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To the Rescue! Tigers-Sox Gamer IV

I've given this Red Sox losing streak a lot of thought. Sometimes the Sox have pitched well and not hit. Other times, they hit well enough, but their pitching or bullpen let them down. There hasn't really been a single consistent theme. Except one.

I haven't done the gamer for any of them.

In five of the losses, the gamers have featured what should now be referred to as the scariest letters in baseball: SF.

Never fear, Red Sox fans. I return, hat in hands, begging your forgiveness for neglecting my duties and imperiling our beloved team's season. We'll turn things around tonight. Don't worry about that pitching matchup; we've got the most beautiful name in the world at the bottom of this game thread.

160 replies on “To the Rescue! Tigers-Sox Gamer IV”

You know, it would be nice if you fully disclosed the fact that I proactively sought out your services for this gamer, that I had enough self-recognition to see what I was perpetrating.

In Paul we trust! We appreciate you stepping down, SF. It’s for the best.
Btw, Alex Rios sent to the White Sox for nothing in return. Wow.

Alex Rios has nearly $70M left on his contract, Ath, I think.
krueg: the Yankee mods are playing the game we played earlier when Nick sent the Sox on a streak – I am no longer posting Yankee threads in their absence, it does no good for the Sox. Join us in here if you want. I will email the lazy YF mods to get their asses in gear.

Sox-Tigers on ESPN in HD, so my little 13″ screen gets devote to the gamer, and no MLB.com game lag. Nice.
Penny looking just a little off. Or for him is that “on”?

Penny nowhere close with a curveball to Guillen, two men on. Sit fastball, Guillen, if you have a brain.

Is it me or does it feel like the Sox have been away from Fenway for like a month?
Ells!!! Leadoff “double”, Thames may have turned a catch into a hit, played it very poorly. I rule that an error if I am scoring.

HEY! 2-0! Where were these goddamn runs over the weekend? Jackson is one of the best pitchers in the league this year, and we get ahead on him?

I think this is Hershiser doing color? No matter, whoever is in the booth just made a brilliant observation about Jackson throwing his slider at 3-2, why it was a great pitch to throw, and why he should throw it again. Then Jackson throws a fastball and it goes over the monster.
Really, great analysis from ESPN. It was NOT Steve Phillips, who I think is also in the booth.

SF, it’s Orel alright. He’s actually better than most. And yeah, Phillips is in there too.

Ath, WhSox didn’t exactly add Rios for nothing. They added that hefty backloaded contract, which Reinsdorf can’t really afford. His package and Peavy’s deal are VERY heavily backloaded, expansive and LONG.

I don’t like ESPN’s stats that constantly update after each pitch to tell us what a player’s average is on a certain count. It depresses me. Bay is .176 with a 2-1 count, inexplicable. Too much information. I don’t want to know this.
Bay walks, all filled.

Kotchman hits a liner, right at Polanco. That was two runs, but the Sox hit the ball really well and it could have been 5 or 6. Fucking BABIP.

I like those stats SF, but it’s really depressing when it reveals certain aspects of your own team. Like that Bay piece. How the f*ck is he hitting that low in a hitter’s count?

Just bad luck, IBM. They crushed the ball (except for Papi, that is). It wasn’t a standard K/GIDP squander.

Sox benefit from a little luck, a scorched ball right at Pedroia, and a near double play at second. Super slow replay shows that it was a double play, incorrectly called. That offsets the good luck of the hit vector, and it could cost the Sox runs. Come on, ump.

Close play, wow. Get the batter out and move on fellas.
Orel really does have some great insight. He talks a lot, like Morgan or Phillips, but his commentary really has some substance to it.

There’s only one logical explanation: Nick Green is on steroids.
Steve Phillips is obviously intimidated by Orel, and is making up for his lack of quality comments with a higher quantity.

LMAO, Orel with a subtle shot at Phillips by mentioning Kazmir. Sure Phillips didn’t really trade him, but most people think he did, so the shot is still valid.

Ellsbury steals 2nd, and the throw gets by the pitcher. That fastball hit the fricken plate.

More AWFUL luck (and athleticism from the Tigers). Polanco dives and keeps a liner from Youk in the infield, saving a run. It should be like 7-0 right now. Fucking luck.

Papi! Rips one through the shift. Ellsbury scores, but then Papi makes a really STUPID mistake and is caught off first for the final out, killing a chance at a huge lead.

Kotchman safe on fielder’s confusion. Inge makes a nice stab then can’t make a throw, he was really off-balance running towards the 3B bag.

I would say something bad about Nick Green here, but it doesn’t seem fair considering his earlier dinger.

kotchman feels like a young sean casey, minus the good guy appeal and a little more power.

Just dropping by to commemorate the occasion of the Sox (except Papi and Drew) getting back in the swing of things.
Jays tied in NY, too. Also, my favorite quote in the Rios article was this: “Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi said the move was not ‘a financial dump,’ but acknowledged that Toronto needs ‘more financial flexibility.'” Ricciardi has been even worse for Billy Beane’s reputation than this year’s A’s roster.

Make that 86 pitches. Ellsbury hits a medium liner that hangs up, to RF. More wasted runners.
Sox with 9 hits and 2 walks in 3 innings. 6 LOBs and a guy caught off base. The offense is alive, but a combination of bad baserunning and bad luck has kept the Tigers in reach, and with Penny pitching 4 is unlikely to be enough.

Hey look, Penny hits Miguel Cabrera on the first pitch. My friend (a Tiger’s fan) says they have a history against each other from when they were both in the NL. Interesting.

Penny gets squeezed at 1-2 on Guillen. Same pitch that was called a strike on Ellsbury last inning.

For less than a season, rod. Supposedly they’ve never gotten along, though I don’t have any evidence other than a Tiger’s fan’s comment.

Drew wtf. Ball had some spin on it, skips away from Drew (who played it lazily), and now the runner is on 3rd.
Shit.

Alright, I can’t watch Penny pitch. Especially not today. Talk to you all later.

Cruddy play by Drew. Costs a base, and perhaps a run.
Penny stinks, though, hitting Cabrera was pathetic.

Think they got curtain calls?
You know, I used to harp on the curtain calls, but have finally realized that every fan group needs its own retarded, devalued tradition, and have decided to leave it alone.

Another shitty piece of luck/good defensive play, as Pedro lashes one down the line, and Inge makes a heck of a play. Jackson is a fucking lucky motherfucker.

There’s retaliation for Cabrera – a fastball into Youk’s side with two outs.
There must be something there, as Ath said, and Cabrera must have said something to Jackson. Because why would Penny hit a guy leadoff leading to a pair of runs other than because he’s a shitty pitcher?
And another rip, right to someone. This game sucks ass, and we’re winning. Can see where this one is going already.

Granderson leadoff double. This game has that “we should have had eight runs early but didn’t cash in and now we’re behind 7-4” feeling.

Green had Granderson RIGHT in front of him, but throws to first. Was Youk not at the bag? That throw should have gone to third.

And it’s 4-3 on the sac fly. Penny has pitched exactly to expectations, right around his season ERA at the moment. We need seven runs.

Hershiser catching a little Phillips-itis there, saying that this comeback by the Tigers “shows they WANT that AL Central title”. I mean, that’s just a moronic comment.

Penny through 5 innings, 3 ER. Not awful, not great. It stings because he had a four run lead that has dwindled, but this is on the bats right now (and BABIP, a lot of bad luck so far).

Orel owning Phillips in an argument about what players should focus on.
And Jason Bay hits a homer into the monster. Oh yeah.

Phillips counters by asserting that Orel got picked on as a child because of his first name.

IBM, I’ll take a booth filled with three Steve Phillips before I’d listen to Harrelson.

they could get the same crappy insight from Hawk Harrelson for a lot less $.
Please don’t suggest this. Hawk Harrelson is the worst announcer I have ever heard, ever, and that includes Sterling and Kay, who Harrelson makes into Vin Scullys both by comparison.

Yeah, this was a good effort by Penny, all my insults aside. Does Tito send him out for the 7th?

Oy, turned into the game again when I saw MDC was coming in, saw the first pitch, turned it off again.

5-4 on the base hit by Polanco. MDC had him 0-2 and couldn’t put him away.
Is this bullpen now faltering along with everything else? Two blown 8th inning leads last week, now teetering here in the 7th.
This game shouldn’t even be close.

Uh, maybe our “hearts weren’t broken” last night, Orel, to paraphrase. Maybe it sucked. A lot. But it wasn’t “heartbreaking”. Manufactured drama.

And there’s the game-tying double.
This team can’t play any worse. Tons of missed offensive opportunities, bad BABIP luck, and shit relief pitching. What a tough stretch to watch. Just about nothing is going right.
MDC wilts.

“I don’t like this matchup. Guillen’s a clutch hit–”
says Steve Phillips, unable to finish the sentence as the ball is popped up to Nick Green.

Manny Delcarmen allows a .764 OPS in late/close situations, a .770 OPS when the game is within one run in either direction, and an .823 OPS when it’s within two runs. Before tonight’s failure.
He allows a .532 OPS when the margin is greater than four runs.
Why was he brought into this game again?

Drew singles. Sox have had 15 baserunners in 6+ innings, and five runs. The offense is still in hibernation, five runs and all.

Seriously, what the fuck is up with our SHIT LUCK. Bay just crushed one, to the absolute worst spot in the ballpark.
I am about to throw my computer at the wall, this is so damn frustrating.

Actually, hitting Lowell is retarded, I take it back. He’s a GIDP candidate more than anyone on the team.

I figure Bay’s smash makes up for that lucky homer he got into the Monster seats. But yeah, sucks that he hits a homer in probably 29 ballparks that falls short in this one.
At least we got the run in.

Ugh, I hate being so nervous about Papelbon coming in. Don’t really have confidence in anyone on this team right now.

I have a vision of Granderson hitting a single at the exact same time some Yankee hits a walkoff HR. I need to believe it’s a new week.

IBM: I were a YF, I’d point out that us SFs should probably be more concerned about the Rays leading the Angels than the Yankees losing to the Jays.

Drew hauls it in, and we’ve won for the first time in a week. Nice.
One game picked up from the top, a half on the Rays, so now GO ANGELS!
Good work by Penny and Paps.

Steve Phillips:
“Miguel Cabrera is one of the best fastball hitters in the game.”
Paps throw a fastball, shallow fly, third out.
Thank you, Steve.
…
Stay tuned for Looo-eee!

Also, getting the early runs off a good pitcher is very nice, and Bay contributing off injury is cool too.

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