Jason Johnson has lost his last seven decisions. But he deserved the win in his last start, and it’s a new era in Boston — the post "Holy freaking crap, we just got swept by the freaking Kansas City Royals!" era. It’s the Orioles now, a team against which the Sox have had better success than any other in the AL over the past two years.
As last night showed, coming home to find Baltimore waiting to serve you apparently sits well with this team. A series sweep would be nice, so the momentum can help push this club through the Big Boys later this month.
For now, I’m sure Johnson would like just a win in a Boston uniform, and I’m sure his teammates would like to provide him one.
Comment away!
Realistically the Sox brass screwed up the whole Jason Johnson/Kyle Snyder 5th starter situation way back when they picked JJ up, they should have indicated to Johnson that they wanted him to renew his relationship with his sinker in Pawtucket until he recovered his confidence and in the meantime utilized Snyder until he proved to them that he couldn’t do the job, the fact is once JJ got the chance to work on his stuff in Triple A he has come back a changed man… Snyder who was so effective when the Sox first got him, then seemed to lose a bit of confidence coming back, has settled into being a fairly reliable piece to the Red Sox pitching puzzle.
Now, the fun thing is, Jason Johnson might be a little skittish coming in to pitch at Fenway, so we just might be watching him implode early… hope not hope he gets his act together fast because TERRY FRANCOMA used Kyle Snyder in a mope up role yesterday, SO HE CAN’T bail out JJ if needed today… so that’s just great.
That didn’t take long… Already 1-0 Baltimore…
Oh oh, we are in big trouble… The O’s have Millar on his backside riding the pine in this one, no Rally Killer to screw up big innings for them this game… >sigh< it's already 2 zip Orioles after half and inning and the Birds stranded two at 2nd & 3rd
Hey, at least you can’t accuse Jason Johnson of not giving us everything he’s got, right?
Lets see if the Crisp leadoff experiment is still a no-go in this one, shall we?
Yay, the Mighty Ducks are up 1-0 in the first
Crisp flies out. 9 pitches, though. At least he was useful.
Well it was a fair at bat, but a failure in that he clearly had a walk, if he had only had a lead-off hitters disipline there
so then we’d have first & third no outs here…
Come on, Papi.
Gameday making it look like Benson wants nothing to do with Papi, and he walks.
Come on, Manny!
Yeah can’t blame them there take that stick away from Papi and we’d have bases loaded no outs maybe or them pitching to Papi for sure…
Can we PLEASE stop grounding into double plays with men on base???
ahhhhh that sucks
BLECH.
It looked like Crisp took a ball that was called a strike, at least in GameCast… Just throwing my token defense of him there.
Y’know a DP in that situation feels almost as bad as letting them score a run…
Paul, yeah I’ll give you that but Crisp swung on ball four WAY outside the strike zone
Well, maybe Johnson got that out of his system. A good quick second inning, including a ground ball…
Early jitters shaken off by JJ there, lets hope… fairly nice inning of work
Fly out for Youk
I didn;t think my huge man crush for Lowell could get any bigger, but last night mighta done it… The catch in the stands and his diving catch of the foul bunt earlier this season are two of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen. Period…
My man Wily Mo keeps it going…
Mike Lowell: stellar glove, good bat doubles machine… not bad for a guy we HAD to take if we wanted to sign Beckett, no?
Pena and Belli, now THAT’s great offense
All right, Belli! Getting the bat in gear with more regular play…
Mighty Ducks imploding on us…
ah Gonzo, my goodness you need to settle down
Set them down fast, JJ, and get the Sox a quick chance to get right back on top. No immediate givebacks.
Angels collapse – 5-1 Yankees.
FOUL BUNT, you have got to be kidding me
Yeah, I had high hopes that the Ducks would manhandle the Yankees this series… looks like that isn’t going to happen…
That was the best inning of work that Jason Jonson has had for us… and maybe all year, three ground ball outs on 8 pitches
Crispy with a hit and an error gets to second
moves the runner over, but they’ll walk Papi again…
ohhhh Papi…
They probably WOULD have walked him
this just reminds me of what a horrible offense we have when they want to be
Papi probably getting tired of being walked left and right, trying to make things happen. Crisp still pressing on the basepaths, shoulda just let Manny extend his hitting streak…
Papi out on a shallow fly ball to center Crisp stupidly out at home… when it would more than likely have been 1st & 3rd w/one out for Manny…
and with no run support hum Jason Johnson will now begin to blow up…
Can Jason Johnson escape? Hmm it COULD happen
But it’s not likely
and that just proves it
the blow up is on
Happy feelings gone, particularly looking at the two DPs in two innings from the offense, which I’m sure haven’t helped Johnson settle down…
Is Tito going to pull him and keep this deficit manageable? Doubt it.
Oh NOW a F**KING coaching vist to the &^%$# mound
Good bye, Jason Johnson. Why do we have to deal with crap like this? Please explain, Theo. Surely Dave Pauley can do better. And that isn’t saying much.
No, really I honestly think Johnson can still pitch, he just needed someone to go out and calm him down BEFORE he gave up the friggen double
and the DP helps in that department
a little to late though to save the inning and maybe the game
Pitch number 2 to Manny a CALLED strike? the ump is blind
Last night was apparently just a joke.
Kason Gabbard? Hello? Anyone?
It is fairly incredible, the Sox hitters have made Benson throw 70 pitches to this point, to Johnsons 60 and they trail 5 to 1
It’s not that incredible. Jason Johnson is the definition of “suck”.
Pauley is on the DL
I swear to you Johnson can still pitch, he just needs to be watched carefully and kept calm three outs on 12 pitches 3 ground balls and a K
make that 2 grounders
One-bat offense right now: And that bat is Wily Mo’s!
Bat him 5th, Terry!
Wily Mo why oh why aren’t you batting 5th?
He’s a monster
Ortiz manny pena for a whole season = things dreams are made of
:P
Brian, you’re anon posting…
damn, we need runners on Belli, you had a walk coming!
Why is Gonza swinging at first pitches. Come on…
Damn it i hate it when that happens
We can make up 3 runs in 5 innings. But can we not allow 4 more? That’s a much harder question to answer.
Coco makes it a game again!
CRISPY
Coco!!! Why isn’t he hitting 5th? ;-)
it’s a WALK Coco it’s a WALK…. oh uhnn nevermind it’s a HOMERUN Coco, it’s a HOMERUN
**slaps SF**
STOP SWINGING AT FIRST PITCHES. Gonzo and Loretta made two of the outs on two pitches. That’s just brutal to me, considering how much Benson is laboring.
Gee, when was the last time we had two homers in an inning?
okay, here is where settling Johnson down is advisable
Terry, send Nipper out to talk to him…
How about a mound visit or a PITCHING CHANGE. This guy is painful.
they just don’t get it…
and the change is to… Julian Tavarez, what are the odd he gives up a bases clearing double? a grand salami? a two run single?
So Tavarez is in, which means that it might be 9-3 in about 2 minutes.
god damn it… he struck him out which means the NEXT guy gets the hit, in my world
Or he walks in a run, yeah I forgot that one
Take away Pap, and this might be the worst bullpen I have ever seen.
or he just plates two with a single… Yeah, like that
yeay then he strikes out the next guy that’s beautiful
and funny thing is, take away Paps and we are neck and neck with Baltimore in the standings
Okay, where the hell did the Orioles come up with a reliever with a 2.6 ERA???
Was MDC not available in that spot? Curious to know why he wasn’t the guy Tito went to. Instead, he went to one of the most dependable guys. Dependable as in “can always be counted on to louse up a situation”.
**and funny thing is, take away Paps and we are neck and neck with Baltimore in the standings**
You cant say that, without Ortiz we would have someone else, you cant honestly think Theo would go into a season with only Manny as a power hitter?
Youk just blows out of the 5 hole I swear
Honestly, I don’t know how people can watch this Sox team, see how it is currently made up, and think that it’s a contender for any deep playoff success this year. Just ain’t gonna happen with this bullpen, no way, no how.
No No not Papi… Papelbon Paps
Wily Mo can make this a game worth watching again…
Wily Mo with a chance to make it a game again.
oops my bad.
Wily MO!!!!
He is a FRIGGEN Monster~!
WILY MO!!!!!
Wily Mo looks like a perfect candidate to bat ninth. If I were Terry Francona, of course. Which I am not.
Wily Mo cycle bound? only needs the single now.
He’s a freakin single short of the cycle after three at bats! How often do you see THAT??!?
See, my comment earlier about the Sox being able to score four more runs was right on. As was the skepticism about the Sox not being able to hold the line. I hate it when I am right.
Pena and Belli instant offense
BELLI TIES IT!!!!!!!!!
Dougie!
Holy crap did they wake up in a hurry
Man, who were those idiots bashing that Bard-Mirabelli trade? I wonder what they have to say now ;-)
That reliever no longer has a 2.60 ERA, Brian.
Incidentally, just after he was yanked Theo inquired to see if he might clear waivers…
But Y’know when Britton first stood in he was a 2 era pitcher when he left the game he wasn’t
I fail tos ee how acquiring Mark Redman for the apparent nothing he would have cost would be worse than trotting Jason Johnson out there every fifth day, particularly with Snyder showing signs of life, Wells possibly back and Wakefield waiting to return… What would have been the harm?
Nice pair of innings, there. Time to hold them scoreless with the top of the order coming up. Is that too much to ask – a little scoreless action from the bullpen?
MDC, Timlin, Hansen – who’s it gonna be? I say Delcarmen.
Britton’s still a 3.38 ERA pitcher, which remains better than just about every member of the Sox’ bullpen…
Long lost phenom Craig Hansen it is…
Well, it’s Hansen. Live fastball pitcher to face the heart of the order. Tejada likey the fastball. Color me nervous.
Okay, is it the GOOD Hansen or the BAD Hansen today?
You might get both, Brian. Always a possibility.
WMP and Mirabelli are the offensive giants today.
One down. I hate having to follow this on Gameday – no idea if a play made was a good one. Any time it shows a play by Gonzalez you wonder if you missed anything cool.
or missing plays like Loweel gave last nite, thank god for ESPN
Good inning from Hansen. If he’s out for the eighth, that’s when I’ll be nervous…
Well looks to me like it’s the good Hansen today, I actually love the idea of walk Tejeda there, but SF you are right we may well see both sides of Hansen today, hope not but…
Betwen watching the postgame coverage on NESN, then watching BBTN and SC, I saw the Lowell bean-catch combo at least 8 times, and I’m still as amazed as I was when I first saw them…
Going out for a walk with the family…will try to follow on the blackberry. Go Sox!!!
Bad Hansen shows up typically if he’s asked to go a second inning of work…
mc carver and FOX are just ripping on the sox as usual. tim said “it’s amazing the sox have one so many games with such a disfunctional clubhouse this year.” you could almost here him grown win they reported the sox tied it up. f tim.
No hits out of Manny or Ortiz today.
Are they trying to pitch to them or the unintential/intential walks happening?
FedEx a bitch slap to McCarver.
Well Manny did get to see some pitches but they have both gotten very few to hit today
Walks for Ortiz, just bad hitting from Manny…
Paul..watched the game last night. I think that the sound and the sight of it was worse than what he felt.
Holy SMOKES check out the ERA on the Lefty they brought in to face Papi
Dysfunctional chemistry? Where does he get that crap from? The dysfunctional chemistry of frst-yearSox Mike Lowell feeling cvomfortable enough to take the reins of leadership while Tek rehabs?
The dysfunstional chemistry of players having bad games refusing to blame their teammates or even their teammates’ injuries?
I’ve heard none of the anonymous sniping we heard from guys like Millar when the Sox struggled last year. Even with a good excuse (no Tek, crappy defensive catcher in Lopez), the pitchers have refused to blame anyone or anything for their problems.
I’ve been amazed at how good the chemistry seems to be, actually…
lol, The 1 from the 16.20 runs into his name, so I thought it was “just” 6.20 lol
I think that McCrapper likes to stir things up. Look what happened between him and Deion Sanders way back. He is another person who thinks that he is the sole defender of the game a la Morgan.
At least Morgan’s got a plaque to justify his self-aggrandizing…
Damn Papi…..I guess it is not late enough into the game for any heroics.
uuuugh not Papi’s day that’s for sure
No dice for Papi, who flies out…
Timlin looks like he is next up.
Timlin in. Nervous…
Maybe I should just say from here on out:
“Red Sox pitcher on the mound. Nervous.”
Patterson flies out to right.
Sorry…left
You know what the nice thing about Tim McCarver is… well there is actually a couple, one the Red Sox pulverized his vaunted Cardinals in a sweep in 04, and the other nice thing about Tim McCarver… he is so frikken old they HAVE to retire him before his dentures begin falling out of his mouth when he begins to utter his nonsense
LOL
Wow….8 pitches from Timlin.
Timlin strikes out the pinch hitter, 1-2-3 in the 8th!
Runs, please…
Now THATS the Timmah Timlin I remember!
Just before the DL injury Timlin posted two full innings on 12 pitches… This is my kinda Timlin
Ohhhhhhhhh Manny ah well the meat of the order is coming up LOL
Manny Ks. So unless the Sox break through for a ton of runs in this inning or go into extras, his hitting streak looks D-U-N done.
can I say this again Youklis is a great leadoff hitter GREAT he sucks in the 5 spot
Lowell singles, so Wily Mo has all sorts of opportunities here…
listen Wily Mo is a monster, but he can’t deliver again can he?
Yanks win 5-2….crap
ahhhhhhh Nope
No, aparently not… Ks on three pitches.
WM gets fooled on the high heat.
We are just going to have to accept that he’s gonna K and maybe even a lot, but when he has good days like today I’m not gonna complain
oooo Paps in I’m not sure Timmah wouldn’t have been good for another
I think Timlin should have started the inning.
Gee, for a moment there I was getting scared…
Oooh, a break there for the Sox. Manny throws out Fahey trying to turn a corner double into three…
Stupid play by Fahey.
I don’t know that we can trust Timlin for two innings anymore. He’s clearly not the same pitcher since the injury…
Yknow I wonder if Francoma doesn’t have in his mind pre-game that if we get to such and such point I am going to use so and so… or for instance using Snyder yesterday after Wells yesterday same as in Wells start before that… because it sure felt like that was scripted, as in if Wells comes out I go to Snyder
Doug, AGon, Coco up for the Sox.
The Mirabino up in the bottom of the ninth. Let’s win this quickly, boys!
I agree, however the guy had only thrown 8 pitches last inning.
Maybe it is for the best, but if this turns into one of those 14 inning games……
We should have an advantage given last night’s game.
Dougie we NEED you
…not to have done that…
AGon grounds out to his own position.
Crispy you home run hitting giant of a man! do it again, I dare you
Coco, being a team player, grounds out so Manny can have a chance to extend his streak…
ARGH….extra innings. What is our record this year in extra inning games?
Coco says…no…
short of a Ortiz walk off homer, or Loretta for that matter Manny will have a chance to extend his streak.
Sox are 3-5 in extras…
So to make it 4-5, the Sox will ave to get yet another walk-off…
I’ll gladly trade Manny’s streak for another Ortiz walk-off. But something tells me can write IBB on the third line of our scoresheets right now.
Another interesting stat…
McCarver talking about all of our one run games:
Us 19-13
yanks 20-16
I agree Paul
yknow after what we have gone through lately… I can’t believe extra innings will be a good thing
I wonder if Baltimore will bring Hawkins back out for the 10th. He rarely goes past one and never past two.
Anyone that actually listens to McCarver with the idea that he has something of value to say….well that’s just stupid
That was a good inning by Paps.
the ONLY thing you hope for with McCarver is that he will say fewer idiotic things than he normally does
Bruce “the meat wagon” Chen on the mound.
Bruce Chen?? Argh. This guy gives up home runs like they were penny candy and you are holding a twenty.
M-Lor walks, actually making a walk to Ortiz less likely because it allows the winning run to score on a single…
Yeay M-LO
Papi is picking his teeth with his bat right now looking at Chen.
i’d love to see papi bunt:P
And Kapler pinch runs, putting speed on the basepaths… Interesting situation for the O’s here…
Speedy Gabe Kapler to make Chen more nervous than he already is.
They are decidedly not throwing strikes to Ortiz…
take the walk if they give it Papi
COMEON MANNY
Chen setting up the triple play with a walk to big O.
This would be a good time to extend the streak, Manny…
Here comes Manny!! Chance to win the game and keep the hit streak alive.
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY
Oh well, you’re still down two games.
Manny, nice job.
Manny does it all! Awesome!!
Manny gets a WALK-OFF
Manny extends his streak and wins the game.
Good job, YFDC, you can count! Good thing it wasn’t three games…
YF, oh well you are still a jerk in that situation
career high 27 games, tops in the AL this season, current MLB high
Chen falls to 0-7. Almost feel bad for the guy, but not really.
Well wadda y’know Manny given a chance to extend does it in exrta innings walkoff fashion
Kinda like Josh Towers… You might feel bad if he wasn’t playing for a division rival…
Yeah, he really took it on the Chen…er chin
Manny’s just tired of all the “MVP” chants for Ortiz…
My personal favorite though is watching Randy “I don’t wanna play in Boston!” Johnson getting blown up for ungodly numbers of hits and runs
makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, the Big Eunuch
Paps with the win making him 4 & 2 on the season
Adios, it wasn’t the best game but it was ULTIMATELY satisfying
Proper decision by Tito bringing in Paps in to hold the tie.
Yes, a good game. I’m especially happy the O’s took the game extras even if they couldn’t win it. :)
Notes:
* Tavarez threw a clean inning? Inconceivable! [said in Wallace Shawn/Princess Bride voice]
* Wily Mo Pena: I think the Trot Nixon era is over. Though WMP seems to play center better than right.
Hudson: What would you prefer? Coco in center and WMP in right, or WMP in center and Trot in right?
Coco takes better routes to the ball, and his speed makes him ideal for center. The Fenway RF is so screwy, I don’t know that Crisp would fare much better than WMP there…
Pena is here to stay, though I wouldnt be surprised to see Boston shop Crisp again this winter, I just dont think there at all happy with his play.