New York 5, Sox 0
WP: Wang (16-6)
LP: Schilling (8-6)
HRs: NYY-Cano, 2 (16)
SUMMARY
The punchless Sox closed out this horrible series in the Bronx with a limp performance in another demoralizing loss. For the second game in a row Boston did not register a hit through the first five innings, and little Robbie Cano provided all the offense New York would need with a pair of solo home runs off Curt Schilling.
#1 STUNNER Cano 2-3, 2R, 2BI, 2HR
The solid second sacker led off the third & fifth innings with near-identical opposite field homers to left center, the first one popping off the top of the wall and the second landing just a few feet further, but each one packed the punch of a blow from Chuck Liddell.
PAN's FAUN the whole Boston ballclub
You can't lay the blame for this putrid performance on just one player--every member of the team had a hand in producing (another) one of the most embarrassing series in Sox/Stanks history.
RECAP
Remember when I stated earlier that things could most definitely get worse for the Sox in this series finale?
Guess what?
They most certainly did.
In a three game series that eerily parallelled the infamous five-game Boston Massacre II of last August, the Red Sox rolled over like Mike Vick's cousin and played three terrible, uninspiring, unemotional baseball games and in the process invited every bit of incisive scrutiny that is sure to come their way in the coming weeks.
That's what happens when a team that had just scored a record amount of runs in a four game series comes into New York for a potential put-away series with the reeling Stanks, manages just 3 runs and 13 hits in three games, and sees all three of its best starting pitchers get tooled by the much-maligned New York staff.
The only real differences between 2006's weekend to forget and this year's mid-week meltdown is the amount of games, both series length (5-3) and in the standings.
In '06 Boston led New York by 3 1/2 games going into that series, then saw that advantage morph into a 1 1/2 game deficit when the dust settled around the Commonwealth.
But this year the Sox sat on an eight-game bulge entering this one, and the short series ensured there would be no changes atop the AL East leader board when it was over, sweep or no.
We'll call it the Mini Massacre, 2007.
An overcast day in the Apple mirrored Boston's play and the mood of its Nation as the players took the field for the first midweek non-holiday day game in the Rivalry since ...(are you ready for it?)...the Bucky Dent Game, Oct 2nd of 1978.
You can thank Michael bleepin Kay for that tasty nugget.
The sweep was nearly a foregone conclusion when the pitching matchups were announced: Boston would send its battle-scarred soldier Curt Schilling, still recovering from a shoulder injury he may never shake, out to compete with the cornerstone of the next generation New York pitching staff, Chien Ming Wang.
Although Schill (7IP, 6H, 2ER, 1BB, 4K, 2HR) certainly pitched admirably, holding the potent New York lineup at bay save for one pesky second baseman, in a game like this, with a big series and personal & team pride on the line, allowing a pair of home runs to a light-hitting middle infielder just isn't gonna cut it.
He almost needed to, say, hold the other team hitless for like six innings, like he did in Oakland so many moons ago and the last two Stankee starters would do in consecutive games.
That's right after racking up 52 hits in four games against the White Sox, or roughly 1 /1/2 hits per inning, Boston batters were held hitless in the fist six frames of each of the last two games, and only managed to record a hit in 10 of the 36 innings played in the series.
Never led. Tied twice. Trailed in 33 of 36 innings.
Much like the last two games the way this one started out had all the earmarks of another heartbreaker.
While Wang (7IP, 1H, 4BB, 5K) set Boston down in order in the first including Papi swinging at strike three to end it, Derek Jeter (4-4, R) signaled the call to arms when he muscled a one-out single to center field in the bottom of the inning.
Schill would get out of the inning by striking out Bobby Abreu and A-Rod, but when Jason Giambi prevented a couple of runners from getting on base by channelling J.T Snow in the second, the proceedings quickly took an ominous turn.
Youk, batting in Manny's four spot, led off the inning with a walk, bringing up Boston's most consistent, clutch hitter this season, Mike Lowell.
But Wang got Mike to ground out sharply to Rodriguez, who flipped to Cano to get Youk at second, then Cano flipped to first to try and turn the twin killing.
Cano's throw went wide of the bag but Giambi laid his body prone to the ground while keeping his foot touching first base and managed to stretch for the out, bringing a rousing ovation from the crowd and gushing praise for Michael someone please hit me in the face with a shovel Kay:
"Jason Giambi, all leather and grace these last two days...his glove is a many splendid thing"
Take that however you will.
Three pitches later Boston's whipping boy J.D. Drew grounded to short, and this time Jete's throw sailed wide right of first, so Giambi snagged it out of midair and applied a swipe tag to Drew as he ran by.
I guess getting let off the hook by Bud Selig after admitting he used 'roids has got him playing like a kid again.
Wang worked around a leadoff walk to Tek in the third, but in the bottom of the inning Schilling would make the first of his two mistakes to Cano on the day, as he hit the first pitch he saw from Schilling off the top of the outfield wall for the first run of the game and the first nail in the Red Sox coffin.
Melky Cabrera and Jeter followed with singles in the inning but Schilling held the fort, and while Boston kept getting men on base via the walk they couldn't get any kind of rally going against the stingy Wang.
In the fifth inning Cano repeated his performance from the third, this time taking Schill's third offering and planting it over the wall in nearly the same exact spot as the first one, and even though the score was only 2-0 in the 5th, it might as well have been 200-0 the way Boston was playing in this one.
A wacky seventh inning brought Boston its first hit of the game but also symbolized the three days of frustration that team has suffered through this week.
Youkilis (0-1, 3BB) led off the inning with a grounder to Jeter who again threw wide right of first, but this time Giambi couldn't make the tag as Youk ducked under his glove, and when Lowell followed with a single to right the Sox had their first real threat of the day and a chance to salvage a game.
Either that or they could fold quicker than a Tarantino double feature and implode faster than the Kingdome.
Drew, who has really taken the J.D. Boo thing to a ho nuva level with his pitiful performance in this series, steeped in against Wang and on a 2-2 count hit a sharp grounder to A-Rod, who fumbled for a moment, lunged for Youk as he ran by and then fired to first to get Drew.
After initially calling Youk safe despite a healthy swerve to avoid old Blue Lips' tag, Torre came out and got the blue shirts to converge and discuss whether or not Youkilis had run out of the baseline during his second dodging move of the inning.
No sooner did I turn to my son and say they're gonna rule him out and Tito is going to come out and get ejected did the ump give the close fisted 'out' signal, Tito ran out on the field, and after a few minutes of warming up, got tossed amid a flurry of "F"-bombs.
Well, I said, there's no way this can get any worse, right?
C'mon, you know better than that.
Joba Chamberlain, a.k.a The Second Coming in New York, came in and pitched a scoreless eighth, although Pedroia did lace a two-out double off him, and then New York piled on the the bottom of the inning as millions of TV sets across the nation flicked off simultaneously.
Hideki Okajima, who hadn't pitched since Game 1 of last Friday's doubleheader in Chicago, got Demon (0-4) to fly out to start the frame, but then Jeter dropped his fourth hit of the day into center, setting up the final bit of embarrassment for Boston before they got out of dodge.
Abreu worked a lengthy at bat around numerous pickoff throws to first, then as jetr took off Abreu drove a double into deep center to score the Stankees' captain all the way from first to make for the ever popular insurance run, but still the worst was yet to come.
Rodrguez was intentionally walked, and with Matsui at the plate Torre got aggressive and had both runners steal. Varitek's throw handcuffed Lowell and trickled down the left field line, and as Abreu and A-Rod raced around to score, I clicked the TV off and went out to pull some weeds and beckon heat exhaustion rather than watch another second of this steaming pile of crap of a series.
Later I learned that Chamberlain indoctrinated himself into the Hall of Hate by throwing two consecutive pitches over Youk's bald dome, earning him an immediate ejection, but what did it matter?
Boston just got punked worse than any Ashton Kutcher D-lister and now must fight to keep its division lead with the entire baseball world waiting for them to cave in.
It's gonna be a long two weeks before the rematch at Fenway.
8.30.2007
Oh *bleepin* Cano: Stanks sweep Sox
Sox @ Stanks GM3
Schilling (8-5, 4.11) vs. Wang (15-6, 3.95)
Stankee Stadium 105
Can it get any worse?
As Mel on Flight of the Concords would say, "you bet your ass it can!"
After entering this series on an Amy Winehouse-like high Boston has come crashing back to earth with the force of a two-ton truck, all courtesy of the hated archrival Evil Empire and a couple of former Bosox.
Manny Ramirez is hurt (oblique) and may miss 10 days, Dice-K and Beckett both wilted under the glare of the Stadium lights , J.D. Drew is the poster child for the Nation's ire, and Boston, after rolling the White Sox like a drum the series before this, hasn't even held a lead in this one and once again can't come up with the big hit when needed (except for Tek & Youk.)
Other than that everything's fine.
Today the Sox send their still-rehabbing former ace Curt Schilling to the mound to try and save face, and time was you would bet the crib on him pulling out a victory in a game like this.
That time was...about three years ago.
Now the 40something with the tired shoulder will be opposed by New York's young, livley ace-in-training, Chien Ming Wang, whose 15 victories this year has quietly got him to second in the league and makes him the most reliable Stankee starter in a stable full of stars.
I know the situation is different (i.e. Boston owns a large enough lead that a Stankee sweep is not so scary) from a year ago, but the fact that New York would still trail Boston by a sizeable margin even if they win today is small consolation to Red Sox fans.
Not when your pride is getting stomped on and your swagger is getting thrown in the gutter and your elation is getting drowned in a sea of "here come the Yankee" chants.
So with a rag tag lineup (Youk batting 4th? Cora in for Lugo?) and a ton of wounded pride, Boston will send its one-time savior to the mound in an attempt to squash the Empire uprising and set the Nation at ease that this team is not going to repeat 1978, 2006, et al.
You might want to turn your eyes away if you've got a weak stomach.
8.29.2007
Rocket schools Beckett, Stanks win again
New York 4, Sox 3
WP: Clemens (6-5)
LP: Beckett (16-6)
SV: Rivera (22)
HRs: BOS-Youk (14), Papi (25); NYY-ARod (44) .jpg)
SUMMARY
Josh Beckett allowed a career-high 13 hits while his idol Roidger Clemens surrendered just two in his six innings of work, and Beckett's final pitch of the night, a two-out solo home run by Alex Gonzalez in the seventh, wound up being the difference in the game.
#1 STUNNER Clemens 6IP, 2H, 1ER, 5BB, 2K, HR
For the second night in a row a former member of the Sox came back to bite his old team in the ass, and although Clemens wasn't dominant, he was plenty good enough as the gigantic jackass didn't allow a hit until Papi's moonshot with one out in the sixth.
PAN's FAUN Beckett 6.1IP, 13H, 4ER, 1BB, 6K, 1HR
Squaring off against his boyhood idol on the mound where he recorded his Series-clinching victory with the Marlins, Josh Beckett came up with a performance reminiscent of Miss Tenn South Carolina--erratic, incoherent, and painful to watch in many spots.
RECAP
Raise your hand if your surprised the game turned out like this.
Wait a minute, let me rephrase that: raise your hand if you're surprised Clemens didn't get the no-hitter.
Because the way things have gone for Boston in these two games with the Stankees, a no-no by the man who has been the cause of so much adulation, ridicule and hatred for Boston fans would have made perfect sense.
The only thing missing was Bucky bleepin Dent at short and Aaron bleepin Boone at third and the ghosts of Red Sox past would have engulfed the souls of Red Sox present.
Fortunately for Boston and its ever-fragile Nation it didn't get as ugly as that this evening, but for 6+ innings the game was going about as bad as it possibly could for the boys from Beantown.
Clemens was making his first start against the team he began his career with since October 2003, after Boone torched Wakefield to send Clemens & New York back to the World Series, and the irony of who his mound opponent was tonight was twofold, as Josh Beckett not only grew up idolizing Clemens, but went on to defeat Rocket's Stanks on this field in Game 7 of that 2003 Series.
It's like the six degrees of Red Sox Nation.
It was quickly evident what type of game this was going to be when Clemens nailed Dustin Pedroia with his 5th pitch of the game, to get all the "this is for the Japanese dude nailing Baby Blue Lips the last couple of games" shit out of the way early, followed by Giambi robbing Lugo of extra bases on a "look what I found" snag.
In the bottom of the first, after retiring Judas Demon on a groundout, Beckett allowed a deep shot by Jeter that skied over the head of J.D. Drew for a one-out double and served notice that the Bronx rottweilers were not going to let up in their pursuit of the superior Sox.
Beckett would escape that jam, and Clemens one of his own when he walked Drew and Varitek with two outs in the second then got Coco to tap out to first, but in the bottom of the second the rank sight of the Stanks taking another lead would rear its ugly head again.
Jorgie Posada lined a one-out single past Pedroia into center field, and after Giambi fouled out to Youk, Robinson Cano drew a walk to set up a scoring situation for underrated Melky Cabrera (3-4, R, BI).
After running the count to 2-2 Cabrera pushed a slow roller past Pedroia and into right center that scored Posada from second with the first run of the game and who was up next but the hairless wonder, Judas Demon.
A wild pitch by Beckett moved both runners into scoring position, and Demon battled Becks for seven pitches before squirting a single to left that scored both runners, and once again the little cocksucker had succeeded in twisting the dagger he stuck in the Nation's heart a little bit further.
Saddled with a 3-0 lead the Rocket turned on the wayback machine and pretended it was 2003 all over again, when he had a 17-9 record, a 98-mph heater, and pitching as if the playoff hopes of his team were riding on his shoulders.
Mind you this was definitely not vintage Rocket, as the five walks and 91 mph fastball can attest to, but the desire and competitive fire was still alive and kicking inside the battered 45-year-old body, and it was on full display for much of the night.
While the Stanks pecked at Beckett by putting batters on base in every inning (the only time he had a 1-2-3 inning was when Rodriguez grounded into a double play in the fifth), he somehow managed to evade further run damage; trouble was, Clemens' bend-but-don't-break gameplan was working as well.
Boston's fortunes finally changed when David Ortiz, needing to take up the slack with Manny out of the lineup, blasted a 1-0 pitch from Clemens in the sixth high and deep into the New York night, ultimately landing a few rows up in the third deck, putting an emphatic end to the no hitter and the shutout with one swing of the bat.
The opportunity was there to get tie the game up when one out later Youk (1-3, R, 2BI) walked and Drew singled, but Clemens got Varitek to ground harmlessly to second, ending his evening and what looked like any chance of Boston getting back in this game.
Beckett pulled another Houdini act in the bottom of the inning when he allowed three hits, including New York's fourth infield single of the game, yet got out of the inning unscathed when he beat Demon to the bag on a slow roller to Youk, a play he failed to make just two innings earlier.
Poetically, Tito then channeled Grady Little when he let his struggling ace come out for the seventh, a move he had to regret when Rodriguez reached down for a slider in the dirt and popped it over the wall in left for his 44th longball of the season and what would turn out to be a very important run.
As Rodriguez (2-4, R, BI) took his curtain call Francona removed Beckett, and even though Javier Lopez and Mike Timlin finished the inning, after Youk jacked a two-run homer to left off Kyle Farnsworth in the eighth the damage A Rod's homer had done became painfully more apparent.
When the embattled Farnsworth walked Tek one out later, and with coddled phenom Joba Chamberlain unavailable to pitch tonight, Joe Torre called on his weathered closer, Mariano Rivera, to get the rare four-out save.
Of course he did, retiring all four batters on harmless infield grounders, including Pedroia to A Rod to end the game with Big Papi praying he would get a shot to go retro himself and tie the game with a titanic ninth inning blast.
But alas this was the Stankees nights to relive the past, as Beckett crumbled on the site of his greatest glory in the face of his greatest idol, Demon continued to tear into his old team like Survivorman on a squirrel, and Roidger Clemens showed that eleven years after his initial departure, he's still creating moments for Red Sox fans to remember.
The bastard's just making sure they all suck.
NOTES:
--Injury to insult: Manny's injury could keep him out of the lineup for possibly a week or more, he was quoted as saying today; Kielty's doesn't seem as serious but he could be out a few games. Luckily the rosters expand on Saturday.
--Silent bats: after mashing 52 hits and 46 runs in four games in Chicago, Boston batters have mustered just 11 hits and six runs in two games here, including a measly four base knocks tonight
--Star gazing: the game was so unwatchable for a while that ESPN entertained viewers with the always fun 'spot the celebrity' game. Some of the luminaries on hand included Paul McCartney, Lorne Michaels & Alec Baldwin, who must have been shooting an episode of 30 Rock; Penny Marshall; Billy Crystal (Stanks this week, huh Billy?) and John Madden.
I know, it was that bad.
QUOTES:
--"Stupid pitch, stupid spot." --Beckett on the pitch ARod hit out
--"I wasn't facing him. My guys were facing him."--Beckett on the matchup with
Clemens
--"Everything's in our grasp, the wild card and the division."--Farnsworth, hopefully providing bullpen material for Schill & the Sox tomorrow
RECORD: 80-53
AL EAST: Up 6 on NYY
STREAK: L-2
LAST 10: 6-4
UP NEXT: Thu @ NYY 105 Read More......
Sox Drawer: It had to be him, didn't it?
Ah, Judas, we remember when...
For six innings last night the Sox and Stanks engaged in an entertaining if uneventful game of chess, using small moves and sweeping shots to try and defeat their opponent, and with not a whole lot at stake, and judging by the sound of the half-interested crowd, it was one of the more harmless games in the history of the rivalry.
New York jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to a couple of hits, a walk, a sac bunt and a hit batter, but NY starter Andy Pettitte coughed it up thanks to a homer run by Yankee killer Manny Ramirez and a triple by Julio Lugo who came around on a Big Papi sac fly.
Not exactly the stuff of glowing Bill Simmons articles.
With the crowd somewhat muted save for occasional "Red Sox suck" chant thanks to the Bostonians owning a gaping 8-game advantage in the standings coupled with the fact that neither Pettitte nor Daisuke Matsuzaka were tossing gems, the game had all the excitement of a VH1 reality show--somewhat manufactured and somehow uninspiring.
And then things got epic.
Down 3-2 heading into the 7th after Matsuzaka allowed power-impaired Derek Jeter to untie the game with a solo shot in thr 5th, the Red Sox Captan did something he has been doing all season: come up with a big hit in the clutch.
Tek's 12th longball of the season barely cleared the right field wall, barely eluding the ill-timed leap of Judas Demon, who has been shifted to left field due to his noodle arm and Jurassic gait, and tied the game at three, and that's when things entered into nail-biting, classic Sox/Stanks territory, large East lead be damned.
And Nations members far and wide had another belly laugh at the expense of the shaved idiot.
Who knew minutes later he would get the last laugh at our expense again.
It doesn't take a Red Sox historian to recall last August's epic collapse in a five game series at Fenway, forever dubbed the Boston Massacre II.
In those five games over four days, New York lit up the Sox like Boston did to Chicago this past weekend, and the man leading the way was none other than the exiled former playoff hero, Judas Demon.
Demon went nuts on his former club in that series, batting .435 (10-23) with 4 doubles, a triple, 2 homers, 6 runs scored and 8 batted in in the first four games, then sat out the finale, presumably to rest on his laurels.
The pesky centerfielder was all over the basepaths in those games, and his presence in the lineup proved to be a constant thorn in the side of the team that refused to meet his salary demands and let him walk as a free agent to the despised Stankees following the 2005 season.
And now he's at it again.
Mired in the midst of a miserable season in which injuries have slowed his foot speed and robbed him of bat speed, Judas has recently been rejuvenated, batting .350 since the end of July and finding his way in left after conceded his center position to the younger, stronger, faster Melky Cabrera.
All it would take was a late August rematch with his old team to take his game to a ho...nuva...level.
Demon's two-run blast was a mirror image of his former teammate Tek's, a high, floating wall-scraper that barley cleared the wall in right, but it still had the effect of a jackhammer to the heart.
Throw in the back injuries suffered by Manny Ramirez and Bobby Kielty, the dominance of fireballing phenom Joba Chamberlain and the familiar 9th inning stinginess of Marioan Methuselah Rivera, and the game suddenly and unexpectedly veered into memorable territory as far as the Rivalry goes.
Too bad the positive memories will be for the wrong team, created by the worst man possible in the eyes of a Nation.
8.28.2007
Surprise, surprise: cold Stanks knock off hot Sox
New York 5, Sox 3
WP: Pettitte (12-7)
LP: Matsuzaka (13-11)
SV: Rivera (21)
HRs: BOS-Varitek (12), Manny (20); NYY- Jeter (9), Demon (9)
SUMMARY
To the surprise of absolutely no one on either side of this storied rivalry, the Stankees, coming off their worst road shutout loss in franchise history, defeated the Red Sox, who were coming off an historic 4-game sweep of the White Sox.
Non-surprise #2: Former Sox idiot Judas Demon hit the game-winning homer.
#1 STUNNER Demon 2-4, 2R, 2BI, HR
As much as it pains me to bestow the shaved rat with this honor, the guy had a whale of a game; he played excellent defense in left field, scored the first run of the game after a leadoff single, and then provided the winning margin with a 2-run homer of Daisuke Matsuzaka in the 7th.
PAN's FAUN Matsuzaka 6.1IP, 6H, 5ER, 3BB, 2K, 2HR
The backsliding rookie lost his third straight start when he twice allowed New York to score after Boston clawed back to tie the game. He's now surrendered 20 homers on the season and it appears that the heavy US workload might be getting to the Japanese hurler.
RECAP
This is what we get for feeling so giddy.
Riding high on the strength of that Chitown beatdown and a cushy 8-game division lead, the Sox strolled into the Bronx with all the confidence of Brad Pitt on the Dating Game, secure in the knowledge that even a sweep by New York would still leave them in solid shape to win the AL East.
And then the game began.
Before most of the late-arriving Stadium crowd had finished swilling its pregame meal, the Stanks had put two runs on the board, the chants of Boston sucks were already in full throat, and Nation members were mumbling "all we have to do is win one of these games and we'll be alright."
The trouble is, whenever these two meet with anything on the line (with the exception of 2004), Boston shrivels up quicker than George Costanza at an icy lake, and no matter who's in first or how poorly or well the other team is playing, a large percentage of people involved on both sides know that somehow, some way the Stanks are going to get over on the Sox again.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not whining or complaining or asking fans of any other lesser teams to feel sorry for us, but merely stating an obvious fact: everyone in the Nation knew, in the back of their minds, that Boston was not going to sweep this series, and in fact might get swept themselves.
But the benefit of jumping out to that ginormous division lead early in the year gave us the luxury of not having to worry too much about it (for a change.)
Lose three here, they're still up five, move on and continue the march to the division title like nothing's happened.
And I was prepared to handle it that way.
In fact during the 6th inning, with Boston trailing 3-2 and looking as lively as one of Mike Vick's pets, I thought to myself, "even if they lose this game it's no so bad, it's not a horrible painful loss, just another loss in a season full of them."
And then, wouldn't ya know, it got painful.
Matsuzaka started the night by loading the bases in the first inning on a single by Demon, a one-out walk to Bobby Abreu and then plunking A Rod with his first pitch he threw him.
Hideki Matsui then hit a hard grounder to second to nab A-Rod, but Demon crossed the plate with the first run just minutes into the game, and Jorgie Posada followed with a double to left that plated Abreu with the second run before Robinson Cano launched a fly ball to deep center to end the frame.
Manny Ramirez (2-3, R, BI) would slice that lead in half when he led off the second inning with an opposite field homer off Andy Pettitte, his 20th of the season and 52nd against New York in his career, but his night would come to an unexpected early conclusion just a few innings later.
After Dice-K tossed a 1-2-3 third inning, Boston tied the game in the top of the third when Julio Lugo led off with a triple to the wall in left center, then came home on a sac fly by David Ortiz (0-3, BI) two batters later.
Handed a new lease on the game Matsuzaka, who was behind hitters all evening and did not look sharp despite retiring 12 of 13 batters at one point, could not hold the Stanks, who had lost 5 of 7 on its last road trip including 3 of 4 in Detroit, at bay.
In the fifth Dice retired the first two batters before Derek Jeter ripped an opposite field homer of his own, his first longball in 87 at bats and second of his nine this year off Matsuzaka, and the momentum had swung back to New York's favor with the 3-2 lead.
That's when I said to myself "hey, it's been a good game, nothing too horrible to bemoan, if it ends like this I'm okay with it."
Unfortunately it was about to get much, much worse.
Ramirez led off the sixth with a solid single off the pitchers mound, but as he left the box he grimaced and briefly grabbed at his side, then trotted to first. J.D. Drew (0-4, 2K), who had a horrid evening, ended the frame with a double play, and Manny came out to the field for the bottom of the inning.
Dice-K recorded two quick outs before Posada lofted a soft fly ball to left, and as Manny gingerly jogged in to retrieve the ball it casually slipped under his glove as Posada took second on the left fielder's error.
Another incident of Manny Being Manny?
Hardly.
Matsuzaka got Cano to strike out to end the inning, and when Jason Varitek, a.k.a Captain Clutch, lifted a solo shot that barely eluded Demon's mistimed leap and landed in the first row of seats in the left field stands, it seemed as if things were looking up for the Boston boys.
I repeat, hardly.
When Boston took the field for the bottom of the seventh, Bobby Kielty had replaced Manny in left. It appears that the "minor" back spasms that plagued Ramirez in Chitown flared up again, and he had to be removed from the game.
Gulp.
It was as if a karmic shift had occurred on the club, and just to confirm this eerie, all-too-familiar feeling, Andy Phillips led off with a single to left and after he was replaced by pinch runner Wilson Betemit, Melky Cabrera sacrificed him over to second and the wheels were in motion for an awful ending to this entertaining game.
One pitch later the wheel spun like a friggin top as Demon placed a blast just fair and just over the fence in right for a soul-crushing, crowd-erupting, in-your-shaved face 2-run homer that earned him a curtain call from the suddenly ignited crowd and sent millions of heads into millions of pairs of hands all across the Nation.
Why oh why did it have to be him who did us in -AGAIN!?
Pettitte (7IP, 6H, 3ER, 2BB, 6K) was removed for rookie sensation set up man Joba Chamberlain to start the eighth, and although the beefy flamethrower allowed a pair of baserunners on a walk and a single, he also blew away Eric Hinske, who had to pinch hit for Kielty as he suffered a back injury as well, on three pitches, then froze Drew on a wicked breaker after blazing a 99 mph heater past him on two other pitches.
From there it was all over but the crying as Mariano Fossil Rivera retired all three batters in the ninth including two strikeouts, and a game that began with such high hopes ended in a depressing, injury-plagued loss that gave the Stankees some much-needed hope in the race for the playoffs.
So ends another chapter in Red Sox/Stankees lore, one in which Boston's heralded rookie hurler could not come up big when we needed him to but New York's did, two of Boston's players were lost with injuries that could prove costly, and a player who used to be a beloved hero but is now a reviled zero caused more heartache and pain for a Nation that has already seen its fair share.
We can only pray that Josh Beckett can best Roidger Clemens on national TV tomorrow night, or else this seemingly insurmountable lead could suddenly appear very slim.
And the chants of 1978 & 2006 will be ringing in our ears until the teams meet again next month in Fenway.
Series preview: Sox @ Stanks
Red Sox (80-51) @ NY Stankees (72-59)
3 game series @ Stankee Stadium
Standings: BOS up 8 gms on NY
Season series: Bos leads, 7-5
Probable Pitching Matchups:
GM1 Tue 705 Matsuzaka (13-10, 3.76) vs. Pettitte (11-7, 3.69)
GM2 Wed 705 Beckett (16-5, 3.21) vs. Clemens (5-5, 4.34)
GM3 Thu 105 Schilling (8-5, 4.11) vs. Wang (15-6, 3.95)
Keep an eye on: Roger Clemens--the 42-year-old colossal egomaniac has brought a mediocre fastball, ERA and record to the Bronx, all for the bargain basement price of $28 million dollars, prorated of course for his half season of contributions. You know the aging ace will be fired up for his first meeting with Boston since 2003, but will it matter against Sox Cy Young candidate Beckett?
Preview:
The moment is here. The time is now.
Tonight marks the beginning of the rest of the season for the Red Sox and Stankees, and although this series in itself won't determine who will win the AL East, it could go a long way to deciding which team will have the upper hand at securing the division crown.
Obviously all things are in Boston's favor heading into this set: Boston owns an 8 game lead over its arch rivals; they are coming off a 4-game ass-reaming of the hapless Chisox while New York dropped 3-4 in Detroit; and the Sox enjoyed a casual day off in the Big Apple yesterday while the Bronx Bummers were getting bitchslapped, 16-0, by the Tigers last night.
But as we in the Nation know all too well, things have seemed rosy for the Bososx in the past, only to turn dark and cloudy in a matter of days when faced with the prospect of extricating the 800-lb pinstriped gorilla off thier backs.
2006, anyone?
The best part of this meeting is the fact that even if the Sox were to lose all three games, their lead in the East would still remain at a healthy 5 games, a luxury they did not enjoy last season when Boston owned a mere 3 1/2 game lead over New York heading into that fateful five-game series in Boston in mid-August, a series forever known as the Boston Massacre II.
We all know what happened over that long, dark weekend, so there is no need to rehash it here. But it would be nice if Boston could bury those memories forever by blasting New York completely out of the division race by returning the favor and sweeping the Stanks out of the penthouse suite they have occupied in the East since 1996.
I'll be writing plenty more words on this series in the next few days, so right now I am going to set my DVR, cook some dinner on the grill, make sure I am stocked with my favorite adult beverage, and sit back and watch the drama unfold.
Let the games begin...
...and the Evil Empire's Eastern reign end!
8.27.2007
White Sox series: The Aftermath
A day later the magnitude of what Boston accomplished in Chicago still hasn't sunk in
I watched every game, though admittedly not every inning, of the series Boston played in Chicago this past weekend, and as I sit here 24 hours later I still find it hard to fathom what happened in the Windy City.
I'm 39 years old and have been a Red Sox fan since the fateful season of 1978, weaned on Bucky's blast, the Dewey-Rice-Armas years, the explosion of the Rocket Era right on through to the miraculous 2004 campaign, and in all that time, encompassing thousands of games watched on TV and in person, I have never seen this team so thoroughly dismantle another team like I witnessed this weekend.
Forget about the fact that the White Sox are probably the worst team in the majors right now--although you certainly can't ignore that fact when assessing the carnage--but when a traditionally high powered offensive ballclub accomplishes something that it had not done 57 years, well that's reason to celebrate, putridness of the opponent be damned.
They say baseball, more than any other sport, is a game of numbers. If that old adage is true, the numbers from this weekend paint a picture worth way more than 1000 words.
In case you forgot, lost track, or are like me and still in disbelief over what took place, let's take a quick look at some of the staggering stats the two pairs of Sox compiled in this series for the ages.
STATS: BOS/CHI
RUNS: 46/7
HITS: 52/23
AVG: .331/.178
HRS: 7/4
XBH: 18/4
ERA: 1.75/10.50
BP ERA: 1.58/16.20
I don't know about you but I haven't seen numbers this disparate since me and my buddies were outnumbered 35-7 in a brawl at ZooMass in 1987.
With those kind of massive statistics there had to be a few guys who had a week's (or month's) worth of numbers in one weekend, and here's a look at few of the standout players from the series.
-David Ortiz: 7-17, 7R, 7BI, 3HR, 2B (and that's with an 0-3 in GM1)
-Mike Lowell: 10-19, 6R, 7BI, 2 2B (RBI in every game, 4-6 in GM3)
-Bobby Kielty: 5-13, 4R, 8BI, 2B, HR (went 0-0 w/ 2BI GM1)
-Kevin Youkilis: 6-16, 2R, 6BI, 2 2B, HR (and that's with an 0-4 GM4)
That's just four guys who proved to be a demolition crew when it came to knocking down the Temple of Ozzie in Chitown, but it was a complete team effort that led to the Bosox exorcising the demons of that miserable 2005 ALDS, when Chicago swept the defending World Champions in embarrassing fashion en route to their own South Side series title.
Although not as embarrassing fashion as this was.
And so I got to witness another historic happening with my beloved team. The numbers don't lie, and they will be there for all to see for a long time to come:
-most runs scored by Boston in a four game series since 1949
-most runs scored by Boston in a four game span since 1950
-first team to score 10+ runs in four straight games since 1996
-first AL team to score 10+ runs in four straight games since 1922
In closing I just have to say that I am happy to have been witness to an ass-kicking of such epic proportions, a thoroughly enjoyable way to head into a series with the hated Stankees, secure in the knowledge that when this club is clicking on all cylinders there aren't many teams that can stop it.
Let's keep the good times rolling long enough to break another decade-long streak: the Stanks grip on the division title.
8.26.2007
Double digit delight: Sox set record with 4th straight rout
Boston 11, Chicago 1
WP: Tavarezx (7-9)
LP: Vazquez (11-7)
HRs: BOS-Drew (7), Ortiz (24), Kielty (1); CHI-Dye (25)
SUMMARY
In another stunning display of timely and merciless hitting, the Boston Red Sox did something that hadn't been accomplished by an American League team since 1922: score 10 or more runs in all four games of a series.
#1 STUNNER Boston offense 11R, 9H
Although no one had a monster game like in the first three contests, any time you get a squad that sets modern day records and does something that no team has done in over a decade, well they are all heroes for that.
PAN's FAUN Javy Vazquez 6IP, 6H, 7ER, 3BB, 10K
Much like teammate Mark Buehrle the day before, Vazquez was cruising in the early going, allowing just 3 baserunners through the first four innings. Then the Bosox hung a 4-spot up in the 5th, and from that point on it was goodbye Javy, hello record books.
RECAP
In honor of ESPN's Greatest Home Runs of All Time gimmick, I think I'll quote the late, great Jack Buck in describing the finale of this fantastic series with Chicago:
"I don't belive what I just saw."
For the fourth consecutive game the Red Sox treated the host White Sox more rudely than Leona Helmsley at a tax audit, shredding the horrid Chicago pitching staff for another 11 runs en route to a record-setting series in which Boston outscored Chicago 46-7, outhit the Chisox 52-23, and outclassed the sorry-ass South Siders in every facet of the game.
Coupled with New York losing 2-of-3 to Detroit so far in their series Boston's East lead has swelled back to 7 1/2 games as they head to the Bronx for a three game set beginning Tuesday.
Suffice it to say that life is good in the Nation right now.
Nothing like four straight games of dragging a team through the mud to pick up one's spirits, ey?
The ironic thing about the series is how much damage Boston did to Chicago late in games, a byproduct of an absolutely horrendous White Sox bullpen.
The Bosox scored 35 of their 46 runs in the 5th inning or later, and an incredible 21 of those runs came in the 7th, 8th & 9th innings, the equivalent of a boxer going for the knockout blow in the latter rounds of a prize fight.
Just like yesterday's game this one was a pitchers duel for the first four innings, the only blemish for each starter coming on solo homers in the second inning.
Julian Tavarez (6IP, 2H, 1ER, 3BB, 7K), making his second spot start since returning to the pen, pitched his best game in over two months, allowing just two hits in six innings, his only mistake an opposite field home run by Jermaine Dye with one out in the 2nd inning that tied the game at one.
That shot offset a home run by J.D. Drew in the top of the inning, also an opposite field blast that was Drew's first longball in 51 games which was also, ironically, the last time Tavarez won a game, June 20th in Atlanta.
Other than that both starters were stingier than a wino with a bottle of Cristal as each hurler allowed a hit here or a walk there but never faced any serious scoring threats...
...until the 5th inning.
That fateful frame for Vazquez began with a strikeout of Jason Varitek but ended with Boston scoring four runs on four hits to effectively put the game out of reach.
Following the strikeout Bobby Kielty (2-4, 2R, 2BI), who has become a full-fledged Nation favorite this week, laid down a bunt that hugged the 3rd base line and shocked Vazquez so much he had no play on the slow roller.
Kinda reminiscent of Pedroia's innocuous infield hit that opened the floodgates in yesterday's game.
Coco Crisp then lined a single to right field, but when Julio Lugo forced Crisp out at second on a fielder's choice, it looked as if the rally was going to come to an end.
Not even close.
Lugo added his 28th stolen base of the season despite a couple of pickoff attempts by Vazquez, and then Pedroia (1-5, R, 2BI) laced a solid single to center that brought Kielty & Lugo home with the tie-breaking runs, and the rout was on with Ortiz coming up.
That's when One Pitch Papi launched the very next offering from Vazquez to nearly the identical spot he hit his second homer yesterday, over the wall in left center for a 2-run opposite-field shot that made the score 5-1 Sox and signaled the beginning of the end for Chicago's hopes of salvaging a game in this series.
Tavarez answered that output with his best inning of the day, striking out all three Chisox batters in the bottom of the inning on just 12 pitches, and before anyone knew what happened Boston was putting more runs on the board.
After Drew worked a leadoff walk to start the 6th, two outs later Kielty blasted a deep home run to right, his first as a member of the Sox and first since September 29th of last season when he was with the As.
7-1 now, and every Nation member was now on the edge of their seats hoping the Sox would do something most of us had never seen our team do before--hit the magic double-digit mark for the fourth straight game.
The chances of that happening looked slim for a bit as reliever Ryan Bukvich, who had been hammered in a couple games this series (then again, who hasn't in that pen?), tossed two shutout innings in the 7th & 8th to hold the scoring machine at bay and dampen the chances of us seeing history made.
But then came the 9th, an inning that has not featured a lot of Boston runs this season, until this series that is.
After the first two batters reached base on a single by Tek and an infield hit by Kielty, Ozzie removed Bukvich in favor of former Bosox Mike Myers, and it was like the plantes aligned and history was destined to be made.
A fielders chioce by Crisp forced Kielty at second, but Lugo followed with a sharp single to left to score Tek with run #8, and suddenly the Sox could smell the blood in the water.
Pedroia lined out to second for the second out of the inning, and then Papi lofted a high fly ball to left that Josh Fields camped under, then swerved, stabbed, and missed the ball as it fell harmlessly next to him for a two-run, two-base error, and Boston had the modern mark on, appropriately, another blunder by the South Siders.
Mike Lowell then added his obligatory RBI on a hard single to left, and when Drew popped out to end the inning, Boston had 11 runs on the board and had swept the reeling White Sox in an historic four-game fun fest.
And now Boston will enjoy a much-needed day off in the Big Apple as the Stanks battle the Tigers on Monday in Detroit, waiting patiently for a chance to unleash this new-found firepower on their hated archenemy.
Who's got the best offense between the two? Hard to say. But on the heels of this wild weekend in Chitown, I wouldn't bet against the boys from Benatown.
Bring on the Stanks!
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