Opening Day at Fenway has been postponed due to rain and wind in the area. The game has been rescheduled for tomorrow at 4:15. Why baseball decided to have the Sox open the season at home is beyond me. Its still early April in New England.
should of opened up at the trop sucks because i have today off for opening day and have to work tomorrow til 7! MFer!
Great to finally see baseball at Fenway Park again. Good to get the W in the first game too. Beckett looked great today and was dominate minus that 3rd inning where he walked 2 guys. Great seeing Pedroia hit a homer in his first at bat, picking up where he left off. Also nice to see 'The Captain' going yard from the left side, hopefully he keeps that up. Can't wait for tomorrow with Lester on the mound.
I didn't see any of the game, but the box score and highlights suggest that Beckett was dominant. That's gotta be a fantastic sign of things to come. And just for the record, Pedroia is really, really good. The guy is a great ballplayer. If you pitch him on the inner half, and you miss your spots, he's going to kill you every single time. Its going to be a pleasure watching him play in Boston for the next 6 years...
Beckett was dominate. His one bad inning was the 3rd when he walked the first 2 hitters. He was unreal in the 6th when he put guys on 2nd and 3rd with no outs and retired Longoria, Pena and Burrell without giving up a run. If Beckett is his 2007 self and Lester picks up where he left 2008 off, this team will be scary good.
Tough loss. Lester was pretty good in the first 2 innings and then just lost his command and control. Hopefully Matsuzaka can win us the rubber game tomorrow as the team heads to LA this weekend.
Gotta hand it to the Rays, they played a good ballgame yesterday. For the most part, they made Lester pay for his mistakes. What's interesting is how good Kazmir looked. He looked better last night than he did at any point last season. He was erratic at times (which is something we've seen from him over the years), but overall.. he was pretty impressive. At this point, you have to believe that the success the Sox had against him last year was an abberation because, for the most part, he's had Boston's number throughout his career.
woah woah woah, he looked good. but not great IMO. his slider wasnt all the way there. early last year he was unhittable. much better then he was yesterday. he was 5-1 with a 1.22 ERA and a .172 BAA last may.
I was referring to his matchups against the Red Sox last year. I do not see the Rays on a daily basis, so I can't comment on his season as a whole. I should have clarified that... though the numbers certainly suggest he had a down year in 2008.
That's funny you said that because Eck on the post game show said he wasn't impressed with Kazmir. He said his slider was flat and didn't have the velocity or bite and it looked more like a change up.
ok gotcha. then id probably agree, although i cant remember every start against the Sox on the top of my head, he looked good last night compared to last year as a whole. he did have a down year last year, it was after a tremedous start, thats all. he needs to be better this year, thats for sure.
Funny, because Orsillo and Remy talked at length during the telecast about his reluctance to use the slider at all last year. I'd say that him finding a way to work that pitch in once again was an improvement over last year. Besides, I'm sure he'll become more comfortable with that pitch moving forward.
Rex Hudler is a tough tough listen, I don't know how Angel fans can stand it. I think I'd rather just listen to dead air.
He obviously was knowledgeble about the game, but it sounded like he had 5 cans of Red Bull before he got into the booth. EDIT: It's the 9th right now and looks like the Angels are going to win. Weaver pitched very well tonight and I must say I've never been a big Torii Hunter guy but after the past few days he's really a class act.
Weaver looked good. That change up was pretty nasty at times. I think this settles it though, Angels > Red Sox, am I right?
Last night that was true. Hopefully the Sox start to hit soon. As the only one that's swinging the bats well right now is Youkilis.
Penny looked pretty good today outside of him facing Napoli. The 9th was certainly scary with Papelbon having to throw close to 40 pitches to get the save. Ramon Ramirez also looked good for his first time in a tight spot with the Sox. The bats still need to wake up.
Very frustrating day today. Had tons of runners on just couldn't push them to home. The team needs to start hitting a lot more. Oh well off to Oakland now.
I was at the Friday and Saturday games, and it was strange to see new Boston uniforms. The blue shirts worn Friday night looked pretty good. The saturday uniforms looked like Yankee uniforms with a name on the back. Dull, very dull. But seeing Brad Penny wearing dark blue socks??!! That is just wrong !
Agreed. The alternative road uniforms are ugly and the plain greys just look boring. Their old road uniforms are actually really nice and classy, I don't know why they'd change.... well besides the whole money thing. Hopefully they switch back next year because I'm not sure anyone likes them. Seriously they're the RED Sox yet have nothing red in the road uniforms. And don't even get me started on the Sox logo hats. As much as I dislike the Yankees, I give them credit because they don't have these silly and ugly 3rd or 4th uniforms. They just stick to the classic white homes and grey roads.
Well at least it was nice seeing Nomar Garciaparra again, even if he hit a home run. Jed Lowrie is on the DL with a hurt wrist, the same wrist he hurt last year. This team needs to wake up and start winning some baseball games.
I only caught the first 4 innings or so and Lester was not impressive. The homerun to Cust was a flat out awful pitch. He was leaving alot of his stuff up in the zone. Oh, and Baldelli looked pathetic during his first two plate appearences. You're right though, this group better wake up. The division is too good to sleepwalk through the first month and a half.
I havent really looked at the new ALT. UNIs but will have to check them out....doesnt sound like a good idea, wonder who came up with that....cause aside from the St. Patty Green....I always liked Yanks, Cubs, and Sox being consistent with home and road...but guess times are changing in Boston by the sounds (and sites) of it. The first 8 games of this '09 season havent shown much besides inconsistency from the top 3 projected teams of the AL East. Its a long season as we all now from past experiences...ebbs and flows. Will be fun to watch who corrects their play the soonest and more importantly the longest to grab the brass ring.
Wow....6 games for Beckett?? http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/11629699 Beckett suspended for 6 games by MLB
I agree with the suspension. A pitchers has to follow through with the pitch after time is called to avoid injury but you dont throw near a guys head.
Wow, Bob Watson strikes again. What a joke. After watching that replay several times during the telecast on Sunday, there's absolutely no way anyone can objectively say there was intent on Beckett's part (hell, even the Umpires agreed.. and they were actually on the field). It was an extremely late timeout call and instead of risking an injury, Beckett threw a pitch that happened to be high and tight. I also love how baseball cited Beckett's "aggressive actions" as further evidence that a suspension was warranted. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Mike Scioscia and Torii Hunter (who only recieved fines, yeah I know they got tossed for the remainder of the game) were much more "aggressive" than Beckett during the altercation.
Yup Yankee Bob at it again alright. The MLB office is a joke anyway I was expecting Beckett to get suspended. It's funny that the umpires backed Beckett yet he still gets suspended. Whatever.
That's the most disturbing part of this whole situation, Ray. The crew on the field didn't believe or had no evidence to suggest that there was intent on Beckett's part... but we're supposed to believe that freakin' Bob Watson saw something on the same tape that we've all seen indicating something completely different? Give me a friggen break.
Let me say that Josh Beckett is a local hero and a jewel of a player. But he has also been and continues to be a major league douchebag. he deserved that suspension. he is trying way too hard to be Roger Clemens.
Yankee Bob...now thats funny. Torii was ejected (along with 2 other Angels).....so Beckett missing a game balances it out. IMHO no one should have been ejected. The pitch up and in was one thing...and would have been overlooked most likely if not for his follow-on "Roger Clemens impersonation" - (that's a great comparison Sec126)....his "actions" warranted the 1 start suspension by MLB office. He acted without composure, he gets to miss a start for it.
Yeah Yankee Bob, there's a very long documented history of Bob Watson using his power to stick it to Boston, hence the nickname. Here's the thing though, the umps during and after the game all said they had no doubt that Beckett was not throwing at Abreu's head. Therefore what's Bob Watson's reasoning for suspending Beckett? And Beckett's actions? What did he do worse than what Mike Scoisa, Justin Spier and Torii Hunter did in terms of 'actions'? And if he's going to suspend Beckett for his actions why not give Scosia, Spier and Hunter a suspension for a game as they all kept pushing the subject (Scosia came out 2 other times to continue arguing the fact). Acted without composure, what's that mean? Beckett threw the pitch, Abreu put his hands up and starting yelling at Beckett (rightly so) and Beckett walked toward him yelling back, from there Scosia came out and Beckett went up to him and talked and when the benches emptied Beckett stood on the mound and didn't do anything else. The funny thing is that Watson said that Beckett was no doubt throwing at Abreu's head, which I find that hard to even know that's true or not. There is zero history betwene Beckett and Abreu or Beckett and the Angels. It's not like it's a Joba/Youkilis thing (which if Joba throws even anywhere near Youkilis in the future he should get suspended for at least 7 or 8 games if Watson wants to be fair about these things). It's just all inconsistent thoughts and process, which again is nothing new with Bob Watson.
You're wrong. Beckett escalated that fight the entire time. First the pitch, then coming off the mound towards Abreu, then yelling at Scioscia. Beckett should have been tossed for being an idiot.
Well this is a nice kick in the groin. The Sox probably have their best inning this season scoring 3 runs and then Matsuzaka coughs up 5 in the bottom of the 1st. Now he's out of the game and speculation is he hurt himself (thanks WBC, hopefully Dice K's 2nd MVP means a lot to him).