Never seen this angle on “The Steal” in ’04 ALCS Game 4. Roberts’s hand appears to be on the bag with Jeter’s glove mere inches from his arm/side. Ump made the right call, but it would be hard to blame him if he’d gotten it wrong.
In Francona’s recent book, it is noted that this was perhaps Posada’s best throw on an attempted steal up to that point in time (the “pop” time–or time from ball hitting catcher’s glove to infielder’s glove on an attempted steal–was less than 1.8 seconds…excellent for any catcher, let alone the defensively maligned Posada). His aim was perfect. Roberts just had him and Rivera beat…by a whisker.
H/T: Joy of Sox
Also, Ortiz is likely to start the season on the DL, so forgive a Sox fan whose upcoming season is likely to be lackluster for celebrating bygone good days.
by Devine at 12:35 pm in
General Baseball,General Red Sox,History · 3 comments
How do you know the Boston Red Sox' offense really cares? They give 120 percent.
Entering Thursday's game, the Sox had a 121 OPS+. For an individual player, that's no amazing feat; 56 players have an OPS+ of 120 or better this year in baseball.
But that should give you an idea of how impressive a team OPS+ of 120 is. Only one-third of the qualifying players in the game can manage it on an individual level, and here an entire team is averaging that total.
Follows is the list of all the teams to ever finish the season with an OPS+ of 120 or better:
- 1927 Yankees
- 1930 Yankees
- 1931 Yankees
- 1982 Brewers
And here is the list of teams to get very close (118 or better):
- 1902 Pirates
- 1932 Yankees
- 1933 Yankees
- 1994 Yankees
- 1997 Mariners
- 2003 Red Sox
That's a small group of elite offenses: The 1902 Pirates, 1927-33 Yankees, 1982 Brewers, 1994 Yankees, 1997 Mariners and 2003 Red Sox. Let's have a look at them:
continue reading…
by Paul SF at 6:05 pm in
General Red Sox,History · 7 comments
The Boston Red Sox sit atop the American League East at the All-Star break, a welcome but not unfamiliar position: The Sox have been in first place at the break six times since 2003, yet actually finished the season there once.
Here are those seasons, with their first-half record, winning percentage and games ahead, followed by their second-half record and games ahead/behind)
- 2011, 55-35 (.611), 1.0 // ?
- 2009, 54-34 (.614), 3.0 // 41-33 (.554), 8.0
- 2008, 57-40 (.588), 0.5 // 38-27 (.585), 2.0
- 2007, 53-34 (.609), 9.5 // 43-32 (.573), up 2.0
- 2006, 53-33 (.616), 3.0 // 33-43 (.434), 11.0
- 2005, 49-38 (.563), 2.0 // 46-29 (.613), 0.0
continue reading…
by Paul SF at 1:05 pm in
General Red Sox,General Yankees,History · 11 comments
Fully two-thirds of the Red Sox lineup last night hit a home run, tying the club record. The dates and players (PH means they came off the bench, not that the home run necessarily occurred in their pinch-hit at bat):
- July 4, 1977 (Lynn 2, Rice, Yastrzemski, Scott 2, Hobson, Carbo PH)
- June 20, 1979 (Lynn, Yastrzemski, Watson, Evans, Hobson, Dwyer PH)
- June 7, 2003 (Ramirez, Ortiz, Nixon, Varitek, Millar PH, Mueller PH)
- Sept. 15, 2008 (Ortiz, Youkilis, Lowell, Bay, Varitek, Ellsbury)
- July 7, 2011 (Ellsbury, Pedroia, Gonzalez, Ortiz, Reddick, Saltalamacchia)
The all-time record is eight, set by the Cincinnati Reds against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sept. 4, 1999, though two of those came from players coming off the bench. The Yankees in 2007 (July 31) had seven players go yard, six of them in the starting lineup (Damon, Abreu, Matsui 2, Posada, Cano, Cabrera, Duncan PH).
Limiting it only to members of the starting lineup, the record is seven, set by the Athletics on June 27, 1996, and tied by the Rangers May 21, 2005.
Having now had six hitters hit homers in the same game five times, the Sox are second all-time to the Reds, who have done it six times. No team has done it more since the Sox first did it in 1977, however. Likewise, perusing the list, I don't see any teams with three such games in as short a time as the Sox in the past eight years, so I'm assuming no player has been involved in as many such uprisings as Ortiz's three unless they've done it for different teams.
The full list below the fold.
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by Paul SF at 10:45 am in
General Red Sox,History · 43 comments
It is extremely rare to have two hitters post a 1.000 OPS in the same season. It hasn't happened since 2006, when the Red Sox (Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz) and the White Sox (Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome) did it.
It goes on a while longer, about 40 of them in all.
But many of those occurred during eras of major offensive explosions — the 1930s and late 1990s/early 2000s — when getting to 1.000 was much easier. So how about those who posted a 165 OPS+ or better?
Nineteen pairs until this year and just four in the past 45. Let's look at those four and compare them to the fifth pair aspiring to join them:
continue reading…
by Paul SF at 2:59 pm in
General Red Sox,History · 4 comments
