A tried and true formula.
The good:
- The pitching has returned to form.
- The hitting, last night excepted, has begun hitting in the clutch again.
- The Yankees just won six straight games, and they only gained one game in the standings.
- Kason Gabbard (four straight starts with a game score of 60+) starts tonight.
The bad:
- Not pinch-hitting either Mike Lowell or Julio Lugo in the eighth inning of a 1-0 game.
- The Sox in one-run games since June 1.
- Indians pitcher Cliff Lee, three straight starts with game scores below 35.
- The Yankees have won six straight games and are back in the playoff hunt.
- Rain delays.
The ugly:
- Curt Schilling. Anyone else tired of that shtick yet?
- Manny Ramirez leaves Coco out to dry.
- Rumors that the Red Sox want to trade for Jermaine Dye? I’m sorry?
- Picking on J.D. Drew, who even with a recent slump is hitting .270/.364/.440 since June 1.
Let’s get back on the horse/bicycle/wagon/movable object of choice, take the series, and send the Yankee fans scurrying back into the holes from which they’ve emerged today.
Start time to be determined.
Red Sox
1. Julio Lugo, SS
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Manny Ramirez, LF
5. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
6. Mike Lowell, 3B
7. Jason Varitek, C
8. Coco Crisp, CF
9. Wily Mo Pena, RF
SP – Kason Gabbard
Indians
1. Grady Sizemore, CF
2. Casey Blake, 3B
3. Victor Martinez, C
4. Travis Hafner, DH
5. Ryan Garko, 1B
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS
7. Jason Michaels, LF
8. Franklin Gutierrez, RF
9. Josh Barfield, 2B
SP – Cliff Lee
Why is everyone all over Manny. Had it been him coming home under the same circumstances it would be about Manny not running hard as opposed to Coco not being in place on dack signaling to him that theres gonna be a play on him.
This is all on Coco for not running full speed.
I guess Remy was saying last night Coco was surprised to not have any help and pulled up as a result — maybe thinking there was no play since Manny was clearly unconcerned? I dunno.
Yes but people are always all over Manny when he lets up when a play appears over. They say he should run it out to the end. Now when Crisp should have been doing the same its not his fault its Manny’s.
Yes Manny should have some of the blame here, some. But its more Coco’s fault then anything.
Rain delay sucks. Ah well.
What happened anyhow? I saw the replay on MLB.com, but it doesn’t really show everything..
Coco was out on a close play anyway — may have even been safe, for all anyone can tell. But he slowed up coming toward the plate after rounding third. Considering the closeness of the play, he would have undoubtedly beens afe had he kept running hard and slid. Jerry Remy on NESN laid into Manny afterward because Manny, as he usually does, was near the Sox dugout watching the acton instead of being in the runner’s line of sight signaling for him to slide. Remy thinks Crisp was expecting the help and was either surprised or fooled into slowing up…
Do we have a start time in sight?
Momentarily, apparently…
Away we go…
An uninspiring opening inning from the Sox, with only Dustin Pedroia managing to make Lee work…
Indians announcers say Schilling has retired his first 9 in his rehab start.
Gabbard gets em quickly in his half. Let’s go, bats!
Gabbard matches Lee’s first.
Yeah! Manny! Dead center!
Hoo boy, now that I look at the replay, that ball was GONE.
Youkilis grounds out, Lowell singles. Frank Robinson (!) and the Indians announcers shill (sp?) for MasterCard.
Half-inning done.
Gabbard through two, uneventful.
About to start mocking WMP…but he singles up the middle. He’s still crap, though.
Can we get a Yanks gamer up there so no one can comment? ;)
Lugo singles and WMP goes to 3rd…there’s an appeal about whether he touched 2nd, but on the appeal, it’s ruled okay.
A DP from DP comes next, but the run scores from 3rd. 2-0 Sox.
Who the heck is Gutierrez? Two homers in two games.
Manny walks to lead off the 4th.
Bases loaded for Lee with no outs. Smack em around!!
Tek singles to left center scoring Manny and Youk. Lowell to third, Tek advances to 2nd.
4-1!!
No outs….
Pena with a first pitch fly out to right. I guess because the ball wasn’t on a T for T-Ball means he suddenly was suffering from short term memory and did not apply what happened in his last AB.
Both Crisp and Pena made quick outs on the first pitch with runners on 2nd and 3rd, no outs. WTF? At least work the count and chase Lee. Sure hope that 3-run lead is big enough.
Gabbard is steady again, at least.
Crisp and Lugo groundouts that inning also add to us stranding two runners in scoring position. An inning that started with the bases loaded and no outs leads to TWO RUNS.
Gabbard with another effective inning. Kid is really doing a good job. I would be more than pleased to let Schill (and his mouth) go after this year and use this kid in the rotation.
Pedroia singles to lead off the 5th.
Ortiz walks….Manny time.
Manny doubles to left, Pedroia scores. Ortiz to 3rd.
okay guys…no outs again, runners at 2/3.
Youk safe on Peralta’s error. Lowell up, bases juiced.
Wow, Lee seems determined to help the Sox blow this one wide open… Bases loaded, no outs in the 5th.
Lowell! Single makes it 7-1.
Lowell singles to right. Many and Papi score, Youk to 2nd.
7-1
Manny now hitting .302
Excellent.
Check it out, KC is up 3-0 on the Incredible Hulk-like Yankees.
Make that 4-0
Tek grounded into a DP. Youk at 3rd.
Crisp singles in Youk.
8-1
Ugh, Tek DPs. But Crisp gets Youkilis home with a single, 8-1.
Pena doubles in Crisp!!
The sky is falling, Pena with an RBI!!!!!!!
9-1
Lugo, Ortiz and Youk the only Sox without an RBI in the game yet.
Wily Mo, raising the trade value.
Lugo flies out to end the inning.
Whiffy Mo doubles, Crisp scores, 9-1.
Without chalking this up too early as a win (or the Yankees as as loss), I’m trying to think how big a lead in the A.L. East would be enough to reassure me.
The Sox have 60 games left after this one. I figure if they win 55% of the remainder, that gets them to ~95 wins. So the Yankees would have to win about 67% of their remaining games to catch up.
If the lead were 10 games instead of 6.5 I’d feel better. I figure it’s going to be closer than I’d like. But then again, how much can I complain when the Sox have the best record in the majors and a decent-sized lead in late July?
Answer: A lot. I can complain a lot. Rooting for this team across four decades does that to ‘ya.
Garko walks with one out. Just the third base runner for the night.
I understand you completely Hudson. I think I would be comfortable with about a 20 game lead. I just hope the annual summer swoon is complete and we can move forward and start to put distance between us. This is going to be an interesting stretch. With both teams having a number of games with TB on the schedule I think that it will matter who trips the least.
Damn, 9-4
Indians going after the first pitch now.
Gabbard is having a lot of problems this inning.
Hafner HBP that plates a run. 9-5
Gabbard’s ERA has risen to 3.73
Oh God…Tavarez in to replace Gabbard with the bases loaded.
Garko flies out to end the inning.
Gabbard may have had long of a delay between the innings. The guy couldn’t have found the strike zone with On-Star.
The kid was due for one of these, he has pitched his a** off the last few times.
Ortiz singles, Manny we need runs again for the lead.
Ramirez reachs on a FC. Papi out at 2nd.
Pedroia ground out to lead off. Now two outs.
Youk flies out to right. Inning over.
9-5
The funny thing is that, when I heard that Tavarez was coming in, I became much calmer. I know he can go through the order once…twice I start to get nervous.
“Waiter!”
“Yes, sir?”
“A crow sandwich, please…with extra jalapenos.”
“Right away, sir.”
Wiffy with a homer?
12-5
Precisely. Sorry. That one was me. WMP crushing one for which I am grateful provokes a certain desire to repent of the nasty things I’ve thought regarding him.
Um…why wasn’t Snyder in at the beginning of that inning?
Tavarez: Still Ta-garbage. Oy. So much for my hopes/theory that he might have more success in the pen, if only seen once through the lineup.
I want it in the record that NESN just showed J.D. Drew dancing in a circle with David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Alex Cora.
Well, in all fairness, Tavarez should have been out of the inning 1-2-3 if not for Lugo’s error. Not that it absolves him completely, but still…
Paul — It’s a bit of a stretch to get from one lead-off error to four runs…
Meanwhile, the Yankees are losing 5-0 to KC… Let’s go, Royals.
W. Modesto Pena is now 4-for-5 with 4 RBI on the day, lifting his average from about .200 to .219.
Yeah, he fell apart in a hurry. Still, all the runs were unearned for a reason.
Let’s hope some hapless GM is watching tonights game and thinking about WMP, “you know, I bet our hitting coach could teach that kid to hit a breaking ball…”
Wily Mo made Theo Epstein the happiest person on the planet. Maybe the Sox can get more than Solomon (sp?) Torres for him…
I’d love to be able to root for WMP…on a harmless team somewhere else…
If they trade Pena for Torres I will personally go and smack Epstein across the face with his gorilla mask!