Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can throw out all those predictions now — the unanimity of the projection systems; the consensus of the experts from ESPN, CBS, Sports Illustrated and Fox; even the consensus of the online statistical community — because the season has begun, and the Red Sox are in second place.
Not only that, but their game today is against a pitcher who posted a 0.86 ERA against them in three starts (21 innings) last season and has already forced the Sox to sit one of their vaunted left-handed hitters. C.J. Wilson has held all current Red Sox hitters to a collective line of .151/.244/.219.
Not only that, but they face the reigning American League champs, the club that has won the season series from Boston two straight years, winning 13 of 19 in that stretch.
Not only that, but because the game is against Texas, it's blacked out on espn3.com where I live, and I won't be near a TV to watch it. So, needless to say, this season isn't starting out all that great.
On the other hand, the Sox have the apparent 2011 Cy Young favorite on the mound, and he's no slouch either. Jon Lester has a 3-1 record and a 2.35 ERA against the Rangers in his last five starts dating back to 2008.
So, who knows, maybe the Red Sox will pull off a miracle and win this thing — and even have a pretty good season, too.
83 replies on “Those Plucky Underdogs from Boston: Sox-Rangers Gamer I”
Yes, it will hopefully be accurate to say in October that the Sox came from behind to wrest the division from the Yankees, a team that blew their first place position.
90 very long minutes left
Finally. It’s almost here. I cannot BELIEVE I’m sitting in this lab right now, and not at home watching this.
I though, you know, I’ll just DVR it, and then not listen to it or not check YFSF for the gamer.
I can’t. I’m physically not capable of staying away from it.
Haha, thankfully I work on a college campus with pervasive wi-fi. I’ll be working on my laptop while parked in front of a TV in the Campus Center; much better than the usual Gameday fun…
I could go up to the cafeteria, but that’s just annoying. I’ll just sit in the lab and listen like a schmuck while all my buddies are living it up.
better lucky than good.
That’s the Red Sox mystique, right there.
Pedroia tags the ball. It’s off the wall at Fenway. Just a lineout in Texas.
Carl Crawford can’t do the Manny impression. Up to Youk to drive in Ellsbury from third.
Youuuuuuuk off the wall opposite way makes it 1-0!!
Thats what I’m talking about, right there.
yooooouuuuk
AGON drives in Youk with another double! 2-0! Great start, boys!
Not a double. Gonzalez, the self-described slowest runner on the team, thrown out at second. Still, 2-0 is a great start against a guy like Wilson.
I had heard that A-Gon was slow, but that is slow even with the cut-off…
Wow, that didn’t take long. Lester tried to sneak the first-pitch down-the-middle fastball in there. Clearly a poor choice.
Suddenly, Lester has an ERA of infinity
Salty was literally sitting at the plate earlier. Never seen that before. Now Lester runs the count full to Andrus. Yuck.
Youk with a bobble at third. Woulda had him, I think. Gonzalez with a great play to snag the throw.
Youks 1st chance didn’t look Goo, nice save at first by AGon
Nice DP there boys
DP on a 2-0 count, just what the doctor ordered. Now let’s get out of the inning with the lead.
Pedroia shows what real range looks like, and Gonzalez with the nice scoop for the out. Good defense from three of the four infielders that inning.
Poor camera work there by ESPN, both DP and Pedoria’s play shown from the CF pitch cam
Wilson looked really good that inning. Lester’s going to have to make this lead hold up a while, I think.
Youkilis looked better there, handling a tricky hop to get the out.
Ugh. Tie game. Just barely got out, too.
That’s just unlucky. Lester throws a cutter moving in on Cruz’s hands and jams him, and he still muscles it out just over the wall.
Let’s hope Letter isn’t going to have another slow start like last season
Throw wasn’t even close, but right call there, he was inside the line
Ok so Bobby V just advocated for two first bases, one in foul terr and one in fair terr. So runners going to don’t interfere with 1st basemen, question would be which one would 1st baseman tag?
sloppy, sloppy game thus far..
Lester needs to throw striks, but not very very attractive ones.
Els with the clean double there
Petey!
Squeeze?
Pedroia more than one-fifth of the way to Ted Williams’ Red Sox record of getting a hit in all 14 of his Opening Days.
Easy K for Wilson there. That’s why I might have considered a squeeze.
Crawford looked bad in that at bat. Like I said, J.D. Drew was not the player who really should have been sitting for this game, but politics is politics.
Ugly at bat by Crawford there
The Jewish God of Walks. Bases loaded for Adrian Gonzalez. Big moment for the newbie.
loaded up for AGon!!
Come on baby, clear them!!
All plugged up for AG. And by AG we don’t mean attackgerbil.
AG!!!!
ADRIAN!!!!!
Very nice there, very nice
Three ribbies in three innings for AG. He’s on a pace for at over 1400 RBI this season!
Gonzalez swung at Ball 4, too. Still squared it up. I’ve really liked what I’ve seen so far. Can’t quibble with 2-2, 3 RBI.
Take that, lefty-lefty matchup!
And a steal for AG now.
Adrian Gonzalez, self-described slowest man on the team, steals second base.
Lester needs a clean inning now.
Papi, hitting into the shift…maybe J.D. DH’ing would have been the best move if they wanted Cameron’s right hand bat in the lineup
Great play by Lester there
I sprung for the extra $20 for the MLB TV premium, just so I can watch the NESN broadcasts at all times. No more Hawk Harrelson or Rex Hudler idiocy, just pure hometown idiocy!
We’ve seen some great defense, imo. Gonzalez has been impressive on scoops. It could just be the Opening Day optimism talking, though.
SSS, Paul…
Good swing from Salty, but not enough.
Just got a little bit under it. No results from him so far, but he had a good at bat there. Crawford just handled his first opportunity with no drama. And Lester, knock on wood, seems to be settling in, though he doesn’t have any strikeouts yet.
Beltre with the seeing-eye grounder into left.
SF – my in-laws got me the Extra Innings package for my birthday. First time having that, could be a good year to have that the first time
BLECH
Should get my wife to post here, she’d be the female, sf equivalent to krueg, last single off lester she was screaming about how he sucks and the need to get him out of the game. She does that all the time
Oh, Jon Lester. Crap.
Napoli with an excellent piece of hitting – that wasn’t an awful pitch by Lester, but certainly an awful result.
Man. all that with two outs, and that pitch also was a ball, and Napoli somehow managed to golf it out and keep it fair. Sucky.
Come on offense, let’s get some and pick up Lester
Ellsbury with a nice game. Wonder if we’ll see him running here.
There’s the steal. On pace for 162. :-)
Crawford not looking good today. Ah, well. Still time remaining to make an impact at the plate.
Ick. Crawford Ks, swinging at Ball 4. Up to Youks.
Drat. Another well-hit ball that dies before the track. Wilson won’t pitch past next inning I don’t think. Seems like the Sox should have five runs, maybe six, but have fallen short. Still, four off Wilson in five innings should have been good enough for Lester. He needs to keep the deficit at one here.
Gotta run home, might be able to re-join before the game is out but not sure. Go Sox!
Friggin’ April Lester.
Exactly, Devine. It’s one thing to give up homers on pretty good pitches, but back-to-back HBPs ain’t pretty, and now 2-0 to Beltre.
Hey Paul!
He wiggled out of this particular situation, but it sucks to check in with the 15 minutes I’m “allowed” to look in at work and find the Sox are in a hole when they should be cruising. Hopefully they can grab one more this inning and get into a bullpen battle.
Wilson is out. Hopefully this portends good things to come. He made Crawford and Ortiz look awful. No way Ortiz should have been in there, but whatcha gonna do? It’s Opening Day.
So Saltalamacchia hits righties better than lefties, and Washington brings in a… righty? Weird choice.
Rant: C.J. Wilson gets a standing O from the Texas crowd for … giving up 4 runs in 5.2 innings? Being lucky enough to get a three-run homer from Mike Napoli just inside the foul pole? I don’t get it. He didn’t pitch all that well. Leaving with the tying run on first base isn’t really cause for celebration…
Ugh. Salty grounds out. Inning over. I’m heading home. Not sure if I’ll be back on either. Go Sox! Get those rally caps on!
Bobby V says Lester has a terrible move to first and can’t hold runners on. Never noticed before and don’t believe Bobby
PAPI!!!!!!!!!
Listened to the game on my way home, and of course missed the Papi homer on my way into the house. :-P
It is good we have Jenks won’t need to worry about setup tomorrow with Bard at 30+ pitches today
And Wake in to mop up
Closer to 100 loses than 100 wins. :)
Losses, bro, losses.
Can’t wait for Burnett’s start tomorrow. :)
(Of course, he’s up against Brad Penny, hahaha, so we’ll see who sucks worse.)