After all that sound and fury, there’s one thing about the Red Sox’ roster this evening that we do know for sure: Trot won't be on it. He's headed for the disabled list.

He’s got a grade II bicep strain, and even though it’s just the 15-day DL, according to this site, injuries like that “may take two to three months” to heal completely. Great.

As for trade deadline intrigue? Nothing. At least nothing that’s been made public yet.

We passed on Kip Wells. Good. A 6.69 National League ERA won’t be of much use to us whatsoever, even as a fifth starter.

We wouldn’t trade Coco, Hansen and Lester for Andruw Jones. (A no brainer! He would have been great hitting behind Manny, but that asking price was lunacy.)

But the Yankees did make another move, once again coming out on the winning end of a deal — this time with the Pirates, trading Shawn Chacon (5-3, 7.00 ERA) for the Buc’s 1B Craig Wilson (.267/.339/.478 with 13 homers and 41 RBIs). Is there something in the air in Pennsylvania that forces GMs there to cater to the MFY's every whim?

So there they are, with a surfeit of decent offense and a conspicuous lack of pitching depth. Haven’t we seen that before?

Anyway, presuming no late announcements are imminent, I guess it’s safe to conclude that milk was just too expensive once again this year. Let’s pray Wells spins a gem tonight, and that Wake and Foulke get healthy real soon. We’ll need them. Badly. In the mean time, let’s hope things have calmed down in that crazy clubhouse and that guys can get back to concentrating on winning games. Starting now.

7/31/2006 5:00:26 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [1] |  

“What a revoltin’ development this is.”

A Friday night game delayed for two hours by Biblical torrents of rain. A game in which Jon Lester pitched well for six innings but then lost it completely and utterly in the seventh — and was followed by a Keystone Kops procession of inept relievers.

A Saturday game in which our starter was roughed up badly in the first, then got it together, in which there followed eleven long innings of nail-biting attrition before we finally pulled it out — thanks to a guy who, it sometimes seems, is the only one able to win games for us.

A Sunday in which they won their game, and we lost ours.

In which they went out and got themselves a decent bat and a decent arm, helping themselves, at least in the short term, while giving up almost nothing (four middling prospects and a bunch of money) to get them.

In which our ace was watching hard knocks leap all over the park like MassCash ping pong balls, giving up 10 hits and six runs in just five frames, including three homers in the third. In which our long man did not last long, giving up three hits and four runs in a third of an inning. In which our only real rally of the game was quashed by an umpire’s poor vision. In which Seanez and Tavarez combined for three and two thirds scoreless innings precisely when we didn’t really need them to. And in which our right fielder went down with an injury whose prognosis is unclear, less than 24 hours before a deadline in which he may have been part of a trade.

It was a bad day.

So now we have a hobbled giant taking the hill tonight, sans rehab start, for the first time since it looked like his career was over. (Third time’s the charm, right?) And Kyle Snyder going after him.

Yay.

At least we’re still in first, even if we’re hanging on by our fingernails. And, of course, the hours before tonight’s game may be very interesting indeed.

Who will leave? Lowell? Loretta? Coco? Foulke?

Who will come? Lugo? Lieber? Shealy? Linebrink? Schmidt? ..... Clemens?

Keep those granules of sodium chloride handy. And stay tuned.

7/31/2006 12:08:58 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

So, uh, Trot. About what I wrote yesterday.... Not sure if you read this thing or not, but, er, way to be.

I stand corrected. Now keep it up.

PS: That’s a real pretty slide you got there.

7/26/2006 10:29:35 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

I’ve never been as weirded out by him as some people, but I do think Wally the Green Monster might be getting just a little overexposed. (Jerry Remy, I’m looking in your general direction.)

But something really creeps me out about this photo, which shows the new sign just unveiled outside Fenway, looming above the Mass Pike. The only way it could be more unnerving is if those guns were pointed in the other direction.

(Photo: Kristin Osiecki)

Oh well. At least he’s better looking than Lefty and Righty. And at least he’s, like, make believe...

The Red Sox’ mascot? Wally.

The Mets’ mascot? Why, it’s Mr. Met!

The Yankees’ mascot? Yogi Berra!?!?

7/25/2006 7:39:51 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Roundabout the seventh inning last night, I figured it was OK to hit the sack with a comfortable 7-3 lead.

Beckett had done his job.

The big boppers had done theirs.

Hell, even Coco had an RBI double. Everything looked to be well in hand.

But you never take anything entirely for granted with this team. So I left the TV on low volume as I dozed off. Y’know, just in case...

And then, the same two relievers who looked so shaky on Sunday were entrusted with that lead, and, well, they were shaky again. I had to turn over and watch.

Craig Hansen got Nick Swisher to ground out, but then gave up a single to Bobby Crosby. Eric Chavez fouled out to third, but then Mark Ellis was hit by a pitch. Then Jason Kendall walked. Sleep, by now, was a vanished proposition. Luckily, Hansen soon inducted a Mark Kotsay ground out, and we slithered out of it unscathed.

After Kiko Calero set us down 1-2-3 on a total of 10 pitches in the top of the eighth, it was time to throw again.

Mike Timlin gave up a Milton Bradley single to center. He walked Frank Thomas. Deep breaths...

Then, thank the maker, old buddy Jay Payton grounded into a deflating double play before Nick Swisher flied out to right.

The Sox “always show manager Terry Francona they have a knack for forgetting the tough defeats and moving forward,” and I guess Tito wanted to make ‘em prove it the hard way.

Papelbon’s ninth, of course, was easy peasy japanesey.

And that was that. Scratch another one in the win column.

Even so, we should worry, say some.

No, no, we shouldn’t, say others. Because here comes Boomer, bounding along to the rescue! (Forgive me if I’m not holding my breath on that one.)

Meanwhile Trot Nixon, whose only at bat last night saw him striking out on four pitches, says he’s not worried as trade talks swirl. With the Phillies not even sure if they’re buyers or sellers, perhaps he’s right not to be.

I’d certainly be sad to see him go. He’s our longest tenured guy, and he’s been one of my favorites for a long time. But I see little indication they want him back for another stint, and if his nearly nonexistent batting average in July is a little worrisome, his plummeting slugging percentage all season long is even more eyebrow-raising. (Then again, it’s not much worse than Bobby Abreu’s. And neither are his measly six homers to Abreu’s eight. Hell, Alex Gonzalez has that many.)

He's finally healthy. What's with this warning track power?

Maybe he just needs to grow the Fu Manchu back...

7/25/2006 11:51:17 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

That was a clumsy allusion to a Nirvana lyric. Sorry. Although there's not all that much to avenge, seeing how we took three out of four the last time we faced them.

Anyway, to crib another lyric, dirty water all around.


If you'd told me after the 1-3 start to the second half that we'd finish the homestand 5-3, especially the way we've been hitting lately, I wouldn't have believed you. So good for us. And good for Curt, who gutted out seven even though he cleary didn't have his A-game today. On to Seattle and let's win some more.

Fun facts about today's game that arrived in my inbox barely 15 minutes after the last out, courtesy of Red Sox media relations dude Andrew Merle:

* Curt Schilling is now 8-0 with a 2.71 ERA (19 ER/63.0 IP) in his 9 starts at Fenway Park this season…the last Red Sox pitcher to start 8-0 or better [at home] was Dennis Eckersley, who began 9-0 at Fenway in 1978…Schilling is 9-0 in his last 11 home starts since a loss to Oakland on September 15, 2005…the last Boston pitcher to win more than 9 consecutive home decisions was Pedro Martinez, who was 10-0 over 12 starts from April 25-August 14, 1999…the Sox have won Schilling’s last 10 home starts since losing on September 27, 2005, a Schilling no-decision to Toronto.

* Jason Varitek enjoyed his first multi-RBI game since June 27 vs. the Mets.

* Mark Loretta is 5-for-9 (.555) in the last 2 games to break out of a 4-for-21 (.190) slide in his previous 6 games…today was his 9th 3-hit game of 2006.

* Alex Gonzalez has hit safely in 6 straight games, going 6-for-18 (.333)…he is 15-for-38 (.395) in his last 10 games and is batting .373 (41-for-110) in his last 29 contests.

* Manny Ramirez has also hit safely in 6 straight games, going 9-for-20 (.450) with 3 doubles, a homer, 4 RBI and 6 runs scored…he is bat

* Mike Timlin tossed a scoreless 9th inning to pick up his 2nd save of the season (also June 19 vs. Washington).

* The Red Sox have now won 4 straight games, their longest winning streak since a season-best 12-game run from June 16-29…Boston has won 5 of 6 and posted a 5-3 record on the 8-game homestand. The Red Sox have won 20 of their last 25 games at Fenway Park…they are 18-8 (.692) in day games this season.

7/20/2006 5:36:42 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

"He threw the ball so well, I think Theo just gave him a three-year deal," Francona said.

After reporters chuckled, he added: "I'm serious."

Ha ha.

Well done, Josh.

And very well done, Theo.

Hell, while we’re at it...

Heckuva job, Manny.

Chin up, Youk.

Godspeed, Wake.

Win big, Curt.

And good on ya, John Gibbons.

7/20/2006 11:39:12 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

So maybe that's why he pitched so well today?

RED SOX AND JOSH BECKETT AGREE TO THREE-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION WITH OPTION FOR 2010

BOSTON, MA—The Boston Red Sox have agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension with righthanded pitcher Josh Beckett. The deal includes a club/vesting option for the 2010 season. Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein made the announcement. Terms were not disclosed.

The announcement was made following Boston’s 1-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday afternoon at Fenway Park. Beckett was the starter and winner in that game, allowing four hits with seven strikeouts in his eight innings of work.

Beckett, 26, is 12-5 with a 4.78 ERA in 20 starts with the Red Sox this season. The righthander is tied for the major league lead in victories, is tied for the A.L. lead in starts and ranks second on the Red Sox staff with 122.1 innings and 102 strikeouts.

EDIT: Having looked at the terms of the contract via Edes, it looks like Theo and the Trio have to be even happier. WOW. If he truly becomes the ace of the future, this is an absurdly good deal.

7/19/2006 5:18:25 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

As 39-year old Tim Wakefield rested his aching back, as 34-year-old Jason Varitek saluted the rapturous crowd cheering his 991st game as Red Sox catcher, the most by anyone in the entire 106-year history of the team, a 22-year-old rookie named Jon Lester took the mound for the sixth inning last night at Fenway Park and retired the side easily on 13 pitches.

“A combination of the new and the old,” Bob Ryan titles his audio profile of Terry Francona today, but the same could easily be said of the Red Sox’s win last night.

Lester’s been good in his major league career so far, but he’s never been this good. And he’s never pitched this deep into a game. But when you’re rolling like this, you’re gonna last a while.

He says he would have liked to go a full nine, but the pitch-count police said otherwise. As it was, just four walks and a single, measly hit in eight dominant innings and exactly 100 pitches is reason for celebration.

Like Obi Wan tutoring Luke, grizzled veteran Varitek guided his pupil, maneuvering Lester’s pitches all over the strike zone, up and down, left and right, back door and front door. It was mesmerizing.

And all we needed to do against the improbably dominant Brandon Duckworth was get a single RBI single out of our number nine hitter.

Done and done.

Mr. Automatic came on for the ninth, and finished it all off with just eight pitches.

Jonathan Pabelbon was happy.

And the Kansas City Royals were sad.

Does it concern me that both our wins against the worst team in baseball have been one-run nail-biters? A little. But as long as we break out the brooms this afternoon, I won’t complain too much.

And with the way these jerks are playing, we’d better win.

7/19/2006 11:31:07 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Well whadya know? Three poorly played games send Red Sox Nation into full-on panic mode. And the beginning of a fourth doesn’t engender much confidence. (“All you can do now is laugh. Its just that bad,” wrote one SoSHer last night as the score ratcheted up to 4-0, bad guys.) Then, quite suddenly, the baseball gods deigned to smile upon us again.

Perseverance.

Timely hitting.

Good relief pitching.

Lucky breaks.

Base stealing!

So that’s how you win baseball games.

It didn’t look so good at first. Teams like the Kansas City Royals are not supposed to be shutting teams like the Boston Red Sox out after six innings, are not supposed to carry four-run leads into the seventh.

But Doug Mirabelli decided to remedy that situation. Let’s just thank our lucky stars that home plate ump Jim Joyce was about as blind as James Joyce.

Coco Crisp, who officially broke out of his slump with his third hit of the night in the bottom of the seventh, drove home a slow footed Manny Ramirez. (Manny scored as the other Doug inexplicably cut off the throw. Perhaps he was preoccupied with Larry Lucchino and this silly, silly ball saga.)

Then, with Joel Peralta replacing the finally-hittable Luke Hudson, our chicken-parm-loving backup catcher stepped to the plate. He took a strike looking, then three straight balls. Then.... it shoulda been ball four. It should have loaded the bases. But it was called a strike.

Dougie grimaced, and wrung his gloveless hands around his bat.

Then he sent the next pitch into the Monster seats in left-center.

What’s that Tim McCarver used to say? “A walk is as good as a home run?”

Uh, no thanks.

From that point on, it all worked just like it should: Timlin came on to pitch a perfect eighth. Mark Loretta singled to center to lead off the ninth. David Ortiz hit a hard chopper over the head of his old buddy to move Loretta to third. Willie Harris pinch ran. Manny sent him home with a towering sac fly.

Jonathan Papelbon sealed the deal with a perfect ninth.

Dirty. Water.

The bad news? Tim Wakefield is still hurting, and it’s looking worse than we feared.

Rotoworld lays it on the line: “If Wakefield goes on the DL, it would put both Kyle Snyder and Jason Johnson in the rotation until David Wells returns.” There are so many frightening parts of that sentence, I don’t even know where to begin.

Maybe we could ink Ferrell to an incentive-laden three-month deal?

At least we’re not paying $25,680,727 a year for a guy who makes three errors in a game.

7/18/2006 11:42:10 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

“It's an average,” says Mike Lowell. “Am I a .600 hitter when I go 3 for 5? Today I went 0 for 4 — am I a .000 hitter? I don't think you can let your emotions go on such a roller coaster. I think you'd go nuts.”

Point taken. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Oakland A’s, possessors of a .246 team batting average and a .389 team slugging percentage (both the worst in baseball), beat us 15-3 on Friday and 8-1 yesterday.

Even “averaged” in with that 7-0 shutout Saturday night (our first of the season; we were the last team in baseball to record one), that’s 23-10 drubbing over the last three games of the series.

Is this as good as it gets?

Of course, the Royals could provide a welcome respite, a chance to recharge and rejuvenate. But, as Cafardo points out, just because they suck doesn’t mean we can automatically pencil three into the win column. And any inside dirt KC GM turned Red Sox special assignment scout Allard Baird might be able to provide us about his old team "won't help a lick if the Sox can't turn the juice back on, pitch more consistently, and dominate at home, as they are accustomed to doing.”

Meanwhile, as Doug Mientkiewicz returns to town, we’re still talking about that damn ball.

That once-promising four-game lead has all but evaporated in barely a week.

Just play ball.

Just win.

7/17/2006 11:37:27 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Poor Mark Loretta.

Goes 0-fer at his first All-Star start, and then two days later he’s the goat du jour.

(Well, Tavarez too, but he’s used to it by now.)

Said one steamed SoSHer: “If we lose the division by a game we can all look back at tonight and know that Mark Loretta not fielding a routine grounder cost us the division. Awesome.”

Well, in fairness, the MFY din’t play last night, so the immediate consequence was only a half-game slide.

But they are playing tonight. So we’d better win.

7/14/2006 5:17:45 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Some very good advice just in from Yawkey Way...

RED SOX FANS URGED TO USE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

WHEN TRAVELING TO FENWAY PARK

Due to the current traffic congestion in and around the Boston area, fans are encouraged to use public transportation as much as possible when traveling to and from Red Sox games at Fenway Park over the next several days. More information on public transportation can be found at mbta.com.

7/13/2006 5:26:36 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

It rained. Hard. Lightning was in the forecast. And, as the Globe so sagely put it, “electric guitars and standing water do not mix well.” But while a baseball game cannot be moved indoors, a concert can.

So, after the Gentlemen and the Click 5 risked shocking consequences by playing a couple quick sets outside, the second annual Hot Stove Cool Music: The Fenway Sessions shut it down, set up stage in the big concourse under right field, and began anew with an intimate half-house setting.

The rain-sodden fans, who’d paid as much as $100 a ticket didn’t seem to mind. For one thing, they were that much closer to the beer and Fenway Franks. And, of course, it was for charity.

The only real drawbacks were the suddenly diminished sightlines — Hey, I think I saw Kay Hanley’s tattoo! Is that the sheen of Terry Francona’s bald pate? — and the torrential rain coming down between the bleachers and the grandstand, accreting in puddles underfoot.

But the delay and relocation also had a couple unintended consequences. American Idol songbird Ayla Brown did not perform — thanks, the rumor went, to good ol’ Massachusetts blue laws. ("Be it hereby decreed that basketball playing aspiring pop stars under the age of 18 shall not be permitted to perform on stage past the hour of 9 o’clock in the eventide!") And James Taylor, after having had fun with a lengthy soundcheck, played a blink-and-you-missed-it set. (Did he not like the smallish venue?) No matter. If Howie Day happened to be a bit of a snoozefest if you weren’t an adolescent girl, Cowboy Mouth soon had the crowd in the palms of their hands.

Backstage was an interesting scene, a collision of rock and jock worlds that was amusing to behold. Jonathan Papelbon, in a sharp suit, fresh off the plane from the All-Star Game, obliged fans who wanted autographs and cell-phone photos. Lenny DiNardo watched the onstage action from behind a curtain in the corner. Gabe Kapler and his wife Lisa sneaked outside for some alone time in the seats near the damp outfield grass. Meanwhile, Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and Executive VP Charles Steinberg commingled with the likes of the Dents’ Jen D’Angora, Fenway Recordings honcho Mark Kates, and Juliana Hatfield.

The unseen presence, of course, was Peter Gammons. This whole shebang is his baby, and he was on everyone’s minds as performer after performer shouted out their well wishes.

By the time Buffalo Tom took the stage with a young man named Theo Epstein augmenting them on guitar, the night had reached an apotheosis. They tore through an excoriating “Taillights Fade” and Neil Young’s “Powderfinger,” before being joined by a motley crew of the night’s musicians for righteous “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

It was loud enough. Gammons must’ve heard it.

7/13/2006 1:42:50 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Is anyone surprised?

* Phil Garner was seen pre-game, telling his players that he’d have no signs from the dugout: steal a base when you want, green light on 3-0, whatever. This is your game. Have fun! Ozzie Guillen, on the other hand, said he was gonna manage like it was Game 7 of the World Series. And he sure as hell wasn’t gonna play everyone just to make ‘em feel good. Don’t like it? Tough shit: make the starting nine next year. Guess who won? (Garner, oddly, didn’t seem all that concerned that he was compelled to shoot the breeze with Buck and McCarver while Alfonso Soriano stole second, then got thrown out at the plate on Carlos Beltran’s single.)

* But Brad Penny: WOW. The dude was throwing, like, a billion miles an hour. Ichiro, Jeter, and Papi didn’t stand a chance. Only the second guy ever to strike out the side in the first inning. Of course, we all remember who the other one was. (Speaking of 1999, compare the pre-game festivities at Fenway before that All-Star Game to those before this one: a fat kid trying to hit a ball off a tee and win much dinero by hitting a Taco Bell sign. Outside the park, fans could wait in line for 40 minutes to win a “yellow foam hat, with green lettuce trim, emblazoned with Taco Bell's logo.”)

* As good as he was, am I the only one who finds the fact that Brad Penny and Kenny Rogers were the starters? Still, expect more of the same if Bud Selig, who “said it was worth studying whether All-Star aces should be prohibited from pitching the Sunday before the event,” gets his way. Sorry, but that’s totally, completely, and utterly asinine. The All Star Game is great fun, and AL and NL teams should try to win it. Of course. But messing with pennant contenders’ starting rotations in favor of an exhibition game? C’mon. (Then I read that they called our ace, who pitched on Sunday, looking for someone who could “provide them with multiple innings.” WTF?)

* It was good — but sorta sad — to see Bronson and Nomar gabbing together in the dugout. It was also sorta sad to see Mark Loretta, after getting robbed of a hit by Albert Pujol’s amazing barehanded catch in the third, getting robbed again in the fifth: a screaming liner off Arroyo snagged by a leaping Freddy Sanchez. Why can’t we get guys like that?

* It’s been mentioned before, but the folly of awarding A-Rod the MVP award last year on the basis his play in the field continues to bear itself out. “David Ortiz, typically a DH, saves an error for Rodriguez!” said Joe Buck in bemused admiration as Papi scooped that errant throw and Mo Rivera and Miggy Tejada laughed and laughed in the dugout. (But A-Rod insists he and the big man are wicked good buds, really.)

* And it’s been said over and over and over again, but Tim McCarver has to go. It was laughable when, in the top of the first, he called Penny’s go-to pitch: “a Mark Wahlberg fastball. ‘Catch Me If You Can!’” — unaware that it was Leonardo DiCaprio, not Marky Mark, who starred in that middling movie. But, at the very  least it simply confirmed his ignorance of pop culture, not his ignorance of the game he’s paid to explain. But in the bottom of the ninth, after Michael Young’s two-out triple gave the AL the lead, McCarver outdid even himself. “Those of you not familiar with Mariano Rivera,” he said, introducing the greatest closer and greatest postseason pitcher in the history of the game. As one poster in the SoSH game thread put it, that’s “akin to Dan Rather saying ‘Those of you not familiar with 9/11....’ The degree to which he talks down to the audience is amazing. Is there even the most tangential follower of this sport who doesn't know who Rivera is?” Answer: No.

* But worst of all was McCarver’s wholly ill-informed — and entirely expected — Manny Ramirez bashing. The knee injury that kept him out of the game? Totally concocted, in the sage opinion of Mr. McCarver. The hardest thing about it is “remembering which leg to limp with.” Well, lo and behold, the news comes out this morning that Manny really is injured! Imagine that. As Baseball Prospectus’s Will Carroll reports:

Ramirez is suffering from a small tear in the medial meniscus of his right knee. It’s an injury he can play with, but one that can “grind,” a bone-on-bone situation that is unpredictable and painful.   The decision was made a while ago by the Red Sox to keep Manny on the field as much as possible. One possible solution that’s been mentioned is using Ramirez at DH more often, moving Kevin Youkilis to LF and David Ortiz to 1B. There’s some defensive penalty to be paid, but it keeps the best bats in the lineup.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. “Why is it that every time Manny Ramirez misses playing time due to a minor injury, someone accuses him of malingering?"

As BSMW’s Bruce Allen says in this excellent piece, “We’re witnessing an All Time Great at the peak of his production,” someone who could, if he plays for five more years, end his career with 650 home runs and over 2000 RBI.

But all the media can ever talk about is the Manny moments:

He has been accused of taking games off, missing games because of questionable injuries and begging out of the lineup on a regular basis. A simple look at his games played and at-bat totals per season show this to be nothing more than a media creation. Since Manny joined the Red Sox in 2001, the team has played 896 games. Ramirez has appeared in 802 of those. That includes the 2002 season where he missed 42 games with a broken finger.

Even some of Manny’s accomplishments are discarded because of his perception. He led the majors in outfield assists with 17 last season, but when that is brought up, the reaction is usually a snicker from the media, who dismiss the mark because of the short Fenway left field. Somehow that same argument doesn’t come up as often when discussing Carl Yastrzemski leading the league seven times in that category....

It has come to the point that they cannot say or write his name without adding some sort of snide comment or voice inflection indicating mockery or disapproval of his effort. This takes away from his incredible achievements in the game, which are overshadowed by the media’s need to deride him because they don’t approve of his manner.

Yes, he’s frustrating sometimes. And often inscrutable. But this is not Barry Bonds or Carl Everett we’re talking about. This is a guy who shows up, keeps his head down, does his work — lots of it — and, most important, DELIVERS.

But, for a host of reasons, not least the fact that he usually refuses to talk to them, it’s clear that many local and national reporters just don’t like Manny Ramirez. Sadly, it probably won’t become clear to these people until he’s gone — missing from the lineup during the September pennant race, or retired from the game completely — what he means to this baseball team.

Keep your fingers crossed he’s around for the second half. We’re gonna need him.

7/12/2006 12:40:24 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [1] |  

Well, wasn’t that a fun way to waste six hours on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Frustrating, yes, that Papelbon threw precisely the wrong pitch at the wrong time to Jermaine Dye with two outs in the 9th.

Frustrating too that Lopez and Timlin crapped the bed when it came time to close it out again after Loretta came through in the 11th.

But neither of those were as frustrating as our offense’s complete and utter inability to come through.

Manny (1 for 8), Tek (0 for 8), and Trot (0 for 9) should spend the next three days thinking long and hard about how to hit a baseball with a bat.

That’s unfair, of course. Manny is Manny. Trot is top ten. And, well, I’m inclined to take it easy on Varitek: You try crouching for 19 straight innings and then see how you feel. But there’s no denying that that .232 average is none too pretty. Good thing Pudge Rodriguez surpassed him at the last minute in All-Star voting. Looks like Tek could use these three days rest.

Mean time, maybe Papi will have some better luck in the Home Run Derby tonight.

Two out of three (and almost a sweep ... twice) from one of the best teams in the game. Three games up on the competition. Not a bad place to be at the season’s mid-point.

As long as Wake’s back gets better, Schill’s elbow really is no big deal, Lester continues to be this good, Ortiz stays on pace to clock 62 homers this season, Cora keeps contributing, Lopez pitches like he did on Saturday more often than like he did on Sunday, we should be in great shape for the second half.

7/10/2006 11:33:38 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

There’s something you should know about Peter Gammons’s new disc, Never Slow Down, Never Grow Old (Rounder), which came out on the Fourth of July.

It’s really good.

What, you thought this would just another dilettante's vanity project, an excuse for the unofficial commish to clown around in the studio with some of his favorite Red Sox and bash out a few classic rock chestnuts?

Well, it is. But as these things go, it’s at the top of its game. If, by some extraordinary circumstance, you were not aware that Gammons is the best and most well-connected baseball writer around today, if this CD was somehow your only exposure to him, you’d be forgiven for assuming he was a musician by trade.

Yup, the guy who’s spoken with every team owner, general manager, player, agent, minor league prospect, groundskeeper, clubhouse attendant, and batboy in the baseball universe over last four decades has a hell of a voice: gritty as sandpaper or honey smooth as the song and situation dictate — perfect for the tunes he’s chosen.

He’s no slouch with the six-string neither, charging through the chunky double-stops of Chuck Berry’s “Carol” and the “Promised Land” like it’s nothing at all. George Thorogood adding slide guitar to the latter? Gravy.

The covers are great. A slow-burning take on Warren Zevon’s “Model Citizen.” A version of Alvin Crow’s “Nyquil Blues” that sounds straight out of the Dallas honky-tonk where Gammons first heard it while drinking beers with Pudge Fisk in 1976. And, doing the Clash’s “Death Or Glory” (with help from Sox GM and sixth Pearl Jam member Theo Epstein) Gammons finds an interesting way to elide a certain lyric about randy nuns.

But the record’s most surprising revelation is that this Hall of Famer, a guy who knows more about game than anyone else in the world, in posession of all manner of arcane and encyclopedic baseball knowledge, still has time to be a not-half-bad songwriter. The Gammons original “She Fell From Heaven” is a beaut. It’s supposed to be a tribute to Little Feat’s Lowell George, but it sounds more like a poppier John Hiatt, and that’s not a bad thing to sound like at all.

Bottom line: Peter Gammons better get his ass out of that hospital bed real soon, so we can see him do this stuff live.

We’re sure Jonathan Papelbon, Kevin Youkilis, Trot Nixon, Tim Wakefield, Gabe Kapler, Lenny DiNardo, Bronson Arroyo and “Announcer Boy” Don Orsillo, who all contribute backing vocals to his cover of the Blue’s Project’s “Wake Me, Shake Me” feel the same way.

“Wake me, shake me, don’t let me sleep to long....”

Get well soon, Peter.

Download an MP3 of the Gammo original, “She Fell From Heaven,” order the record, and buy tickets for the next Wednesday’s “Hot Stove Cool Music: The Fenway Sessions,” over at the Phoenix music blog, On the Download.

7/6/2006 3:45:29 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [1] |  

Jason Johnson is a bad pitcher. His line — 4 IP 7 H 5 R 4 ER 4 BB 3 SO  — bears that out.

He’s also a stupid pitcher. Which, when you’re a bad pitcher, is not a good thing to be.

That botched pitch-out in the first, where he didn’t get the ball out far enough, Tek had to reel it in, and Carl Crawford ended up reaching first on catcher’s interference?

Stupid.

Pitching out of the windup in the fourth, with blazingly fast Crawford, who leads the league with 32 steals (and should be an All-Star), standing at third with a huge lead?

Astoundingly, monumentally stupid. And I don’t care if Schilling did it the other day. Johnson is molasses-slow, even in the best of circumstances.

In fact, Johnson is so slow, and Crawford is so fast, that the latter almost got hit by the pitch.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

(And when’s the last time we’ve seen two guys steal home in the same week, anyway?)

But as bad as he was, our third straight loss to a last-place team cannot be ascribed entirely to Jason Johnson. The Boston Red Sox scored two runs against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last night, scratching together just four hits off a decidedly mediocre pitcher named Tim Corcoran, and being held hitless for two and a third innings by their entirely lackluster bullpen.

Can we only beat NL teams now?

What happened to that juggernaut we all remember from, uh, not so long ago?

Of course, playing in a rinky-dink arena like the Trop, where a batter must clang one off the correct catwalk for a home run, where chintzy turf makes for sky-high bounces, and where the bullpen mound is situated right there in foul territory, does not help. But it's also not an excuse.

Bright spots? A few.

Julian Tavarez lasted three whole innings allowing just a hit and a walk. (Why the hell can’t he pitch like that with the game on the line?) Craig Hansen struck out the side for a perfect eighth. Tek hit his second homer in four days (apparently hoping power will compensate for his anemic average, Papi beat that infernal shift, Mike Lowell doubled again, staving off those second-half doldrums that are supposedly gonna be descending any day now. (And Mr. Hidden Ball tried gamely to squeeze an extra out via some tricky legerdemain; it didn’t work, but was worth a shot.)

We have GOT to win tonight.

We cannot get swept by this team. Not with Chicago our last stop before the All-Star break. If this is how we play against the Devil Rays, I shudder to think about what the White Sox will do to us.

We’d built a nice little four-game cushion, and lucked out that those first two losses didn’t do anything to deflate it. Now we’re down to three.

But don’t panic. Uncle Bob says it’s gonna be OK.

7/6/2006 12:51:04 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

 

Marlin (Makaira nigricans). 1) Any of several large game fishes of the genera Makaira and Tetrapturus of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, having an elongated, spearlike upper jaw. It is found primarily in the temperate and tropical regions of the Atlantic Ocean, from about 44° N to 30° S. 2) A member of a major league baseball team that plays in an empty football stadium located in Miami, Florida. As part of the awful National League, the team is easy prey for the likes of the Boston Red Sox — except, of course, when ace Dontrelle Willis is facing scrap heap pick-up Jason Johnson, a game that ended the Red Sox’ recent 12-game winning streak. The next two contests were easy wins, however, thanks to the guts of Mike Timlin and the longball heroics of