It’s the home opener, and seeing green, green Fenway will do my eyes good. Wei-Yin Chen and the upstart Orioles killed the Sox last year (2.50 ERA in 3 starts vs. Sox for the former NPB twirler). The Red Sox are home for essentially the rest of April: 17 out of the next 20 (just a brief detour to Francleveland next week) and play 19 days in a row after an off-day tomorrow. Time to make some hay, plz.
Chen vs. Buchholz. Comment away!
wwwwwwwoooooooohhhhhhhoooooooooo
So the optimistic take is we win 14 of those 20 and will be 18-8 at the end of the month?
Nah, too crazy …
Annette Funicello has died. I’ve just dated myself.
I’ll take the 18-8, but I’ll take the 8-18 for the other side first:)
Stolen from the Globe blog:
RED SOX (4-2)
Ellsbury CF
Victorino RF
Pedroia 2B
Napoli 1B
Middlebrooks 3B
Nava LF
Gomes DH
Ross C
Iglesias SS
Pitching: RHP Clay Buchholz (1-0, 1.29)
ORIOLES (3-3)
McLouth LF
Machado 3B
Markakis RF
Jones CF
Davis 1B
Wieters C
Hardy SS
Flaherty 2B
Pearce DH
Pitching: LHP Wei-Yin Chen (0-0, 3.18)
No JBJ.
A day off for the kid this soon? You’d think they want him in there for the home opener..
As the Sox celebrate their 60th year with the Jimmy Fund, here’s a nod to the old Boston Braves and owner Lou Perini, who adopted the Jimmy Fund as their official charity back in 1948.
JBJ has been struggling, and JF probably wanted to avoid the lefty-lefty matchup. But the switchy Nava isn’t a good right-handed hitter.
Buch gets out of it with an easy dozen pitches.
Solid start there..
O’s D robs the Sox of a couple of hits.
13 pitches for Chen to Buchholz’s 12.
VICTORY! *grumble*
No reason to pitch to Davis here, Clay.
Solid move, except it doesn’t get any easier in the heart of this lineup. They’re talented.
Clay looking good so far –
Two-out threat squashed (single, single, K).
Scoreless through 3. Sox don’t have a hit.
^ digging the one way jynx there….
Buchholz walks dude, then gets force at 2nd and DP on the next three pitches, leaving him at a reasonable 61 through 4.
Good move, Devine..
No-hitter broken. Victorino at first for Pedroia, none out.
Hee hee! Thanks, Brad. Just doing my part.
Victorino caught stealing (happened Saturday, too). Then Pedroia walks. Hold yer fuckin’ horses Victorino/Farrell, ugh!
Napoli DP. Homers aside, a fairly brutal start to the season for him (came up big in Friday’s game in Toronto, though).
Yah – he needs to get outs in the outfield, not 6-4-3s.
I almost completely forgot about Brian Roberts. That guy has had a rough go at it.
Buchholz at 90 pitches after 6. One more, and we’ll try to scrape you a win in the meantime, you lanky laptop thief, you.
would like to put some runs up soon….
Two hits on Saturday, two so far today. And a 13-0 game in-between. We need to distribute our hits and runs a little better.
^^ this.
4th walk for Buchholz, none out. Hmmmmm.
108 pitches, runner at 2nd, 2 out…I might have preferred Uehara, but here we go, Clay.
That’s a solid game right there.
They need to put men across the plate now.
Goes down swinging at a pitch off the plate, and Buchholz’s day is finished.
Buchholz has allowed 1 run in 14 innings. Lester has allowed 2 in 12. This is good shit.
ugghhhh.
Really, Red Sox? Take me out to the Ballgame?
When did this happen?
Thank god Pedey didn’t slide head first …
If they traded “Sweet Caroline” for “TMOttBG”, I’d call that a win. Sox would probably have to throw in a STBNL.
Nevermind…didn’t realize it was a bunch of Jimmy Fund kids. My bad.
STBNL – Put me in Coach?
Or Centerfield (as it’s called if you finish humming it before you type)
Napoli reaches the wall, Pedey stops at third. Good call, I think.
Come on, Middlebrooks!!!!
Definitely a good call to hold up Pedey. Cant waste that chance.
2nd and 3rd, none out, come on! (Pedey single, Napoli double).
Middlebrooks: 2 strikes quickly, both fouls. Ball 1 a bit high. Foul. Foul. Ball.
K. FUCK.
Middlebrooks swings at ball 3.
COME ON!!!!!!
HELL YAH!!!!!
I just want a groundball to the right side. It doesn’t seem like so much to ask.
Brad: “Centerfield” too good a song, trade is lopsided.
Nava, atta boy!!!!
NAVA! 3-0!!!!
Danny Nah-ver!
That kid has had some feel good moments at Fenway if ever there were anyone.
Good, patient hitting this inning.
Hadn’t had much luck against Chen. Then Pedey gets on. Then Napoli gets a double after falling behind 0-2 (Sox radio said Jones gave up on it, could have been caught.)
Nava (fourth RH homer of career), then homers on a 2-strike pitch.
These Sox persevere. Adds to their likeability factor.
Six outs to get.
Adds to their likeability factor.
^^this. I always love a feel good group of non-superstars that play for each other better than the 180M contract guy.
Plus, important to note that Farrell went with Nava over JBJ.
Nava is the face of perseverance. Even more than Pedroia.
lefty v. lefty, as mentioned above. I think if the pitcher was RH, he probably goes with JBJ
McLouth K’s. Five to go.
One down. Backwards K.
Machado K’s. Four to go.
two down….
aaaannnd 3
3 to go!!
Markakis flies out. Three to go.
Sweet.
And there’s Sweet Caroline. Bah.
Let’s make this a non-save situation.
“lefty v. lefty, as mentioned above. I think if the pitcher was RH, he probably goes with JBJ”
This is true and valid, but as Pete Abes pointed out in the pregame notes, Nava is .191 career batting RH.
No hits for Iggy today.
No hits for Ells either.
Victorino flies out. Save situation for Hanrahan.
A platter save for Hanrahan. Let’s hope he can get 3 outs before they can get 3 runs.
Strike 1 to Adam Jones, 96 mph.
That brownnose Hanrahan. (Line from Fletch. F Letch.)
Having dudes in the pen who throw heat is pretty great.
Buuuuuut home run.
Home run for Jones, damn.
Jones homers, temporarily quiets fewer than 40,000 fans.
Davis out, 3U.
The incredible Chris Davis grounds out. 2 more…
Wieters K’s. O’s down to their final out.
Swinging strike, K. 99 MPH.
Strike 1.
Double off the wall. C’mon Hanrahan.
Double, grrrrrrrr.
Flaherty, the tying run, is 0-13 on the season.
2-0. Strikes please.
whew…
Flaherty pops it up. Sox win!
If this was 2012, the Orioles win this game on a walkoff.
That magic had to end sometime.
Damn right. WOOOOOO!
Game. 3-1, Sox. back to work.
I like this team!
^^this.
Yanks and Cleveland tied at 3 after one and a half. Win one for Tito!
Matt Albers and Rich Hill are having a “Which former Red Sox pitcher will suck worse against the Yankees?” off. Rich Hill goes out front giving up a run and earning no outs in the process. Then he throws a wild pitch to allow another run in, sealing his “victory”.