all crap.

Mark Bellhorn is at a disadvantage with the general fandom because his skills just happen to be contrary to the typical “payoff” skills that we’ve been taught by sports casters and high school coaches are important. His batting average is in the neighborhood of .221. He looks slow and sloppy on the field. He strikes out A LOT.

Unfortunately, none of that really matters in the world of baseball production.

Bellhorn’s batting average is .221. But his on-base is .384! That means he gets on base 38% of the time. More importantly, that means that he is only out 62% of the time. When an offense is scuffling, you need less outs wasted, not more.

Bellhorn’s fielding is derided by scouts and fans alike. I don’t know why though. He has made two errors at 2nd base. On the team, thats more than three-times less than Bill Mueller. He’s made less errors than Marcus Giles, Adam Kennedy, Orlando Hudson, Bret Boone, and Fernando Vina. His Zone Rating is better than Boone, Kennedy, Vina, Jose Vidro, and 14 other second baseman. Ulitmate Zone Ratings put him as an above-average defensive 2b. No one has been able to prove to me he’s an average 2b, never mind a bad one. My ears are open.

As I said before, Bellhorn makes an out 62% of the time he steps in the batters box. Among the regulars, the only men that are better are Manny Ramirez and Jason Varitek. That is 90 plate appearences that he has recorded an out. Forty-four percent of those outs have been via the strike out. Ironically enough, 44% is the same percentage Pokey Reese has grounded out. Can someone please explain to me, without using tired cliches, but actually prove to me, why Bellhorn’s strikeouts are worse than Reese’s ground outs. Or Nomars pop outs last year.

If you want to see the calibre of baseball fan you are dealing with, ask what they think of Mark Bellhorn. It will answer a lot of questions.

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By Sully,

Joy of Sox links to a story in today’s Buffalo News. Having lived 20 of my 24 years here in Boston, I have become quite adept at identifying hack sportswriters. Well this very well may be the most hacktastic article I have ever read. Something named Bob Dicesare took these shots, among others, at Ramirez;

“Manny Ramirez took a one-day leave from the Boston Red Sox on Monday to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.

How touching.

Let me know when he opts to become a naturalized human being.

A Dominican? An American? It matters not. Ramirez is, and always has been, an arrogant, standoffish soul, and no oath of citizenship can alter the base reality of the man.”

How many times do you think this chump has even spoken to Manny? To issue such hurtful remarks, surely he must know Manny awfully well.

His email address is at the bottom of the article and I encourage anybody and everybody to let Mr. Dicesare know just how dispicable this piece is.

How does crap like this even get past an editor?

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By Sully,

I didn’t get to see much of the game so I do not have a lot to say on it. Cliff Lee struck out 8 Red Sox in 6 innings and ran his record to 4-0. The Indians are a decent reliever or two from being a pretty good team.

Curt Schilling faces Miguel Batista tonight up in Toronto. The Blue Jays seem to be in a bit of turmoil after yesterday’s heartbreaking loss in Kansas City. Eric Hinske, with men on first and third and trying to protect a 1-run lead, did his best Roger Dorn impersonation and laid down next to a Mike Sweeney ground ball. The ball went into the left-field corner and Carlos Beltran scored the game-winning run all the way from first base. Jays reliever Terry Adams threw his hands up in the air in frustration and had this to say after the game:

“I made the pitch I needed to make, and he put the ball on the ground,” Adams said. “It’s out of my hands after that.”

Ouch.

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By Jeff, 5/12/2004 12:30 pm

To your right, you will see some changes.

Those changes my friends, are links. Click on them and you will get to read people such as us I talk about their teams. Its’s fun.

ALso coming soon, hopefully, is an additional page or two that has all the stats that I work on, and stuff like that. Right now, I am in the middle of looking at tendencies between groundball/flyball pitchers. A running total will hopefully be posted soon, so that you, the reader, can also track the progress.

Baseball is fun

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By Sully,

I was fortunate enough to attend last night’s game. Pedro was awesome and the official suck-pump of Dewey’s House, David McCarty, was the game’s hero. Onto the impressions…

- A day after becoming an American citizen, Manny took the field with a miniature American Flag in his hand. The crowd stood and cheered but it was an undeniably lukeworm reception for what ought to have been an overwhelmingly warm moment. Imagine if he had done this Opening Day of 2002 or in a postseason game in October of 2001? The ovation would have gone on for hours. For more insightful political commentary than I can provide, I would send you to Pandagon but I will just say that I don’t think that American pride is at an all-time high these days.

- The first two innings were terribly frustrating. The Tribe had three ground ball hits, all three of which I thought should have been outs. I know the scientific evidence says that Mark Bellhorn is, at worst, a slightly below average defender. But the anecdotal evidence is mounting that this guy just can’t get it done in the field. While one hit went off David Ortiz’s glove and was clearly his fault, a Jody Gerut single to Bellhorn’s left and an Omar Vizquel single up-the-middle were not hit terribly hard and appeared to be reachable.

- Pedro retired the final 16 batters he faced. It was a glimpse of the old Pedro. He was routinely hitting 92 MPH on the gun and had all his pitches working for him. Matt Lawton, who victimized Pedro last Thursday night with a lead-off home run at Jacobs Field, struck out three times and looked hopeless in the process. He gave up five hits but it should have only been two. He gave up two runs but should have been zero. He had eleven strikeouts. Pedro was dominant.

- Literally the very next pitch after I explained to my girlfriend that Gabe Kapler could hit lefties pretty well, he hammered a ball over the Green Monster. So I was feeling pretty smart….

- Literally the very next pitch after I finished explaining to my girlfriend that David Ortiz was overmatched by the tough lefthander, C.C. Sabathia, Ortiz turned on a fastball and put it 20 rows up into the seats in right field. I was happy to sound like a dolt.

- While I have been down on him a bit this season, I have to admit that Terry Francona managed a helluva game last night. Pinch-running Crespo for Ortiz and pinch-hitting for Reese with Daubach and then McCarty when Eric Wedge went to the southpaw Scott Stewart was tremendous. I also think he handled Pedro perfectly.

- Keith Foulke is awesome.

Tim Wakefield faces Cleveland’s young promising lefthander, Cliff Lee, tonight at Fenway.

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By Sully, 5/11/2004 8:50 am

-So Byung-Hyun Kim is no longer a starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Seems harsh after three starts but such is life when you have a manager that seems as inept as his predecessor with respect to handling a pitching staff. Kim was awful last Wednesday night, don’t get me wrong. But I thought he was pretty decent last night. He gave up two runs in the first inning on three Fenway specials – wall scrapers. Balls that would have been outs in literally every other Major League park. In the second, he gave up another two runs chiefly because Dave McCarty is useless (how’s your chin, bro?) and also because Kim and Varitek became mixed up on a particular pitch and not one but two runs scored on a passed ball. Then after setting down the Tribe in order in the third, Kim retired the first batter of the fourth and was only allowed to face three more batters. Lenny Dinardo came in and, in succession, gave up a single and a sacrifice fly. I guess the point I am trying to make by reviewing Kim’s outing in detail is that it is the job of the beat writer or the casual fan to simply worry about results. Yes, BK gave up five hits and three walks in 3 1/3 innings. Yes, Kim threw just 45 of his 85 pitches for strikes. But isn’t it the job of a management team to dig a bit deeper. How many balls did the Indians hit hard off Kim? Two? Three? And sure he threw a lot of balls but he was right around the plate all night. Isn’t that simply symptomatic of a player showing a little rust after missing virtually all of Spring Training? I think Kim caught a raw deal here. Still, he now moves to the bullpen and perhaps he can quickly recapture some of his command in some low leverage innings. Meanwhile, Bronson Arroyo will take his place in the rotation. He is someone in whom I have confidence but I hate to see the Sox fail to use someone of Kim’s ability optimally.

- Manny is now a U.S. citizen. Congrats, Manny! Take this with a grain of salt because it is definitely an observation from afar, but I think when Manny is old and reflects back on his life, he will regard 2004 as a watershed year in his life. He is on a great team, putting up some of his best numbers, comfortably communicating with the media for the first time and is now an American citizen. I’m happy for him.

- Pedro on the hill tonight and I will be in section 29. I imagine it will be low-scoring. C.C. Sabathia has been tough this year and Pedro really seemed to own the Tribe last Thursday.

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By Sully, 5/10/2004 6:26 pm

Couldn’t the same points have been made, only like this, in today’s Gammons piece.

“It’s always about hitting, and the lack of it, and the fact is that except for the odd lunar alignment — such as in 1995 — it comes back to the hitting, and lack of it.
There is a reason the Yankees and Red Sox are what they are, 5 and 1 games back of where they were through 31 games in 2003 respectively, specifically because the lineups they can afford at $107.3 and $64.85 million respectively, have under-performed thus far. Boston got to this day in first place because they were fortunate the Yankees’ offensive underperformance was greater than their own.

For all the Angels’ strong bullpen arms, the reason they survived so many injuries in the first month is their lineup, in which GM Bill Stoneman has invested $51 million in a slew of hitters that compliments their average starting pitching and tremendous bullpen quite nicely. Oakland has struggled, not simply because its big three has been worse than normal, but because their offense ranks just 10th in the American League. Ranking 5th and 1st respectively in runs scored in the NL currently, you can see exactly why the Cubs and Astros are such favorites.

New York and Boston are the two highest-revenues franchises, and they need that revenue for hitting because neither team has many homegrown position players; OK, Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Jeter may have come up through the respective systems but they are still in the minority on both clubs. The Angels drafted a few of their position players but Vladimir Guerrero, Jose Guillen and David Eckstein shoulder much of the load…”

And so on and so forth.

There are so many counter-examples to the worn and downright inaccurate adage, “pitching wins”, that it is hardly worth mentioning. Right off the top of my head I can name the 2002 Boston Red Sox and the 2003 Los Angeles Dodgers as teams that led their respective leagues in runs allowed and yet did not even sniff the postseason. And of course there are countless examples of teams that hit a ton but couldn’t prevent runs for the life of them and so those teams failed to experience great success as well. Fact is, there is no magic formula for winning baseball. It’s not pitching well, it’s not hitting well, it’s not having a great bullpen and it’s sure as hell not making outs.

You just have to try and score more runs than your opponent and whether that be by consistently winning pitcher’s duels or consistently outlasting your opponents in slug-fests doesn’t really matter.

It’s such a tired point but I needed to rant a bit after seeing that Gammons piece.

I am going to eat something so I can throw it up if BK pitches like he did last Thursday night.

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By Jeff,

Big stupid loss. Stupid, stupid loss.

Yesterday’s loss makes me cringe, because it was a winable game from the onset. There were three decisions that were made in the game yesterday that befuddled me.

1. Starting David McCarty

You have a first baseman/outfielder who has a very good reputation with the glove, yet really can’t hold his own with the bat. He starts games because of the overrating of his contributions, and he’s seen as a good clubhouse guy.

Of course I am talking about Terry Francona. I’m assuming that is why 43 plate appearances have been wasted on first baseman/outfielder with a .205/.295/.359 line.

2. Picking Malaska to face Carlos Beltran

The last three years:
As a lefty: .296/.365/.519
As a righty: .292/.362/.492

This year:
As a lefty: .337/.412/.687
As a righty: .233/.395/.500

Assuming you want to flip Beltran around and bat right handed with the bases loaded, Francona went with Mark Malaska. The options?

Mark Malaska:
vs. LHB .176/.222/.176
vs. RHB .333/.429/.500

Lenny DiNardo:
vs. LHB .100/.091/.100
vs. RHB .188/.278/.313

Alan Embree
vs. LHB .087/.115/.217
vs. RHB .167/.286/.375

There was some mention of Embree not being available, but no one really told Alan Embree. “I haven’t pitched that early in a game since the season started,” Embree said. “Are you going to waste it on one batter?” (Boston Globe) According the situation, Malaska would have been the worst choice, based on this sample. Last year, it would have been like tossing Scott Sauerbeck out there.

End result? Bases clearing double, game goes from 3-2 to 6-2 with one swing of the bat.

3. Not pinch hitting McCarty in the ninth

This is a small issue, but McCarty sucks. He sucks very, very much. Scott Sullivan on the mound, and while he usually keeps righties from doing anything, he turns lefties into Manny Ramirez. On the bench is Brian Daubach.

McCarty hits. By hits, I mean he creates an out, which for all the shit I give him, he does do at a fairly prolific rate. Daubach would have been a better pick.

Anyway, the struggling Cleveland Indians come to town tonight. Byung-hyun Kim pitches against Jeff D’Amico in a rematch that started the 4 game Sox win/5 game Indians loss streaks.

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By Sully,

I have heard Scott Boras is good, but if Derek Lowe thinks he is getting $10-12MM per over 4-5 years, he had better hope that Boras is damn good. Lowe yielded 5 walks and 5 hits in 5 2/3 innings pitched yesterday. His E.R.A. is now over 5 for the year and Sox management, while obviously concerned over Lowe’s performance, have to be privately chuckling at Boras’ ridiculous contract talk. Rewarding a player based on one season is imprudent enough. Rewarding a player based on one season that occurred two full seasons prior is downright lunacy. Lowe has every right to pursue as much money as he can. The Red Sox have every right to determine their own market value assessment for Lowe. Foolhardy though it may be, I think there are other franchises that will take a look at Lowe’s win total and reward him based on it. Lowe will not be a Red Sox next year.

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By Sully, 5/9/2004 12:41 pm

Pokey Reese hit 2 HR’s.

Jason Varitek stole 2 bases.

David McCarty hit a HR (still sucks).

G38 went the distance.

Great day.

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By Sully, 5/8/2004 1:12 am

I arrived at Copperfield’s if not at five on the nose, pretty darn close. I don’t know what it is but I love that spot for pre-gaming. I went to the end of the upstairs bar and parked myself, sipped my first beer and waited for my pal Fenny to arrive. I love that end of the bar at Copperfield’s because above the back bar on the wall at that end is a black and white photograph of the two most laughably disingenuous athletes of my conscientious time as a Boston sports fan, Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens. I just find the picture to be hilarious, the same way I might find a picture of Haim and Feldman to be hilarious. Anyway, good crowd at Copperfield’s and as my crew started to arrive, the good vibes started.

We sat down in our seats about five minutes before the first pitch and I was able to get the lineups onto my scorecard;

Berroa SS
Beltran CF
Sweeney DH
Gonzalez RF
Stairs LF
Randa 3B
Harvey 1B
Santiago C
Relaford 2B

Affeldt P

Damon CF
Bellhorn 2B
Ortiz DH
Ramirez LF
Millar 1B
Kapler RF
Mirabelli C
Mueller 3B
Reese SS

Wakefield P

Fresh off a 4-year, $11MM extension, Angel Berroa leads the game off with a slow chopper to 3rd that results in an infield single. It wasn’t an error but I swear at least 20 3rd basemen make this play. Bill Mueller charged hard (but not quickly), released quickly (but not accurately) and Berroa beat it. Tony Pena then hit and run, effectively staying out of what otherwise would have been a sure double play as Pokey Reese retired Beltran, 6-3. Then, capitalizing on Wakefield’s slow delivery, Berroa swiped 3rd and with 1 out, Mike Sweeney was able to score Berroa with another 6-3 groundout. 1-0 Kansas City.

Things were quiet until the top of the 3rd when the Red ox’s gloves once again failed them. More specifically, Mark Bellhorn’s glove once again failed them. Bellhorn is a Dewey’s House favorite so I do not want to mud sling but he has been terrible in the field this week. His error during a run-down with men on 1st and 3rd led to Kansas City’s 2nd run. In the home half of the third, the Sox got to Kansas City starter Jeremy Affeldt a bit. Johnny Damon hit a solo home run and the Sox were able to push across a second, game-tying run as well. Kevin Millar doubled home Mark Bellhorn, who had followed Damon’s home run with a single.

The Royals blew the game open a bit in the 5th. Five hits and a Bill Mueller error led to 4 Royals runs. The Fenway crowd grew uneasy.

Again, things stayed quiet until the Red Sox half of the 8th. This time Doug Mirabelli came up with the big hit, doubling home two Red Sox runs. The lead was 6-4 going into the ninth.

Mike MacDougal started the bottom of the ninth for the Royals and given the way the Sox have hit of late, there seemed to be little hope around the stadium for a Red Sox comeback. That changed quickly. Johnny Damon walked and Mark Bellhorn followed with a game tying 2-run home run. The place erupted. Ortiz then struck out and Manny walked. As he is known to do, Millar popped up. Jason Varitek then pinch hit for Gabe Kapler and roped what appeared to be a sharply hit single. But Juan Gonzalez took forever to get to the ball. Manny Ramirez never stopped hustling and third base coach Dale Sveum sent him. Gonzalez finally got the relay into Relaford who turned and fired but too late. Not so late of course that Ramirez should not have slid (he didn’t) but still, too late. Sox win, 7-6.

It was the most exciting regular season game I have attended in some time and I can’t wait to get back to Fenway tomorrow to see Curt Schilling for the first time in person.

I am really pumped for the SoSH bash.

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By Sully, 5/7/2004 10:00 am

All is right in the world. The Sox are back in sole possession of first place.

These are the Sox I know and love. Great starting pitching, solid offense and dependable relief work. Pedro shook off a woeful 1st inning going 7 strong, yielding just two singles and two walks after the first. Alan Embree worked the eighth and Keith Foulke finished the Tribe off in the ninth. Offensively, three Red Sox shouldered the load. After the Red Sox cut the Indians lead to 2-1 in the sixth, with two outs and nobody on Manny Ramirez hit another memorable home run. For all the press about how aloof and hell, even dumb folks seem to think Manny is, there is entirely too little written about the mad tactician he is at the plate. Ramirez drove a sharp 1 and 2 C.C. Sabathia slider into the right field seats for a game-tying solo home run. I am not sure there is another hitter (maybe Pujols) that could have driven this pitch the way Manny did. The other two offensive stars for the Sox were its double play combination. The pair combined slugged 1.000 for the game as Mark Bellhorn had 2 doubles and Pokey Reese a double and a triple.

I will be in attendance for tonight’s game against Kansas City. I will try and keep a fairly detailed ledger of the game and report back here as best I can. Tomorrow is the annual SoSH bash so again I will be at Fenway to watch a fellow member take the hill. Let’s just say I have every intention of being in no shape whatsoever to be able to report back on that game.

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By Jeff, 5/6/2004 11:43 pm

I missed probably the best matchup of this young season because I went to go see Lewis Black.

He is very funny.

But because of that, I completely missed my first game of the season. On Monday, I missed the third through ninth innings because of the Roots (amazing in concert), and yesterday, my friend Bobby turned 23. My exposure to the game was interupted by exposure to Dos Equis, and Newcastles.

So despite my best efforts, I have actually caught some of the Cleveland series.

Anyway, tomorrow begins the Kansas City Royals series. The Sox will win. How do you like THAT for anaylsis?

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By Sully,

So the Red Sox won last night and they broke out in a pretty big way. David Ortiz homered twice and Bill Mueller hit a key three-run blast that gave the Red Sox an 8-5 lead. That’s the good news. I feel compelled to point out the bad news because here at Dewey’s house we try and keep an even keel. When the Sox lose, even five straight, we try not to panic. By the same token, I believe it is necessary to not get overly excited over any one win or string of wins.

Byung-Hyun Kim sucked last night. He just did. His command was shaky all night and when he could find the plate, Tribe batters were able to get pretty good wood on the ball. Hell Omar Vizquel’s corpse homered off of him. Further complicating matters was the fact that Bronson Arroyo came in and pitched beautifully. Many will clamor about how Arroyo ought to replace Kim in Boston’s rotation but it’s bunk. Kim has the longer track record of success and will be just fine. Also, wasn’t it kind of nice to have a guy to stop the bleeding early on a night where the Sox starter clearly did not have his best stuff? I think Arroyo, despite his removal from the rotation, will prove to be an invaluable asset for the sox. Our 6th starter is better than most teams’ 3rd.

The defense, again, was pitiful last night. A routine grounder went right through Mark Bellhorn’s legs. The official scorer charged Kim with an error for a wide throw on a pick-off play at first base. I thought Brian Daubach should have had it but either way, it was terrible baseball. Finally, Kevin Millar kicked a ball right at him in right field that led to a run. Imagine being Johnny Damon with Manny on your right and Millar on your left. “Johnny, your responsible for 87% of the outfield, the other fellas will handle the remaining 13%.” Man do I miss Trot.

Pedro faces C.C. Sabathia tonight. It would behoove Pedro to regain some of his form if he would like to earn the sort of money he thinks he is worth over the next 3 or 4 years.

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By Jeff, 5/5/2004 11:53 am

You know what, I’m not upset about the loss.

Sure, I threw things when Derek Lowe got rocked in the first. I swore when Bill Mueller couldn’t make a throw, and Lowe showed his inner Loweness again. I was mad, when in a five run game, Terry Francona pulled Mike Timlin for Mark Malaska to get the lefty/lefty matchup.

But it doesn’t matter because the offense is showing signs of life.

In the 4th, they pieced together a few hits and scored a run when David McCarty grounded into a double play. Sure it sucks that McCarty, who is a tall Pokey Reese, was hitting 6th, and it sucks how much he sucks, but Daubach and Varitek got singles, and the inning would have probably have been bigger if their was a hitter up with the minimum competency required to keep a job in the major leagues.

In the 6th, Manny Ramirez hit a bomb, watched it, and put his head down and walked to first. Indians pitcher Jason Davis said something to him. Manny said something back and continued on his route around the bases. Personally, I like it when hitters admire their handiwork, within reason. In my thinking, Manny was well within reason to watch. He hit a complete bomb. I’m not a big fan of pitchers walking toward a hitter, and screaming at him. Ah, well, que sera.

In the ninth…Double, walk, ground out, single (scores Daubach), home run, single, ground out, strike out. Four runs, and could have been more if David Ortiz/Bill Mueller/Manny Ramirez got just one hit in that rally. No matter. By the way, the speedball Manny struck out on was nasty. Unfortunately for Mr. Betancourt, I get the feeling if he throws it again, Manny will crush it. He was right on it, just a little bit late.

Today we have some Kim against some D’Amico. If you see someone named Kim today, wish her luck. Every little bit helps.