My Favorite Things: Basset Hounds, Single Malts, Blowout Wins
I’m sorry, DP.
I missed your first homer of 2007. I feel like a Dad that missed his son’s first little league game. What’s my excuse? I wasn’t saving a kitten from a tree or at the office bangin’ out those TPS reports – I was shopping. Gasp! Hiss! Boo! Calm down, I’ll just say it wasn’t by choice and I made it home for the bottom of the second.
While Pedroia’s blast put the Sox on top, it was Lowell’s that put the game in the W column. Cy Beckett was efficient and Victor Zambrano was as terrible as ever. I think I could have hit a bomb off him, or at least grounded out. Some gamesmen engaged in some gamesmanship in the fifth; John Gibbons took offense to the Red Sox barrage of offense and sent Casey Jannsen out to hit Youkilis, taking him out of the game. Who would have thought? Our Youk is now the target of other teams’ rage! How cute. The lack of reciprocation could mean only one thing: no one cared as much as John Gibbons.
Not only did the Sox escape with Cy’s seventh win, they decimated the Blue Jays bullpen. The trail of carcasses included Shawn Marcum, Jannsen, Brian Tallet, Jeremy Accardo, and Jason Frasor. If your “closer” comes into a seven run game, things are not going well. If that closer gets knocked around, you might want to take a step back and reevaluate. All those guys are probably available today, but it will change Gibbons’ use (or misuse) of the pen. The only two he didn’t touch are Scott Downs and Josh Towers. With Tomo Ohka going on the mound, it could be another long day for the Toronto pen.
Wednesday:
Daisuke Matsuzaka (3-2, 5.45, 1.32) at Tomo Ohka (2-3, 5.50, 1.42)
Lowell (13-39, 3 HR) and Wily Mo (14 ABs, 2 HR) have had the most success against Ohka, but this will be the third time he has faced the Sox this season. As Don Orsillo so eloquently pointed out, this is the first matchup of two native born Japanese pitchers…since Ohka faced Mac Suzuki. Hopefully this one is more notable. Daisuke looks to bounce back from a 5 walk, 1 strike out performance against the Mariners. Apparently his off day routine has been overhauled, which seems like a strange solution to scattered mental lapses.
