I’m sure Eric Gagne would have been saying the same things about New York or Milwaukee (well, maybe not Milwaukee), but it’s still gratifying to hear:
I want to be a closer. I have always wanted to be a closer. I see myself as a closer. But a chance to have 15 more saves or win a World Series, that was a pretty easy choice.
Also, how cool is this photo?
Maybe we’re focusing on yesterday to avoid looking at today, where Tim Wakefield, always a mystery, will face Jeremy Guthrie, who has been impressive this season and has already shut down the Sox once — before he was mystifyingly removed in the ninth, leading to the Mother’s Day Miracle. In fact, Guthrie is looking more and more like the potential sleeper pick for AL Rookie of the Year.
Maybe familiarity will breed contempt among Sox batters, and they’ll hammer out a nice, easy win (hey, he’s not a lefty; there’s at least a shot). I need to get some work done, and as much as I’d like to see Gagne pitch for the Sox, I’d rather not have to worry about the score past the fourth inning.
Comment away!
Boston:
1. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
2. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Manny Ramirez, LF
5. J.D. Drew, RF
6. Mike Lowell, 3B
7. Coco Crisp, CF
8. Doug Mirabelli, C
9. Alex Cora, SS
SP: Tim Wakefield
Baltimore:
1. Brian Roberts, 2B
2. Corey Patterson, CF
3. Nick Markakis, RF
4. Kevin Millar, 1B
5. Miguel Tejada, SS
6. Aubrey Huff, 3B
7. Jay Payton, LF
8. Jay Gibbons, DH
9. Paul Bako, C
SP: Jeremy Guthrie, RHP
211 comments… add one
Loved, just loved seeing KG at Fenway! Celtics are gonna be tough this season.
yeah they are. Man, my poor Knicks. Not so encouraged about the future of that team.
So I was going to try to write this gamer, but Paul beat me to it while I fiddled with Typepad. Oh well…thanks a ton to the authors for inviting me on, and I apologize for not responding yesterday. Apparently my employer equates typepad with fantasy sports, facebook, and porno, because they’re all blocked by nanny software.
Haven’t seen it mentioned here yet, but JD Drew missed the last couple games to be with his sick son in the hospital. Major surgery, apparently, but nothing else has been released. It seems at least somewhat likely to me that this is something Drew’s been dealing with for some time. If that’s the case…it goes a long way towards explaining his struggles.
i dig the lineup today… OBP > speed! dougie’s going deep today!
Drew’s still out with his son. The new lineup:
1. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
2. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Manny Ramirez, LF
5. Mike Lowell, 3B
6. Coco Crisp, CF
7. Eric Hinske, RF
8. Doug Mirabelli, C
9. Alex Cora, SS
Lowell batting 5th, protecting Manny and Ortiz! I’ve wanted to see that move all fricken year.
More “swing-at-the-first-pitch-no-matter-what” offense from Brian Roberts and the Orioles today. Hopefully Wake will baffle them.
Also, what’s up with gameday’s hit-or-miss radar gun? Some days it shows the speed and movement of the pitcher at Fenway, some days it does not.
Come on Peroia, increase that .750 August average!
So Gabbard is making his first start as a Ranger today against Cleveland. He’s allowed one run in four innings so far, and just induced a double-play ball to end a runners-on first and third threat. I’m not going to care what happens with Gabbard if Gagne pitches well in the postseason, but I do have a bad feeling that trade will look pretty good for Texas in a year or two. And yes, I know the sample size for Gabbard is very small…
Little Pedroia works a leadoff walk on a borderline ball-4. Good ab.
Pedroia draws a walk after getting down 1-2!
The Rangers have always needed starting pitching. They usually finish in the top 3 in home runs but end up losing games 15-14, or some other rediculously high number.
I lived in Dallas until 1993, and got to see Nolan Ryan pitch. It pisses me off to see them get rid of guys like Kenny Rogers and Chris Young, only to have them contending for the ERA title the next year.
Nice of Gagne to leave out the fact that the extra 2.1 million he got from the Sox makes up for the 15 saves.
I was hoping to see Youk bunt Pedroia over. He’s been in a funk lately and sometimes playing small ball can jump-start a team’s offense–not to mention it would have taken Pedroia out of the double-play, though it never happened.
Clemens gives up 4 straight hits to the White Sox, who now lead 2-0 with 2 runners on base. Roger’s ERA up at 4.13 again.
How sweet it is.
Ugh. Ortiz pops up a belt-high…something…either a terrible changeup or a terrible breaking ball. 85 mph. Should have been crushed. And Manny continues his run of intepditude, chopping the third pitch he sees to third for the final out. Wasn’t a strike.
3-0 Chi-Sox in the Bronx. Roger’s given up five straight hits to start the second.
Correction: FIVE straight hits, 3-0 White Sox.
Let’s see how those Yankees bats do when they’ve got an early hole to dig out of.
Correction: FIVE straight hits, 3-0 White Sox.
Let’s see how those Yankees bats do when they’ve got an early hole to dig out of.
Millar with a monumental at-bat, thirteen pitches then a single.
Has time made my memory ungenerous, or am I correct that there weren’t too many Millar ABs like that one back in the day?
I like the fact that the Yankees are all so hot right now. Offense is inherently cyclical. If all the Yankees are hot at one, then they’ll all be cold at once, hopefully just in time for them to start playing real teams with real pitching staffs.
5-0 White Sox. Wakefield is efficient with a DP and strikeout quickly after the leadoff single.
So Millar has single-handedly doubled Wake’s pitch count. But it doesn’t matter, because Tejada chops the first pitch to short for a doubleplay. Cool.
Thome swats a 1-2 pitch into left to plate two more runs. Be real nice to take a game back in the standings today.
I don’t know how the hell I double posted. My bad.
Millar makes himself a pain in the ass by fouling off 9 pitches before getting a single on pitch #13.
6-0. 11th batter for Clemens this inning coming up.
Hey, welcome aboard, Josh. You’ve been deserving of it for a long time…
8-0…has Clemens ever given up so many so soon? Or in a single inning for that matter?
Crisp gets the Sox’ first hit. Four walks for him yesterday, so he’s on in five straight appearances.
I love saying “God bless Coco”. Seems I say it more every day.
Fun fact: Coco crisp was the frist Sox player since Yaz in 1968 to go 0 for 0 with four walks in a game.
Yaz also went 1 for 1 with five walks n 1971. Manny, Mo and Yaz are the only Sox players since 1957 to record five walks in a game.
damn it i had clemens in my lineup today :(
punch yourself, TJ. Real life > fantasy team.
Guthrie walked both Dougie AND Cora? Get us going, Pedroia.
Clemens’ line score: 1.2 IP, 8 runs, 3 earned.
Man, you almost never see the Red Sox leave the bases loaded without scoring…
Damnit, Pedroia strikes out with the bases loaded.
At least Guthrie’s up to 47 pitches. He won’t last past 4 innings at this rate.
Droid whiffs. 4 LOB through two.
Gol dern it.
Thanks, Paul. I’ll try to be more active then I’ve been, but it’s really hard for me with the schedule I’m on to get up early enough to participate…
Pedroia just swung at a ball near his chin to strand the bases loaded. Disgusted…
WOOHOO! Gameday just started showing the speed and break of Wake’s pitches.
Oh, only three earned runs, huh? Too bad, lol
Clemens gave up eight earned runs in 1.1 IP in 1988, an 18-6 loss to Detroit. Gave up four in the first, four in the second.
He also gave up eight earned runs in 1.1 IP in 1995, an 8-3 loss to Minnesota. Clemens again gave up four in each inning.
He’s given up at elast eight runs in 16 career starts (now 17), only three times (now four) had he lasted frewer than three innings in doing so. Only once before (1992) had five of those runs been unearned.
0-2 count and then 4 straight balls? Goddamn you Bako.
We need to start throwing fastballs at BRoberts’ head. I swear he bats .750 when he’s playing us.
Goddamn you Bako.
That’s on Wake, not Bako. Walking the #9 hitter, who is at .215? Weak.
Now Roberts singles and Tim’s in a jam.
whew”
So Garland in the Bronx took the 8-run lead and started the bottom of the second by allowing three straight hits. Then a homer to Betemit. 8-4 White Sox.
//That’s on Wake, not Bako//
Yeah, but Bako should have swung at some of those crappy pitches. I blame him for being too patient! ;-)
Thankfully none of it matters as Patterson pops up. Wake up to 50 pitches though.
Oh wait, I keep forgetting that the 2007 Red Sox don’t need to worry about our bullpen having to pitch too much! God having a nice bullpen rocks.
Incidentally, Clemens recorded a game score of 2 in that Twins contest.
Wow. Can the ChiSox suck any more?
The White Sox are pathetic. Best not to get hopes up, even with an 8-0 lead. They truly stink.
Starting to blow an 8-run lead? Sounds like the White Sox alright.
I just hope there’s not another Yankee home-run derby today. 3 days in a row of that is enough to make a Boston fan want to slit his wrists.
Haha the Monster claims another crappy defensive LF. Maybe. Actually I think it was just bad communication…Ortiz with a gift of a double.
Papi egts things going with the double. The last few games, it’s as if he’s been giving all his doubters a big middle finger.
5 straight hits for the Yankees.
Ortiz stands at 2nd after Payton screwed up a catch, it looked like.
Ah, well it looked like a solid double on GameDay ;-)
Papi and Manny come through! That’s what we like to see Manny.
Manny knocks him in! That’s the way it’s supposed to work!
Manny deep single to left. 1-0 Sox.
Manny crushes a liner towards Wily Mo Peyton, and it clanks off the bottom of the monster. A double in most parks, an RBI single in this one. 1-0 Sox.
Johnny Damon makes the first out of the Yankee half.
Over/under on curtain calls in Yankee Stadium today? 5.
Over/under on “turning point” claims if the Yankees come back today? 155.
It’s sad that this is what has happened to the Yankee season narrative; the team has been so streaky that nobody has any clue which way is up. At least with the Sox they’ve been consistent for a long while: consistently mediocre.
I just realized that Papi is leading the team in batting average. I still can’t believe Youk’s average has dropped like 50 points in the last month and a half.
A-Rod up with a chance to tie the game. 8-5, one out, two on.
Two straight seasons now where Youk’s fallen off a cliff as soon as May finished. Maybe that deal for Helton would have been a good idea after all…
8-5 in the Bronx, and A-Rod’s up as the tying run. And it’s still the second inning.
He singles. 8-6.
Has anyone else noticed that all season Wake’s knuckleball speed has been WAY down? The last 4 years it was consistently 67-69, but this year it’s in the low 60′s/high 50′s. Maybe it’s an adjustment he and the pitching coach worked on?
Wake retires the side on 7 pitches. Beautiful.
The White Sox are effin unbelievable.
How often do two teams bat around in the same inning of the same game?
Garland out after only 56 pitches. That seems like a horrible outing, until you compare it with Clemens’ 39 pitches.
On the plus side, Jeff Karstens isn’t exactly…a good pitcher. And he’s going to be in for a little while. So Chicago probably isn’t done scoring yet, either.
HINSKE HOMER! 2-0 Sox.
Hinske! Making up for that strikeout with Crisp at 2nd earlier.
Hinske homers! 2-0.
BACK-TO-BACK by the two lowest averages on the team!
Mirabelli! 3-0! Production from the bottom today.
That’s impressive. But again, I’d rather the Yanks get all their scoring out of the way now…
Hahaha Dougie does what he does when he isn’t striking out and crushes one over the monster.
A nice bonus to smacking around Jeremy Guthrie: Might help give Pedroia/Oki/Matsuzaka a better shot at the RoY.
Pedroia with the single — two innings late :-P
Seriously, the Yankees have tied it, and have a chance to go ahead on Posada’s double.
Wheee! Belli hits one with the gusto he hits the Olive Garden “Pasta Thursday” menu!
8-8 in NY -_-
New game after two innings at Yankee Stadium.
Paul:
Any teams ever match eights in one inning? Baseball Ref to the rescue!
3-1 after the triple and sac fly by the Orioles.
It sets the MLB record for most runs scored in the second inning of a ballgame, previously held by Philly-Detroit (10-4) in 1913, and NY-Detroit (11-3) in 1936.
The record for most runs by two teams in an inning is 19, and there are several instances of 18, including in 2004, when the Ranegrs scored 10 and the Tigers scored eight in the fifth.
Again, we need to start throwing fastballs at BRoberts’ head. Wtf.
In 1996, the Rangers scored 16 runs by themselves in the eighth inning of a game vs. Baltimore.
Damn it. Tied.
No one really thought three runs would be enough to win this game, did they?
was that a blooper that plated those runs?
Ric: yep.
About time Manny’s first-pitch-swinging strategy started paying off. One more hit and he’s above .300
I hate Wakefield. He’s always three pitches from a three run pukefest.
Lowell kills the potential rally. Yuck.
God bless Coco!
Another home run from Hinske would be nice with Crisp aboard. That DP really hurts now.
Coco is on. If Manny or whoever had been on their game, Sox would have scored there.
Who wants to bet that Lowell doesn’t reach 100 RBI and ends the year hitting about .281? Any takers?
8 hits, three walks, 11 baserunners and THREE F*CKING RUNS.
Same old story, every goddamned day.
He’s been hitting .340/.385/.480 in his last 25 games, with 18 RBI, so I’d be wary of making any deals, SF…
Oh god Millar please stop fouling off pitches. The last thing we need is another 13-pitch inning.
Though he is 1 for his last 14…
Gameday shows the first pitch to Tejada was right down the middle. Damn the knuckleball for fooling even umpires.
Nice, Wake notches a pair of strikeouts to start the 6th. Please finish the inning Wake… none of this 2-out rally BS you always give up.
Crazy dancing pitch. Two Ks and a first-pitch groundout after a metldown inning…
Oh, Wake gets out #3. Sweet. Should Wake stay out, or should we give our bullpen the game?
Home run Jermaine Dye. 10-8 White Sox.
Jermaine Dye homers to make it 10-8. He’s 3-3 today… maybe we should have pulled the trigger on that deal after all.
You want to make that bet, Paul? I am game. His BABIP in those 28 days is a whopping .354, an outlier. He’s going to regress.
I have no money with which to bet. I’m more sure about the RBI than the batting average. He only needs to drop 19 points to hit .281, but it would be difficult I think for him to only get 27 more RBI in this lineup in 55 games at even a .250-.265 pace.
Dougie with a lead-off hit. Cora, Pedroia and Youk with the weight on their shoulders.
Belli on a roll. Halfway to the cycle!
is it just me or does Mirabelli look very frog-like in his player pic?
Sorry, would be difficult for him to get fewer than 27 RBI in the remaining games.
Why sacrifice with Belli on the basepaths? It’s not like he’s likely to score on a single. Is this to put him in scoring position in case of an extra base hit?
There’s the small-ball I love to see. Cora makin himself useful.
Dougie definitely looks like the Frog from StarFox.
4-pitch walk to everyone’s favorite midget. Come on Youk, anything but a DP.
I feel a Youkilis DP in my bones…
What happened there? Missed pop-up? It says the right fielder made a fielding error.
Yeah, I’m more concerned about Youkilis than Lowell at this point.
He reaches on an error, so the sacrifice was useless…
Taking bets here….
What’s going to happen folks?
Bases juiced for Ortiz?
and whats up with Walker’s pic? he looks like Voldemort.
I bet papi strikes out, but Manny comes through with a single.
That was, literally, the worst.
OMG.
Please just kill yourself.
ugh.
Flyout, Mirabelli breaks for home, then stops, then breaks again, and is out at home.
DOUCHEBAGGERY!!!
unf*cking believable. i’m going to go strangle a baby animal now
Can we stop giving away runs, please? Seriously…
I give up. This team has their heads so far up their asses it is ridiculous.
Why did he stop? It looked like the ball carried all the way to the wall. That should be a trot home…
Alluding to my question earlier about the sacrifice of Mirabelli, why didn’t they PR for him? Seriously, if you are going to put a tub of lard on second to get the go-ahead run, at least MAKE THE BEST OF IT, and put a speedster out there.
That is just awful “managing”. In fact, it’s half-managing, which is basically useless.
Holy crap. Wakefield needs to buy Crisp a few drinks after this game.
How the hell did he not make it home? Gameday shows it was caught at the wall.
Someone’s gone anon on us…
A ridiculously quick inning for Wakefield.
That play from Mirabelli is inexcusable this late in the season. And DeMarlo Hale should be taken to task as well.
In some places, a play like that will get you cut from a team. Utterly pathetic.
Another 1-2-3 inning. Gotta love Wake’s inconsistency.
What happened with Coco’s catch? Was it his typical horizontal-to-the-ground-superman catch?
Anons are me, not sure what’s happened.
Wasn’t quite that deep…lip of the grass, more like, but still deep enough. It was the start-stop-start that nailed him.
Manny, just drive it out, okay?
if Crisp doesn’t get a Gold Glove, it will be a crime
Lowell up to continue his late-season streak. Of suck.
YES! Reverse jinx in full effect!!!
Come on, PMMFRS.
Woot reverse jinx!
So was Coco horizontal to the ground or what?
Silver lining to the cloud: our bullpen should keep the orioles at 3 runs, which opens the door for a dramatic walk-off.
Oh boy! Mirabelli’s up with 2 out! I cannot properly express my delight at this prospect without more exclamation points!!!!!!
PINCH HIT, YOU ZOMBIE.
DOUGIE MAKES UP FOR IT! “In play, run(s)” has never looked so good.
lol, devine. I’ve heard that when you don’t know to express enthusiasm, the more capitals and exclamation points the better…
There’s your reverse jinx. 4-3 Sox…doesn’t quite make up for last inning completely. But better.
WHEEE!!! My reverse jinx mojo is INSANELY high right now.
I can’t believe that Doug Mirabelli nearly 30 percent of the Sox’ hits and half the Sox’ RBI.
Hee hee! Thanks, Paul.
No kidding SF. Reverse jinx is batting 1.000 tonight.
And he should be accounting in part for three of their five runs if not for the baserunning idiocy.
Meanwhile it’s 11-8 ChiSox…
Alex Cora is gunna strike out here, I just know it!
Gagne warming? MDC?
MDC-Gagne to close today, or Gagne-Paps, or Oki-Gagne, or Oki-Paps?
What to do…
Holy crap it worked again!
5-3! The production from the bottom has been really good overall…so do we see Gagne today?
Wow. Cora with the RBI single. The O’s pen can really be counted on to bring the suck, the whole suck, and nothing but the suck.
JC just said that this is Doug’s first three hit game since the middle of 2004. ugh.
Oki-Paps was last night, so expect Delcarmen-Gagne today.
I predict Pedroia will strike out here.
Hooray!!!! 7-3!!!!!
Pedroia with the two-run double, so we might not see Gagne today, after all…
…holy shit the reverse jinx worked again.
SIGH, I just know that Youk is going to ground out and go 0 for 5.
Wait, damnit it’s not a save opportunity anymore. Do we still see Gagne?
Cory Doyne with those glasses AND an ERA of 23.14?
Sweet, sweet victory.
Youk the only starter without a hit.
23?
Yes, 23.14. He just lowered it to 20.25 by getting Youk out, though. He’s only pitched 2.1 innings this year, but it’s still funny when someone’s ERA is higher than a few touchdowns.
Yankee fans are once again falling into the “all you need are bats” trap again.
I agree. Nice job of Youk at looking at a few pitches though. ha.
This is the reverse mojo game thread.
Not sure what happened a couple of nights ago, though. For some reason my negativity didn’t have an effect on the squad.
Do we really need to see Okajima here? Hasn’t the poor man done enough?
I don’t understand using Oki either — except that he was likely warming when it was a closer game and was the only one who was warm enough to come in.
Better situation for Gagne or Delcarmen. Give the guy a break.
Oki needs Gagne more than any of us. My guess is that he’s tired and needs to not see action every day. If he could handle that, he would have signed with New York and let Torre be in control of his arm.
Is it me or has Okajima’s “Okey-dokey” been lacking the “dokey” part lately? Teams have been hitting it hard in the last two weeks.
nevermind. Thanks Markakis.
At least it was a pretty efficient inning for Okajima. Six pitches.
two weeks
I wouldn’t say that long, but he’s definitely made some bad pitches in the past two series. Hence, Gagne.
Yeah, probably related to his exhaustion. Thankfully a double play erases any worry from my mind.
Makes no real sense to burn Oki again there, honestly. Tito channeling Torre.
Oh, so we WILL see Gagne.
I don’t know if it makes much sense, but I kind of like it just so I get to see him.
This is my fear — that Francona is “loyal” to Okajima, thus overusing him/underusing Gagne because he wants to keep giving those eighth-inning spots to Okajima.
This seems like an example. I reserve the right to change my mind if Gagne enters in the ninth.
Manny takes the 8th inning off, failing to lift his bat even though 4 of the 5 pitches were the same pitch.
But two of them were called balls, and two of them strikes. I think Manny might not have been happy with those calls…
Lowell HBP.
Man I bet Gagne gets some kind of acceptance applause when he comes in.
God bless you Coco!
Drew up for the first time this night. I know this sounds strange, but I’m hoping he gets on base so we can see Dougie come up for a 4th time.
Coco’s OBP up to .343, not including today’s 3/5 OB effort.
I keep being made anon. Frustrating. This hasn’t happened before.
Kevin Millar’s mini-strike-zone box in GameDay looks like it has some sort of fungus — all those little red dots for his nine foul balls in the 2nd.
Nice start — Gagne strikes out Millar on three pitches.
ouch, kevin.
Sweet jesus Gagne’s change-up is sick.
I’m liking this trade more and more.
yeah. he’s rediculous.
ummm.
BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Damnit I jinxed it.
Blech. Two strikeouts, two hits, one run.
Question: Who’s more punchable?
(a) Jay Payton
(b) Shea Hillenbrand
Ballgame.
Game ovah! Good way to head out on the road. Tough stretch coming up, would be good if the sad sack Sox could hold on in NYC, but we doubt it.
How odd to think of Wake as a 13 game winner already at the beginning of August…
I used to hate Ted Lilly more than any other player because he was Cy Young against Boston and Igawa against everyone else. Brian Roberts reminds me of that guy.
SF, Jay Payton.
sorry, meant:
mp, Jay Payton.
Sox are a Daisuke win away from having three 13-game winners. That’s crazy.
Wakefield: 13-9 with a 4.45 era
That was my Wakefield prediction before the season.
After today he is at 13-9 with a 4.55 era…. d’oh guess I was wrong on that one.
What’s the stat on Daisuke run support I saw? Something like in 10 of his last 14 starts the Sox have scored two or fewer runs?
With ANYONE ELSE, Papi would be towering over that person… but not KG! And Papi’s looking up at KG like a 5-year-old kid looks up at him… I love that pic!