The Red Sox won for the sixth time in their last eight last night, keeping pace with Tampa who took down the Mariners in 11 innings. Tampa goes for the franchise season win record two hours after the Sox^2 start time; Maddon’s Rays tied Lou Piniella’s 2004 team’s mark last night with 46 games left on the season.
Ozzie Guillen says a lot even when that’s all he can say: "..some people make me look bad, some people make me look disappointed, some people make me think about what we have. Some players should look themselves in the mirror and be embarrassed, and they should be better, that’s all I can say." His White Sox made him look bad by falling out of first place in the Central following last night’s loss while 36 y.o. (ummm… yeah) Jose Contreras was lost for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon. Is that the worst-sounding injury one can have? I think so. Okay, maybe second place behind a fracture of one of one’s wedding berries, medically defined as Chris Snyderitis.
Clay Buchholz tries to break out of his slump while the Pale Sox send Gavin Floyd. Buchholz hasn’t notched a victory since May 2nd and Boston has won only one of his last seven starts.
Comment away.
Buchholz, not Buccholz ;-)
Sorry, when he first came up last year I memorized how to spell it.
Also, Wakefield was just put on the DL. Shiznit.
Sorry Ath.. I know how to spell it too.. just rushing a gamer before I have to take off.
> some people make me look bad
I know Ozzie is known for shooting from the hip, but that is just a bad sound bite.
And Youk’s sitting today with shoulder soreness. Sigh. And this comes just when it look they were about to get rolling and put the Yanks in a deep hole.
As for terrible-sounding injuries, I will always think that Kaz Matsui’s unpleasantness will rank very near the top.
Losing Youk a game is tough, even if his replacement is hitting .350 this year. It’s still wierd that Youk has the most homers on the team this season.
Why the fuck is Bay still batting so far down?
Ellsbury, CF
Pedroia, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Drew, RF
Lowell, 3B
Bay, LF
Casey, 1B
Varitek, C
Cora, SS
Ellsbury pops up after showing bunt on the first pitch.
And Stuck, sorry for leaving out the part about them making out in my room. The video is segmented in 5-second parts, so I could send you a clip of it!
Mr. Laser Show doubles down the line. Booya.
Announcers compare Pedroia to Ecktein, and call him “Almost as good as David Eckstein.”
Eckstein career OPS+: 89
Pedroia career OPS+: 106 (112 in the last two seasons)
Hey, Wake to the DL too? Ack!
Double steal makes me smile.
LOWELL HOMERS, 3-0 Sox!
It worries me that they’ll be sending Wake to the DL immediately instead of having him just skip a start and see if he’ll feel better. Sounds serious. Not what we need right now.
Isn’t it sad that our two backup players–Casey and Cora–have higher batting averages than everyone on the White Sox except for Alexei Ramirez and Jermaine Dye? (And Casey’s average is still higher than both of them)
I assure you, Ath, if Casey and Cora were everyday players, their averages wouldn’t look quite so gaudy.
And, uh, no thanks on the video. But man, I’d think the threat of you sharing such things over the internet would be enough keep them in line for awhile.
I figured this game would turn into a slugfest.
Ath –
At first when I read your post about what happened, I thought at least your roommate was being cool about it. But hearing that he was in your room making out with her kinda nixes that. Ick.
Yeah, I don’t know how I forgot to mention that.
Dye homers.
Hard to watch Buchholz pitch sometimes. This inning, for instance. I still say they should keep tossing him out there, and they’ll reap rewards eventually, but it’s been rough.
Phew, Clay had me worried here. Let’s hope this was his customary bad inning for today. Then we should be in good shape.
HAHA AJ drops a popup in the sun. This has been a fantastic series for people that hate him.
One positive thing about Clay is that since his recall he’s looked better every start. At this rate he’ll be pitching perfect games every start of the postseason!
Oh wait, never mind. Grr.
So much for bad innings … we’ll need some more dingers of our own.
Son of a bitch.
Ouch!
I agree with Devine in theory, but I don’t know practically if the Sox can afford to do that, seeing as they’re in a pennant race and all. Thome hits the second homer of the inning, and Buchholz gives back all the lead and then some…
I agree with Devine in theory, but I don’t know practically if the Sox can afford to do that, seeing as they’re in a pennant race and all.
The problem is who do we use instead? Wakefield is on the DL now and Colon is still weeks away from returning to the rotation, so sending Buchholz to AAA would mean filling two spots in the rotation. Pauley? Hansack?
We’re playing the team that’s 2.0 behind the Sox for the wild card.
1.0?
Of course with Wakefield on the DL, I don’t know what choices the Sox have. They’re going to have to call up someone to take his spot anyway.
Abd Buchholz gives up another hit. Where’s the pitching coach? Delay a little, let Aardsma get loose and pull Buchholz ASAP!
Im officially done with this game. Aardsma in. Hey, at least he did better than IPK yesterday!
I don’t know why I let this team raise my hopes… I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a large disconnect between a team’s stats and its performance. This should far and away be the best team in baseball. Instead they struggle against third-rate pitchers and iffy offenses just because they don’t happen to be at Fenway. It’s aggravating.
Fugly.
Announcers: “Whether intentional or not, Carlos Quentin has been hit hard 3 times in the last week. Someone on the Red Sox needs to get hit.”
Is anyone else listening to the White Sox announcer advocate this? What the hell? The pitch barely grazed Quentin!
The real problem I have with the homerism of the White Sox announcers is that they call all the players by their first name (eg, “Gotta feel for AJ after a tough day at the plate” and “Jermaine hit a bomb!” and so forth). That combined with all their references to the team as “we” really distinguish them in my book.
Cora reaches on an error. Hard to believe it’s still a 2-run game.
The ChiSox’ radio announcers are better — less homerish — but they seem intent on finishing their conversations, regardless of whether or not something is going on in the field that might require their attention…
Ellsbury gets a revenge HBP on the first pitch. Stupid move by the White Sox, Ellsbury hit in the inner-thigh it looks like. Announcers silent and smug.
No warnings ump?
Paul I wish there was a way to sync up the video from mlb.tv with the audio from mlb.radio. There are plenty of teams I’d do that for, ESPECIALLY these Chicago broadcasters. They practically scream and squeal with delight whenever the White Sox draw a walk or get a single, no matter what the game situation is.
Yeah, they’re notoriously bad in Chicago, especially Ken Harrellson, which is sad because he was one of the fan favorites on the Impossible Dream team in ’67.
Of course, the ChiSox’ radio announcer just said, “Stay fair, ball,” on that grounder by Ortiz…
Pedroia GIDP, TV broadcasters gushing over Alexei Ramirez for making a routine scoop up the middle. Sigh.
Papi grounds out, inning over.
They must have seen your comment Paul, and thought to themselves “Wait, we’re perceived as objective? Shit, we’d better start rooting for the White Sox before anyone becomes the wiser.”
Masterson in, let’s see a DP.
Buchholz just not ready it seems. Colon up soon, I would think. The Sox can’t afford to have Clay blow up every fifth day in a pennant race.
But Colon’s not available anytime soon…
Colon maybe 15 days away.
Drew triples!
That’s 2 or 3 starts we can’t afford to be putting in the hands of Devern Hansack, SF. Unless we want to bring Zink up.
Why is Lowell bitching about staring at a hanging curveball right over the plate?
And Jacoby picks up JD. Now steal and a single cuts this to a one run game.
Bay singles, 4-6 now.
Why not Zink? Or maybe we need to switch Buchholz and Masterson. The Sox have sorely missed Masterson’s consistency in the rotation, and it’s hard to say he’s provided equivalent value in the bullpen.
Sorry, that was Bay. My MLBtv is insanely pixelated, but there’s no excuse for that mistake!
Don’t you mean Bay, SF? ;-)
Casey singles! Lowell to 3rd. Reliever coming in.
I’d rather see Bowden.
I’d be fine with Zink coming up. Replace knuckler with knuckler?
You mean Bay to third, Ath! Maybe I am contagious.
What happened to Wake?
Crap SF! It’s contagious like a yawn.
Wakefield went on the DL today. Shoulder stiffness.
OK, I see what happened to Wake. F*ck. I hate watching him pitch, but he’s been fantastic.
Hey, maybe if James Andrews prescribes rest we can all chat about what great news that is, nevermind the DL stint and the bad shoulder…
Black hole at the plate.
Wow, the White Sox statistic flashed on the screen:
Jason Varitek: 7 for 35 with RISP and 2 outs (35%)
Yes, it didn’t show it as a batting average (.350) it showed it as a percentage. That’s pathetic. And Varitek misses a 3-run homer by about a yard. Damn.
Tek hit a rope last night, and it died before the track. And that one looked gone, but landed short and foul. His game is so fading/has faded.
My mom kept reminding me about his “intangibles” last night, and I told her that intangibles don’t swing the bat.
Oy, that is so lucky. We’ll take it, but god, another hack by Tek at a pitch that was destined for Beijing.
Tie this f*cker up, ok?
LMAO VARITEK STRIKES OUT but the ball gets passed Pierzynski, a run scores and Varitek goes to 1st. Hells yeah.
Nm, Varitek not on first cause the runners weren’t in motion. Stupid rule. Go Lowrie!
Well, one-run game with three innings to go. Still have a shot…
So Zink to replace Wake and Bowden to replace Buchholz? It seems Bowden could do no worse than Buchholz and whoever you call up is going to have a hard time matching Wakefield’s terrific season thus far.
Masterson. Straight awesome.
Masterson brilliant: retires 5 batters on 20 pitches (should have been less thanks to an error), 4 of which were strikeouts.
Well, whatever the rotation the Sox’ bats need to do some of the heavy lifting over the next couple of weeks.
I really dislike Ozzie Guillen, for the record.
This has to be a tough pitcher for Ellsbury…
No laser show, but a walk will do.
Pedroia works the base.
TV Broadcaster: “YES, that pitch just ate Ortiz up inside.”
*vomit*
Papi walks…
Sound is off in this house. If it’s Harrelson, the listening has to be excruciating.
It is, SF. It is. I like to hear the other sounds though, like the crowd ambiance and the sound of ball-on-bat. I love the cracking wood sound.
And another walk…
Gotta love teams that walk a lot! 3 in a row loads the bases.
Fucking gay, both the DP and Harrelson’s reaction. “RACK ‘EM UP!”
DP. Stinks.
Lowell is making me so angry as of late. The run expectation in that situation is 1.55, the Sox basically give away the fucking game there.
I know he hit a homer today, but Lowell just shouldn’t be hitting fifth. Screw Jamesian theory, he just isn’t as good a hitter as Bay, who needs to get as many at-bats as possible.
If the Sox had acquired Pujols at the deadline, Tito would probably hit him sixth just to make sure he had adjustment time to the Boston pressure.
I hate Tito’s brain sometimes. Hit Bay higher, idiot.
Well done, Justin!
More good stuff. Long appearance from Masterson…stretching him?
looking forward to another one run road loss.
Tek back below .220. It was too good to be true, almost getting to .225.
Strong work from the bullpen. A shame that the bats just can’t get it done. Chance after chance the last few innings.
Lowrie pops out to left. One down.
At least we get the top of our lineup for the 9th.
Harrelson sounds like he’s nearing orgasm. Mute time, can’t put up with this anymore.
Ellsbury pops out, time for Laser Show to keep the inning alive.
Two down. This will be the sixteenth straight one run game ending in a loss on the road for the Sox.
Time to root against the Yanks/Rays.
How bad are the Sox against good teams? I shudder to look up their record against teams over .500.
Not a top flight squad, simply. A good team, but not good enough at the moment. Shittiest road team I have seen in years.
Bowden likely to pitch on Tuesday in place of Wakefield; Zink pitched last night and Bowden scheduled to pitch on Monday for Pawtucket.
The Yankees’ loss makes up for this, somewhat. But jeez, the Rays are really something else.
Huh, just saw that Crawford was DL’ed with a potentially serious hand injury and Baldelli came up to take his spot. Wow. While I’m not thrilled to see the Rays win, it’s nice to see Baldelli start and even get a RBI. What an ordeal that guy’s been through.
Crawford to the DL helps us a great deal; he’s a leader on a young team, even if his performance this year is below average. I’m happy to see Baldelli back; I feel really bad for him considering they have no idea what kind of problem/disease he has. Hard to root against a guy who has all the talent in the world but whose body won’t heal.