Welcome back: Sox win in Billy Buck's return to Hub

Sox 5, Tigers 0
WP: Matsuzaka (2-0)
LP: Rogers (0-2)
SV: None
HRs: None

Don't cry, Billy Buck--all's forgiven now

Superstar: Dice K 6.2IP, 4H, 4BB, 7K
He wasn't overpowering, but he was incredibly effective, limiting the struggling Tigers to 4 singles while striking out 7. And when he came out of the game with 2 outs in the 7th, Matsuzaka received a huge ovation from the Faithful, because this is the Dice K we expect to see every time he takes the mound.

The Biggest Loser(s): The Tigers
Combine an anemic offense (5 singles, no runs) with a sloppy defense (2 errors, numerous missed plays) and bad pitching and what you get is an 0-7 team with a $139 million dollar payroll and more problems than a math major.

RECAP:
All that was missing from the Red Sox 2008 home opener was Mike Dukakis, New Kids on the Block, Calvin Schiraldi and a holographic "forgive me" message from Harry Frazee.

Other than that it seemed like every other former hero or goat in the city's history was on hand today as the Sox celebrated the 2007 title team by trotting out familiar faces and championship trophies from all 4 Hub sports franchises, as well as some famous Boston celebrities.

From the moment the pregame festivities began (which of course I didn't get to see live since Extra Innings would never carry that kind of stuff) the entire day had the atmosphere of a gigantic celebration more than a baseball game. It was like Opening Day, Mardi Gras, New Years Eve, Carnival, the Festival of Lights, the Olympics Closing Ceremonies and the Oscars all rolled into one.

Some of the highlights included:

-current and former members of the Patriots, Bruins and Celtics taking the field while wielding their respective trophies

-the unfurling of the 2007 championship banner over the Wall as it replaced the 2004 banner, a cool sight in what hopefully will become an annual tradition

-the handing out of the championship rings to the entire organization, from coaches & trainers to former and current players (hey, a Doug Mirabelli sighting!), all scored to the themes songs of various cinematic classics

-and finally, the most climatic moment of the day - Bill Buckner emerged from Manny's door in the Monster and walked towards to the mound to a chorus of cheers and a long-awaited standing ovation, 22 years after his infamous World Series play became the modern symbol of Sox futility and made him a pariah in throughout New England and the Nation.

It was a moment, despite its contrived and Sox-serving nature, that was both memorable and emotional for all those involved. It was a completion of the cycle from the "woe is us, we're always gonna suck and this is why" sports town to a city of champions chock full of happiness and good will, and it was the ultimate way to say all is forgiven, not just from the fans to Billy Buck but from Billy Buck to the once-bitter fans.

Then Buck threw out the opening pitch, and appropriately it was a perfect strike to Dewey Evans (my all-time fave Sox player, by the way). Following fellow Sox legend Johnny Pesky's cry of "Let's play ball", the pregame pomp & circumstance was over and finally it was time to play ball.

Boston jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead by the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Coco Crisp and a triple by Manny that he scored on when the relay throw went into the Tiger's dugout, but the game felt like an afterthought to the pageantry of the afternoon.

Something that didn't get lost on the crowd was the effort of Daisuke Matsuzaka. Freed from the obligations of pitching in his homeland and starting two of the Sox first three games on two different continents, Dice-K was masterful for much of the afternoon. With the Tiger offense continuing to sputter without its leadoff man/catalyst Curtis Granderson, Matsuzaka mowed through the lineup like Grant through Richmond, allowing just 4 baserunners through the first five innings before escaping a bases loaded jam in the 6th.

By that time it was 3-0 Boston, and when the Sox tacked on another pair of runs in the bottom of the 6th on an RBI double by Youk (3-3, R, 2BI, BB) and a bases loaded walk to JD Drew, the game was all over but the shouting.

And by shouting I mean local boy Steven Tyler's screeching rendition of God Bless America, which sounded like a cat with laryngitis, followed by Neil Diamond's absurd taped offering of Fenway anthem Sweet Caroline, complete with a back up band, dancing Wally and lifeless Sox CEO Tom Werner.

It was about that time that I fast forwarded to the end of this overblown spectacle, just in time to catch Oki blow through the three Tiger hitters, putting the finishing touch on this day of joy and celebration.

So the homecoming was an absolute success. Bucker was feted. Tiger SS and new pariah Edgar Rentanerror was booed. The Sox got back on the winning track, and the now infamous ballpark hawk even made a guest appearance during Youk's at bat in the 6th inning.

Now can we get on with the regular season?

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Series Preview: Home sweet home! Tigers vs Sox

Tigers (0-6) vs. Red Sox (3-4)

Game 1 Today 205 Rogers (0-1, 3.00) vs. Matsuzaka (1-0, 2.31)
Game 2 Wed 705 Bonderman (0-1, 5.68) vs. Lester (1-1, 3.38)
Game 3 Thu 705 Robertson (0-0, 9.00) vs. Wakefield (0-0, 4.50)

What to watch for: two teams with high expectations and even higher payrolls will go toe-to-toe to prove their horrendous start is just an early-season fluke

Players to watch: the Tigers lineup was being compared to the '27 Yankees this spring, but with Gary Sheffield, Miguel Cabrera and Curtis Granderson all hurting, the potential Murderer's Row has resembled Training Room Terrors. 2007 MVP candidate Magglio Roidonez has no homers or ribbies yet this season, so keep an eye on him to bust out. If he's on a cycle right now.

Preview:
To paraphrase the immortal words of the late, great Dr. Martin Luther King, home at last, home at last, thank God almighty the Sox are home at last!

After 2+ months abroad, traveling from Florida to Japan to Southern California to Northern California to Toronto, spanning over 16,000 air miles, the World Champion Boston Red Sox finally make their 2008 home debut this afternoon on what will be a chilly day at Fenway Park. But something tells me the players will embrace the spring chill a bit more than the spring rolls of a few weeks ago.

Never in the history of sports has a team had to endure such a grueling schedule to open a season, let alone the defending champs of the sport, so it goes without saying that the boys were a little gassed when they finally reached Toronto on Friday.

That ultimate case of jet lag combined with a hungry Jays squad added up to a debacle of a 3 game sweep at the Rogers Center, lowlighted by games filled with shitty pitching, shoddy fielding and spotty hitting.

But at least the Sox have a legitimate excuse for their doldrums.

Detroit spent lavishly in the offseason to acquire a couple of young Marlins, slugging third baseman Cabrera and struggling former ace Dontrelle Willis, and by the time the shopping spree was finished the Tigers had the 2nd highest payroll in the majors at $139 million, trailing only the Stanks' $208 mil ledger.

Where did all that free spending get them? To the bottom of the division they were supposed to run away with, the AL Central, after a winless first week that featured 6 straight home losses in which they were outscored 39-15.

To be fair they have had a number of unfortunate injuries. Stud relievers Fernando Rodney and Joel the Guitar Hero Zumaya both missed most of spring training, starting centerfielder Curtis Granderson suffered a broken hand at the end of the spring, a rib injury recently sidelined Cabrera and a the perennially injured Sheffield just dislocated his finger the other day.

But the team is still loaded with quality hitters (Ordonez, Guillen, Inge, Polanco, Rodriguez) and pitchers (Bonderman, Verlander, Jones), so there's no reason they couldn't have finished with a Sox like record of 3-3 or 2-4 at least.

Either way the slow starts make this series all the more meaningful. Neither club wants to get into any deeper of a hole, and both want to prove that not only were the lofty expectations of reaching the playoffs and winning it all warranted but absolutely attainable.

All we in the nation care about right now is the fact that our team is finally back on home turf. Back to the cozy confines of the field by the Fens, where the hot dogs are warm and the seats will be as cold as the beer.

Rings will be presented. Banners will be draped. Fighter jets will roar overhead and the packed house will roar in approval for the first game played at home by the defending champs.

Makes me wish I could be there in person instead of having to watch it on DVR later.

All I can say is Play Ball!

And welcome home.

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Sox maul Mariners in home opener

Sox 14 Seattle 3

WP: Beckett (2-0)
LP: Jeff Weaver (0-1)
HRs: BOS-Drew (1)

Sox box

SUMMARY:
Despite blustery conditions and facing a 2006 postseason hero, the dormant Sox bats awoke from their slumber in the first game played at Fenway Park this season. Boston batters knocked Jeff Weaver out of the game after 2 innings and 7 runs and scored in 6 of the first 7 innings, and Josh Beckett pitched a gem to run his record to 2-0.

Oh, and there was a near-brawl between Brendan Donnelly and Jose Guillen that could hang over the season series like a dark Seattle raincloud.

HERO: Boston lineup

I highlighted the team's offensive deficiencies in my earlier post and hoped that the return to Fenway would help the team get on track; Does 14 runs, 14 hits, 7 walks, 1 homer and 7 doubles constitute "getting on track"?

GOAT: Weaver 2IP, 7H, 7ER, 70 pitches (38 strikes-yikes!)

There is no doubt that this clown was the goat and I'm not just talking abbout his irritatingly passe facial hair. The guy who started last season being released in favor of his younger brother and ended it by walking off the field as a World Series-winning pitcher reverted back to early '06 form today, much to the Sox' delight.

REVIEW:
It was a chilly & overcast day- in other words typical Boston in early April- but the Sox hitters couldn't have been more happy to see gray skies and blustery winds. Why? Because the blanketing cloudcover and perfect kite weather was happening over their beloved old yard, not some cavernous ballpark in the Heartland or cookie-cutter McStadium in the Southwest.

No, these were the friendly skies around Fenway Park, and nobody takes advantage of a home park like the Bosox do.

Just to prove my made-up adage correct the team that came in mired in a week-long slump tuned on the Seattle pitchers like a bunch of Townies on a metrosexual. Boston hitters came in batting just .237 in six games, but after the 14-run, 14-hit offensive outburst that figure jumped to a solid .261, and their runs/game shot up a full run, from 3.1 to 4.1. That's what you call a good-old fashioned ass-kicking my friend, and it didn't take 'em long to start applying the boot.

Julio Lugo got the party started just minutes into the first when he drew a leadoff walk on four pitches. Youk dropped a single into right, Papi followed with a sharp single to right and just like that the bases were loaded with no outs and Grand SlamManny was at the plate. The active slam leader didn't take Weaver out of the park, but he did lace a single to center in front of Ichiro to score Lugo and break the seal on what would turn into a tidal wave of runs.

It didn't help matters for Seattle that it was playing only its fourth game in 8 days due to that nasty weather in Cleveland, and also that Weaver was having a bad case of de-ja vu of last season, when he went 3-10 with a 6.29 ERA for the Angels in the first half and they unloaded him to St. Louis in favor of his younger, better brother Jered. Jeff would go on to win 3 postseason games for the Cards, including a dominating performance (2hits, 9Ks) in the series-clincher against Detroit, but he has always been considered an average, journeyman hurler.

He certainly proved that evaluation to be correct today; not only could he not find the plate in his brief outing- 10 of his first 13 pitches were balls and he went to a 3-ball count on 7 of the first 9 batters- but when he did throw a strike it was usually hammered by a Boston batter. The Sox batted around and scored 4 runs in the 28-minute bottom of the first, when Weaver threw an astounding 47 pitches and Boston batted around for the first time this season.

The second inning was more of the same as Lugo and Youk hit back-to-back doubles and J.D. Drew flailed at a Weaver changeup that ended up sailing over the centerfield wall for a 2-run homer and 7- Boston lead, and just like that the thoughts of calling him "Nancy"was the furthest thing from the ecstatic Nation's minds. Boston would knock Weaver out after 2, but his replacements would fare no better. The Sox tacked on 6 runs in the next 3 innings to blow the game open, and by the time Mikle Timlin made his first appearance of the season in the 9th, most of the starters were already in the clubhouse enjoying the post-game spread.

I liked Black Donnelly before today; after taking on world-class A-hole Jose Guillen, I freakin' love him now!

Before Seattle scored a couple in the 9th off Timlin there was a dustup between former teammates Brendan Donnelly and Jose Guillen. Donnellly came on in the 8th to relieve Beckett and quickly fanned former Angel teammate Guillen. As Guillen walked away the Black Donnelly apparently said something that the notoriously hotheaded Guillen didn't appreciated. He motioned as if to charge the mound and preened for a few minutes as the benches cleared, but cooler heads prevailed and nothing came of it.

Don Orsillo reported that the bad blood dates back to an incident in 2005 when Guillen, then with the Nationals, had Donnelly busted for using an illegal substance on his glove during a game.

Figures that little punk Guillen is a tattletale, too. Ironically Donnelly hit the next batter unintentionally and was ejected, and this incident could follow this team as they must play each other 8 more times this season.

Oh, not to be forgotten amongst all the offensive fireworks was the great performance from Josh Beckett (8IP, 2H, 1R, 0BB, 8Ks.) Sometimes pitching with a big lead can be tougher than in a close game, but other than one rocky patch in the third Beckett was lights-out all day. The hard-throwing righty mixed up his pitches (which everyone & his brother knew he needed to do to be successful), but when he needed the extra "oomph", he went to the gas; 7 of his 8 strikeout victims suffered death by fastball, including contact king Ichiro 3 times.

Combine plenty of hitting with excellent pitching and an honest-to-goodness blood feud and what you end up with is a terrific way to kick of the 2007 home season.

It was a great day at Fenway all around, except for the lousy weather.

NOTES & QUOTES:

-This was only the 6th time in Ichiro's career that he fanned three times in one game and 2nd time the trifecta came against the same pitcher

-The 11-run margin of victory was the Sox largest on home opening day and the 14 runs scored were second highest for a home opener

-The old 9-8-7 triple play: 9 different Sox had hits, 8 scored runs and 7 knocked in at least 1 run

-Youk and Tek both had 3 hits, Tek and Drew both had 3 RBIs and 5 players scored 2 runs each

-Early Starters: Boston's streak of scoring in the 1st inning continued; they have now done so in 6 of their 7 games

-"We pulled out the whupping sticks today. They've been off for a while. It maybe affected their pitchers being able to throw strikes. You can't go through our order and walk guys. You're going to get burned." - Beckett, perfectly summing up the day

Record: 4-3
A.L. East Standing: Tied for 1st

UP NEXT: Tomorrow, 7PM Seattle

THE HOME DEBUT OF DICE-K!

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Sox get set to kick off 2007 home opener

Seattle (2-1) at Boston (3-3)
2:00PM, Fenway Park

Josh Beckett (1-0, 1.80) vs. Jeff Weaver (0-0)

"Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, welcome to Fenway Park"...

Our beleaguered Bosox head back to the friendly confines of Fenway after Sunday night's uplifting win in Texas with just as many questions about this year's club as answers.

Granted, IT'S EARLY, so none of this shit really matters, but if we don't post about it what the hell else are us bloggers going to blog about?!

Boston travelled to Kansas City and Arlington this opening week and to say the new-look team came away from the 6-game trip with mediocre results would be an understatement. The Sox are batting a measly .237, have hit only 3 home runs (2 courtesy of Papi on Sunday) and scored an underwhelming 19 runs for an average of just over three runs per game. This stat is atrocious for a team filled with mashers (Papi, Manny), .300 hitters (Lowell, JD Drew) and on-base speedsters (Coco, Lugo.)

After 6 games here are the mostly-brutal numbers for the starting nine:

Lugo- .261 (6-23), 1-2B, 2R, 1SB, 5Ks

Youk- .217 (5-23), 1HR, 2RBI

Papi- .217 (5-23), 3HRs, 2-2B, 4RBI, 4R, 6Ks

Manny-.217 (5-23), 0-HRs, 2RBIs

Drew- .391 (9-23), 2-2B, 2RBI, 2R, 6Ks

Lowell- .261 (6-23), 3-2B, 2RBI

Tek- .125 (2-16), 2RBI

Coco- .150 (3-20), 2R, 1SB, 4Ks

Pedroia- .313 (5-16), 2BB, 3Ks

As you can see we're not exactly talking about Murderer's Row here, although I'm confident most of these guys will hit by the time the weather reaches "normal" springtime temps. But the longer guys like Coco, Tek and Pedroia, already coming off poor seasons, struggle, the harder it will be for them to turn it around, which will render the bottom third of the lineup a hitters wasteland/pitcher's dream.

The encouraging signs for Boston have mainly come from the pitching staff. Schilling proved on Sunday that his opening day disaster was probably just an aberration, Beckett pitched well in his first start against KC, Dice-K is Dice-K-riffic, and Wakefield pitched well despite picking up a loss in Texas. In the pen Paps is there to save the day again (whew), and by proving Sunday he can do a 5-out save it should alleviate the pressure on the rest of the mediocre relievers.

Boston will take on a Seattle team that comes to Fenway having played only 3 games in 8 days thanks to the horrendous weather in Cleveland this past weekend. The Mariners' series with the Indians was snowed out for the entire weekend, and Seattle should be happy just to be playing ball anywhere, even though a trip to Fenway after sitting in a hotel room for 4 straight days won't be easy.

Postseason hero Jeff Weaver will make his Mariners debut after leaving the Cardinals via free agency after he walked off the mound a winner in the series-clinching game. The guy had quite a topsy- turvy season, going from staring 1-7 with the Angels and being dumped for his younger brother Jered to a World Series winner. Yet for all of his postseason success last year (3-2, 2.40 ERA) Weaver is still 15 games under .500 for his career (86-101), so let's not crown him the next Whitey Ford just yet.

Seattle's lineup boasts of some powerful-yet-puzzling sluggers such as Richie Sexon (whom the Sox were rumored to have courted this offseason), free agent bust Adrian Beltre and notorious miscreant/malcontent Jose Guillen. Of course the backbone of the Mariners offense is still Ichiro, and even though he has showed signs of slowing down of late, he is still a patient hitter, excellent baserunner, and terrific outfielder despite having moved to center from right to make room for Guillen; tomorrow's matchup of Ichiro vs. Dice-K will be one of the most anticipated and talked about moments in baseball in a long time.

There should be plenty of pomp, pageantry and Papi as baseball returns to Fenway Park for another season.

As we like to say at these times, hope springs eternal.

Let's just hope the Sox bats spring to life as well.

Play ball!

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