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By Sully, 5/11/2005 8:19 am

I am throwing up a recap too….

Last night the Red Sox won a game they absolutely should have won though very easily could have lost. They hit an unspectacular .192/.344/.385 on the night, a downright Ruthean line however when compared to the puny .098/.176/.129 put up by their counterparts in green and gold. The teams’ respective strengths and weaknesses were on full display all night long. The A’s pitched pretty well, fielded excellently and featured an anemic offense. The Red Sox pitched the ball well, put runners on all night, had a tough time scoring them and fielded like a bunch of asshats.

The Red Sox allowed a run because of poor fielding in the first and got out of the inning thanks to a bit of good fortune. Boston’s starter, Bronson Arroyo, walked Oaklnad leadoff man Mark Kotsay to start the game. He then struck out Mark Ellis before yielding a single to Eric Chavez. With men on the corners and one out, Erubiel Durazo hit a hard grounder right to first-baseman Kevin Millar for what really was a taylor made double play ball. Inexplicably, Millar threw home…from a knee…as the momentum of the grounder (8 inches to his right) tipped him over on his right side – all the more reason to go to 2nd with it. The throw plateward was 5 feet wide of home and short-hopped Jason Varitek to boot. Bobby Kielty roped the next pitch from Arroyo, only to have it end up in Millar’s glove for a lineout. Scott Hatteberg flew out to end the threat.

The Red Sox would pressure Oakland all evening long but until the ninth inning could only muster a run on a Johnny Damon 2-out single that plated Edgar Renteria in the 5th. Double plays plagued the Sox all game as David Ortiz grounded into two of them, while Bill Mueller and Jay Payton (in a pinch hitting role) each grounded into one as well. Four double plays in a game is a remarkable total and will stall any offense.

What the hell can we say about Johnny Damon? He was 3 for 3 with a walk last night and is now hitting an unbelievable .387/.422/.511on the season. The walk rate and high batting average suggests it is somewhat of a mirage but who cares at this point? The guy is getting it done and should be commended for it. Some of his lineup mates ought to send him a fruit basket, a bean pie or at least a lap dance for carrying them as he has.

After the first inning, Bronson Arroyo really settled down. He retired 15 of 16 batters he faced between the second and the sixth, yielding no hits and just a walk to Scott Hatteberg in the process. The seventh was weird. In a 1-1 game, Arroyo gave up a deep, wall-ball double to Bobby Kielty on a pitch he left up in the zone to lead off the inning. Scott Hatteberg followed with an infield single that Arroyo really should have fielded himself. Arroyo then got Eric Byrnes to strikeout before he made his second, more costly fielding blunder of the inning. Adam Melheuse tapped a ball right back to him with men on first and third. Arroyo fielded the ball, looked at Kielty at third and then threw to first base. Two problems. One, Arroyo might as well not have looked because what he saw did not inspire him to make the correct play. Kielty was breaking home the whole time and even though Arroyo saw this, he turned to his left and threw to first. The second problem was that our power hitting first baseman failed to place his left foot on first base as he received Bronson Arroyo’s throw, instead deciding to place it a foot or so in front of the base. So on a tapper back to the mound with men on first and third with one out in a tie game in the seventh, the Red Sox failed to record an out. Fortunately, no more damage would be done that inning.

The most standard rules of human behavioral ethics prevent me from repeating here some of the things I was saying about Millar at this point of the game. He had made two plays, throwing to the wrong base and failing to touch first base on a ground ball, that would be considered wholly unacceptable for a Pony League first baseman. How can a player so devoid of the basic skills needed to be an acceptable first baseman, both at the plate and with the glove, also lack baseball instincts? I mean Doug Mientkiewicz sucks and so does John Olerud but neither will kill you with recurring brain farts.

The A’s clung to their lead thanks to some masterful pitching from their promising reliever, Huston Street. Octavio Dotel took the ball to nail down the save in the ninth. I happened to be talking to Jeff over Instant Messenger at the start of the inning and when I saw that Millar would be the third batter to face Dotel, I said to Jeff, “if he sees 4 pitches from Dotel it will be a moral victory”. After all, Millar had been made to look foolish by Huston Street earlier in the game and the nastiest righthanders tend to have their way with him anyway. Well after a David Ortiz walk with one out he would see five pitches, not four, and notch not just a moral victory, but a real victory for the Boston Red Sox as he launched Dotel’s fifth offering to him into the Green Monster seats. The Red Sox had won, 3-2.

Such is life rooting for a team with Kevin Millar on it. I have gone from loving him (Apr. thru Jun. 2003), to tiring of him (Jul. thru Oct. 2003), to actually hating him (Apr. thru Jun. 2004), to gaining a new appreciation for him (Jul. thru Oct. 2004), to mocking him every opportunity I get (Apr. thru mid-May 2005). I think I maybe just ought to chill out…

…at least for the next two weeks or so as he hits .500/.700/1.300.

Day ball today, friends, and it sure is gorgeous out. Enjoy!

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By Mullet,

“It was definitely the Kevin Millar show tonight,” smiled Sox manager Terry Francona. “He was involved in every aspect of that ballgame.”

That quote is straight out of Nick Cafardo’s summary of the Sox 3-2 victory over the A’s. And, indeed, it was the Kevin Millar show as Millar managed to show over the course of 9 innings why he might be the most frustrating figure on the Boston Red Sox.

Here’s a 1B who, just a few days ago, I mentioned was performing below replacement level. He’s the same player whose first home run of the year caused Sully to break out in song. To make matters worse, Millar nearly ruined another solid performance by Bronson Arroyo with two errors in the field (including another case of his incessantly annoying trait of removing his foot from first base before the umpire has called the runner out, which has cost the Red Sox already this year).

But Millar wasn’t all bad. The second error was, arguably, the fault of Arroyo (6.2 IP, 4K, 3BB, 3H) who didn’t fully look back Bobby Kielty to third before throwing to Millar at first, causing the Kentucky Fried Chickenman to rush his throw home.

Baseball is a special game, though, and it often gives the goats and villians of a game a chance to redeem themselves. Or at least it seems that way. Last night was no exception. With 1 out in the 9th inning, trailing by a single run, Kevin Millar strode to the plate, probably to the strains of Puddle of Mudd (because he’s even frustrating in his musical choices). With David Ortiz on first, having drawn a walk from A’s closer Octavio Dotel, Millar had his chance at redemption. Running the count to 2-2, Millar sat on a fastball (which is pretty much all he ever does), Dotel delivered a fastball, and Millar achieved redemption, hitting the walkoff bomb.

Then the Fenway speakers blared “Dirty Water,” a song choice that, we can all agree, is never frustrating.

Welcome back, Kevin Millar, above replacement level player. We’re glad to have you here and your name is a lot easier to spell than that Mientkiewicz guy. And you never stole our World Series ball. I’m sorry to have ever doubted you. Have some KFC on me, my man.

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By Sully, 5/10/2005 8:11 am

Tim Wakefield was shaky, but thanks to phenomenal run support and a penchant for wiggling out of jams, he was able to get a victory. Despite the early loss of Manny Ramirez, who was plunked on the head by Oakland starter Dan Haren, the offense was bangin’ all night. Trot Nixon and Kevin Millar led the way, each homering while Nixon added a long double to the deepest part of Fenway as well. The Sox hit .333/.429/.583 on the night.

Oakland played a brutal game, committing 3 errors and leaving 12 men on base. The night might have been a lot different for Dan Haren had he received more defensive support. He looked very good at times, it was just that, unlike Wakefield, he was unable to make the big pitches he needed to in order to work his way out of trouble. Nick Cafardo has the recap this morning in the Globe.

Tonight it’s Kirk Saarloos against Bronson Arroyo. More righthanded mediocrity for Trot et al to feast upon. Enjoy.

Comments (3)

By Sully,

Now I’ve heard there was a big, fat turd
That Tito played, and no one said a word
But you don’t really care for homers, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
He’s round and tall, can’t get much lift
The baffled fan composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw him swinging for the roof
His warning track power would serve to stew you
Couldn’t seem
To get on a tear
Still kept his job, wouldn’t cut his hair
And from your faith he drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took his name in vain
Do you even watch the games?
But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?
Couldn’t slug his weight
Just ate and ate
A non-existant home run rate
Twas all we could hope for – replacement level

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I watched and watched
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though
Turns out I’m wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Congrats, Kevin!

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By Jimmy,

Sully and Mullet do a good job with game stories. Much better than I do.

What I do well is getting an idea, and making a fun little project for myself that usually involves a lot of work and not much pay off. Then I bore you with it, and you keep coming back. You are the birds, and I’m the crazy old guy that gives you bread by the pond. I didn’t poison this batch.

If you remember, at the beginning of the season, we all wrote some previews. All thirty teams were covered, and they can be found in our archives. In those previews, we posted an expected record for each team. It was unscientific, to the point where if you add it all up, we were 40 games over .500. An impossibilty for the league.

Anyway, now that we are roughly a month away from these previews and Randy Johnson toeing the rubber vs. Johnny Damon, I decided to track something…how close we were to our guesses.

So what I did was take our projected W/L, and compared them to what pace the team was on. For example, I picked Pittsburgh to win 75 games. They are on pace for 68 wins, which would give me a -7. Simple as that.

Here are the standings…
Mike Fortuna +7 (1.7 ave)
Pat Sullivan -19 (-2.7 ave)
Chris Klemmer -34 (-11.2 ave)
Jeff Kuhn -95 (-11.9 ave)
Ryan Toohil 120 (15.0 ave)

I’m the most optomistic person here, over shooting by an average of 12 wins. Mullet is pessimistic enough to be undershooting 15. The best part about that is that him and I basically agree on everything.

Where did it all go wrong for me?

Well, that Pittsburgh example was my best. Houston was my worst…missing by 22. In fact, I also missed Cincinnati, Oakland, and Cleveland by 15 wins, in the optomistic side. I only had one team I underestimated so far, and that’s Los Angeles, who is at a 99 win pace right now. I picked them for 89 wins.

The most lopsided +/- belongs to our friend Mullet, who so far is off 37 games with Chicago…and 30 with Baltimore…and 29 with Arizona.

As a cool little thing, Mullet (Texas), Fortuna (Toronto) and Sully (Detriot) are right on pace.

So why should you care? I dunno, but I’m gonna keep boring you with it anyway! Beauty of running your own blog.

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By Mullet, 5/9/2005 8:51 am

Game 1:
Jeremi Gonzalez threw 5 innings of no-hit ball (well, between Ichiro singles leading off the 1st and the 6th) on a raw, windy day at Fenway. Thanks to a friend (thanks Rick!), I got to watch the festivities from atop the Monster, where I think it was about 12 degrees. Gonzalez worked very quickly, striking out 6, walking 2, and giving up a total of 4 hits over 5.2 innings.

Efficiency was the word of the day, as the Sox offense put together 6 runs on 10 hits, all off of Seattle starter Joel Pineiro. Sox hitters were jumping all over Pineiro, only drawing a single walk (and a costly hit-by-pitch that knocked Manny out of the most of both games), hitting hard a majority of the pitches that Pineiro threw in the zone. Kevin Millar nearly had his first HR of the year, narrowly missing depositing a rocket up into the Monster seats. He and Mirabelli had probable homers knocked down by the stiff breeze coming in from left field. Millar’s blast would have been another Sox grand slam, but instead resulted in a bases clearing double, getting the Sox out to a 3-1 lead.

The game was never really in doubt after that point. The Sox added a few insurance runs before Gonzalez ran out of gas in the 6th and gave up 3 straight hits to the top of the Mariners’ order. Adrian Beltre hit a shot to centerfield that scored Ichiro and Randy Winn. That was it for Gonzalez, who gave way to a parade of Sox relievers who finished out the game without allowing a run. Kevin Youkilis and Ramon Vazquez helped to keep the Mariners at bay, each making a couple of nifty defensive plays in the later innings. The game ended in a brisk 2 and a half hours in front of a smaller than usual crowd on Mother’s Day.

Game 2:
The big news in Game 2 was the debut of two pitchers for Boston, starter Wade Miller and reliever Cla Meredith. Miller looked very good in his first major league start since last season, touching the mid 90s, but sitting nicely in the low 90s and featuring a nasty breaking ball that kept the Mariners off balance for most of the game.

Miller went 5 innings, giving up just 2 runs on 3 hits, and striking out 6 — all on 92 pitches. Pulling Miller at that point was a smart move by Terry Francona, as there’s no reason to ask for much more from Miller, especially on such a raw, rainy night.

Francona followed up that brain stroke with a pretty significant brain fart. He called on Meredith to come into a 2-2 game in the 7th inning with a runner on and 2 outs. Meredith, who relies on a deceptive three-quarters/sidearm delivery and a sinking fastball to get groundball outs, came in and threw a bunch of high 80s fastballs up and away. Nothing was below the belt, which is where he generally lives. Meredith walked the bases full before leaving a pitch up to Richie Sexson, who did what he normall does to mediocre fastballs up in the zone: deposited it in the stands. Cla’s first homer allowed as a pro broke open the game, giving the M’s a 6-2 lead that they would never relinquish.

The good news is, it sounds like Cla Meredith is here for more than just a couple innings. Chris Snow captured both Francona and Meredith sounding optimistic, even after the less-than-successful debut:

“The reason we gave him the ball in that situation is we think he can handle it,” Francona said. “He overthrew a little, missed his spot, and he paid the price. I don’t think that will happen a lot.”

Meredith — who never had given up a home run in his minor league career (47 innings) — sounded anxious to pitch again.

“I wasn’t nervous by any means,” he said. “I was ready to rock and roll. Maybe a little too much adrenaline.”

In a bit of roster news, the Sox are still carrying 12 pitchers after all of the weekend roster moves, which is getting harder and harder to defend now that Manny Ramirez joins Ramon Vazquez, Edgar Renteria, Bill Mueller, and Mark Bellhorn in the gimpy/possibly sick category. I’m not sure why the Sox continue to carry the extra pitcher, especially since the likely candidate for relegation, Mike Myers, hasn’t been particularly effective in his role as a LOOGY (ERA be damned). It might be nice to see Chip Ambres (.352/.425/.648) or Alejandro Machado (.329/.383/.425) get called up from Pawtucket to give the team a little more depth on the bench.

Comments (2)

By Jimmy, 5/8/2005 9:34 am

I’m really looking hard for a link to this, but appearently Peter Gammons reported that the Sox are calling up Cla Meredith to the big club on WEEI.

For the uninitiated, Meredith was a 6th rounder last year, and has torn up minor league bats since he was selected. He has one game above AA. Me likey.

This is an interesting promotion, assuming that he’s up for a while, because it would be another case of a college closer being fast tracked to the majors after being drafted, joining such luminaries as Ryan Wagner, Chad Cordero, and Huston Street. Here’s where it gets interesting though…Wagner, Cordero and Street were all first rounders. Meredith is the only lower round pick to get the same fast-track.

Keep your eye on this one, friends, because it might become much more common than it has been in the past.

And I’d also like to mention my mom, Cindy, on this day. She is afraid of computers and will never read this, but ’tis the season. Without her, you guys wouldn’t be reading our musings. This of course is her joke on the world. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.

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By Sully, 5/7/2005 11:41 am

I attended last night’s game with my mother, Godmother (Mom’s sis) and my 10 year-old cousin, Kevin – a Mother’s Day Weekend treat, only I think Kevin and I were the main beneficiaries given our mothers’ interest (or lack thereof) in baseball. By this time you know the result I am sure but in case you missed it somehow, the Sox won 7-2 on the strength of a solid Matt Clement piching outing and some timely hitting from Bill Mueller, among others. I gloss over the ins and outs of the game because we had a neat experience that had nothing whatsoever to do with the game that I’d like to share.

We were seated in Section 32, Row G, just about 275 feet from home plate and pretty close to level with the area where the leftfielder is generally positioned. Kevin has sat in these seats before with his family and been on the receiving end of a number of balls flipped up into the crowd from left field, most famously the long Alex Rodriguez ALCS Game 4 home run that was tossed back into Fenway Park from Landsdowne Street. Manny Ramirez scooped the ball up and tossed it over Kevin’s way, and he made an opportune grab. To his credit, Kevin has not become jaded from all of his ball-retrieving success and he wanted one last night as though he had never laid eyes on a Major League baseball, much less corralled a half dozen or so. I wanted to do my part to help him reel in another.

Before the start of each inning, Manny Ramirez would play catch with centerfielder Jay Payton, who, after they were finished, would spin to his left and toss the ball back into Boston’s bullpen in right field. Further complicating the matter was that the sign Kevin brought, reading “Manny your #1″ on one side and “Throw it here Manny” on the other, was doing little good since Manny had his back turned to us in between innings, the only time I could in good conscience try and get his attention. Once the inning started, no more yelling to Manny. I was adamant about this with Kevin. Another complication was that music blares between innings so even my pathetic-sounding yelping – MANNNAAYYYYY!!! – was doing little good.

I noticed in the top of the 4th, however, that there was a bit of time between when the music stopped and the first batter of the inning stepped in the batter’s box. Maybe a full minute. Also working in our favor was that Manny would walk back from left-centerfield to his position in left field, thereby facing us in the process. I made a mental note and when the same chain of events unfolded in the fifth – warm-up tosses, music stops, Manny walks back toward left field – Kevin held up his sign and I yelled Manny’s name at the top of my lungs with my left hand held high over Kevin’s head pointing downward towards him so as to let Manny know that I was calling his attention for the kid, not myself. Manny looked over at us and gave me a nod and a point, a jesture I took to mean “I gotcha”. This was a great relief because I was starting to feel silly, yelling another grown man’s name out at the top of my lungs. It just couldn’t be further from my style at a ballpark. Thankfully, Manny seemed to recognize that all of my efforts were in the name of the little fella.

A couple of innings later, in the top of the 7th, after Manny had finished tossing with Jay Payton, Payton didn’t wheel and flip the ball into the bullpen. He started to, but didn’t. Manny called for the ball back. I knew what was coming. I stood up in my cousin Jared’s bright red gortex North Face and Manny held the ball high to make sure I was ready. He threw the ball a good 150 feet in the air to me from left field and the whole time it was in the air, I feared I would drop it. Between all of the box, who saw what happened unfold over the previous couple of innings, my cousin Kevin, symbolically looking up to me to see if I would catch him his ball, and my mother and Godmother looking on, I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders as the ball sailed towards me. I managed to catch it, doing my best not to show the pain I felt in my hands because of lst night’s cool temperatures. I immediately turned, handed the ball to Kevin and quickly glanced back up at Manny and gave him a thumbs up and a big nod of approval. He returned both to me. Kevin had a smile on his face from ear to ear, an innocent and sweet smile, one I may never forget.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

When Kevin was holding his sign up early in the game, the guy in front of us, who otherwise seemed very nice, remarked, “Manny can’t even read that thing” and sure enough, he said it to a number of chuckles from people sitting around us. I was floored. How could he say that to the kid? What’s Kevin to think? He can’t read because he is Dominican? Brown? Corn-rowed? A baseball player? What the hell did that mean? I quickly corrected him, “of course he can read it.”

I couldn’t help but think back to that moment just after Manny tossed me the ball, smiled and gave us a thumbs-up. Not for one second has Manny ever struck me as dumb. He’s smart enough to recognize just how lucky he is, which is more than I can say for a great number of ballplayers. That much was evident the whole game. He smiles to the fans in the Monster seats, points to fans in the left field stands, shares laughs with his centerfielder and even enjoys the music on the P.A. system. He knows how fortunate he is to pull down the scratch he does, just to play leftfield for one of the sport’s great franchises.

Maybe more Sox fans should recognize how lucky they are to watch a player that diligently prepares for each game, never complains to an umpire and holds them in much higher regard than they, on average, hold him.

Thanks Manny, for creating another memory.

Comments (6)

By Mullet, 5/6/2005 9:44 am

Bronson Arroyo tossed a gem yesterday, 3 hitting the Tigers over 8 innings, allowing just one run on a Carlos Guillen home run in the 7th. Guillen’s homer was the first hit off of Arroyo, who fanned 8 using a fairly tidy 112 pitches (77 strikes). Thankfully, Arroyo and Wakefield are pitching so well at this point that, if Wade Miller can be even moderately successful, David Wells might be the odd man out when (if?) he and Schilling come back healthy. That might be best for the team both from a performance and financial aspect.

Keith Foulke pitched a 1-2-3 9th, but again struggled with his command. Still, if Foulke is able to get past the personal issues that have been plaguing him, it will go a long ways towards shoring up the Sox very mediocre bullpen.

Trot Nixon paced the Sox attack, going 4 for 5, as the team belted out 12 hits off of Tigers’ pitchers Jason Johnson and old friend Uggie Urbina. The only downside is that only 2 of those hits were for extra bases (a double by Jason Varitek and the game winning double by David Ortiz). The team once again left double-digit runners on base–this time 11–as the Sox put 13 men on base and managed to score just 2 runs.

At this point, one has to start to worry a bit about the offensive seasons turned in by Kevin Millar, Bill Mueller, Mark Bellhorn, and Edgar Renteria. The offense has been carried by Nixon, Ramirez, Damon, and Varitek, as Sully discussed on Monday. Here, 5 days later, Millar is slugging a robust .296 and is now below replacement level at 1B. Bellhorn and Renteria have combined for a VORP of 4.1, which is less than what David Eckstein has done for the Cardinals–and Eckstein is awful. Bill Mueller has put up a VORP of 1.2 in 81 plate appearances, which is about 25% of what Kevin Youkilis has done in 21 plate appearances.

Let me say that again:

In about 1/4th the plate appearances, Kevin Youkilis has already been about 4 times as valuable as Bill Mueller has been.

Obviously these guys are going to bounce back some from their liquid nitrogen-like starts, but how long can you wait, especially for Millar and Mueller, who’ve got replacements in place (Youkilis now, Olerud in the near future)? It’s going to be an interesting homestand, with these issues, the debut of Wade Miller, and games against the anemic offenses of the Mariners and Athletics.

Comments (1)

By Sully, 5/5/2005 8:25 am

See this is when it starts to get encouraging. Everyone knows the Sox can beat some teams down, and everyone knows that the Sox will see their pitching implode from time to time and lose in a blowout. This series in Detroit has shown that the Sox do in fact feature a remarkable amount of depth, and that they have the ability to win close games, even when they are far from clicking on all cylinders. Last night was one of these instances, as the Sox gutted out a close one, 4-3.

Boston unveiled a new promotional feature in Detroit that I am confident will catch on. It’s called “Tito’s Prescient Spot-Start du Jour”. It works like this. Terry Francona, in an attempt to get a superior player “a breather” or get an inferior player “some at bats”, inserts a random bench entity into the starting lineup. Then, in a critical moment (or moments), said bench entity delivers the key play of the game, be it a grand slam home run or a single that plates the game-winning run. A night after Doug Mirabelli was Tito’s Prescient Spot-Stars du Jour, Kevin Youkilis took up duty last night and continued his hot hitting.

Tim Wakefield was steady if unspectacular last night. He got hit around a bit but the damage was limited by the fact that he yielded just one walk. He went seven innings before handing the ball over to Mike Timlin and Keith Foulke, who did a nice job in the eighth and ninth respectively. Foulke looked better last night, still missing spots from time to time but he did reach back and throw his fastball with conviction, something he hadn’t been doing.

Afternoon ball today, as the Sox take on the Tigers in the last game of the series. It’s Bronson Arroyo against Jason Johnson.

A couple of other blogs are required reading for Sox fans today. One, check out The Detroit Tigers Weblog for the Detroit perspective. It’s a great site, with sound writing and analysis. He remarked yesterday how Tigers pitchers have been walking too many batters and he was right. They walked another 5 last night. Maybe a little credit goes to the Sox patient hitters, though? I dunno. Second, check out my man Alex Belth’s take on the Yankees struggles. Alex’s even-handed style and genuine love for his team almost makes Yankee misery unenjoyable.

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By Sully, 5/4/2005 8:19 am

The Patron Saint of the Underappreciated, John Halama, threw five serviceable innings last night before turning the game over to the bullpen, enough to allow the Red Sox bats to jump out to a 5-2 lead en route to a 5-3 victory. Halama gave up four hits and he hit a batter last night, and if not for two critical mistakes when he was up in the count, he very well may have thrown 5 shutout innings. He gave up a first inning home run to Pudge Rodriguez on a 1-2 hanging curve ball and then later on in the fourth, hit Carlos Pena up 0-2 with 2 outs. Other than that, it was relatively smooth sailing for Halama.

The offensive star of the night was Doug Mirabelli. His fifth inning grand slam off of Tigers starter Mike Maroth gave the Sox a lead they would not relinquish. A hat-tip is in order here for Terry Francona, whose decision to DH Mirabelli in place of David Ortiz may very well have won his club the game. It was smart thinking. Going into last evening, Mirabelli had just 19 plate appearances, and hadn’t really found any sort of groove. And realistically, how could you expect him to improve much without trying to figure ways to get him more at bats? Well what better opportunity than last night? First, the Tigers had a lefty going, and we all know Doug crushes southpaws. Second, the guy he was replacing, David Ortiz, has been scuffling of late and struggles a tad in general anyway against lefthanders. Third, Mirabelli will start again tonight since Tim Wakefield is scheduled to pitch, and this game presented a nice chance to get Mirabelli in the lineup on back-to-back nights. That it worked out was great. That the rationale for putting him in there was spot on was even better in my estimation.

The stark contrast between the construction of the 2005 Red Sox and the construction of the 2005 Yankees was on full display last night. The Yankees, struggling and grasping at straws to find answers, were pummeled by the Devil Rays 11-4 last night with Kevin “done and done” Brown on the mound, Tony Womack starting in left field and a C-level prospect named Robinson Cano starting at 2nd Base. They also announced yesterday that something named Sean Henn will start for the Big Unit tonight. The Red Sox have also been struggling, both with some performance issues and injuries to important players. So the hobbled David Wells is replaced by John Halama and the Sox get a nice outing. The scuffling David Ortiz gets a night off and bench item Doug Mirabelli gets the nod, and the guy slams the Sox to victory. And don’t look now but the one-year flier the Sox took on the oft-injured Matt Mantei is beginning to pay dividends. He pitched another scoreless inning last night. On February 23rd, I wrote this:

An aging team should take steps to insulate itself from the potential pitfalls an older team will tend to incur. Injury risks and regression candidates abound for both the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The Red Sox are well prepared to withstand such potential problems while the Yankees, to say the least, are not.

Last night could not have illuminated the point any better. It was the most enjoyable baseball night of the year as the Sox won on the strength of two unlikely heroes while the Yanks and O’s lost.

Timmy goes tonight for the Sox against Nate Robertson. Plenty of afternoon baseball today as well. Gotta love Getaway Day!

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By Sully, 5/3/2005 4:32 pm

League Average BA/OBA/SLG Lines from 1996 through 2005 for American League Left-fielders (courtesy of BP)

1996: .282/.353/.465
1997: .271/.335/.438
1998: .275/.347/.441
1999: .272/.337/.418
2000: .286/.356/.462
2001: .269/.335/.429
2002: .264/.330/.434
2003: .287/.343/.462
2004: .281/.347/.453
2005: .266/.331/.419

Tony Womack (career): .275/.319/.361

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By Sully,

Google Satellite Images of every Major League Ballpark.

Thanks to Ken Arneson.

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By Mullet,

When Jeremi Gonzalez gets you through the fifth inning only allowing 3 runs, leaving the game with score tied 3-3, you’re in pretty good shape. Unfortunately, the Sox wouldn’t score another run, while the Sox bullpen continued their early season role as arsonists, giving up 5 runs (including 2 Carlos Pena home runs) as the Tigers rolled to a 8-3 victory.

Last night was a bit of a buffet of many of the things that have gone wrong this season for the Sox:

• Carrying 12 pitchers has been a problem, as it is nearly impossible to keep all 12 pitchers fresh and ready to throw. Terry Francona felt the need to go to Blaine Neal, who hadn’t pitched in over a week. Neal gave up a walk, homer, and a single before getting his only out (a sac bunt)
• Sox hitters left 13 men on base, with the big Sox bats (Nixon, Ramirez, Ortiz) each leaving 4+ runners on
• The Sox bullpen was hit or miss, with Neal and Alan Embree combining to give up 5 runs in one inning of work, while Matt Mantei and Lenny DiNardo combined for 2 shutout innings and 4 Ks (Mantei accounting for 1.2 IP and 3 Ks)

Somewhat amusingly, in a perverse and infuriating way, right after Sully posts this very nice even-handed assessment of the Sox first month and their 99-win pace, the Sox go out and drop a deuce on the field. One lopsided loss and that 99-win pace has been reduced to 95. Go team!

John Halama takes the mound tonight. If the Sox can get 5 solid innings out of him, they should be in position to win this game. Of course, I would have said the same thing about last night’s game.

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By Sully, 5/2/2005 6:39 pm

When I bartended, the last day of each month was “Inventory Day”. If you were unfortunate enough to be working on such a day, you would have to count up all of the bottles of beer and booze, all of your mixers, your fruit and just about everything else you could think of and turn a report into management. Given that we have just flipped our calendars and a new month is upon us, it is probably time to take inventory of these Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox are 13-11 and four games out of first place. They have scored 136 runs and yielded 109. If you were to extrapolate those totals over the course of the year and apply the Pythagorean Formula, the Red Sox would end up as a 99-win team. That’s remarkable to me. Despite being 4 games back of the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East standings, the Orioles lead Boston in run differential by just 4. This all means very little of course, a 13-11 record is an unspectacular 13-11 record. It does give me comfort, however, in that the Sox ought to be able to continue to weather what is almost sure to be a rocky short-term. At the same time, I don’t want to just gloss over the legitimate and numerous causes for concern. What I am most definitely not here to tell you is to simply check back in on October 3rd when the playoffs get set to start, as the Sox are sure to post 99 wins. No, just trying to be the measured guy in a town full of too hot and too cold whackos. What follows is a quick glance at the good and the bad.

The Good

The Core of Four

Johnny Damon, Trot Nixon, Manny Ramirez and Jason Varitek are all off to terrific starts in 2005. Here are their respective stat lines (BA/OBA/SLG) thus far:

Damon: .356/.394/.465
Nixon: .290/.427/.484
Ramirez: .276/.396/.598
Varitek: .325/.366/.623

That the Red Sox are on pace for more than 900 runs while getting disappointing production from the other 5 spots in the lineup is a real credit to the work these guys have done so far.

The Dependable Three

Tim Wakefield, Bronson Arroyo and Matt Clement have all done their part to minimize the damage done by injuries to David Wells and Curt Schilling. While Clement will have to tidy up his pitching in order to continue succeeding, he has adjusted well here, and put to rest the notion that he can’t get it done in Boston. He has had two shaky outings, one against New York and the other Baltimore – two of baseball’s best lineups. There is just no shame in that, especially when you consider that he pitched his best game of the season against Baltimore as well. Hot-headed bullshit aside, Arroyo has been effective all month long. His strikeout numbers are down but I think it is small sample flukiness. He seemed to regain the strikeout stuff in Texas the other night and I think you will see him back in that 7 K/9 range he seemed to have settled into before long. Tim Wakefield is having his best start to a season in some time and appears to be every bit the reliable item Sox fans have come to know. Rewarded with a contract extension (kinda) this month, expect him to continue to eat innings, and do so with above average effectiveness.

The Bad

Bullet points here as unfortunately, the bad outnumbers the good.

· Edgar Renteria looks awkward and stiff, like his best days are behind him. That’s OK though, as he is compensating for his eroding athleticism by implementing a truly moronic and clueless batting approach.
· Injuries. Can’t chalk it up to bad luck either when the injured in question average 40 years of age and 260 pounds.
· Kevin Millar is slugging .300. We have seen cold streaks like these before from Kevin but I don’t remember Millar ever looking so darn weak. The other night he walloped a ball in Texas, put as nice a swing as he could on the ball. I was sure it was going to be in the upper deck because after all, when burly first basemen put a charge into a ball as Millar did, it tends to go a long ways. Not this one. F-7.
· The non-Core-of-Four: Renteria, Bill Mueller, Mark Bellhorn, David Ortiz and Millar have all checked in with months comfortably below what reasonably could have been expected of each.
· The bench might not be all it was cracked up to be. Ramon Vazquez features a .509 OPS and Jay Payton a .662. Mercifully, help appears to be on the way in the form of John Olerud and Kevin Youkilis, and if Roberto Petagine could ever get healthy, well, this bench might all of a sudden be acceptable again. In fairness, I do expect Payton to get better.
· Um, Keith?

That’s about all I got. Some regression candidates, some candidates for marked improvement. All in all I think the Sox did well to stay afloat in what was a month full of both good competition and significant adversity. But when you are counting on overweight people with leg injuries, a guy coming off of a serious shoulder injury and a catcher slugging about .200 points over his career average, best to check your optimism and ride the thing out. If there is a silver lining from April, though, it’s that our worst-case scenario appears to be OK.

That’s more than Yankee fans can say at this point.

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By Sully,

Boston’s first foray into non-AL East play went pretty well this past weekend, as they took down the Texas Rangers in the rubber game of the series, 6-5. Matt Clement had a very Clement-ish outing, going 6 innings, yielding just 3 hits but walking 4, and all of this in 111 pitches. These outings aren’t going to cut it from Cleemnt for much longer, however. Jeremi Gonzalez goes for the Sox tonight and Wade Miller will be back before you know it. I have to think these two will require a rested and ready bullpen, something more difficult to come by if the current resident ace, Clement, has to labor each and every outing as he has had to the majority of the time in 2005.

Speaking of the bullpen, what a fantastic job they did yesterday. Check that. What a fantastic job Alan Embree and Mike Timlin did, combining for 2 perfect innings. Keith Foulke struggled once again, as he yielded his fourth home run of the young season, this one a 2-run job to Mark Teixeira. It didn’t cost the Sox the game, but that’s only because Foulke got the nod in the cushiest of save opportunities, the up-by-three variety. Mercifully, Foulke left viewers with a glimpse of that with which they had grown so accustomed last season by striking out the very next batter, Hank Blalock, to end the game.

The offense featured a consistent, if unspectacular, attack, getting on base, banging out singles and mixing in 3 doubles as well. The replacement of Ramon Vazquez with Kevin Youkilis paid immediate dividends over the weekend, as Youkilis played a major role in both Saturday’s and Sunday’s respective victories. The Sox offense is still not really clicking but with Trot Nixon, Jason Varitek, Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez all legitimately carrying their load, it’s been enough to get the job done more often than not. I think it is safe to say David Ortiz will get the on-base numbers up. Same goes for Renteria, though I think we may never see the guy the Redbird fans got to see. I’d expect Mark Bellhorn to pick it up too when he gets back from his illness. He probably won’t be as good as he was last season but he is better than he has been playing thus far. The guy that seems to be cause for concern is Kevin Millar, and apparently the Red Sox agree. He is slugging just .300 on the season now.

The Red Sox signed John Olerud to a Minor League contract yesterday. This is good news in that they are addressing the fact that Dave McCarty has no business on a Big League roster. It is bad news in that it probably means Roberto Petagine is not recovering as quickly as we hoped. Olerud will hit quite a bit like Millar, which is to say he’ll draw walks but hit with little pop. He’s a more sure-handed fielder than Kevin, however.

The Red Sox are now 13-11 and head to Detroit for a four game set against the Tigers. It’s still the feeling out stage of the season here but we are now into May, the portion of the season where the “it’s still early” business starts to sound a little lame. The Sox have the offensive firepower to bludgeon opponents while the hurlers heal up. The onus falls to Renteria, Millar, Ortiz, Mueller, Bellhorn and to a lesser extent, Youkilis and Payton to start hitting the way they can. Such production will no longer be an added bonus or a luxury but rather a necessity as the likes of, well, tonight’s starter Jeremi Gonzalez toe the rubber in the carmine hose.

Everyone who can actually read what we are writing now can thank Mullet for tinkering with the font. Looks a whole lot more pleasant to me. Now if we could just arrange the sidebar as we would like…