4/30/2008 12:50:21 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Mr. Halladay was unhappy last night.

Let’s just be thankful our friend Vernon gave us the other kind of outfield assist. Or else it’s a decent bet Big Papi would’ve been gunned down at the plate, and we’d be calling for Tito’s head for not pinch-running. (And yes, yes, I understand now why he didn't. But trust me: if that game had gone into extra innings there were gonna be a lot of unhappy people in that 43-degree wind-tunnel, not least the players.)

“Sometimes the greatest games are played in April,” the drunk guy a couple rows behind me opined at in the middle of the ninth.

And so it was.

An entirely dominant — and somewhat unexpected— deep start from young Lester. (Just a B+?)

A couple overpowering Ks from Papelbon and a jaw-dropping defensive play from Pedroia.

A moonshot foul. Then a walk.

A bloop single.

A deep inhalation of breath.

And a seeing-eye rocket into center.

Chug-chug-chug. The big man trundled homeward.

And suddenly the green infield was a churning sea white and red.

Sorry Roy. Big ups to you. You're a helluva competitor. But complete games are only really worthwhile when you get the W.

4/30/2008 11:31:53 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Get ready for an eight-game losing streak.

With the hated Blue Jays coming to town, a team we cannot seem to beat, it would hardly be illogical to suggest that our woes shan’t be ceasing any time soon.

Papi can’t hit. Or slide. (And shouldn't be allowed to in the first place). And he's hurt. And sick.

Our bullpen can’t hold leads.

Our linuep can’t even eke out more hits than errors.

Tito (arguably) can’t manage.

It’s been a rough stretch. But April’s almost over.

And at least we have another tawdry Roger Clemens spectacle to keep us entertained.

4/28/2008 12:49:48 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

What a pleasant way to spend a Tuesday evening.

Didn’t seem like it would be, at first, but young Pauley did a serviceable job, and, after allowing things to get mildly out of control, handed the reigns to a succession of more experienced arms.

And they held the proverbial line — more or less — as the #1 and #2 of our lineup set about staging a near single-handed comeback.

A rollicking Fenway Park was most appreciative of their efforts.

Jacoby is a stud who hits bombs.(Twice!) He also flies fleet-footed on the basepaths to score winning runs.

My fantasy team is tanking over the past week — Ryan Howard? Hello? — but thank god I’ve got Dustin Pedroia and his 1.385 OPS to keep things (sort of) afloat. Heck, I wouldn’t have even minded if he strapped on the tools of ignorance for a few innings behind the plate. This guy is a tiny superman.

When David Ortiz gets back to being himself we’re gonna have an otherworldly one-through-four.

And soon enough, our pitchers will start routinely turning in seven-inning starts. I think.

Winning is fun. Let’s do it again.

Etc.
Bye, bye Gordo?

If true, this is a big, huge blow to the Globe sports section, which is losing legendary talent left and right. (And, it’s one of the few pieces of good news for the Herald in recent times.) But good for Gordo. He’s the best baseball writer in town, and has been for a while. He’s a little long in the tooth to be grinding it out as a beat writer, and he’s more than earned to opportunity to strut his stuff on a national stage. If he can somehow wangle a buyout, all the better.

4/23/2008 12:30:53 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

“Josh Beckett is 38-19 during two-plus seasons with the Red Sox, and currently ranks fifth all-time in winning percentage (.667) among pitchers with at least 50 decisions. Beckett moved ahead of former LHP Babe Ruth, and stands mere percentage points behind Smokey Joe Wood (116-56, a career winning percentage of .674).”

“Manny Ramirez hit his 494th home run Thursday night, passing Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff for sole possession of 24th place on the career list. The Boston Red Sox star added No. 495 an inning later.... Ramirez, who grew up minutes from Yankee Stadium, has 55 homers against New York. Jimmie Foxx (70) and Ted Williams (62) are the only players with more.”

Not bad for a night's work. And it only took us nine innings.

4/18/2008 3:11:54 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

4/17/2008 5:19:02 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Sometimes a game gets so unsightly that you just wanna pull the plug and cut your losses, even if there’s a chance, however slight, of a bounce-back.

And sometimes, sad to say, you wonder if you should feel that way about your relief pitchers.

(Want more ugly? Check out this blog.)

4/17/2008 11:50:50 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

4/16/2008 2:35:59 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [1] |  

(With apologies to Ian Dury.)

Tavarez left ‘em loaded. Timlin didn’t implode(d).
Lugo really motored. Then scored.

Don’t knock down Pedroia. Or else he'll destroya.
Way deep enough to score one. Sac flies are fun.

A couple from Big Bloopi. (But three from Kevin Youki.)
A blown save by Borowski. Kapow.

Sorry. Really I am. A bit punchy today today, is all.

One other potential reason for cheerfulness: Jed Lowrie starts tonight. He’s slotted in at 3B, but one has to wonder — given the way Julio Lugo’s been hitting, whether he’ll be getting some ABs at SS soon.

And one, perhaps, not to be so sanguine: Lester’s only gotten out of the sixth once so far this season. Last night was the second start where he couldn’t escape the fifth. His WHIP is 1.62, and his K/BB is, uh, .67. It’s early in the season, of course, but is this a question we should be asking?

4/15/2008 5:38:04 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Deep in the bowels of the new Yankee Stadium...

The theory being floated in some quarters is that Gino Castignoli’s “curse” — now with Wikpedia entry! — backfired. That by burying an Ortiz jersey beneath the mortar of the second coming of Stade Fasciste, he didn’t hex the MFY but rather put a pox on Big Papi.

It sure would go a long way toward explaining this horrific .070 batting average.

And so, on the off chance that’s actually the case, I’m glad those idiots spent five hours with jackhammers digging the thing back up.

(I agree, of course, that Castignoli’s prank is pretty dumb. But charges?)

Not sure if Papi’s taking the night off again tonight or not, but I wouldn’t mind if he did.

We showed last night we can win without him. And without Oki and Paps. And with a D+ Dice-K.

It just takes three hours and 55 minutes to do it.

Great game, great series, and great that we get to have another go at ‘em in just two days.

Ah, baseball. "The Best of All Games."

4/14/2008 3:03:11 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Well, that was some game.

A little bit more dramatic than perhaps it needed to be, but a win is a win.

Now onto other matters.

The Yankees better take advantage now, because their new home next season might not be so hospitable.

I don’t believe in curses, of course, but this is pretty funny. Especially the wailing and gnashing of teeth over at NYYFans.com. (“I don't like it....who the hell wants some disgusting scungy Sox shirt buried in one of the most sacred places on earth?”)

Anyway. They’ve got a new manager and a lacking lineup.

Even Howlin’ Hank Steinbrenner is lowering expectations. ("Honestly, I’m not reading too much into this series. We’re too banged up for that.”)

They could be ripe for the picking.

Pitch well, young Bookwood.

Etc.

* I mentioned Bill James online the other day. In my inbox this morning I got a message hyping

BillJamesMatchUps.com, which, every day, offers the lifetime match-up stats between every pitcher and every batter of every team playing that day.

Ordinarily, each stat sheet will cost 99-cents (or $4.99 for 10 of ‘em, or you can subscribe to season pass for $29.95). But the site is the free for the month of April. Check it out.

Here’s the sheet for tonight’s game.

* The Buckner thing the other day was nice and all, but the “closure” it supposedly gave us was fictitious. That actually happened 18 years ago.

But one other dark corner of the Red Sox’ past that would be nice to close the book on? The Bucky-Fucking-Dent game. (If proving all those “1978” doomsayers wrong as the Yankees loomed in the East last season wasn’t enough, I’m not sure know what is.)

But before we close the book, let’s read one more. Richard Bradley’s The Greatest Game (Free Press) is entirely devoted to that blindingly sunny day and the tortuous season leading up to it. Its exhaustively researched 257-pages offer an incisive look at a time when the Red Sox — and the game — were worlds removed from what they are now.

“The playoff started at two-thirty in the afternoon on October 2,” Bradley writes. “Inside Fenway Park, 32,925 fans would watch as if the weight of a combined 324 games was riding on every pitch, because it was. For Red Sox fans, whose team had come tantalizingly close but fallen short for some sixty yeas, the weight of decades was riding on the outcome.

All that’s changed now. And thank God for that.

But this thing of ours, it never gets old.

Tonight it all starts again.

Weather permitting.

4/11/2008 1:56:33 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

4/10/2008 5:56:09 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Well, good for the Tigers. But they were due.

Um, Ortiz is due too, right?

Not a very pretty game.

Lester was hardly dominant, but then again, neither was his bullpen.

These things happen.

Let’s hope Lowell’s not gone for too long.

And let ‘em tonight.

P.S. Sean McAdam’s right.

4/10/2008 12:23:36 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

At a bar near Fenway...

* Why is Doug Mirabelli in a black overcoat? Great to have him back and all, but last time D-Lowe and Dave Roberts wore their Red Sox jerseys. Is he planning to steal through shadows and spray-paint the Green Monster tonight?

* The opening ceremony is great. Beautiful. Moving. Why do the people next to me have to make jokes about "Ted's head"?

* And why is NESN ruining the ring ceremony with bad ragtime instead of having Carl Beane announce each ring recipient's name?

* Julio Lugo gets his ring. "Another shortstop bust!" says some guy. Seven games into the season.

* "Royce Clayton?!? What's he doing here?" OK. I'll admit, that's a good question.

* Johnny Pesky. Man, it just got a little dusty in here. Doing it himself today, without Bobby and Dom. We are so lucky to have him.

* (What do you suppose Manny said to him? I'd give at least a million yen to know.)

* BUCKNER! OMG! HOLY @#$%&! WTF! NO F'IN WAY!

* OK. Composed now. Seems to be getting a good response. Thankfully. But, uh, unlike his '86 nemesis Keith Hernandez, he won't be getting any Just For Men ads any time soon.

* Someone in the bar says it cost $100,000 for that flyover. "You know who paid for that? We did!" I don't mind. It was wicked loud.

* JD Drew has been good at the plate and has great eyes in the outfield. Nice save from what could have been a disaster.

* A guy next to me asks me to what JD's been hitting. I check the Herald and see he's been hitting .375. People say the newspaper is doomed. I really hope those people are wrong.

* "Ah," the guy on my other side says. "It's good to see the Sox wear the home whites again." It is. It really, really is.

* Holy shit. Did that hawk just drop a live rat on the crowd?!?!?! That's one souvenir some fan will never forget.

* Some dude, bottom of the sixth: "Awright, first pitch home run. This is it. Beep!" Manny grounds out. "Oh, that was that pitch. When was the last time Manny hit a triple?" Actually, it was the bottom of the third of this very game. I'm too nice to tell him. (EDIT: On further reflection, he may have been speaking facetiously. Either way...)

* JD walks one in. OBP power!

* (Top of 7) Man, Dice-K does know how to field his position. Fires one to first with a bullet. Good for him.

* A couple Tigers fans walk into the bar. People laugh at them. They are good sports. "No laughing!" she says. They had standing room tickets, and it was cold. Fair enough. Also, their team is losing.

* (Top of 8) "Man, the Tigers blow," the guy says to his girl. "What is going on in Detroit?" "Too much crime," she says. "Too much crime."

* No. Actually, Neil Diamond singing "Sweet Caroline" on a soundstage with Tom Werner and Wally the Green Monster is a crime.

* And, despite that horrific negation of all the beauty this opening day, we win. "Dirty Water" is an infinitely better song.

* See you tomorrow.

4/8/2008 8:45:34 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

4/8/2008 10:40:30 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I hate the Blue Jays more than the Yankees.

Those jerkfaces!

So the Sox are 23-34 against Toronto dating back to 2005 — the most wins by any opponent.

Coincidentally, as someone point out on Sons of Sam Horn last night, the Jays are 23-34 versus the Yankees in the same time period.

How nice.

At least Frank Thomas is on my fantasy team!

But, alas, so is Josh Beckett.

Anyway. A shitty trip from start to finish. (The trip to Canada, that is. I’m still glad they went to Japan. Maybe a little bit less of a dog-and-pony show upon their return stateside would’ve been nice. And yeah, I have no doubt they’re hurting, but Papelbon should’ve shut his trap.)

That’s all in the rear-view mirror now.

Home cooking tonight. (Literally — I just saw Javier Lopez stocking up at the Boylston Street Star Market.)

And “rings and clean underwear” tomorrow.

Hopefully it all will give ‘em the jolt they need, because after that it’s 20 straight games against the cream of the American League.

There’s reason for hope. Lugo’s looking logey, but Beckett felt good and Buchholz did OK, and JD Drew is, improbably, the hottest hitter on the team.

Now the question is: are the Tigers ready to lose nine in row?

Etc.
I was lucky enough to interview Bill James last week, who had some interesting things to say the coming impact of Lester, Ellsbury, et al, about Big Papi’s baserunning prowess, and about his own baseball obsession. (I was only allowed 15 minutes with him...the exhaustive Freakonomics Q&A, which must’ve taken him all day, is definitely also worth a read.)

If you haven’t already, definitely sign up his new site, Bill James Online. For just three bucks a month, you’ll get unfettered access to the vast depth of his cogitation and curiosity.

Here’s just one tiny iota of the knowledge that might be gleaned there.

Bill, I thought I'd throw this one at you if only because it involves the composition of the current Red Sox offense, and so perhaps you've already thought about it. I was surprised to see that only one Sock last year — Papi — scored more than 86 runs. Pedroia (.380 OBP) scored 86, Youkilis (.390) scored 85, Manny (.388) scored 84, and Lowell (.378) scored 79. All four of these played between 133 (Manny) and 154 (Lowell) games, and only Lowell is very slow (although Manny is probably not a great baserunner.) The Tigers scored only 20 more runs on the year, but had four guys over 100 runs scored, plus Guillen with 86. The Yanks scored 101 more runs on the year, certainly a big difference, but had *seven* players over 90, including four over 100. Do you agree that the Sox' distribution of individual runs scored is unusual? If so, do you attribute it to characteristics of the Sox' players, style of play, or batting orders; or to more frequent off-days and less reliance on the "front line"; or to luck; or something else?

I would attribute it to batting order primarily.   Coco Crisp, our leadoff man at the start of the year, battled injuries and bounced out of the leadoff spot.   Youklis, Pedroia, J. D. Drew and Lugo all jumped in and out of the 1-2 spots in the batting order. . .Youkilis, because he CAN bat anywhere in the lineup and so does, Pedroia, because Terry was trying to keep the pressure off of him at the start of the year and so didn't move him to the top of the order until he started to hit, Drew, because we were trying to get his bat started, and Lugo, because his speed allows him to be a top-of-the-order hitter against lefties.  

The Internet is a big place. So maybe mean ol’ Murray Chass can set up his own online venture now that he’s reportedly got a lot more free time on his hands?

Uh, doubtful.

(Check in tomorrow for photos and comments before and after the game!)

4/7/2008 3:25:07 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

(With apologies to The Undertones.)

Here we go again. And this time it counts. Again.

A second opening day. One week later. Thousands of miles away from the last one.

Same pitching match-up. Hopefully the same result.

Can we fulfill all those glowing expert predictions?

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Like Manny says, “we got a long way to go.” (Seriously, is he gonna be blabbing to the media this much all season? If so, it’s gonna be a wicked fun ride.)

But things should shake out well if the suddenly-un-camera-shy Mr. Ramirez keeps hitting like he has been. And if Ortiz can somehow get his average and slugging percentage up above .000. And if Beckett reclaims his rightful place at the top and pitches like a man in that position should. And if Dice-K is a true-blue #2. And if J.D. Drew ever deigns to play again. And if Papelbon stops pitching like he did in Tokyo and Los Angeles. And if Buchholz doesn't become Billy Rohr. And if Ellsbury even comes close to living up to the breathless hype. And if all the new books about “Dominance” and “Dynasty” don’t jinx us.

I think we’ll do OK. Sure, the team is dragging. But as Manny seems to be showing, it’s better to look good than to feel good.

Let’s win. Again.

4/1/2008 12:28:30 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |