Stankees 4, Sox 3
WP: Chamberlain (2-0)
LP: Schilling (8-8)
SV: Rivera (28)
HRs: BOS-Lowell (); NYY-Jeter (11)
SUMMARY
Hall of Fame workhorses Roidger Clemens and Curt Schilling engaged in a tense and exciting pitchers duel, combining to allow one earned run on five total hits through the fist six innings.
But while Clemens exited the game after six, Tito stuck with Schill into the eighth, a move that backfired like Grady/Petey as Curt surrendered three hits including Jeter's three-run Monster shot in the inning, essentially handing the season series--and any postseason momentum--to New York.
#1 STUNNER Jeter 2-4, 1R, 3BI, HR
The Stankee captain has raked Boston pitching in general and Curt Schilling in particular all season long. Coming into the game he was batting .382 with five homers vs. the Sox, and now he can add a game-winning homer to those gaudy stats.
PAN's FAUN Schilling 7.2IP, 6H, 4ER, 0BB, 2K, 2HR
He didn't pitch all that poorly, in fact he was brilliant in stretches, but you can't expect to beat these assclowns by allowing homers to Cano and Jeter all the time. I mean A-Rod I can take, but not those two mighty mites.
RECAP
In the end Boston found themselves in a situation that seemed to be sprawl from the pages of a lyrical baseball novel--bases loaded, home team down by a run, the legendary slugger at the plate facing the opponent's legendary closer on the mound, season series hanging in the balance, final inning of the final regular season game between bitter archrivals.
But this isn't literature and although the mighty Papi did not strike out, his weak popper that was caught by--fittingly--Derek Jeter, put a cap on what was at times an exhilarating, exasperating and totally exhausting 19-game series against the boys from the Bronx.
And who woulda thunk that the two old, injured aces would both turn in stellar performances in a mano-a-mano duel in which neither pitcher wanted to blink, and barely did for the first half of the contest.
Boston would draw blood first when it scored a run in the first inning courtesy of a hit, a walk and an error.
The error came when Judas Demon let Jacoby Ellsbury's (0-4, R, SB) liner to left handcuff him and drop out of his glove to lead off the inning, and after Pedroia flied out and Ellsbury stole second, Clemens walked David Ortiz before surrendering an RBI single to Mike Lowell, the third baseman's team-leading 107th ribbie of the season.
After Clemens got J. D. Drew to fly out to deep left center, Jason Varitek came up with a chance to pad the lead against the veteran righty, but his bid for an extra base hit was stymied on an incredibly lucky snag by first baseman Doug the Ball Stealer Mientkiewicz, who after realizing he had stopped the ball outraced the captain to the bag for the out.
So it was 1-0 Boston on an unearned run after one inning, but it would be the last time the Sox would cross the plate for quite a while.
Both starters would find their grooves over the next three innings when each team only put one runner on base and couldn't even sniff a scoring opportunity.
But this is Sox/Stanks--you know a 1-0 game was out of the friggin question.
That fact hit home hard when official pain-in-the-ass second baseman Robinson Cano took a 1-0 offering from Schilling and deposited it in the Monster seats to tie the game. It was Cano's 6th hit in 12 at bats against Curt this season, and three of those hits have been homers.
In fact if Schilling had just read the ESPN preview before the game, he might have come away from this one with a W:
"Schilling is winless in four starts this year against New York, going 0-2 with a 5.76 ERA. He's had the most trouble with Derek Jeter, who is 7-for-12 against him this year, and Robinson Cano, who's 5-for-11."
Boy would that last little sentence prove prophetic.
Faced with a brand new ballgame both hurlers buckled down again, retiring the next 10 batters before Clemens ran into trouble by walking Papi and allowing a single to Mike Lowell with one out in the fifth. Lowell's hit was just the second the Rocket had allowed on the night, both by the Boston third baseman.
But Clemens got Drew to ground into a forceout to second base (shocker!), and then Cap'n Tek, who is mired in a horrendous 1-21 slump, ended another inning with a fly out to Demon in left, and yet another possible scoring opportunity had gone by the wayside for the sporadic Sox.
Please come back, Manny, please!
That wound up being Clemens' last batter as Torre went to heralded rookie Joba Chamberlain with the game tied and the series in the balance to start the seventh.
The hefty hurler brought a zero ERA into the contest and had only allowed eight hits in 16 innings this season, but he was greeted with a double high off the Monster by battering ram Eric Hinske to start the inning, and when Coco sacrificed him to third on the very next pitch, it looked like that scoreless streak was about to come to an end.
But then Lugo whiffed on a 100 mph heater just off the plate, and when Chamberlain got Ellsbury to ground to first and the Ball Stealer made another fantastic play to beat the speedster to the bag, the momentum was clearly with New York as the game wore on.
Uncle Mo swung full circle in the eighth when a tiring Schilling came out to try and give his beleaguered bullpen as much of a rest as he could, but it turned out that just like Grady should have done four years ago with Pedro Martinez in the Bronx, Tito should have stepped in and said "thanks, but hit the showers" to Schill before the inning even began.
That became apparent as soon as the Ball Stealer laced a one-out single to left center, and by the time Giambi stepped into the on-deck circle to pinch hit for catcher Jose Molina, you could almost sense something disastrous was about to happen.
Schilling made a decent pitch to Giambi, he just reached out and sliced it high off the top of the Monster for a double that missed being a homer by about six inches, but in a few minutes that minor inconvenience would become a forgotten memory.
Jeter came to the plate blistering Boston pitching this season,a nd with the game on the line you have to wonder why Francona didn't pull the plug on the situation right there and bring in Manny D.
After running the count to 2-2, Jeter teed off on a fat Schilling fastball for a mammoth wall shot that nearly left the building, and just like that nearly every television set in the Nation swapped the game over to the Pats shellacking of the Chargers on Sunday Night Football.
But for those who stayed with the game, Boston proved they were not going to let this series get away without a fight.
Lowell would pop the Chamberlain cherry when he uncorked a solo shot to deep left center with two outs in the bottom of the eighth to cut the deficit to 4-2, and with Mariano Rivera coming in for the ninth, a man who has blown more saves against Boston (11) than any other team in his illustrious career, there was hope for a miraculous comeback yet.
And when Varitek drew a leadoff walk against the leatherfaced closer, that hope grew to full-fledged possibility.
A pair of groundouts got Tek around to third, but with two outs the hope was fading into doubt. Then Julio Lugo doubled to the left center field gap to score Hinske with run #3, and hope had turned back into all-out belief that the boys could get it done, especially if Papi could get to the plate.
The Faithful got their wish when Rivera nailed Ellsbury with a pitch and then walked Pedroia to load the bases for the most clutch hitter in modern Red Sox history, setting the stage for an improbable comeback that could propel the Sox to the division title and points beyond.
Ortiz got the count in his favor, 2-1, before fouling off a classic Rivera cutter, and then he swung at what was probably ball three and blooped it out to Jeter, who looked up, watched the ball drop into his glove, and then pumped his fist a-la Jonathan Papelbon, a gesture meant to say "see you guys in October".
So New York took the season series 10-8 after Boston had won 6 of the first 8 games, and with the best record in baseball over the last three months and the confidence gained from drilling Boston in 6 of the last 7 meetings, it's safe to say that although the division lead remains in Boston's hands, the post season momentum clearly resides with the pinstripes.
Damn Stankees!
9.16.2007
Pitcher's duel turns into another heartbreaking loss
Game Preview: Stanks at Sox GM3
Clemens (6-6, 4.17) vs. Schilling (8-7, 3.97)
Fenway 8PM ESPN
This regular season finale of the season series with the Stanks will truly be one for the ages.
As in, ages 45 and 40, otherwise known as Mr. Roidger Clemens and Mr. Curt Schilling.
That's right the ultimate game of a long and winding 18-game series has come down to two of the oldest and most decorated lights-out big game pitchers this rivalry has ever seen.
Clemens, the former Sox phenom turned Public Enemy #1 in the Nation, will be making his first regular-season start at Fenway since August 2003 and his first start in his old haunts since an October matchup vs. Pedro Martinez that same season.
The reception will not be kind for the man who has jerked the Sox brass around in two of the last three seasons by leveraging a potential deal with Boston to sign for greater money elsewhere, first in Houston and then this spring with New York.
They'll be a lot of "fuck you too, dickhead!"s flying around Fenway.
This will also be the first time Schilling and Clemens have faced each other since Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, when Schill's D-Backs defeated Clemens and the Stanks 3-2 in a game in which both hurlers turned in herculean efforts. Schilling would go on to win the MVP and then break an 86-year-old curse, while Clemens would go on to string teams along like a 14-year-old girl for the next six years.
Both pitchers have been feeling their age this year, with Schill spending a month on the DL with a shoulder injury and Clemens coming off a two-week hiatus due to an elbow problem. But both will be fired up to get the win in this series finale, a game that might not decide the division title, but one that both teams--and proud pitchers--want badly nonetheless.
Go Sox!
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......
6.10.2007
Clemens makes '07 debut (yawn!)
Roidger goes six innings, gives up three runs and throws 108 pitches in the first start of his second go-'round with the Stanks.
Does anyone else find is absolutely friggin hilarious that the 2007 Rocket relaunch or whatever cutesy name the headline writers want to call it, took place not in front of 10's of millions of viewers nationwide on FOX or ESPN but on the few million YES Network subscribers in the tri-state area?
The only subtle thing about Clemens was his inauspicious '07 debut, in front of 55,000 fans at the Stadium; not even Extra Innings subscribers could witness the latest un-retirement in the Clemens' long & storied career.
The good news for New York is that he provided them with a boost, both in the clubhouse and on the field. He went six innings and allowed five hits, three runs with two walks and seven Ks, and got a win against the Pirates.
The bad news is that he needed over 100 pitches in just six innings to dispatch a team that is one of the worst in the majors, and if his team didn't score nine, who knows if he might have grabbed a victory.
The bottom line is it really doesn't matter what Clemens or New York does over the next few months. As long as the Sox keep winning and keep the division lead at a robust double-digit level, those Stankee fans can slurp Roger all they want, because at nearly a million dollars a start, he is one of the most expensive 4th starters in history.
Can't wait to see you in August, Roidger. If you're not on the DL, that is!
6.03.2007
Sox/ Stanks GM 2: The Aftermath
The war of attrition that was yesterday's contest between the Sox and Yankees was costly for New York, both on and off the field.
On the field the Stanks took another step backward in their quest to cut the AL East deficit to single digits. Boston's improbable 11-6 win assures the Sox can only lose 1 game in the Standings if they should lose tonight's game, which would still put them 12 1/2 up on New York.
Off the field the news was even worse for New York. First baseman Doug The Ball Stealer Mientkiewicz was placed on the DL after suffering numerous injuries in the collision with Mike Lowell at first base during the 7th inning of yesterday's game.
Dougie not only broke his right wrist but also suffered a mild concussion and a cervical sprain, and with Jason Giambi already on the DL for a while, it looks like New York will be very shorthanded on the right side of the infield for a while. Mientkiewicz is expected to miss 6-9 weeks.
Sorry dude, by that's what you get for messing with the historic ball. It's called karma-watch ...Earl.
As if all that wasn't bad enough, The Rocket dropped a bombshell on the New York brass by informing them he is experiencing slight discomfort in his groin and will not be able to make his scheduled start on Monday against the White Sox in what was to be his 2007 debut.
First he pusses out of re-launching his third un-retirement party in Boston, and now he's hurt before he even throws a pitch.
I just have one thing to say, Stankees:
Ha-Ha!
Fuck the Feeble Empire!
Go Sox!
.jpg)
