Hundreds of years from now, after a nuclear conflagration, or a worldwide pandemic, or global-warming-induced environmental catastrophe has wiped out most of mankind, humanity’s survivors can venture to NESN’s Watertown headquarters and dig out a DVD labeled boston red sox vs. new york mets, june 29, 2006.

That film will teach them how baseball is played.

Last night’s game, in addition to being our twelfth win in a row, our fourth straight series sweep, our 15th straight errorless game, and a game that put us a season-high four games above the Yankees, was a textbook case of perfectly-executed baseball fundamentals.

“An instructional video,” the pitcher called it.

There was the easy out in the first when Jose Reyes was caught stealing after Schilling had done his damnedest to keep him close to the bag at first.

Schilling did it himself in the fifth, picking of Julio Franco at second.

We had Alex Gonzalez beating out a bunt-hit, then reaching second on the throwing error of a rattled pitcher.

When the Mets went up 2-0 on Beltran’s homer, Mark Loretta came right back out for the sixth and immediately cut the lead in half with a homer over the Monster.

After Ortiz doubled, Mike Lowell lofted a fly ball to center, and Big Papi busted ass to get to third.

Then Varitek scored him with a sac fly to tie it.

Schilling held the line for the seventh, and then it was time to get back to work.

Speedy Coco Crisp reached on another bunt.

Then he stole second.

Then Gonzo moved him to third.

Then Youkilis, calm, cool, and collected, hit another sac fly out to left, and we had a lead.

Then, with Mike Timlin pitching, with two outs, and a man on first, with one of the best hitters in the NL at the dish, came The Catch.

If you happen see a more jaw-dropping play in a baseball outfield in the next two decades, please let me know. On eagles’ wings, he was.

Ortiz led off the next inning with the coup de grâce, homering to deep center on the third pitch.

It was the 200th of his career.

And that was that. Jonathan Papelbon submitted another perfect inning, and notched his 24th save (tying Dick Radatz’s rookie record before we’ve even reached the All-Star Break). It had been a fine pitchers duel for the first half of the game, but in the end, ours was better than theirs.

Seven innings, seven hits, six strikeouts, two runs. Curt Schilling is a good pitcher.

So is Timlin. So is Papelbon.

And our lineup is full of good hitters. And our infield is jaw-dropping. And our outfield defense can be pretty nifty when it wants to be too.

Beating NL teams with NL small ball. I love it.

We’ve got one more National League team to sweep this season. Let’s do it.

6/30/2006 11:12:27 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

I didn’t want this to happen.

I wanted a matchup for the ages, a dazzling display of pitching-mound mastery. A snare-tight pitching duel that lasted most of the game, with Pedro Martinez finally being relieved of his duties — to rousing applause — after giving up one run too many in the eighth.

But this? No. I wanted to win. I didn’t want to open up a big ol’ can of whup-ass, knocking him all over the field and shaming my favorite pitcher of all time into his dugout after touching him up for eight runs in three innings. For all his faults, I still love the guy. And this was hard to see.

His worst game in a Mets uniform. Wow. I suppose if it had to come down to that, we might as well be the beneficiaries. But it was strange. As someone wrote in last night’s game thread:

Please forgive me

I want us to win of course, but am taking no pleasure in watching this

Another poster likened it to that scene in Gladiator when two friends are forced to fight to the death. Still another:

this is like watching your old girlfriend fight with your new girlfriend.

and not in that good kind of lesbian-action-with-you-in-the-middle way.

He just didn’t have it.

It was weird, watching him pitch to his friends, Papi and Manny, Trot and Tek. You could see signs in his face he thought it was weird too.  He seemed thrown off. He admitted as much, saying that botched double play in the first came because “I got caught up in the emotions and I wasn't mentally prepared to do what I had to do.”

That wasn’t all he wasn’t prepared for.

Eck says we should give him a mulligan. And with a 12-game lead in the abysmal NL East, I think the Mets can afford one. But TC had the prescription, should these two teams somehow manage to meet again in October: Get Werner’s Hollywood friends right to work on another mawkish video tribute, throw it up on the Jumbotron, and kill him with kindness. He won’t make it out of the second.

A look back at the carnage is in order.

Bottom 1:
Youkilis singles to center. Loretta singles to right. Ortiz grounds back to the mound, but Pedro misses a DP. Manny walks. Trot hits a sac fly, scoring Youk. Varitek singles to center, scoring Loretta. Mike Lowelll lofts one to Lastings Milledge in left, who drops the ball (again); Lowell safe, Manny and Tek score.

Bottom 2:
A hitless inning, but Pedro being Pedro, it’s time fo vent his frustrations with a little chin music. Lorretta is hit on the hands. (Beckett exacts his revenge by plunking Paul Lo Duca in the sixth.)

Bottom 3:
Manny doubles to left. Trot bashes an RBI single to center. Tek singles to right. Lowell grounds into a double-play; Nixon scores. Coco crisp walks. Alex Gonzalez hits a towering moon shot over the monster. Youk strikes out.

Petey hits the showers.

Like just another opponent standing in the way of the Red Sox juggernaut.

Josh Beckett, meanwhile, grossly overshadowed by this party for the prodigal son, was cruising. He’d been perfect through two, and only gave up five hits and two runs en route to his seven and two-thirds inning win. That tip of the cap was well-deserved.

He’s 5-0 with a 2.54 ERA at home. A changing of the guard indeed.

Javier Lopez and Manny Delcarmen combined for an innining and a third of one-hit, scoreless ball, and that was that.

Another win. Eleven in a row.

Curt Schilling vs. Billerica’s own Tom Glavine tonight.

Let’s make it an even dozen.

6/29/2006 12:58:42 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Picked up pieces while waiting for the mango man of Manoguayabo to take the hill in enemy colors tonight...

Dan Shaughnessy did not write the Pedro panegyric in today’s Globe, Bob Ryan did.

But that doesn’t mean he won’t write tomorrows recap of tonight’s epic showdown.

If he does, compare his column to these entries in BSMW’s “Be Dan Shaughnessy” writing contest. Some of them are uncanny — and hilarious.

The author of this piece has the method down to a science:

You need to start off with short, clipped prose. Posing a rhetorical question never hurts. Then use a clever play on words nickname, somewhat derisively. Make obligatory Curse reference, coupled with a Warren Zevon lyric. Grey Poupon hackery is mandatory. Grady Little reference. Orr reference, Bird reference, Patriots Day reference, Springsteen song title, rinse, repeat.

Vote early and often!

6/28/2006 5:31:00 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [1] |  

Well, that was pleasant. Good vibes all around.

The only guys who felt any pain last night were Jose Reyes (whose sternum had a rather unfortunate run-in with Tek’s giant knee in that pivotal out-at-the-plate in the fifth), Alay Soler (eight earnies in four and a third), and the rest of their Mets teammates.

Didn’t they get the memo about our appetite for interleague play?

Jon Lester learned on the job — he’s got a good teacher — and got a win for his efforts. (And he sure did labor in the fourth and fifth.)

And the bats got it done in a big way once again.

Pre-game festivities paid tribute to the shoulda-beens of ’86, and Boggs, Rice, and Dewey, Bruce Hurst, Oil Can, Spike Owen, Glenn Hoffman, Schiraldi, and even Bill Buckner (in absentia) drank in the adulation.

(Their old teammate was having a tougher time of it over in Motown.)

And, to the surprise of few, Pedro Martinez was warmly welcomed, cheered long and loud by a crowd grateful for his past glories. (Dirt Dog must have been disappointed.) Petey returned the love. "It was emotional," he said. "Unless you don't have a heart and you're made of ice, you feel that."

But despite the stirring Jumbotron tribute (set to an unfortunately treacly soundtrack) it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. At his press conference, writes Michael Silverman, Pedro put it plainly.

His most provocative comment came in response to whether or not he had spoken with Red Sox principal owner John Henry since the two sides split following the failed negotiations of November and December of 2004.

“No, I haven’t but I wish he were here right now so I could say to him that I got four years and that I wanted them to work something out,” Martinez said. “I wish (team president and CEO Larry) Lucchino were right here, so I could tell Lucchino again, when I flipped my glasses down (at an airport tarmac sit-down in the Dominican Republic in early December of 2004) and I said that I got four years, and he goes, ‘No, bullshit’ - so he could really reconsider what he did, when I told him that I got four years.

“I remember John Henry saying, ‘I don’t care how many years you get, just get it done.’ Those were the exact words. I just wish they were here so they could reconsider all that and remember that I was honest. And I said the truth.”

Well, I suppose that depends who you ask. Seth Mnookin offers some context, clarifying Pedro’s “revisionist history” in this post and this one. Hmmm.

(Stop by Seth’s site and sign up for a sweepstakes to win a copy of his new book, Feeding the Monster, the inside scoop of his unfettered access to Yawkey Way in 2005, a year when he “lived with the Red Sox... spending mornings with the front office, afternoons with the players, and evenings with the owners.” He knows things you and I don’t.)

I’m not gonna ascribe blame here, however. What’s done is done. He doesn't work here any more.

But what he did on that mound between 1998 and 2004 trumps whatever shenanigans he may have been involved with off of it. (And at least one person is grateful for the things he did away from the game.)

He was one in a million, and I miss him badly. Mazz puts it best: “Truth be told, we have never had anyone like him. Never! Roger Clemens has had arguably the greatest pitching career of all-time, but Martinez dwarfs him in intelligence and wit. Martinez’ peak seasons were better than anything Clemens has done, and Martinez was just as tough and intimidating, particularly when it came to protecting his teammates."

He’ll be cheered tonight.

And then we’ll commence to beating him and his team.

But it won’t be as easy as it was last night. As Curt Schilling (a/k/a Gehrig38) writes, “give him a big ass standing ovation, then after pitch one rattle his ass as best you can, we'll need the help I think.”

Etc.
You know he wishes he could be there.

He’s out of surgery, resting in ICU, docs are “cautiously optimistic on his recovery,” and word has just come out that he’s listed in good condition. But Gammons isn’t out of the woods yet. Pray, hope, wish, cross-fingers, knock wood, sacrifice burnt offerings, whatever you do, but Gammo needs our good thoughts to help him get through this. (Pearl Jam has done their part, apparently, with Eddie Vedder dedicating the song “Light Years” to his “friend Peter” in Minneapolis last night.)

He’s too important to the game. And we need him to stick around for a long time to come. As Mnookin puts it:

One of the things that I find most impressive about Peter is his never-ending curiosity about the game. I’ve never met a reporter who works the phones harder. He seems to know every minor leaguer in the country–and their families–and reports his ass off at a time when he could coast by on his reputation. His love of baseball is infectious. Most importantly, Peter is a delightful human being: considerate, thoughtful, generous, and funny.

Check out this thread at Sons of Sam Horn and the mailbag at ESPN.com for some stirring tributes to a great baseball man. Someone who still loves the game, those who play it, and those who watch it, with all his heart (something that not every sportswriter can say).

In the SoSH thread, one guy writes the words that every sportswriter must wish people would say: “Gammons is the only reason I love baseball as much as I do. I don't want baseball without Gammons”

Get well soon, Commish.

6/28/2006 1:04:50 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

6/27/2006 10:14:49 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Memo to David Ortiz: when I said in yesterday’s post that Monday afternoon’s game would give us “a chance to do it all over again,” I didn’t mean it quite that literally. But, hey, whatever works for you.

This guy is just so freaking awesome.

I really love him. And so do you. So does everyone.

Nine in a row.

Now, depleted bullpen and mortal closer be damned, it’s time to “Meet the Mets” for the first time since 2001 and try to make it ten.

Could it be a preview of things to come?

At least we can finally put the past behind us.

Or can we?

Because they’re asking that same stupid question again.

To boo, or not to boo?

Please, not this again.

Mike Celizic puts it most bluntly:

For seven years, most of them brilliant, Pedro Martinez gave the Boston Red Sox everything he had and everything they could have wanted. He copped two Cy Young Awards, won 117 games against just 37 losses — a .760 winning percentage — and he won a game in the 2004 World Series in which the Red Sox broke their 85-year run of futility.

Considering all he’s done for Boston, there’s just one thing the Fenway faithful can possibly do when he scales the Fenway Park mound Wednesday night for the first time since chasing the free-agent bonanza to the New York Mets after the 2004 season.

They’ve got to boo him like no one not named Roger Clemens has ever been booed in Boston’s little jewel of a ballpark. They’ve got to hiss and scream and bellow until the air is congested with spittle. They’ve got to boo his backside back to that mango tree in the Dominican Republic he once talked about sitting under.

Meanwhile, we have Boston Dirt Dogs, a site that, after campaigning long and loud for fans to cheer Johnny Damon upon his return in pintstripes, has lately been agitating just as vociferously for fans to boo the “Disingenuous Diva,” Pedro.

When Johnny returned to Fenway in the uniform of our hated blood-rivals, the mantra was “Give It Up for the Guy Who Gave His All... All the Time” and “Boston Never Forgets Red Sox World Series Champions. Period.”

Now that Pedro’s coming back, wearing the blue and orange of a team that hates the Yankees just as much as we do (and with whom we've got a lot more in common than you might think) BDD resurrects the same tired old chant: “Who's your da-ddy... Who's your da-ddy.”

Strange, that.

As far as I know, Pedro Martinez was also a World Series Champion.

As far as I know, he gave his all, all the time too. For seven magical years, he was one of the elite pitchers in the game, and he cemented his Hall of Fame bona fides here in the Hub.

I’d like to remind you of a time when Pedro Martinez’s starts were destination TV viewing. A seven-year period in which he put up stats like these:

1998: ERA: 1.90  WHIP: 0.932  K/9: 9.7

1999: ERA: 2.89  WHIP: 1.091  K/9: 13.2

2000: ERA: 1.74  WHIP: 0.737  K/9: 11.8

2001: ERA: 2.39  WHIP: 0.934  K/9: 12.6

2002: ERA: 2.26  WHIP: 0.923  K/9: 10.8

2003: ERA: 2.22  WHIP: 1.039  K/9: 9.9

2004: ERA: 3.90  WHIP: 1.171  K/9: 9.4

Finally — and this is important — as far as I know, Pedro Martinez didn’t sign with our most bitter rivals.

Was he a pain in the ass sometimes? Yes, he sure was. But he was also the best pitcher the Boston Red Sox have seen for a long, long, time. Yes, better even than this guy. And despite what Gammons says, I just don’t see it happening. Because it shouldn’t happen.

6/27/2006 12:00:40 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

6/26/2006 6:07:41 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Youkilis knocks in Crisp with a double to tie the game with two outs.

7-7.

Loretta at the plate. Let's win this. NOW.

6/26/2006 6:00:17 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

6/26/2006 5:50:42 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

6/26/2006 4:21:02 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

6/26/2006 4:05:37 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

6/26/2006 3:34:43 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

6/26/2006 2:59:49 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

 

If you haven’t been to a Cape Cod League game yet, I can’t recommend it enough. The games are free (a token donation when they pass the hat is smiled upon) and the play, featuring the best college players in country) is crisp and exciting (notwithstanding the lowered batting averages that result when guys used to metal bats make the switch to wood).

Luckily, the 43 minute delay up in Boston allowed me and Sox Blogette to get back to our motel just in time to catch Josh Beckett losing his perfect game bid. Oh well. He pitched a corker of a game, we mashed early, Manny was a monster (and Gabe put one over it) and we won big again.

The Boston Red Sox are a very good baseball team.

The rain held off long enough to go for eight in a row Saturday, and sure enough we pulled it out.

Phillies pitcher Brett Myers, who was arrested Early Friday morning for striking his wife in the face (he “had her on the ground” and was seen “dragging her by the hair and slapping her across the face," according to witnesses,) was booed long and loud as only a righteously indignant Fenway crowd could.

But he didn’t seem to mind. And we didn’t touch him nearly as much as I figured we would, allowing him to last five innings while only giving up three runs.

(In a good Shaughnessy column (!) yesterday — something that comes around about as often as a sunny day in June in New England — he makes the argument that Myers should never have been on the mound in the first place.)

At any rate, it was much more laborious this time. The score stayed put at 3-2 for most of the game, until Manny Delcarmen, in relief of a clearly gassed Curt Schilling, allowed an inherited runner to tie the game in the seventh. Then it was time to see what this team was made of.

Was there any doubt?

Well, yeah, a little. Our bullpen has been considerable remodeled with a much-needed youth infusion over the last couple weeks. But the jury was still out as to how they’d respond to high-leverage situations. They did about as well as could have expected. Delcarmen got a second-pitch line-out before giving up Jimmy Rollins’s RBI single and handing the reigns to Javier Lopez, who induced a double play after one pitch to get us out of the inning with minimal damage. He came out for the eighth for another quick out, and was relieved by Craig Hansen, who struck out Pat Burrell before allowing a double and a walk.

Then, of course, as should always be in situations like these, it was time for Big Jon Stud.

Jonathan Papelbon strode to the center of the field and took his rightful place. He gave a manly tug to his athletic support (as he does before every pitch) and set to work.

Strike swinging, strike swinging, ball, ball, strike swinging. Inning over.

He came back out for the ninth. Fly out. Single. Double. People all over Boston shuffled nervously in their seats. Then Chase Utley reached on a fielder’s choice as Chris Coste was gunned down easily at home. We put Bobby Abreu on after three straight balls. The agita returned.

Then Pat Burrell swung viciously at three straight pitches. And missed all of them. As Papelbon pumped his fist and marched back to his dugout, Burrell stood at the plate, bat limp, eyes glassy, mouth agape.

In extra innings, it was more of the same: Strikeout on seven pitches. Strikeout on four pitches. Ground-out on four pitches. His work here was done. “He is so intense on the mound.”

At the bottom of the inning, Youk flied out and Cora laced a single to center, David Ortiz came to the plate against our old friend Tom Gordon.

You already know what happened then. You knew what would happen then as soon as he had two strikes against him.

It’s just what he does.

Two by-now-clichéd images that I will nonetheless never, ever, ever get sick of:

   

Sunday’s ill-advised rainout means we’ve got a chance to do it all over again in half an hour. Check back here for in-game updates.

6/26/2006 12:38:16 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

I didn’t write about the Paxton Crawford (subs. req.) news today, partly because I was pretty bummed out about it, especially after such a great win last night, and partly because I don’t really know what to say, except that it sucks.

I not bummed out about it because of any lingering personal affection for an entirely mediocre pitcher who threw a whopping 65 innings over two seasons for us five years ago. I’m upset because now — based on his allegations, at least — the chickens seem to have come home to roost at Yawkey way just as they have in San Francisco and Baltimore and the Bronx. For Crawford to taint an entire team, half a decade after he’s severed his last tenuous ties with it — really, really sucks.

As Terry Francona told the Herald: “I’ve had the opportunity and delight to see how these guys work their butts off.... Now these guys are, I don’t know if implicated is the right word, associated with all of that. My disappointment is for those guys.”

Mine too. We have no idea who Crawford’s talking about from those 2000 and 2001 teams he was on, contributing for 11 starts and 4 relief appearances. All we know for sure is that, for a couple cups of coffee, he shared a clubhouse with five guys from the current team: Trot Nixon, Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, Manny Ramirez, and, for part of ’01, Doug Mirabelli.

That’s it.

And, let’s keep in mind that the dude could be completely full of shit. He certainly doesn’t seem like one of the “character” guys the new ownership has made it a point to stock their roster with the last few years. The Globe mentions a dubious story of falling out of bed onto a drinking glass (a mishap that leeched him of two pints of blood) in 2000, and of another murky transgression in the McCoy Stadium parking lot, during a game, for which he was disciplined in 2002.

And when told by Globe the about this Crawford quote from the ESPN mag article...

“One time, I walked right into the Red Sox clubhouse with a bunch of needles wrapped in a towel and left them on my chair. A few minutes later, one of my teammates came running over, saying, 'Paxton, someone knocked your chair over and your freaking needles are all over the floor!' Man, we just died about that. He said it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen, told me I was nuts. But that's the way it was back then.”

...both Wakefield and Varitek said it sounded “difficult to believe.”

Indeed, it would seem to take a loudmouth jerk of the highest order to get Wake — a/k/a The Nicest Guy in the World — as steamed as he seemed to be when interviewed by the Herald:

“I think it’s ridiculous that a guy who was here for two months is . . . I don’t know what he’s trying to do,” Wakefield said. “If he admits to taking steroids, that’s his fault. He shouldn’t deface the organization by saying someone else told him to take it. That’s stupid.... I remember him not being too bright. That’s what I remember about him.”

Wow.

Varitek is right, of course, when he tells the Herald that “these types of things need to come out right now.... It doesn’t matter if someone was wearing a purple uniform, a red one or a navy blue one. It happened. I’m eager for us to take the steps to get past this as a game.”

But we've got to steel ourselves for what might leap from this Pandora's box. Given this latest revelation, and this news, and this and this and this, it seems we’re getting closer, inch by inch, to "getting past it as a game" every day.

That doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. And it’s going to get a lot worse, for some teams at least, before it gets better.

We all know that in Red Sox Nation, any worse would be very, very bad.

As Seth Mnookin writes in his blog today:

In Boston, where baseball is more a religion than a pastime, the effects of these revelations would be absolutely devastating. Take a look at what’s happened to the Diamondbacks following the Jason Grimsley affidavit and think for a second about how much less suffocating Phoenix is than Boston. Recall the round-the-clock coverage of Theo Epstein’s interregnum last winter. And now imagine the feeding frenzy that would occur if a hero of the 2004 World Series team is revealed to be a user. It could take months, if not years, to deal with the fallout.

God forbid.

6/22/2006 4:41:11 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [10] |  

Wow.

Wow...wow...wow. Now I'm excited.

Ten strikeouts — the most by any Sox pitcher so far this year. Just a run off three hits and a couple walks in six innings. After so much hype, after being followed for years as he made his way slowly through the minors, Jon Lester is here. He looks like the real deal. And it looks like here’s here to stay.

That gray patch on the left side of his head notwithstanding, the guy is only 22 years old. Looks like we’ve got a lot to look forward too. He’s shown in two of his three games so far — and even his rain-delayed first start wasn’t all that bad — that he can pitch with the best of the bigs. Last night he was in full command of his whole arsenal, hitting his spots, making is move, keeping the hitters off-balance. A beautiful thing. “Dominating.”

Granted, these last two starts were against decidedly mediocre National League teams. But in both, he got the guys out he needed to, and he looked confident and composed, like he belonged.

Maybe David Ortiz’s grand slam in the second, coming on the heels of three two-out singles, gave him the comforting cushion he needed.

Or maybe it didn’t. Maybe he would have pitched that way anyway.

The good news is we just kept hitting. Timely hitting. Two-out hitting. Boy, do our boys love this ballpark. Multi-hit games for Trot (second three-hit night in a row, including two doubles — praise Jesus!), Loretta (three), Ortiz (two, including that homer), Youk (two), Tek (two, including a double), and Gonzalez (two, including a double). Gonzo’s been batting .341 so far this month and has a season average of .308 at the Fens. His son should be proud.

In the end, it was all enough to build up a Seanez and Taverez-proof lead. (Y’see that, Tito? The two -ez’s gave up a couple hits and a run, each. Little Manny pitched a perfect eighth. Youth will be served. It freaking better be.)

Two sweeps in a row. Man, I love interleague. Now bring on the Phillies ... we’ve gotta pay them back for getting beaten late by the Yankees two nights in a row.

Then comes the big show. Wednesday, June 28. Be there.

6/22/2006 11:59:39 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [1] |  

Meh. More of Theo Epstein's throw-something-against-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks formula. We shall see.

Stats here. Discussion here.

RED SOX ACQUIRE RIGHTHANDER JASON JOHNSON 

FROM THE CLEVELAND INDIANS

BOSTON, MA — The Boston Red Sox today acquired righthander Jason Johnson and a cash consideration from the Cleveland Indians for a player to be named or cash.  Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein made the announcement.

To make room for Johnson on Boston’s active roster, righthander Kyle Snyder was optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket, effective after last night’s game.

Johnson, 32, joins the Red Sox after going 3-8 with a 5.96 ERA (51 ER/77.0 IP) in 14 starts for the Indians this season.  He ranks third in the American League with a 2.85 ground ball-to-fly ball ratio and has finished in the top 10 in the A.L. in that category each of the last three seasons, including a second-place showing with Detroit last season (1.74).  He was designated for assignment by the Indians yesterday.    

A veteran of all or part of 10 major league seasons with Pittsburgh (1997), Tampa Bay (1998), Baltimore (1999-2003), Detroit (2004-05) and Cleveland (2006), Johnson has made 32 starts or more in four of the last five campaigns and is a two-time 10-game winner with Baltimore in 2001 and 2003.  He is 55-94 with a 4.95 ERA in 229 major league appearances, 213 as a starter.

The 6-foot-6, 225-pounder has won at least eight games in each of the last three seasons, including an 8-13 record with a 4.54 ERA in 33 starts for Detroit last year, matching his career high in starts (2004) and setting a career best with 210.0 innings.  The Santa Barbara, CA native led the Tigers pitching staff with 19 quality starts and worked at least six innings in 25 starts. 

6/21/2006 3:13:54 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [1] |  

It was as if they were tying to make up for giving him the least run support in the majors this season, all in one inning.

Trot Nixon singled to center. Mike Lowell walked. Coco Crisp fouled out to third. Doug Mirabelli doubled to deep left, Nixon scored. Alex Cora singled to center, Lowell scored. Kevin Youkilis walked. Mark Loretta singled to center, Mirabelli and Cora scored. David Ortiz popped out to second. Manny Ramirez singled to center, Youkilis scored. Trot Nixon doubled to center, Loretta scored. Mike Lowell walked. Coco Crisp struck out.

Six runs on six hits. Compare that to six runs in his previous eight losses. Wow.

Livan Hernandez hit the showers.

And they weren’t done yet. One more each in the third and fourth, then three in the seventh off Coco’s first Fenway homer and RBIs from Loretta and Gabe Kapler. (And let’s not overlook the monster night of super-sub Alex Cora.)

Wake returned the favor in the sixth. After getting himself into a nail-biting bases-loaded jam thanks to a single, double, hit by pitch, and an RBI walk, he pulled a Houdini with two swinging Ks and a harmless fly-out to left. That was that.

The only blemish, really, was Craig Hansen’s laborious ninth, when he gave up two runs on a hit-by-pitch, two singles, and a double. But his eighth was so clean, you really can’t complain.

He’s a major leaguer now. For keeps. So are Manny and Lester. Heartwarming.

Don’t fuck it up boys.

Meanwhile, getting this guy and this guy back soon sure would be nice. (Don't hold your breath.)

And finally, on a completely unrelated note: Frank Robinson may be a great man, and a stern but fair disciplinarian who shamed Curt Schilling into getting rid of his earring and blue mohawk, thus turning him into the consummate professional he is today.

But he should let his catcher know that he looks very silly. Brian Schneider has the most ridiculous get-up in the majors. Is he auditioning for the remake of Tron?

 

6/21/2006 11:52:11 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

When a pitcher with a 22.50 ERA, a 28-year-old with just 38 major-league innings pitched since the beginning of 2004, a guy who’d recently been jettisoned by the atrociously awful Kansas City Royals, is starting a game for you, it does not typically engender a feeling of confidence.

But lately, knock wood, things just seem to be going our way.

It happened Sunday in Atlanta (just ask Rudy Seanez!) and it happened again at the Fens last night.

Kyle Snyder did the job he was asked to do. He pitched five innings, gave up just four hits and three runs, struck out an career-high six — including, three times, the guy who’s got the second most home runs in baseball — and walked away with the win, halving his ERA in the process.

Will he ever start for us again? Who knows. At the very least he could be useful in our revolving-door bullpen. (Credit where credit’s due: everyone looked good last night, even Seanez.)

The game wasn’t without its hiccups. Manny messed up, big time, in the fourth.

But he made up for it, bigger time, in the eighth.

Even as we said so long to JT Snow, Gabe Kapler was welcomed back with a rousing ovation. He showed how glad he was to be back with a couple hits and an RBI.

And, of course, we welcomed a Washington team — and their eminent manager — back into the friendly Fens since this guy was managing the old Senators.

I used to complain about interleague play, but the last four games have been pleasant indeed. As I heard someone put it the other day, some call it interleague play, we call it vacation. Let's stay relaxed.

6/20/2006 12:53:31 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Don't mess with this guy.



(Thanks to DeadSpin for the find.)

6/15/2006 4:51:43 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

No, not that one.

This one.

Stats here. Discussion here.

RED SOX ACQUIRE LEFTHANDED PITCHER JAVIER LOPEZ FROM CHICAGO WHITE SOX FOR RIGHTHANDER DAVID RISKE

BOSTON, MA – The Boston Red Sox today acquired lefthanded pitcher Javier Lopez from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for righthanded pitcher David Riske. Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein made the announcement.

Lopez, who is 2-1 with a 0.55 earned run average with 12 saves in 26 appearances for Triple-A Charlotte of the International League, will be in uniform for tonight’s game with the Twins in Minnesota. He will wear uniform #48.

The 28-year-old lefthander, who has pitched in 171 major league games with Colorado and Arizona, is tied for fourth in the International League in saves and is tied for eighth in appearances. He has held lefthanded hitters to a .171 (6-35) batting average and has a groundball/flyball ratio of 64/25 (72%), the latter ranking second best in the International League and fourth best in all of professional baseball (MLB and minors) among pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched.

Lopez has not allowed a run in his last 9.1 innings over eight appearances with the Knights beginning May 25 and has earned saves in his last five and six of seven appearances.

Signed by the White Sox as a free agent in December 2005, Lopez is 6-4, 6.09 with three saves in his major league career with Colorado (2003-05) and Arizona (2005). In his big league career, he has allowed just 22% (26 of 118) of inherited runners to score while holding lefthanded batters to a .246 batting average.

The lefthander was 4-1 with a 3.70 ERA in a career best and club rookie record 75 appearances with the Rockies in his rookie season in 2003. He issued just two earned runs in his first 30 appearances that season. Lopez appeared in 64 games with Colorado in 2004 and last season was 1-1 in 32 contests with the Rockies and Diaamondbacks while also pitching in 27 games at Triple-A Tucson.

A fourth round selection of Arizona in the 1998 First-Year Player Draft, Lopez was picked by Boston in the Rule 5 Major League Draft in December 2002. The Red Sox traded Lopez to Colorado in March 2003.

Riske is 0-1 with a 3.72 ERA in eight relief appearances with the Red Sox this season. He was on the disabled list from April 12-May 22 with a lower back strain. The righthander had been acquired from Cleveland in a six-player trade on January 27, 2006.

6/15/2006 1:49:20 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Remember in ’04, when we played .500 ball for, like, three months before finally going on to win the World Series? Maybe this is like that.

A guy can dream, can’t he?

(Oh, and all that stuff I was saying yesterday about giving the young arms a chance? Never mind.)

6/15/2006 9:11:17 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Hmmm...this is a tough one.

Should I thank the baseball gods for gracing us with 12 innings of crisp, economical, suspenseful baseball last night, one of the best games I’ve seen all year?

Or should I curse them for allowing JULIAN FREAKING TAVAREZ to wear a Red Sox uniform?

We saw many different pitchers last night.

We saw Johan Santana, jaw-droppingly dominant through eight innings, striking out thirteen (13), including the first five batters he faced, while allowing just five hits and a run.

We saw Curt Schilling responding as only he could, making do with the reduced velocity that comes with age by moving his pitches, slowing them down and speeding them up, hitting his spots and getting groundball and well-timed double plays.

We saw Jonathan Papelbon, our nail-spitting, fire-throwing closer, working two brilliant innings, working himself into trouble once, but then getting himself out of it with the help of the amazing defense behind him.

We saw