Following the Yankees’ futile loss to the Giants moments ago, the Sox have a chance to push their lead back up to 11.5 games with a win tonight against the Padres. Since tomorrow’s game features the awesome Jake Peavy, it would behoove our team to win the series tonight and treat tomorrow as a potentially enormous bowl of gravy. Tim Wakefield takes the hill for the Red Sox, hoping he can keep the inevitable stretch of batting practice pitches in the expansive environs of Petco. Chris Young takes the hill for San Diego, hoping that he doesn’t have to take a swing at the opposing first baseman. Comment on all the action here.
Lineups after the jump.
Red Sox
1. Coco Crisp, CF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. David Ortiz, 1B
4. Manny Ramirez, LF
5. J.D. Drew, RF
6. Mike Lowell, 3B
7. Doug Mirabelli, C
8. Julio Lugo, SS
9. Tim Wakefield, P
Padres
1. Marcus Giles, 2B
2. Jose Cruz, Jr., RF
3. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
4. Mike Cameron, CF
5. Josh Bard, C
6. Khalil Greene, SS
7. Terrmel Sledge, LF
8. Kevin Kouzmanoff, 3B
9. Chris Young, P
No Youk make-a me sad. Can he play short?
Wake batting 9th- hmm, looks like Tito’s going with the “put your weakest hitter in the 8 spot” theory.
or catcher? lol
Pedroia swipes a base. Ortiz Ks
come on guys check in we surely can have a more conversational thread thenj the Yankees guys did today
Manny flies out to end the inning.
we’ll soon see if Bard has any better luck hitting the knuckler then he did catching it :p
9 pitches in the first for tim. a complete game here would be super extra added bonus.
JD looking hapless.
do yourselves a favor and watch this game on the san diego broadcast. these commentators sound like little league dads. second rate franchise through and through. i think rick sutcliff said it best when he said….
Those guys are brutally bad. omigoodness, the DRAMA of the Doug Mirabelli trade!!!11!1!!
um… hardly.
I don’t know how the Sox are going to score any runs with the strikezone extending five inches out from the plate in either direction. This is ridiculous..
Lugo is killing me…..
Lugnut down to .196 now
It’s like having the pitcher hit even we’re not in an interleague game….
Have we discussed yet having Beckett play SS on his non pitching days? lol
wow – I’m only listening on the radio – did Manny really get that?
no, the ball bounced- the replay is clear.
???????????
Remy and Orsillo bring up a good question- which ump made the over-rule? They can’t use replay, and I don’t know which umpire would have had a better view. The 2nd base ump would have been screened by Manny’s body.
those last two anons were me.
Coco is making him work.
The Padres announcers are now kissing Young’s you-know-what for “getting out of a jam in teh fifth by [get ready for this] strking out Lugo, Mirabelli, and Wakefield.” Wow. Thats some amazing pitching right there. Let me tell you something. I could strike out Lugo, Mirabelli, and Wakefield.
how dare you annonomize us :p
SFs child could strike them out.
Oh, man… Papi just missed one right there. That was right in his wheel house.
Theres a walk for Ortiz! Come on Manny!
Here comes pitch number 100 for Young.
3-1 to Manny…
damn
Damn. Is this guy really this good?
The Padres announcers are driving me crazy by referring to Chris Young as “C.Y.” Yeah, I’m sure they’re real close.
Jack Wilson is having a night…lol according to Yahoo box score hes playing for both teams and batting more then once an inning :p
Bot 2nd: LA Angels
– J. Wilson singled to center, V. Guerrero and G. Matthews Jr. scored
– J. Wilson grounded into fielder’s choice, H. Kendrick scored, K. Morales out at second
– J. Wilson singled to left, S. Hillenbrand scored, M. Napoli to second, M. Napoli to third, R. Willits to second on left fielder J. Bay’s throwing error
– J. Wilson singled to right, M. Napoli scored, R. Willits to third
Bot 7th: LA Angels
– J. Wilson singled to third, H. Kendrick scored, K. Morales to third
Top 8th: Pittsburgh
– J. Wilson singled to center, X. Nady scored
That should be a homer. It hit the fair pole.
MM – I think Young really is that good. He’s got good location, and decent velocity. Being so tall is an advantage for him- he comes straight over the top, so he’s throwing a shorter distance.
Young has been good this year, but not this good. He’s given up one hit so far, Ayuh. One. Looks like we hit him on a bad night.
Fortunately, he’s out of the game soon. He’s thrown over 100 pitches.
…and Francona has been thrown out of the game. This is a load of crap.
This game just feels over already
I was hoping that Wake could keep the game close, but thats not happening.
Can Tito appeal the ejection?
Wake just isn’t getting it done tonight. This is a lousy hitting team, and we’re giving up way too many runs to them.
Tito gets tossed. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted to get thrown out; the Sox are flat and he probably wants to light a spark. Besides, both calls that were reversed were correct- he had to know that.
&$%&%$(&%(&%!!!
why did he get tossed??
Thats gotta be it for Wake unless they’re not trying to win tonight.
Yup. Wake’s gone. That went bad quickly.
Friggin’ Kahlil Green.
When they suck, they really suck.
Ayuh – right, though the 3b ump isn’t a real ump. The SD announcers mentioned he’s actually a minor league sub. You’d think he’d show some restraint before tossing Tito.
The third base ump blew two calls that then got reversed (both went against the Sox) upon review by all the umps. Francona was pissed that they kept screwing the calls up. I don’t think he was arguing that they ultimately got the calls wrong.
Oof. This one’s over with the Pads’ pen coming in. To allay anyone’s fears aout the offense, I was thinking it would take something miraculous to score many runs these last two games. Young is really THAT good. So good, the thought was last season the Padres might find Peavy expendable for the right bats.
Also, Josh Bard is showing Theo first hand why you do NOT make panic moves involving young players.
Josh- Remy and Orsillo point out that the 3b ump made the calls in FAVOR of the Sox, so why did Tito rip into him? I think he wanted to get tossed, for whatever reason.
rootbeerfloat: Unless the Sox can score soon this game is over. Coming back from a six run deficit with just three innings to go is going to be very hard, and against the Padres bullpen its going to be next to impossible.
Having an outfield the size of the Grand Canyon can also help a fly-ball pitcher like Young as well. Still, he’s been good tonight.
Ayuh – fair point.
Paul – on the panic move, the alternative was pretty bad — to bench Wakefield — wasn’t it?
Tito was pissed because the ump screwed the calls up in the first place. But I wouldn’t doubt that he was trying something to get the team fired up. Of course, Greene’s homer on the next pitch pretty much killed any chance of that happening.
I hafta say, winning last night was exciting to me just because it made the probable losses to Young and Peavy more palatable. Winning one of three against Maddux-Young-Peavy? Fine with me.
We do have a better shot tomorrow because Beckett is just as good as Peavy this season (and the Padre offense is much worse than the Sox’). But I’m not much of an optimist when it comes to West Coast swings.
Josh – The alternative was letting Bard continue to learn how to catch knuckleballs — or absent that letting Varitek catch the knuckler (which he did before Mirabelli came along) and spelling him like a normal catcher, once every week or so.
Benching Wakefield was never a credible alternative, and trading Bard was a bad move the second it happened.
It helps a little that the Yanks laready lost.
Why are they booing Mirabelli in SD?
Young is back in there.
How bad did Jon Daniels get taken by Kevn Towers in that Adrian Gonzalez & Chris Young trade?
Man, Mirabelli is done…
ONE HIT!! HELLO?!?
Managers get themselves tossed for a variety of reasons. Maybe Tito heard something in the clubhouse to make him think people were getting complacent. Maybe he’s just in a lousy mood. Who knows.
True dat, RBF. Also, call me a sadist, but it makes me feel better that the Yanks lost in possibly the worst way you can lose — by blowing a late-inning lead. Those are the things long losing streaks are made of… I hope.
I don’t even have a problem with the Mirabelli for Bard trade. The serious problem with that trade is giving them Cla Meredith as well. Thats when it became a terrible trade.
RBF – Mirabelli did not leave on great terms with the Padres. Apparently most people in SD thought he was a jerk and disliked how he agitated to get out of there. A couple of them ripped him after the trade.
The Yanks didn’t blow a late inning lead. They actually went into the ninth down by a run and A-Hole’s homer tied it.
Paul – my only point is that it’s easy to forget how horrific those games with Wake/Bard were. They were really really really bad. (Three really’s.) And Tek had problems with it too. Benching Wake would have been a better outcome than giving up several bases every inning if someone got on base.
Timlin is now going to see to it that any chance the Sox had of catching up is going to go out the window.
Good point, Josh. Wake had no confidence in Bard at all. It wasn’t a good trade talent-wise, but it kept an important guy in the rotation.
I disagree, kinda, MM. Meredith was a good prospect and we shouldn’t have traded him AND Bard for Mirabelli (one or the other? OK, I could deal). But he’s pitching in the NL, in a cavernous park, and he’s a middle reliever, so how his year-plus of great pitching will translate over multiple years is questionable. Bard, though, had great promise as an offensive catcher, and he was filling a MASSIVE organizational hole. The Sox at the time had one young high-level catcher — him, having traded Shoppach to Cleveland. Losing Meredith created no hole; losing Bard for Mirabelli almost certainly downgraded the offense immediately (and it didn’t take long to turn that into absolute certainty), and it left the organization with a large hole that is extremely hard to fill (see George Kottaras and his struggles in the minors since coming over).
Terrible, terrible, terrible.
From the Sox perspective, it wasn’t a trade of Josh+Cla for Doug. It was a trade of Josh+Cla for Doug+Tim, and the problem was that the Padres knew it and took advantage of it. Still, it was a trade that needed to get done because the alternative wasn’t pretty.
How many starts did Bard have with Wakefield? Five? Six? One or two of those were terrible, if I remember right. One or two of those were incident-free or nearly so. In either case, it’s a bum deal to dump a kid because he can’t get the hang of a knuckleball in five or six starts.
I agree, Wake did appear to have lost confidence in Bard, and that affected his pitching. Varitek was available, however, and while it wouldn’t have been as good as Mirabelli, it wouldn’t have been as bad as Bard. Besides, Mirabelli is essentially a negative run producer on offense. Is he saving so many wild pitches and passed balls per game to make up for all those 0 for 4s with 3 Ks? I doubt it. Alternatives existed that cost far less in terms of organizational depth and likely would be helping the club win even more games than they are now. It certainly would have helped when Wakefield and Varitek both went down with injuries last season. Raise your hands if you’d rather see Josh Bard or Doug Mirabelli as the full-time catcher… Yuck.
at least Lugo wont’ have a chance to get a golden sombrero – that taks four strikeouts, doesn’t it?
Paul, on that you get no argument from me!
at least he got the bat on the ball that time I guss
Paul – Bard is a backup catcher. The Padres went out and got one (Michael Barret) just this week. You know what they gave up for him? Just about nothing. A player to be named later. The Sox could have picked him up for free if they wanted. Bard is a decent guy but you don’t want him sucking up all the at-bats from the catcher spot. He had a great year last season, but was way over his head.
The umps are out to get us tonight. It looked like Lugo was safe there.
Meredith was a young reliever and the Sox have had a tough time with the bullpen situation since Theo got here, this season not withstanding. You don’t give away young cheap quality relievers, which is exactly what Theo did. I think that was the inexcusible part of the deal to me.
OMG!!!! A double by Hinske!
Thats the third time a Sox player has hit the ball squarely on the nose and had nothing to show for it. I’d love to see Pedroia get on here and give Big Papi a shot at this guy.
For the record, Bard caught 53 innings over 7 games for the Sox in 2006 and had 10 passed balls.
The Padre announcers have completely given up on the game. They’re talking basketball (?!) with Luke Walton.
CRAP! I don’t know if I can watch this anymore…
Doug Mirabelli was brought on board mid-season 2001.
In the six seasons with the Sox prior to ’01, Wakefield threw an average of just more than five per season.
In the five seasons since, he’s averaged just more than seven. He’s already thrown four this year.
In 2000, Sox catchers had 26 passed balls — 14 for Varitek, 12 for Hatteberg. In 2002, thay had 20 — 10 each for Varitek and Mirabelli.
I fail to see how the alternative is so less attractive it requires giving up two Major-League ready prospects for a sub-.200 35-year-old.
Oops, forgot to say “wild pitches” when discussing what Wakefield threw per-season.
MM – I think the Sox have given up on the game too if they have Hinske in for Ortiz….
MM, It’s really a minor quibble. I don’t think I’d want to give up wither Bard or Meredith. But Bard is a backup right now. He’s got enough upside to take over from Tek when Tek’s contract is up, or if Tek goes down with an injury again. Right now, I’d have a lot more confidence in him being able to do it than George Kottaras.
Bah, this is over. I’m going to bed. Great hanging out with everyone ofr a brief while anyway. We’ll go for the win tomorrow. Ciao!
Yr right, Paul. We’ll kick their butts tomorrow.
nite all
Who is David Murphy???
you dun know who David Murphy is???
“For the record, Bard caught 53 innings over 7 games for the Sox in 2006 and had 10 passed balls.”
And not all of the 53 innings were Wakefield. Paul, you’re looking at wild pitches. We’re talking passed balls, right? They get logged differently.
I said earlier this series was a coin flip. Neither team is going to score many runs–I know the Pads are an NL club, and I know ERA’s are always lower…but you can’t dominate like they have without having a truly special staff. And anyone can hit Wakefield if he leaves the knuckler up that often…he’s definitely back to his old 5th-starter, on-again off-again self.
Tonight was just impressive…and makes you wonder why the f*ck Jon Daniels still has a job. If one of the big market clubs had pulled off that kind of a deal, it’d be constantly discussed as one of the worst ever. Like almost Heathcliffe Slocumb-bad. In fact, I’m looking at his wikipedia page which talks about some of his deals…has he done anything right? At all?
Anyway, tomorrow looks like it’ll be a fun matchup. Or extraordinarily boring, if you like offense. Though it feels like every time there’s some fantastic pitching matchup like this, somebody fails to live up to expectations. I guess Matsuzaka-Maddux kinda delivered…but I just have a weird feeling that either Beckett or Peavy are going to get shelled tomorrow, or at least throw an average, unspectacular game. I don’t know which one, though…
It’s worth reminding that most teams would probably _die_ for a .500 5th starter. If your 5th starter is .500, the rest of the staff is (in theory) probably good, and that’s the case for the Sox this year, at least thus far.. (minus maybe Schill..)
desturbd1 – I looked it up – 32.1 of those 53 innings had Wakefield pitching. So yea, 10 PBs is an lot (almost half of what Bard has had in the big leagues). Also look at the SB/CS ratio – horrible.
Yeah, D1, I did WP cuz they were easier to look at. Didn’t have time to check all the POBs. But again, no matter how horrible Bard was at catching Wakefield, Varitek had already established that he was not horrible at catching Wakefield. The choice of “Bard or no one” was false, and Theo should have realized that.
Or just PBs, not POBs. Not sure what POBs would stand for. :-P
This is from the Chicago Sun Times.
At least seven teams have made serious contact with Williams, with three actually having the resources to pry Buehrle from the White Sox. The Atlanta Braves and New York Mets were the leading contenders until this weekend, with the Boston Red Sox now becoming the front-runner.
While Williams wouldn’t acknowledge that Saturday, he didn’t have to. Allard Baird, the Red Sox’ assistant to the general manager, was in town Friday to watch the White Sox’ loss to the Cubs — in which Buehrle started — and reportedly was to be sent out on assignment only when things were about to get serious.
They’re getting serious.
According to the source, the Red Sox not only want to keep Buehrle away from the New York Yankees and are willing to offer him a contract extension in the five-year range he is seeking, but they have a farm system loaded with players in whom the White Sox are interested.
Starting pitchers Clay Buchholz and Michael Bowden are on the White Sox’ radar, as well as speedy outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury and shortstop Jed Lowrie.
Theo better not be that stupid
If Theo trades any of those three players for that overrated scrub of a left-hander…I don’t even know what I’d do. Probably just bitch about it for a while, I guess…heh.
The “we should keep him from the Yankees” thing sounds like a load of crap. I know lots of fans who are still concerned, but does Mark Buehrle really represent a 10+ game swing in the standings over less then three months? (I’m assuming no deal would get done until at least July) Don’t think so…
Buehrle’s had a pretty nice year so far. But he’s also faced pretty much nothing but garbage offenses. He faced the Angels–before they started hitting–and pitched well. He also got the Cubs in two interleague games…but they’re the Cubs, and that was interleague…
The Yanks shelled him. Other then that: Oakland, Texas, Pit, Houston, Toronto, Tampa–who got 4 in 7 innings–and KC twice. I wouldn’t give Chicago Buchholz straight-up; ditto Ellsbury and Bowden, though if Crisp’s resurgence is legit, there’s at least a chance that one of them becomes expendable over the coming months.
like i wrote on my blog… If boston had a window to negotiate with him before the deal is finalized I would offer a combination of Pena, Murphy, Crisp, Moss and a few mid level pitching prospects tellm chicago they can name 2 of the players on the list.
Chicago is gonna lose Dye at the deadline and Erstad isnt what he used to be they should jump at a chance for 2 quality hitting OFs