Great game by Lester coming into YS with the team on a 5 game losing streak and the bullpen tired and he just comes in and slams the door shut. I love Lester, he's quickly becoming my favorite Red Sox (along with Paps and Beckett). Tonight was just a huge win on so many levels, hopefully Beckett shuts down the Yanks tomorrow too. I'm going to go out and say by year's end Lester will be a top 5 lefty starter in baseball and the way he's been throwing it's possible.
Another nice win yesterday, especially coming from behind like that. Now the Sox are playing with house money for the rest of the series but they need to win 1 of the next 2 games. It's too bad the Rays are playing KC right now but with each Sox win, Rays win and Yankee loss it's putting more distance between the East and WC lead, which is fine right now. My opinion of the Yankees might be changing they just don't seem like the team they were last year I'm not sure if they can catch fire like they did in the past. We'll see I guess. Also terrible call by the ump in the 9th yesterday. It was almost like the ump was aware of a non-catch called an out in a big game in Philly (I forget who they were playing maybe the Braves or Mets when Victorino made a diving catch but it was an obvious trap called an out) and decided to just call it a non-catch.
I think there hitters could be much better, only Damon and Stash are atleast preforming to what they should be. With Wang out the pitching is gonna have to improve to if the Yanks want any chance at the postseason this year. Pretty sure Hank is thrilled to be spending 32 million more than the Rays and Sox combined to be in 3rd place.
That was pretty brutal. After the 1st I was sure we would get to Moose but he pitched pretty good after that. Another great start from Masterson, although he was pretty wild hitting guys left and right. I cringed at the bottom of our order today, crisp, tek, cora not exactly striking fear in anyone.
Bases loaded in the 9th, no outs, down by 1...and our bats disappear yet again. On the plus side, Masterson pitched a great game.
2 hits, 2 hit batters....and the lead cut in half, oh, I was not a happy camper at that point in time.
Much respect for Rivera in the 9th, I'm not sure any other closer in baseball could have gotten out of that inning with the save. Of course it helped that Coco, Varitek and Lugo were up but still I tip my hat to Rivera. It was a painful game to watch, seriously it's Mike Mussina, you can't get 1 or 2 runs off of him? By the way I'm jealous of both GM and Brown's avatars. Those are awesome as hell.
Nah the Youk one is good for now I was just giving you props for the work, it's top notch and kick ***. My sig is pretty old though.............
Haha nah man I love it, I was just busting them on you. EDIT: You might need a new sig though as it looks like Jason Varitek is dead and his body is just being used by Doug Mirabelli.
Flames has really pimped out us Sox fans. We have a really good looking thread. I love the Lester avy with the GreenMonster Seats background, perfect.
Tek is getting up there in age, but he's still the heart and soul of this team and I gotta stick by my favorite player and hope he'll come around. talk about coming around, Drew has been $$$$$ as of late.
I'm starting to think Tek might be done at the plate, he really hasn't been good since 2005. With that being said the Sox could live with 1 automatic out in the line up if they had a better hitting SS (hello Jed Lowrie). I think Francona needs to start thinking about pinch hitting Casey for him in big spots. With that being said the free agent catching market is horrible, the FO needs to do something about the position in '09. I still think we should resign Tek for 1 or 2 years (I still think he can handle the position defensively) but we're in trouble in the catching position.
Why can't Tito play small ball sometimes. You got Vteck up and he is struggling worst than an ant under a magnifying glass on a hot sunny summer day! He has no confidence right now in himself. He can't pinch hit for him(captain and all) so why not use the squeeze play. At least we get the tying run in and he becomes a hero for an at bat.
Eh I don't like the squeeze play in that situation. Bases loaded and 1 out, all Tek needs to do is get the ball to the OF to score the run. If he misses the bunt, then the runner on 3rd is out and Vtek is up with 2 outs. The only thing you can argue is using Moss to pinch run for Manny, instead of saving him to pinch hit. It was pathetic that between Coco, Vtek and Lugo they couldn't get one ball into the OF (reminded me exactly of Game 3 of the 2005 ALDS when Tony G, Varitek and Damon couldn't get a run off of El Duque) of course that's why Rivera is the best in the business, but seriously the last three at bats were beyond pathetic.
I just hope that Vteck can get out of this funk and fast. Bases loaded and we can't score a run! That was sad.
Long time no see guys! 've been reading though. Wheels falling off in the 5th for Joba the hut. That dude is one wide *** mother****er. Pedroia continues with the hot bat.
Wow I hadn't heard Bonds worked out for the Sox. Thats pretty interesting, he may be the best out there and you can get him for only cash. We got plenty of that, not 208 million, but enough.
Morgan's comment was very confusing at first he said he did work out for them, then he said he heard it from a newspaper, then he said the Sox denied it and the newspaper didn't retract the statement, so who knows. Frankly I have no idea if its true or not. I would say that IF Ortiz is out, Bonds is the perfect replacement hitting wise. Of course Bonds brings a lot of that other crap the Sox don't need. Plus I feel as though if they were to sign Bonds they would sort of be selling their soul to the devil. Absolutely a tough choice no doubt. EDIT: I would take anything that Miller or Morgan say with a grain of salt. They seem to be very confused on happenings going around baseball the whole year. I mean would it kill them to do an hour of research before the broadcast? It's like they're robots and are put on and then shut off as soon as the game ends.
Don't like the decision of having Manny pinch hit for Ellsbury there, right now I would take Ellsbury over Ramirez 9/10 out because he is far superior in the field and on the bases and with Manny being in a slump its a no brainer. Manny then goes on to strike out on 3 pitches.
7 down in the loss column to TB. We need Ortiz back and Manny to start to hit again. This isn't looking good right now. EDIT: We had a shot to possible take out the Yankees this weekend and they didn't do it. Bad job by the Sox in the last two games after a good first 2.
I have to give the kid credit, he put up a great at bat against Papelbon, he fouled off tons of pitches and when he finally put the ball in play it had eyes and he got the job done.
Gardner did a great job with a terrific at bat. Hopefully the Red Sox will get the job done next time.
Really? I don't know. Papelbon has a tendency to fall in love with his fastball (ala Beckett circa 2006). I'm all for him going down with his best pitch, but you have to at least show the batter something else. Listen, Papelbon has 3 plus pitches and he threw nothing but fastballs last night. IMO, that's unacceptable. Regardless, they should have won on Saturday. This team needs to do something about Lugo, he's a liability at the plate and in the field. He's holding this team back to a certain extent.
Yeah Lugo is horrible and they have to find away to get rid of him even if it means biting quite a bit of his salary in the process. Its kinda scary to think what this team would be like if they had not traded away Hanley. However Beckett and Lowell worked out just fine.
I agree I thought it had more to do with Papelbon throwing his fastball again and again and again, he needed to throw something else at him otherwise the at-bat becomes very easy considering he knows whats coming. The Sox really need to get their act together because right now they are playing poorly.
Mistake on my part I tend to forget about Lugo. Varitek pinch hitting for Cash I thought was a stupid decision considering Varitek was 15-115 or something like that before his at-bat last night.
