Let's look at the bright side. By the end of this series, the Red Sox will have already finished more than half their schedule against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Otherwise, the Sox have shown no ability to beat the Rays over the past two seasons, going 10-15 against them (plas 3-4 in the playoffs). This year has been more of the same: shut down twice by Matt Garza and somehow still baffled by Andy Sonnanstine, who was having a perfectly terrible year until he faced the Boston bats.
Tonight it's Brad Penny versus James Shields, which last time wound up being a pretty good matchup as both pitchers performed well. Both starters like to alternate their good and bad starts. Based on the following sequences, I predict a slugfest:
- Game scores, James Shields against Boston: 13-33-59-29-62
- Game scores, Brad Penny this season: 50-11-51-20-54
Comment away, if you can bear to look…
90 replies on “Starting a New Losing Streak: Rays-Sox Gamer VIII”
You might want to rethink what “no ability to beat” actually means.
Kill Big Lame James.
And those that would wage war on hyperbole.
Is everyone with the first name James nicknamed Big Game James?
No: If you’re actually good, they name you King James.
So Big Games James is actually translated into, as Devine wrote, Big Lame James.
Penny with heat from the start. Had to wait an inning or two to see 93 and 95 on the gun last time.
Upton grounds to 3rd.
Crawford on with a single to left. Start the merry-go-round!
Longoria and Pena are the new Papi and Manny (now possibly roid-free!).
Crawford steals on the first pitch.
Wasn’t Penny pitching when Crawford stole 6 bases?
K!
But 22 pitches to get 2 outs.
Yes, but Longoria is a dick.
Longoria walks.
Penny fights back from 2-0 to K Pena. Challenged him with 94 on 2-1 then painted the outside corner 95 for strike 3.
Doubleplay-Rod hit s 3-run homer in his first AB.
– Expectations soar –
Errr, inside corner.
Damn, down 1-0 on the single to left by Burrell.
Anyone else ready for the Brad Penny experiment to end?
I am actually starting to hate Penny more than Lugo
Gross barely does not hit a 3-run blast to right center as Ellsbury and Drew barely do not f*ck up the play.
Penny is teh suck. Everyone knew this…or if not, they were deluding themselves. Last year’s version of Buchholz would be an improvement. Sad.
Pedroia gets on. C’mon, Papi. Just hit one.
Nope, routine fly to left-center.
Big Lame Inning.
Hey, a non-awful routine play from Lugo.
Hey, a totally-awful routine double down the line from Bartlett.
Lineout to Lugo. Runner off with the pitch, so it’s an easy DP.
Ha ha Upton, you lazy SOB. Turns a deep flyout into a triple.
Nothing doing since it was with 2 out and Varitek is Varitek.
2-0 Rays on Crawford’s triple (fell juuuuuuuust fair and eluded Bay’s sliding attempt) and Longoria’s sac fly.
Mid-AB full-screen comedy show promo. Weird.
Lugo Ks. Ellsbury singles down the line.
Great catch Gross on a Pedroia sinking liner.
Every time a Sox fan says he is worried about Papi, there is a YF who says we are being impatient or ledgejumping. But Papi really looks like he’s in a career deathspiral. Forget the “no homers” thing. How about the “no threat at all to do anything” thing?
I hope this is Carlos Delgado 2008, but I have doubts.
0-1 curveball to Ortiz was a cookie. Strikes out looking.
Memo to self: avoid Globe website tomorrow. Not shaping up to be a good night for Boston sports fans. Blood everywhere.
Buchholz? Please? 3-0 Rays.
Bs down, 1-0, 1st intermission
JoeC, Obie said Crawford’s triple was just foul
I’m ready to see a new batting order:
Ells, Pedro, Bay, Youks, Lowell, Drew, Papi, and the rest
Penny is slow-dripping an 8.00 ERA. Awful. Cut bait, Theo. What more do you need to see?
Need Youk to get healthy, IBM.
Or, DFA Lopez and move Penny into a spot relief role until Dice/Smoltz come back.
WTF Lowell!??!?!? Terrible.
That’s fucking stupid, Lowell. Should be 2 on, none out.
We get no breaks against this fucking team.
Some really bad luck, some poor decisions, some Penny pitching. Yick.
Bs outshot, 12-4, in 1st.
Crawford a one-man wrecking crew. That’s a triple if it doesn’t bounce over the wall.
My biggest hope at this point is that Penny will give up 8 runs here so the Sox aren’t deluded into thinking this is another “quality start”. Because it’s not.
YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! JASON BAY YOU ARE AWESOME!!!
JASON. FUCKING. BAY.
This is like watching Ortiz circa 2004/2005. Wow.
Jason BAY!!
WOOOOOOOOO!
Joe C tells us that the Red Sox have won every game in which Bay has homered.
And the B’s have tied it. Savard 2:37 into the 2nd.
DREW!
NANCY!!!!!!!! 5-3!!!!!
JD DREWWWWWWWW! FUCK YOU SHIELDS!
sign the man already. back up the brinks truck. he is amaxing.
What I love about Ortiz: he’s such a great teammate. He has ZERO homers this season, but he’s the first man at the top of the dugout hopping up and down with a big smile on his face to congratulate Bay and Drew.
OK, wait a sec.
It’s the 6th inning.
First five batters reach base, all score with none out.
Hmmmm ….
Where have we heard that before?
Tek singles; Oki warming.
I echo devine.
Fuck you, Shields.
Four balls getting loose.
just wanna keep everyone abreast of teixeira’s troubles. remember how a-rod was gonna make everything ok for him once he got back? well mark has struck out 3 times tonite.
Dear Theo
GET THE MAN HIS DAMN CONTRACT EXTENSION
Sincerely
The Nation
Starting pitching = just good enough (fine, Penny did okay last inning and I’m glad he did).
Offense = just fine.
Relievers = ? Hope they live up to their standard excellence.
Penny back out for the 7th.
Okie’s ready
Penny some more, huh?
Big > Tex
Shields at 106 pitches; he’s done.
1-out single. Enough? Apparently not. At least Upton’s been sucky. Come on, pleease. And if he’s not out, can Oki come in?
This’ll be it for Penny.
3-0. What the hell? Two men on. Way to try to milk it too much. Here comes Francona.
Unspectacular but serviceable start for Penny.
Strikes, please, Oki.
Crawford…eff you, you’re out (for once).
Finally. Crawford had reached base nine straight times against Boston.
Bs, Whalers tied, 1-1, after 2.
Yes… call up Buchholz and call up Bard too and put Lopez outta his misery while were at it.
Longoria K’s. Oki is back and he’s back big. (Ouch, that’s a little less fun to say now.)
Pena flies to deep center. With luck, we won’t see him or Longoria again tonight.
Surprised Oki is in for Burrell…would have expected Ram-Ram in there.
I know I wasnt around while Penny was giving up the runs, but we are all aware he’s the No. 5 starter, aren’t we? and talking about how last year’s version of Clay Buchholz would be better? How quickly we forget: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?n1=buchhcl01&t=p&year=2008&share=0.52#11-20-sum:pitching_gamelogs
Walks on four pitches, does Burrell. So in comes the expected Ramon Ramirez.
Can I just say how not big a fan I am of the fact that comments no longer accept HTML? Is this an admin decision or a Typepad decision?
I don’t forget; he literally would be better. Buchholz’s ERA last year is about a run better than Penny’s now (I believe).
However, I will say that his last start was easily his best, and he got (a little) better as the game went on today.
Ellsbury gives us a bigger cushion. 6-3 as Lugo burns around the bases on the double (he got on base on a cheapy just over Pena’s head).
7-3 on the Pedroia single up the middle!
I don’t get what is going on. Sometimes my HTML shows up, sometimes not. Nothing has changed with our setup. It’s gotta be a Typepad thing. Shocker.
How did the Bruins have the best record in the East? They look AWFUL. I don’t see what made them so good, a lifelong hockey watcher (and player, part-time), I can’t find anything about them that makes me think they would have had any chance at winning a damn thing.
If you’ll check the link I provided, you’ll see that Clay Buchholz had an ERA oof 9.21 over his final nine starts (10 appearances) — including zero quality starts. He allowed a .963 OPS and sported an AVERAGE game score of 33. If we want to be fair to Buchholz and only include the seven starts after his second call-up, his ERA improves all the way to 8.26. The entire year (15 starts), Buchholz had four quality starts — matching the number Penny has so far this season.
Hey, the Sox have beaten the Rays! Awesome!
This looked like a pretty ugly game to start the 6th. Then it got awful purdy. Sox win!
When I saw the score was 3-0 in the fifth, I pretty much wrote this one off and went to enjoy playing with the little girl before she went to bed. Funny how much things can change in one inning.
Just noticed this: Sox scored 7 runs, Drew, who wore No. 7, homered to give the Sox the lead. Dom wore No. 7.
All right, Paul, fine. But I’d still prefer Buchholz this second, for reals. A couple of Penny’s quality starts (including this one) featured some SMOKING line drives at fielders. But sure, Buchholz still might be worse. (He wasn’t last year to this point.)
IBM, that is very cool. Eerie, if you go for such things.
Devine, it doesn’t hurt that I’m sentimental about such things. But it is a bit spooky, even if is it a coincidence.
Fucking Bruins.
I really wanted that Cup.
Fuck.
half-game out.
That’s a really, really big win.
Back in first!