If you're a Washington Nationals fan, do you laugh or cry? Or do you write inaccurate, unoriginal sob stories about how hypocritical the Boston Red Sox are?
If I were a Nats fan, I'd be laughing because even though my team only has 20 wins this year, 10 percent of them are against the New York Yankees. This is one thing Soxfans and Natsfans have in common. We both find this hilarious.
Unfortunately, it's now the Red Sox' turn to face Washington, and this truly is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, this should easily be the Sox' fifth straight series win, if not a sweep. On the other, it's a tremendous embarrassment if it's not.
The Sox don't have to sweep the Nationals. The worst club in baseball has a .299 winning percentage — right between one win every three games and one in every four. If they win a game against the Sox out of these three, I won't worry. Law of averages, right?
The best way not to worry about this is winning Game 1, when Brad Penny — whose fastball has averaged better than 95 mph in each of his last two starts (both with zero earned runs allowed) — faces John Lannan, who shut down the Yanks in his last start.
Unknown lefty, no book on him, decent ERA despite mediocre peripherals, dominates the first time through a batting order (.207/.287/.267 against)? Ugh. Better win the next two, boys.
Comment away!
123 replies on “This Opponent Sucks, and Why That’s Bad: Sox-Nats Gamer I”
I am going to be highly pissed off if we don’t win this series, especially with Dice-K on the DL. Julian Tavarez on WRKO pre-game show… hoping for something odd to come out of his mouth.
Steven at FJB should be taken out and maimed for that post. And everyone who commented on it should be maimed as well.
…
I miss Hoolian.
…
And I went to the dentist today. No cavities. Let’s hope the same can be said the the Red Sox offense tonight. No cavities.
Unknown lefty, no book on him, decent ERA despite mediocre peripherals
Sounds like a no-hitter in the making. Go go gadget reverse-jinx!
And yeah, I miss Jools so very much. I hope we get to see him.
Julian was disappointingly normal on the pregame show but there’s o telling what will happen during the game…
Ugh I gotta listen to the Nationals broadcasters. Sigh.
These guys are just wrong.
“Youkilis finished 2nd in the MVP race last year to teammate Pedroia”
Nope, he was third behind Morneau.
“Youkilis leads the AL in OBP at .444”
Nope, Mauer leads at .475.
Wow, there are like 90% Sox fans there. This place is louder than Fenway.
Can we just get rid of Lugo now?
GODDAMNIT DREW. Ball down the right-field wall, Drew takes his sweet time and the runner scores from first. Sigh.
It’s a good looking park, first time I have seen it. Glad we have 37,000 Red Sox fans there.
More horrible announcing:
“Penny used to be a huge strikeout pitcher. We all remember his appearance in the 2007 All Star Game, where he was fanning batters left and right.”
Actually in 2007 he had zero strikeouts. In 2006 he had 3 though.
Jason motherf*cking Bay. I love you so f*cking much!
Bay! 1-1.
Cut the man a check the size of Texas
phenom david price giving up 6 in the first to philly.
And it all started on an error by Longoria. Couldn’t happen to a better guy.
Huh, Brad Penny was complaining because Lannan screwed up the rosin bag.
Phi 6, TB 0, top 2.
Price gets whalopped in the 1st
Price has thrown 49 pitches through 2.
OH MY GOD! HOLY CRAP! Did anyone else see that Nick Green play? Holy potatoes!
Please tell me someone else was watching that. Wow.
Nick Green just made a play that’s better than anything I have seen in a long time. Wow. Just wow.
For those of you not watching: there was a bouncing grounder up the middle, with the runner going. Green grabs it, tags the runner in his face, half-flips over him like he’s in the goddamn circus, lands on his feet, and fires to first to complete the double play.
I’m still amazed.
I’m listening on the radio, then missed the replay on the MLB network.
Ath and I are not blowing this out of proportion, I promise. It was SICK!
Ellsbury! Misses a homer by two feet, and THEN almost makes it an in-the-park homer. Wisely stops at third though, 2-1 Sox.
I’m praying that the Green web gem will be put up on Gameday.
Lockland isn’t kidding. This thing was like a Derek Jeter wet dream.
Come on. When could Jeter ever make a play like that? EVER?
Ath, check out Bay’s homer on Gameday. It’s actually Tek.
And it’s not a homer.
I know Jeter could never do that–that’s why it’s a Jeter WET DREAM!
What did gameday say, IBM? Right now it correctly shows that it was Jason Bay.
Mine still has Tek. …
Phi 10, TB 0, bot 4
Atl 3, NYY 0, bot 3, there goes Wang
I’m talking about the video highlights on Gameday.
Crap, wild pitch and it’s a tie game.
Bad pitch, bad effort by Tek to make it worse. Just stabbed at it, lazy.
Just checking in and here’s the Brad Penny I always expect to see. If he can keep go 5 IP and have the Sox be only 1 or 2 back after that, I’ll be…not angry.
HAH I see what you mean now IBM. The video replay just shows Varitek’s at-bat after the Bay homer.
Oh my god, he swung at that pitch SO much. Replay shows it. Thankfully he K’s on the next one.
Lucky to only give up one run there. Penny hitting 97.
Crap, JD.
Pedro to second on a wild pitch. Youk, get him home!
Youk!!! Single plates Pedro. 3-2 us.
Bay pops out to center, Youk still at first.
Niiiiice.
Hey Bay, do something fearsome.
Mikey rattles one past the SS, another hit. 10 baserunners for the Sox thru 4.2, only three runs. Two on, two out.
Nice work, Toast! First pitch swinging, taps to the SS. Lame.
Tek’s line is really horrid. Those 10 homers are lipstick on a pig, basically.
Sorry, second pitch. Still, the lipstick comment stands.
Okay, does anyone have experience cooking tilapia fillets? I baked them for 15 minutes at 400 degrees like the directions said, and they’re still very raw in the center, and not flaky at all. Yes I let them dethaw. What gives? I had to cook them an extra 8 minutes.
Nice play, Lowell! Good inning for Penny – 1-2-3.
I don’t care what the errors say, Lowell/Green make some great plays.
I love Ellsbury’s swing since April.
Steals 2nd easily, tags up on the fly out. Bring him in Brad Penny!
squeeze?
Two quick strikes. I would have liked to see a squeeze there, with his speed.
Bah.
That stunk.
Robot sighting! John Kerry in the house.
Getting that run in would have made me feel way better about this game, especially since it was the 2nd time Ellsbury made it to 3rd.
Han Ram just hit a slam for the fish.
Hanley is like that super hot girlfriend who got away. You’re happy where you are now, but you really, REALLY wish she was still around.
I dunno, Ath, I’m pretty happy with the, uh, two guys we settled down with in Beckett and Lowell. And I’ve seen enough _Big Love_ to know three can be more trouble than it’s worth…
Brad Penny gives up a hit. 106 pitches. His curveballs are missing horribly.
Sure enough, there goes the lead.
There goes Penny, and I’m off to watch Deadliest Catch.
Well, as much as I hate seeing Penny pitch, he wasn’t awful. Just mediocre. So I have to be…not angry.
I might argue that Tito waited a bit long, but it was the bottom of the order, and Penny started the inning well. Tough call.
Penny was barely mediocre tonight, just too erratic.
JD looks putrid tonight.
LEATHERFACE TIME BABY!
Youk reaches on a bad error from Zimmerman. Excellent play by the 2nd baseman to back it up, saving the base.
Ooh, Bay loops one over the SS, Youk hustles to third and is safe, Bay goes to second on the throw. Very aggressive, it paid off.
Great play by Youk to get to third.
Lowell gets the IBB, Tek coming up.
PINCH HIT PAPI.
I know he won’t PH Papi, by the way. But Tek stinks.
Ta-garbage time with the Orc! Joolian has the bases loaded with Tek at the plate, one out. C’mon, see-saw, put this one back in our column…
Tek does the job. Sac fly.
[Yanx down 3-0, TB down 10-1, Tor up 6-4, all in the 7th…]
Yes — Tek sak [sic] fly makes it 4-3 Sox…
JT being pulled.
Phil Hughes, best pitching prospect EVAH, is in for bridge/not-quite-mop-up duty in Atlanta. Well played, Yankees.
Nicely, Jacoby’s OBP is tipping .360, nearly.
Need the bullpen to do some shutdown. They’ve seemed a tad shakier of late, but I am not sure if that is just perception, and not reality.
Jacoby walks, on four times tonight! Bases plugged. Green can help his bullpen here.
papi in the on deck circle.
Frak. Green loops one that Harris tracks on a sprint coming in, nice catch. Three more left on base, for a total of 10 thru seven innings. Not the best showing against a horrid team.
Bad Manny. Leadoff walk? Come on, really? Dumbass.
Quick escape!
More men on base to strand!
I bet Youk and/or Bay get something done here…
Loaded again. Bay coming up. Another pitching change.
Yanks go down in Georgia.
Bay!!! Knocks in two with a single, and it is 6-3!
Ah, faith rewarded. Though it was as much faith in the badness of the Nats’ bullpen as in the goodness of Youk and Bay.
Varitek drives in another!
Tek gets in on the action with a single! 7-3 Sox.
Quite a good piece of hitting by Tek there.
Wow, what a night for Jacoby! Second triple of the game, on base FIVE times, 9-3 Sox.
Second triple for JElls, this one is becoming a laugher (9-3).
The Nats announcers were dissing the Yankees about hitting with bases loaded. Said they try too hard to go for the grand slam when a single would have done.
Greenie! 10-3 now, Nick singles in Jacoby.
So much for complaining about stranded runners.
Green makes it 10-3.
Sox feasting on this Nats pen.
Amazing that Ellsbury was on base 5 times — and on third 3 times — and that was the first run he scored.
Jacoby OPSing 1.001 in June, through 56 at-bats. Not a shabby month for the kid.
Yanks w/ 11 lobs tonight.
Finally saw Green’s double play on MLB Network. Amazing, and he made it look so nonchalant.
10 ofthe Red Sox 15 hits were to Dunn. Coincidence?
Glad you saw it IBM! Still upset that gameday didn’t save it.
We needed a laugher.
Toronto wins to move into a second-place tie with NYY.
>10 ofthe Red Sox 15 hits were to Dunn. Coincidence?
That’s just cause everyone was out in front of Lannan’s ridiculously slow fastball.
just looked at the yanks box score. posada went 0-4 with 4 k’s. ouch. makes the 2-3-4 combo of swisher, teixeira, and a-rods combined 0-12 not look so bad.
Pedey 3-6, Bay 4-5, Ells 4-4. Good night with the sticks.
Why do you guys link to Dirt Dogs?
Ack.
Joel Hanrahan is from my hometown of Des Moines, Iowa.
David Ortiz BA: .213
Alex Rodriguez BA: .213
Yeah, A-Rod’s OBP is a lot higher, but Ortiz is the one trending up! Good times, good times.
Think we can get three outs before we give up 9 runs?
I’m surprised NYY just decided that Doubleplay-Rod should have at least 1 day off a week. Seems like something they should have determined weeks ago.
…
Bard to finish; Dusty Brown to make his ML debut.
micah- a-rods at .207
dusty browns major league debut.
Oh, silly me, I was looking at a stats page that hadn’t updated yet. Awesome.
Ballgame.
Bard makes it an adventure, but Sox win to grow lead to 5 over NYY, Tor.
lohud is burning…..and i brought the marshmellows.
Forget lohud, sf rod and just check out our YF neighboring thread here. krueg was on fire today.
By the way, Coco to have season-ending shoulder surgery. Feel really bad for him, but that trade is looking better and better.
We love you Theo!
“Yes I let them dethaw. What gives? I had to cook them an extra 8 minutes.”
that’s the problem – dethawing is actually freezing them again! :)
Breaded talapia = very good!
oh, and that play by Nick Green – awesome.