Categories
Sox Gamers/Postmortems

Taz! Tigers-Sox Gamer V

It was a rough spot in which to make your Major League debut, and Junichi Tazawa certainly would like to do it over, but he pitched well enough for 1.2 innings — never mind a season's worth of superb baseball in the minors — to make us very excited about tonight's start against Detroit.

Let's keep it rolling, Sox, and get Taz an even record. Comment away!

181 replies on “Taz! Tigers-Sox Gamer V”

All I saw from Taz was hard hit ball after hard hit ball. He would have lost the game in the 14th if not for some awesome D by Drew and one inch from the line on Melky. But I agree, you can write that off as the shakes.

I agree Andrew; he was pitching like a AA pitcher who was making his appearance in a 14-inning 0-0 game in the biggest rivalry in the sport, at one of the most important times of the year. Hopefully we’ll see him more calm and relaxed tonight.

Well let’s hope that the role of “a AA pitcher who is making his second appearance for a team whose offense is unpredictable, and at one of the most important times of the year” suits hi m a bit better.

Taz ahead 0-2 to Miggy. Put him away please.
And as I type that he hits on the f*cking hand. Shit.

Well that sucked – the HBP was maybe 6″ off the plate but up and Cabrera made no effort to get out of the way, probably couldn’t have anyhow.
And the abortion that is our SS defense just cost the team an inning ending double play.

Tazawa is topping out at 90mph. Wasn’t he supposed to have mid-90s stuff, or was that only in relief/Japan?

Not starting out well, but man, this inning should have been over with no runs scored.
Thank you, NIck Green.

Jesus, Guillen was three or four feet to the left of second there. That’s should be an out.

Now the bases are full. Nothing like having to get five outs in an inning to screw things up.

Great. 1-2 count and he gives up a single. He just can’t seem to put away batters… wasn’t ARod’s walk-off on an 0-2 count?

I like the 89-90mph tailing fastball to lefties. It’s a nice pitch. The curve looks ok, though a little bit hang-y so far.
He’s been ahead of a lot of hitters. The HBP, the error by Green, and the shit call by the ump have really hurt Tazawa.

And another ground ball, finally the third out. That’s three ground balls that should have produced five outs, instead they produce two. You can’t do that to the best of them and expect the team not to be hurt. Help out the rookie, guys.

He was advertised at 90-92, touching 94. I fear he may be just another product of the somehow still effective Japanese hype machine.

Porcello throws right at Martinez. More reaction from the Cabrera HBP? I mean, why would Tazawa have thrown at Cabrera?

Uh oh, Vmart almost hit. Wonder if there’s a history between those two from when they were in the AL Central together.
Or it’s payback for Taz hitting Miggy.

Get two outs, throw at a guy, take the warning, and take the inside of the plate away from Porcello. Seriously.

Wait, now I am confused. What just happened? Is Cabrera hurt and that was a replay of the first inning? I am confused.

Porcello simply should not have thrown at Martinez. Tazawa had NO intention of hitting Miggy in the first. None. Porcello should have been warned by the ump, then it would have been on Tazawa to stay away from the hitters.
What a STUPID move by Porcello to throw at Youk.

Two bad moves, compounding each other into a third. First, Porcello retaliating on Martinez, the ump NOT warning Porcello (again, this would have been worse for the Sox), then Porcello throwing right at Youk. Porcello should be tossed.

Like Eck says, props to Youkilis for actually getting to the pitcher and tackling him.
Pros: we needed a big fight like that to energize our team
Cons: Youkilis’ bat will be out of the lineup for a few days once he’s suspended.
Is Porcello ejected? It looks like he is, based on Leyland’s conversation with the ump.

Just what I was thinking, SF. Both should be suspended, that was as intentional as it gets.

Eck thinks Youk was hit accidentally. Porcello’s reaction seems to indicate that… he was shocked, surprised, scared when Youk charged him.
Tough to say, since it was the first pitch of the at-bat.

about time youk actually took matters into his own hands. how many times does he have to get hit? too bad he hasnt done the same to the fist pumping screaming moron yet.

Porcello not happy about being tossed. PUH-LEEZE. That pitch was right at Youk’s numbers, from the get-go. As intentional as it gets.
What was he thinking?
My guess is the “who, me?” look at Youk was more about “why are you charging me, take first, this is how we settle stuff” then “you can’t possibly think I was throwing at you”.

Tongue in cheek? No. Youk hurled his helmet at the pitcher. That’s gotta be an extra game or two, deserved. Fucking stupid.

I didn’t know that, Andrew. I figured charging the mound would grant him a few days by itself, and that throwing the helmet is minor by comparison.

There are some long-term implications here. When Youk gets suspended, who’s gunna play left field?

Andrew, it was a mistake by the ump not to warn Porcello when he hit Martinez. I said it earlier in the thread before all this happened: Tazawa needed to take advantage of that and throw at someone, meaning that if Porcello came inside or hit a guy he was done for the night. Ump screwed this one up, and Porcello made that error even worse by throwing at Youk.

He didn’t hit Martinez, he came inside.
You think Tazawa wouldn’t have gotten tossed had he thrown at someone? Then the Sox have to bring in their bullpen and Porcello gets to stay in the game.

well, youks suspension will help tito in the playing time decisions for lowell/kotchman/v-mart/tek.

Impossible to tell from the replay. Tito gets tossed. Why? It wasn’t that clear to me that he was safe, though Drew acted as if he was easily safe, and we know JD isn’t a bullshit artist.

Oh shit, Tito ejected. “If Youk gets to take the night off, I want to too!”
HEHE Tito just threw his gum!

Sorry, right, Martinez wasn’t hit. But it was intentional.
I think the Tigers were hurt by the ump in this case, in not being warned.

Drew looked clearly out to me. Close, but I think it was the right call. Tito just wanted to let out some frustrations at losing Youk for a while.

Andrew, this is what I wrote earlier:
Get two outs, throw at a guy, take the warning, and take the inside of the plate away from Porcello. Seriously.
This is exactly what happened. Except that Porcello didn’t just throw inside, he threw at Youk’s numbers.

Ok, well it’s all tied up. Clean frame from Junichi here and let’s get right back on them.

joba’s luck hasn’t continued after he got a cheapie from us last time out. close to 80 pitches thru 4. he’s down 4-3.

I am pretty sure we haven’t seen the end of the ejections. That 3-0 pitch to Pedroia was a strike, but he walks.

SF, it’s sucked for me too: I was watching mlb.tv in HD but it keeps kicking me off and down to the lower-resolution version.
That walk doesn’t matter cause VMart GIDP.

Bad Victor. 2nd DP in three innings for the Sox. That was an extremely poor piece of hitting by Martinez.
Speaking of Martinez’, anyone else excited for Pedro tomorrow?!

Ath, I wished I could keep the LOW-REZ version going. I am getting kicked out into blackness.

I am! I miss watching that skinny Dominican pitch. One of only two baseball heroes I have left that are PED free (along with Nolan Ryan).
Mike Lowell! 4-3 Sox.

looks like i may be wrong on that factoid. might have been brandon lyons who hit youk in that game.

Quick inning from Taz, and he’s elligible for the win. Fantastic outing altogether, considering the bad luck of the 1st.

i know i’ve praised the MLB at bat app a 100 times on here but, who would have ever guessed we’d be watching games on our phones? not me.

Took the kids to IKEA for dinner (kids eat free with paying adult through this week,) got in the car to head home and the first thing in head on the XM is Yooks getting plunked.
With no context, my reaction was the it’s about flippin’ time that Yooks …
TWO HOMERS FOR LOWELL, THANKS PORCELLO AND YOOKS!!!…
… charged the mound and took this shit into his own hands, mano a mano. He gets hit so flippin’ much.
BUT … that was the emotional reaction. I’m not sure I could defend that thinking wisely.

mike lowell becomes the 1st sox player since ’67 to come off the bench to hit multiple homers in a game.

I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to this game. It helped that I tuned in in the bottom of the first.
And Tazawa was awesome. One start, and it’s better than anything we got from Smoltz. I’m sure Andrew will figure out a way to downplay it though.

Boo, rain delay. The only time all week I get to follow a game almost from beginning to end.

If the Sox split those six games they lost in the road trip, which they easily could have done they’re in position to re-take first place tonight.
Instead we’re doing a lot of praying.
Crazy game this baseball.

I am not trying to be antagonistic but Youk got tossed by Porcello. A lanky 20 year old from New Jersey. I couldn’t be more proud.
Seriously though I am glad nobody got hurt. But that was entertaining, especially with Porcello’s Jersey roots!

@ john
well, you’ve got porcello and that musical on broadway. nothing to really start polishing your gold medallion chain necklace over.

Yuck. XM was playing the Sox game on its main channel, switched over to the Yankee game with the delay, and almost immediately the Yanks go back to back. Over to the POTUS channel for me.

Hey, great comeback by Tazawa. And a good outcome for the Sox, Youk’s replacement got them the rest of the runs.

Rod, I actually coached against Porcello when he was in HS, so I am a little proud here, LOL. Really not being a dick, sorry to come over to this thread.

It’s worked out great so far. I’m not sure if Porcello gets tossed if Youk doesn’t charge the mound, but throwing the helmet was really dumb, and we’re going to miss his bat, and it’s not the easiest schedule coming up…

Oh, the games in Texas are going to be super-relevant for the wild card race, too. It was still pretty fun to watch at the time, the Youk thing.

john- you know you’re welcome any time in our threads. i myself might put artie lange up near the top of “things jerseyians should be proud of” list.

always wondered….now that the sox are back in the club house during the rain delay, does the ejected manager (tito) have to now leave the club house?

Mo gives up a homer. Yanks probably still win but that little fact makes me smile a bit.

During rain delays on TV they show other games, highlights, specials, etc. Here is an interesting article on MLB.com on Alan Jaeger.
http://bit.ly/2d9APp
He’s an independent coach for guys like Zito and Haren. His method is have guys throw long and often (sometimes up to 300+ft long toss without a count or time limit).
Jager’s methods sound like Leo Mazzone’s methods he touted for Maddox and Glavin’s success.

The Tiant thing was terrific. After seeing it, I can’t believe the Cuban Gov’t let them do it. The poverty is much worse than I could have imagined and my expectations were low. Luis’ aunt said that once a month they get enough food for 15 days. The filmmakers said that on the third day of filming they still hadn’t seen a grocery store.

IBM – does it seems like to you that the whole embargo thing with Cuba is kind of like tradition? It’s been like 40 years worth of it and each administration coming in doesn’t want to be the one that breaks the tradition.

Oh, boy. You’re only going to get my opinion because I have so little knowledge. (It’s actually pushing 50 years because it started in 61 with the Bay of Pigs, I believe. JFK’s first fuck-up.)
Castro is such an asshole. Too arrogant to see how an open border with the US could help his country.
I mean, my God, it was so hard to see how those people live. But they make do. They appeared to be clean. but a lot of people live in small spaces. The island population is 11 million.
The US perspective, I think clearly it’s more on Castro’s ass than ours, but I can imagine the GOP is more favorable to keeping the embargo in place than the Dems. Obama wants to end it.
I want to go and hear Cubano jazz.
Tradition. I suppose it’s possible.

Only based on TV (frick – I’m 39 you’d think I be more in tune with these things) wasn’t there a heavy US organized crime element before the revolution? I seem to recall Lucky Luciano hanging out there before the revolution.
Argree on Castro and his bro holding on to the communist politics. If Fidel wouldn’t have been in power over the last 5 years and Cuba was a democracy wonder if Gitmo would have happened.
If the embargo is ever lifted, MLB should step in an offer assistance, especially after the PED fu*k up!

Considering that the first inning should have been over before any runs were scored, I think we can declare the Taz thing a success.

Far be it from me to trust the “reporting” of Sterling/Waldman, but during the Yanks game tonight they referenced the Bost-Det brawl as having its roots in previous beanings between these teams (I think they met even last night — is that right??). They also said Cabrera was hit twice and on the second hit he got it in the wrist and had to come out of the game. If that’s an injury that keeps him out for more than the rest of this game and the Tigers thought it was intentional based on some history, it would not be that suprising for them to seek retaliation on Youk or whoever.
By the way IBM, the Yanks did draw Halliday in the short 2-game stop in Toronto prior to matching up with Boston last weekend. That didn’t feel lucky. (Besides, I’m sure Detroit would rather that you guys had to face at least one of Bonderman/Willis/Washburn on this 4-game stretch then guys making barely the league minimum like Galarraga and Figaro!)

yes, horse, Cabrera got plunked last night by Penny. ESPN suggested this goes back to their days as Marlins. Then yooks got it.
I can’t imagine Tazawa hit Cabrera on purpose, but your understanding as far as the severity of the injury is the same I heard.
…
RE: Halladay, I was misinformed, then.
By the way, have you guy figured out yet that your sweep over us was our gift to Judge Sotomayor for her induction to SCOTUS?
…
Paps give up a 2-run dong.

congrats to tazawa on his first MLB win. he looked good in doing so.
kinda odd that the sox scored 7 runs without hitting a double the entire game.

Congrats on the game SFs – how many times have Mo AND Papelbon given up HRs on the same night??? I’d expect this was the first.

sorry to jump on your gamer but i think Bob’s hypothetical Yankee bias has been put to bed at this point. if anything he is worse to the yankees since he worked for them. That said, youk deserves at least 5 for that….we’ll see.

Agreed, IBM. Lowell over Papi at DH. Something like:
Ellsbury
Pedroia
Martinez (C)
Youk (3B)
Bay
Lowell (DH)
Drew
Kotchman
Green

IBM, I would put it at 6 total. 4 for charging the mound, and 2 for throwing the helmet.

Youk went to the Richie Sexson school of mound charging/helment throwing :)
good win – Taz looked good after the 1st inning!

he should get an extra game for missing the tackle…somehow porcello sidestepped the worst of that [a la the pedro/zimmer cha cha] and wound up on top of youk…
http://www.bostondirtdogs.com/
chop to the chops?…fun stuff…AOL has a funny picture of the intial embrace…looks like they are going to dance…at least youk didn’t throw the bat…’props’ to CHB…he didn’t see it right either…if you guys think ANY of the hbp’s involving the sox, yanks, tigers, the past few days didn’t have purpose, you need to reconsider…

Leave a Reply