Julio Lugo brings people together. Where once we were divided over which Red Sox player to like least — Javier Lopez? Lugo? — this slightly built, no-hit, no-field shortstop has unified us. And what thanks does he get?
For the sixth consecutive game, Nick Green is the Red Sox' starting shortstop. Hard to argue against that. Green has a career-high 93 OPS+ — light years better than the 70 Lugo has posted in two-plus years with the Red Sox. And while Green is no great shakes at short — negative 16.6 runs per 150 games, according to UZR — he looks like Ozzie Smith next to Lugo — negative 33.6 runs! — in the field.
So here's to Nick Green, who was not expected to even make the club out of spring training, didn't play a single game in the majors last season, but is nevertheless now playing the best baseball of his life for the first-place Boston Red Sox.
Other lineup news tonight: the streaking David Ortiz (so nice to say that) is playing first against the Phillies, with Kevin Youkilis at third and Mike Lowell taking the evening off.
Comment away!
138 replies on “Where Have You Gone, Julio Lugo? Sox-Phils Gamer I”
MLB.com had the game listed at 6:05, so I left the pool early just to find out we still have an hour. Damn you interwebs!
OHH by the way, I know one of the kids that the Red Sox drafted: Blaze Tart, from the 33rd round, a RHP. My brother played with him at a camp in Florida last summer, and the kid is beast. Cocky as hell, kind of arrogant, but he’s very good.
Player A: lifetime .270/.335/.390 88 OPS+, 87r|160h/162g
Player B: lifetime .283/.350/.360 88 OPS+, 89r|176h/162g
Player A: the aforementioned Great Unifier. Player B: The Great Gritter. I don’t really have a point.
Sox are something like 25-8 when Green starts at SS.
Good inning from Lester, who is hitting that outside corner well, despite the walk.
Oh hey, Lester is on deck. Forgot we’re in the NL.
Good to see that a game that has “letdown” written all over it is already looking like a letdown.
Is that a real name or a porn name?
Blaze is his nickname, his real name is William.
HEY Ortiz picked it up quick enough! Lucky that the umpire didn’t give up on it and kept paying attention. Run scores, but we’ll take the out.
Great play by Pedroia to save a run!
I was very content to get out of that inning with Lester only giving up a run. Coulda been a lot worse.
Despite the two hard hit balls, Lester was pitching well that inning. Hopefully that counts as his “big inning”
How are the Phillies only 12-14 at home?
Wow, nice catch by Victorino. Two very well struck balls by Pedroia/Drew, both outs.
I cringe seeing Papi sprinting backwards in foul territory after a pop-up.
Stop squeezing Lester!
WOAH Youk homered? My mlb.tv game came back from commercials with Bay at bat. Thanks a lot, assholes.
Ellsbury singles. Welcome back!
Does anyone else think Blanton’s face look like a baby’s, with a fake goatee? He looks like he’s 6 months old.
Blanton’s getting by on sheer blind luck and an obscenely huge strike zone. Hopefully they won’t last forever.
And Lester strikes out the side. His ERA’s under 5, let’s hope it stays there.
Good to have the real Lester back.
They’re not saying Dreww, they’re booooing.
jd!
anyone else see that john henry twittered “curse of MT” after last nites win. teixeira is pissed about it.
JD Drew opposite-field homer. Yep, it’s June alright!
Did he really sf rod? That’s hilarious! Do you have a link to Teix talking about it?
Wow, Lester strikes out Howard, Ibanez, Victorino and Felix in a row. Lot of good bats there.
Lester is working like a mofo, 5 straight K’s.
here’s the cut and paste from lohud…..
UPDATE, 6:14 p.m.: Mark Teixeira was fired up today. It seems that Red Sox owner John Henry has a Twitter account and last night wrote “The MT curse?” when the Yankees lost. Boston is still steamed, apparently, that Tex signed with the Yankees.
“How old is Mr. Henry?” Tex said, who said he didn’t want to get into it with a “70-something-year-old man about baseball. … I think it’s a little silly. It’s actually very silly.”
Henry is actually 59, which makes Tex’s comment even funnier. Of course he looks about 80.
Jesus, 6 straight. He’s unhittable right now.
the funny part for me is leigh teixeira ain’t half the looker johns arm piece is.
Struck out the side TWICE IN A ROW. I love this.
That’s hilarious rod. I actually think Henry looks very good for his age; he carries himself well. And yeah, he pulls trim better than Teix does, which only makes it funnier.
one of the other beautys from pete abes column is about how girardi intends on getting payback for the a-rod HBP. did joe even see the first 7 games of that series? 10 sox players HBP’s to 3 for the yankees. guess joe wants to throw at bay’s ribs for a third time. somebody might wanna let joe know that the greatest vindication is winning a game.
Boooo a non-strikeout.
Lester puts away Utley. He’s f*cking perfect tonight, hitting all the spots. He looks better than his last start.
Three of those pitches to Werth were strikes. Ugh.
8 of the last 9 outs have been strikeouts. Fantastic.
94 pitches for Lester. Hopefully he can get another K next inning before getting pulled.
damn lester looks like he’s in a groove. that curve is filthy right now while the heater is topping out at 96.
joba yanked after 4 innings and 100 pitches. 52 for strikes. how long will they let that guy keep starting? can’t see how you can argue that you’d rather get 4-5 innings of joba starting every sixth day over a viable 8th inning bridge to mo every nite out.
Joba is a very good starter, he just needs to learn some better control. Only one hit through four, but 5 walks and two HBP.
Tomko just gave up 4 runs without recording an out. Giggle.
Strikeout #10!
Now THAT is a quality start. 111 pitches, 2 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 11 strikeouts – including 10 of the last 12 hitters.
wow. just wow. lester has the phils guessing. and wrongly so.
Strikeout #11!
Between the 4th and 7th innings, 10 of the 12 outs were strikeouts. He’s at 111 pitches, and he’s flat-out dominating. Do you send him back out for the 8th?
That was downright Pedroesque.
the mets are just running wild on posada.
goodnite blanton. he has always had better success against the sox than lesser opponents. sox bat .263 against him in 51 career innings.
Just got in from work – what a close game. Was Blanton that good?
i wouldn’t say “that good”. he was effective and locating. he always keeps the sox off balance. some quality D behind him as well. the sox were set up for a let down today and have some how managed to scathe it off for a bit.
He was that lucky, RBF. Though he did have 7 K’s.
Bullshit strike zone is irrelevant to the great Oki! One down.
would love to see bard in for the 9th but the sox have ramirez warming. not sure paps is available after throwing the last 2 nites (although only 9 pitches last nite).
My heart skipped a beat on that Rollins fly out.
Oki strikes out Utley to end the inning. Don’t be surprised in Bard comes out instead of Ramirez for the 9th.
And yeah, I doubt Paps is available.
no one else up in the sox pen. looks like oki for one more or ramirez.
Indeed, Papelbon is not warming. Ramirez still warming.
baldelli hitting in oki’s spot, so…. ram ram for the 9th.
dead money has really earned his the last two nites.
dead money?
You know, personally I would have let Ramirez pitch the 8th and saved Oki for the 9th, so he could pitch to lefties Howard and Ibanez. They scare me.
is my gameday frozen or is the NY-NY game really only in the 6th?
Dead money is what we’ve started calling Drew. Mazz coined the term the other day because he’s an idiot, and since we’ve been using it he’s gotten hot.
Baldelli walks? Jizz in my pants.
Yep it’s only the 9th. That’s what happens when Joba walks 3 and hits 2 batters in one inning.
Wow, I didn’t realize Pedroia was in such a slump right now.
Errr, it’s only the 6th*
you’re not frozen. joba walked the park while reaching his pitch limit in the 4th.
if drew is dead money, lugo is refried beans.
I’m calling it now: Ramirez is going to blow this save.
ath- i just virtually punched you. i hope you are in virtual pain.
Sure enough, Daniel Bard is warming in the pen. I hope Ramirez didn’t see that; that’s a confidence killer right there.
Ramirez has a cutter? That fastball was definitely cutting. Wow.
ram ram say’s “ath, suck it”.
sincerely- the eck “the enterpreteur”
Here come the power threats.
dammit
And there you go.
its on you ath.
Howard destroys a pitch. I apologize for predicting this.
Like I said about 10 minutes ago, I would have brought Ramirez in for the 8th so Okajima could pitch to Howard and Ibanez in the 9th.
And the Yanks just went ahead of the Mets.
And the Yanks just went ahead of the Mets.
You’ve gotta be f*cking kidding me.
Way to waste a great pitching performance from Lester with a poor choice of who to have save the game.
Ibanez walks.
Josh Bard please.
Papelbon looks solemn in the bullpen.
I just dont understand the choice…Bard and Masterson have had a lot of rest and should have been the option over Ramirez.
Free baseball!
I think Tito wanted to let him get back on the horse as quickly as possibly after giving up 2 homers to New York the other night. I guess I understand the logic, but still disagree with the decision.
Masterson is being saved to pitch innings 5-8 in Daisuke’s start tomorrow, I assume. It’s funny cause it’s true.
Stairs misses a homer by a little bit, extra innings time.
Hey look, the Yankees are doing their best to give the game back to the Mets.
Bonus baseball time!
Orsillo: “24 of Madson’s last 25 appearances have been scoreless.”
Sounds like a first-class jinx to me!
Well, the Mets tied it on a DP. How absolutely Mets of them.
Mets tie it back up to make Ath stop swearing.
alright, time to guess how this one ends.
my guess is…..
bay homers. bard shuts the door.
^ I like what sf rod said. I’m going with that.
Youk! Way to take one for the team!
OK, Bay, it’s time.
Go-ahead run on base!
Masterson up in the pen, in case we don’t score.
ok, change of plans….
kotsay doubles and youk scores from 1st. theeeeeeeeen bard shuts the door.
Do you have a plan C?
How about… Kotsay reaches on an error, then Varitek drives Youk in?
Woah, Youk safe BARELY. Replay shows he didn’t really tag him.
Kotsay walks, Varitek thinks it’s April so he homers and theeeeeeeen Bard shuts it out
how do you send youk there? replays say 50/50.
On to the next inning. A shame to waste Masterson in extras today with Daisuke pitching tomorrow.
5 homers in New York tonight: Cano, Teixeira, Jeter, Matsui, and Sheffield.
shitfuckcocksucker
Masterson is MUCH better than his bloated ERA: as a reliever it’s only 3.07.
Meanwhile in Gotham, the Mets say, “Please you take the game, we don’t need it…”
ath- they had babe ruth’s lone surviving 91 year old daughter hit the ceremonial first pitch into the right feild upper deck. so that’s 6 to be exact.
Bruntlett, who is hitting .152, gets on base twice tonight via HBP. Pathetic.
We also forgot about the 2 homers that the hotdog vendor from section 118 accidentally hit in between innings. Even he doesn’t know how it happened.
Great play by Pedro to get the lead runner.
The Yanks respond, “How sweet but please don’t bother for us.”
Jason Bay drinks your milkshake!
no GOD BLESS JASON BAY?
wow. what a grab by bay in foul territory.
now lets win this thing!
so who’s available on the bench?
kotorras/baily/lugo/lowell ?????
i think baily went down when kotasy was activated.
so, kotorras/lugo/lowell
ha ha. girardi using mo in the eighth tonite.
Girardi must read YFSF – Mo pitching the 8th.
Oh thank goodness that stayed in the park.
Yeah, just noted that in the Yankees thread. Glad Joe has such a slow hook, frankly.
wow. i was certain that ball was gone when it left the bat.
soemone needs to test that mans urine.
damn!
mo giving it up!
Mo does give up a run so maybe Joe was right.
Holy crap that was foul thank goodness.
holy crap! the radio announcers sounded like the game was over.
excuse my while i get the stain out of my shorts. it’s going to the booth but replay says foul.
Im shocked the umps aren’t reviewing this homer. I thought it was fair for sure.
Saito time.
Lugo just got a hit? In a meaningful situation? Color me confused.
ELLSBURY!
Yanks win the game on an error by Castillo…
Break out!
Hey look, the guy who should have pitched the 9th.
dammit dammit dammit
Crap, Bard hits Ibanez.
not an error, but maybe the king of all errors. A routine popup to end the game pops out of his glove. Unreal. The Mets really do suck.
Kid is nervous
Wicked curve wins the game!
Josh Beckett giving Bard a lot of love.
game over
whew
Good start to the weekend!
I still can’t believe the Yankees won. Gameday originally said “In Play, out(s)” so I turned it off. I was horrified when someone in this thread mentioned that they won.
hopefully ram ram went right to lesters locker and apologized.
love me some dead money.
Phuck you, Philly.