How worried should the Sox be about the second half? The Boston papers are practically gushing about their prospects. Now that’s scary!
Nevertheless, the Sox do open up an extended homestand against non-AL East opponents, a good combination for a hot streak that could open some serious ground between them and those pesky Yankees. After three games without real baseball, I’m more than ready for the resumption of play — and I bet this team is too. It’s Lester on the hill, continuing his quest to replace the bittersweet memory of Aaron Sele in our minds.
Comment away!
Time to smack Oak-town around tonight.
From MLB.com:
“Johnson shines in Minor League outing”
“In a Minor League start for the Class A Wilmington Blue Rocks, Johnson earned the victory by pitching seven innings, giving up 10 hits and four earned runs”
10 hits and 4 runs in 7 innings in Single A? I always thought the word “shine” in that context meant you did well…
1st Pitch underway for a strike
10 hits at the A level does not sound so good.
Lester looking good so far with the mix up of pitches.
Lester is getting worked hard by these hitters. Hopefully he can get some quick innings.
Get Payton on 3 pitches. Good recovery.
Ahhhh, NESN. Finally, baseball! Looks like Youk and Loretta are still on a break, though.
Papi “works” the walk, even though it didn’t look like Loaiza wanted anything to do with him.
Manny singles.
I think that Ortiz is not going to see that many pitches to hit in the second half.
Trot needs to boost his HR totals.
Nixon grounds out. Trade that stiff!!!
Trot just seems to be hitting only for average this year.
Too many pitches for Lester here.
Another 2-man jam. Come on, Lester. Kendall up.
Seems like he just is not happy un;ess he puts guys on base. Seems rather Ugeth.
Alright Tek…start the second half off right.
Varitek still looks bad. Very concerned about this guy, for the long run, offensively.
At what point does Tek just bat ninth?
Just a quick reminder to the Red Sox: IT’S ESTEBAN LOAIZA.
Thank you, Mikemikemikemike! Dinger puts the Sox up 1-0.
Homerun!!!!!!!!
Could Varitek’s average get low enough that they would do something about it?
Sox have 76 homer on the road and 39 at home?
That is unreal, the disparity of homeruns is crazy.
Come on Loretta
Two more on base. Loretta up.
two good pitches to start against Loretta. 0-2.
Ugly. Loretta goes down quickly. Come back from Pittsburgh, Mark!
he has looked ugly in his first two ab’s
Both pitchers at 49 pitches after 2. How is Oakland’s bullpen?
unsure
damn…….
See ya. Lester gives up the bomb. Lester not impressing me tonight at all.
Maybe the short rest was not a smart move.
Behind again. 3-1 to Thomas. This might not end well.
Ugly – walk to Frank. Lester really struggling this evening.
First pitch liner for a single. Tito ought to have someone warming up – I really don’t like the way Lester is throwing right now – wild as hell, and they are just sitting on the fastball.
He is having a lot of problems right now. maybe a short hook or as I was about to say….Nip visit to the mound.
Gets them to hit into the dp…
Fantastic DP! What a relay by Gonzalez. Lester picks himself up nicely, shutting me up for the moment.
Good defense is cool. Too ba the Sox have never tried it before.
ba = bad
Papi gets it started
Loiaza is stating away from Manny
meant… staying
Nice hit Trot…made me eat my earlier words.
Nice wallball by Trot – Sox back up by 1, Nixon on second, one out.
Sorry, Nixon on first. Now he’s on third, a little hit and run there from the Sox!
Tek caught them off gaurd.
SF said: “Just a quick reminder to the Red Sox: IT’S ESTEBAN LOAIZA.”
Red Sox said: Oh…ok.
Lowell with another RBI…
3-1 Sox as Lowell drives in the run on a grounder deep in the hole at shortstop. Crosby gets the force at second nicely.
Coco! Wallball double that scrapes the green. 2/3 two out. Cash in, fellas.
A lot of these “former” pinstripers must really hate pitching to the Sox.
Bathroom Break skies the first pitch to Payton. Blech. 6 left on base through three.
A-Gon swinging at a bad first pitch and popping out. He let Loiaza off easy.
Hey Lester, how about a nice, easy, 48 pitch inning?
Oy, Lester’s wildness hurting him – the 0-1 pitch was just fine, but he doesn’t get the call. Now he’s fallen behind again.
Lester just keeps wanting to make things interesting.
Kotsay singles to center on a rope. Lester is really playing with fire here.
Really, he’s not getting anything borderline, due to his wildness. I’ve seen at least 4 pitches in the last two innings that might have gone his way had he been more on the mark.
Is anyone warming? I mean, another full count. Make that a walk.
ARRGH
Ok, a dude hitting .091. How about not giving up a hit, and definitely not a walk.
And there’s the first pitch ball. Grrrr.
2-0. Come on, Terry, get someone up, PLEASE.
Dinardo was moved to the 60 day DL today.
Lester has been playing with fire for several outings. He is gonna get burned, maybe tonight.
How does a guy batting .091 play in the majors? Is his fielding so good?
Must be…looks like Lester worked through the first part of the trouble.
Good comeback, but now it gets tougher.
It’s the DP kid…
Wow, Lester is Houdini. Double play ball, again. The kid’s no Clement, I’ll tell you that.
This kid is like Ole Gotti of the pitching world tonight.
And Lester gets away with it again! The guy must live right.
He definately does not cave in. Maybe Clement can see if he can borrow the kid’s heart.
For god’s sake would it kill Oakland to get a hit with men on?
Youk and Loretta look really bad tonight.
Loiza walks Loretta to lead off the inning. I smell runs!
One out, Tom.
Jeez, that ball was clearly outside, but Ortiz gets rung up. Loretta steals second in the process.
Yeah, and that smell wasn’t runs either. Probably these geriatric cats in my house.
3-0 quickly to Swisher. I can’t imagine one of these innings isn’t going to be an absolute explosion. There’s no way Lester can keep pitching like this and not give up a bundle.
Swisher walks.
Another pass. Come on Oakland. Let’s put a few together please!
Behind Thomas…
The Big Hurt doesn’t make ’em feel much pain. Grrr.
Wiggles out, pop to Nixon. Payton up, 2 down.
Needless to say if Lester has this kind of performance against the White Sox or Yanks it would have ended a lot sooner. Thankfully he got to pitch to the hapless A’s tonight.
Payton flies out. Lester probably done after 5 innings. Good that he only gave up a run, but if he keeps going 5 at a time it will eventually cause a lot of strain on the pen.
I think “Houdini” is too obvious a nickname for this kid. How about “The Amazing Lester”?
Why are so many teams not playing today? Why do the Yankees and many other teams get an extra day off?
The Yanks were entitled to the day off under the AARP rule.
Lucky Lester
Not lucky, Nick. He made good pitches to get out of the jams. But he’s certainly flirting with big problems.
How about “the Edge”?
This game has no intensity, either. Sounds like Fenway is comatose.
His 5 inning tendency reminds me of another great pitcher. Let’s call him: “Jaret Lester”
Loiaza has given up 6 walks, and all we have is 3 runs.
Coco walks. Two more men on to leave on…
But Wright is older….this kid is learning to pitch still.
Loiaza wiggles off the hook again.
And, they are left on. Sox making sure the A’s don’t beat them in that category, either.
Francisco Liriano gave up a three run jack in the third inning of his start. Isn’t that like the first run he’s given up in forever?
9 left on through 5. 3 scored. That’s not a good ratio at all.
Wow, that pitch to Crosby on 1-2 was better than the one Ortiz got rung up on. Luckily he saws off Crosby for the out to Manny.
Holy crap, an 0-2 count!
Nice inning from Hansen. 1-2-3. More runs please!
Youk is skidding…really having a tough time at the plate tonight. Combine this with Sunday’s game and I think he’s 0 for his last 9 or something, at least.
Was that a good play by Payton or colossally stupid dive followed by a skillful recovery?
It looks like the ump has decided that Papi has to do better against everyone else, such is his strike zone. Bad call on the second pitch to Papi on ball at the ankles. That’s at least three poor ball/strike calls against him just tonight.
Ortiz with the 6 ball walk.
Tom Caron generously announcing that the Yankees have acquired pitching “help” in the form of Sydney Ponson.
Where the f*ck did everyone go?
Two more left on, 11 through 6 innings. Terrible.
Great, a hit for the worst hitter in baseball, a guy who was 5-55 coming into the game. Thank the Sox hitters for this game still being up in the air.
Another hit. Wondering why Hansen came back out for this inning.
Tito and Nip, still sitting there chewing away, like nothing’s going on.
Grounder by Swisher moves the two guys over, a soft single ties the game at this point. One down, and Hansen is taken out.
Thank you! The A’s need a bit of help on offense.
Aw hell. Loretta, get your brain back from the frigging ASB. Ball goes through him for a horrendous error (a la Graf last year) to let the A’s tie it up. Pathetic effort tonight from the Sox – no intensity (as noted earlier), and it’s showing.
MDC does his job, Loretta fails at his. Tied up, end of 6.5.
It looks like Tek’s bat can’t catch up with anything. Prove me wrong, Jason.
Or don’t.
Coco steals, but Gonzalez wastes him. 12 left on. Sox back to their pre-streak ways. Very frustrating to watch. Add in the complete lack of energy in the Fens, the sloppy play on both sides of the ball by Loretta, and this evening has turned pretty sour. Maybe it’s time for some desperately needed sleep.
I torture myself and stay up a little longer, and Mike Lowell rewards me with a sweet play, fielding a shorthop.
Meanwhile, can someone please wake the fans in Boston up? Seriously, did someone spike the dog water?
Bravo MDC. 1-2-3 inning.
Youk fails to break the slump. Now Loretta’s up in the midst of his worst game of the year, all-around. Probably not they way he wanted to return from the All-Star game, with this kind of stinker.
Loretta’s lost evening continues with a pop out. Rescue us, Papi…
Papi gets the green light and knocks a single to right. Manny up.
Let’s leave 54 guys on base!
13 left on so far. Glad I came back from Italy to watch this shit.
Is it a bad sign when a guy who is 6-56 this season hits a foul ball BOMB off of you?
JFC. Don’t walk this POS.
Manny makes a weird-ass grab on a towering flyball headed towards the wall.
OK, I am officially tired and cranky, and this game is way too boring to keep blogging into a vacuum. Going to watch in a PC-less room and hopefully fall asleep before I see something horrible.
Damn! Kotsay just missed.
Seems like every guy on the A’s is in the bottom 5 when it comes to hitting w/ men on base and 2 outs. Does Billy Beane know something? Is this a strategy? (Not working!!!)
Street is tough.
Good news for the A’s: Tavarez warming….
Swisher killed by a tough call on the low slider. Then can’t hold up. GRRRRRRR.
Score the friggin run A’s!
YES YES YES!!!! Oakland on top 4-3. I love you Bobby Kielty. A’s now 1-11 with runners in scoring position.
Frank Thomas singles in Kielty, after the stolen base! 5-3!
Ovah, after an rbi from Tek makes it 5-4 (take that SF!). Good nght for the Yanks! They should not play more often.
Thank you Oakland, thank you very much. It’s fun watching the faces of the Fenway faithful moments after the Sox lose in extra innings. The icing on the cake is that I can talk shit to my Angel fan friends out here in OC because Cokeland gained some ground.