Take A Deep Breath...And Let It Out

I have some staggering stats for you following last night's down-to-the-wire game.

455. Fenway has sold out 455 consecutive times. Tying the Indians record for most consecutive sell-outs. When they return home after the brief trip to Texas, they will break the record.

.621: That's Dustin Pedroia's batting average over the past 7 days.

3.79: that's the ERA for the starting pitchers. Not bad when your team has average 5.3 runs a game. Look for the ERA to get lower as we roll into September and October. (Especially if Beckett returns to his dominance, and Lester gets his power under control.)

97. That's how fast Lester threw one pitch against the Orioles. He claims to have never gone higher than 96 in his career. If he can get a fastball that fast under control, he will be the ace of the AL.

44: Stolen bases for Jacoby Ellsbury, who has struggled to get on base all year. Imagine how much larger that number would be if he could get on base more often...

110 and 191. That's how many times Dustin Pedroia has scored and how many hits he has this season. Those are both Major Leage Leading Stats.

2. That's how many players the Red Sox have who are in the running for MVP, some might even say that they are the front-runners.

and finally...


3. That's the games back we are on Tampa Bay, who still have one more night with the Yankees, who have now won 6 straight road games. We still lead the Wild Card, but I would love to retake the East just in time for the playoffs.


Now, back to the game.

Dice-K did well, not one of his stronger outings, but not bad either. We just could not get any offense going.

Except for Dustin, who looks like he could get a hit in his sleep. The bottom half of the order produced too, at least, a little.

Youk was again out, and Jason Bay had the day off, so already the bats are just a little bit weaker.

The Sox started to come back, then stalled, leaving the score at 4-2 Orioles.

Then Papi got a free pass. Dustin got a double, and Kotsay hit a wall-bouncing triple to score them both, tying the game in the bottom of the 8th.

The Sox held the Orioles, who threatened with two men on in the 9th, but could not deliver, and then the bottom of the order came up. Cora singled, then Crisp singled on a wack-a-doodle bunt that 99% of the time rolls foul, but didn't, then Jacoby, who popped out in the 7th with the bases loaded and 2 outs, stepped up and bunted. Cora dived into third, the ball was overthrown, so he got up and scored, meeting his teammates at home, ecstatic to have come back and finished the sweep, something that had been unable to do against the White Sox and against the Yankees.

Yay. And Crisp was running his heart out, not realizing that Cora was the winning run and the game was over.

That might be the weirdest walk-off win I have ever seen, on a sac-bunt and a throwing error.

We have the night off. Good. I'm tired and I need to watch the season opener for FOOTBALL!!!! Yay.

Oh What A Night

Order of the day: first we'll talk baseball, then college football and then the NFL

First up: Baseball
This game was the most ridiculous, the longest, and the craziest game I have ever sat
through.

And I had to balance this while watching the oh-so-nerve-wracking gymnastics team finals (USA won a silver...they should have had gold) and Michael Phelps (who was, at least, stellar and I never doubted him) I can't handle more nights like this one.

Papi hits not one, but TWO homers in the first. We go into the second inning 10-0 against the rangers. Game over, right?

Wrong.

If anything, this game highlighted our bullpen problems and then put them under the microscope. Zink was good for three, then he got rocked. The innings between Zink and Okajima were horrible. Who has a 12-2 lead and blows it to be losing 16-15 in the eighth? Ladies and Gentlemen, our bullpen.

This was Zink's first game at the Show ever, so I am willing to forgive him and let him have another chance. He was nervous. And we made a lot of errors. That was a sloppy game. That could have been the most embarassing loss in the history of the regular season (we have had some stupid post-season losses that I will not mention here). All I gotta say is thank goodness for Youk. The beastly man struggled earlier when the Sox were hitting like an offensive machine, but came up with not one, but TWO homers in the fifth and eighth. The second of which would prove to be the game-winner.

Here's the goal for tonight: bring that same offense, but please, please, please have better defense. With the solid southpaw on the mound, I have no doubt that Lester can rebound from the loss to the ChiSox and turn in a dominant performance. Everyone will be tired, I know, but that's okay, because the Rangers had to stay up for last night's nonsense too. I told my housemate how long the game was and she said "Wow. How many innings did it go to?" and I replied "Eight and a half." That is so not normal.

Oh well, we are the Sox, and we did notch the all-important W (which is even sweeter coming off a day where the Rays snagged a beautiful L) I think the absence of Longoria is hurting them and the Sox need to capitalize on this. Perhaps the addition of Byrd (thank goodness for replacing Buchholz) will give the Sox that extra bit that they need to maybe even take back the division.

Speaking of Clay. Look, he's a young, talented pitcher, but something is not clicking. It might be something small, I mean, look at Okajima. He went from lights out to terrible, and then changed one pitch and started looking lights out again. The big boys know Clay's pitches. He's not really throwing that poorly, but he's getting hit. A lot. So maybe a little trip down to the minors and a little work on his pitches to really get in there and fool a batter and we could possibly have another ace on our hands. Call me crazy, but I have faith in the kid.

And now onto college football...

I just have one complaint to go on: I hate that Ohio State is expected to go to the BCS championship again this year. I'm so tired of seeing them ride their easy schedule to the top only to lose and/or be blown out by a better team. The BCS either needs to go to a playoff system so we can have a real national championship, or at least end the love affair with Ohio State and come up with a way to get the two best teams into the National Championship, even if they do have two losses. As a consumer (my fave team is I-AA and has no shot) who wants to watch good football, I want to see a game for the national championship, not OSU getting their butts handed to them, again.

Finally, the NFL:

Okay Ladies and Gents, football season is fast approaching, and power rankings are in. Here are mine:

• New England Patriots
• Not only am I a fan, but no one has come up with an answer for the Brady-Moss-Welker trio and with five versatile and talented backs, that offense will keep defenses guessing
• San Diego Chargers and Indianapolis Colts
• These guys are tied, mostly due to injuries. While they don't keep them out of the running for Superbowl contention, they certainly don't help.
  
• Dallas Cowboys
• Good until the end...this may be Romo's year to finally win a post-season game. Maybe.
  
• Jacksonville Jaguars
• The human bolling ball and big man tandem of Taylor and Jones-Drew is scary good
  
• Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns
• Tie, again, though the Browns may slip because of injuries. Big Ben looks great this year, and the depth of the Browns is great, not to mention they are hungry for the playoffs after being kept out last year
  
• Minnesota Vikings
• Running backs! And QB Jackson looks a lot better, so teams will have to start paying attention to him as well.
• New York Giants
• Despite being reigning champs, a few off-season losses and the dreaded superbowl
  hangover don't help much.
• Washington Redskins
• Don't laugh, Jason Campbell is the real deal, and he's only going to get better. Plus the addition of Jason Taylor will only help. And for the first time EVER the Skins have minimal injuries and no key players out at the start of the season.
• Green Bay Packers, Seattle Seahawks, Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints
• Why a four-way tie? These four teams are the wild cards, each making some moves in the off season that might propel them to greater hieghts or they might just stay middle-of-the pack. Here's each team's various wild-cards. Green Bay: Aaron Rogers. It could go either way. As for Seattle, they've stepped up the defense, but the offense has been doing some shifting. The Eagles its all about health. If they stay healthy, they stay in contention. Problem is, when are the Eagles ever healthy? Finally, the Saints have beefed up their defense to match what is, already, a really good offense.
• Houston Texans
• Their rank would be higher, if only they weren't in the AFC South

• Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  
• Mostly because the only division competition they face is the New Orleans Saints, if the Bucs stay consistent, they'll probably be in the playoffs.
  

The Runners Up
(This bunch of teams probably won't make the playoffs, but they might be 8-8 or 6-10 on the season, and deserve mentioning.)

• Buffalo Bills
• Arizona Cardinals
• Denver Broncos
• Baltimore Ravens
• New York Jets
• Carolina Panthers
• Chicago Bears
• Cincinnati Bengals
• Detroit Lions
• Miami Dolphins (I think adding Pennington gave them a big boost)
  

And the Bottom of the Barrel Teams (lets just call it a "rebuilding year")

• St. Louis Rams
• Kansas City Chiefs
  
• San Fransisco 49ers
• Atlanta Falcons
• Oakland Raiders
  

A Long Road Home

It has now been five days since my last entry. Dang. I knew I was behind, but I didn't know I was this behind. What's my excuse? Between watching the Red Sox, preseason football, Michael Phelps and the Olympics, sleep has fallen by the wayside. Now fully rested and able to snag a few minutes, I will now talk what we are all here to discuss: baseball.

We split a series against the ChiSox, and quite a few things happened during this four-game series.

-my rock, my best hope (Lester) lost his first game in 2.5 months (that's just a ridiculous stat, by the way)
-Pedroia stops his road hitting streak at 29. (also ridiculous, considering how bad the Sox can be on the road)

-Clay B. had a really bad (and somewhat unlucky) night, though I tell you what, he was throwing good, they were just hitting better. I have hope for him yet.

-the bullpen wasn't too terrible. no, really, they were actually pretty decent (what we saw of them)

-the Sox come home with a winning record for a road trip! 4-3


-how 'bout Jason Bay being as solid as he can be? I mean, he's no Manny, but that trade , which significantly lowered the level of stress for the Sox, added years to Tito's life
-Jose Contreras came of the DL on August 9th, and promptly returned following an Achilles tear and is out for the rest of the season (his surgery yesterday was successful, however)
-Jed Lowrie. I want him at short, or Cora, but mostly Jed. Julio, take your time on the DL.

Other good/funny things that happened over the weekend:

-Evan Longoria was placed on the DL (no, I don't wish people would be hurt, but this does help out the Sox) So now they Rays have two key players out for at least two weeks

-The Yanks are now 9 games behind Tampa, and 5 games behind the Red Sox. Please oh please oh please can they keep losing?

-The American's crushed the World record (and the trash-talking French) in the 4X100m relay in what was one of the greatest Olympic moments ever.
And then the men's gymnastics team, with ZERO Olympic experience, and not favored to medal at all, had a stellar night to take home the Bronze.


-finally, Manny is already stirring up controversy at his new post in La-La-Land. Many great player's locks have fallen to the will of Joe Torre. Damon, for example, lost his Jesus-do after acting like Judas and jumping over to the Dark Side. Now Torre is in the land of image-is-everything, did you really think he'd stop the whole hair cut thing? 11 days ago he asked Manny to trim his hair (wherever he goes, the Manny must be appeased). Manny, who thought he was finished early last night and could not be found for a few minutes (classic), has yet to get the requested "trim". Here's some more on the "Dreadlock Deadlock"

Oh Manny, how I miss you, yet how glad I am that you are gone ...(hey, I'm a Red Sox fan, it's my nature to be contradictory)

Becks pitched a gem last night, racking up the Ks. Problem was, John Danks was almost perfect. Then he whacked Wheels (Ellsbury) on the butt with a pitch and it all went downhill from there. Beckett looked like the Ace we all know and love last night (good timing with that, by the way) in what will be a very important month for the Sox, Beckett's return to a higher standard is welcome news. Wake is on the DL, Buchholz, though he is actually pitching OK, can't seem to fool batters, and Dice is heart-attack inducing (though he rarely loses). This makes watching the Sox pitch so much more stressful, especially when Beckett is so close but just a little off. But this resurgence is great, because the means now (hopefully) we have the stellar 1-2-3 punch of Dice, Beckett and Lester, plus Zink, who should be pretty good, and Clay has a lot of potential, he just needs a little work. We still have one of the best (and certainly the most interesting) closers in Paps.

So here's to Beckett (may he be as dominant in Aug-Sept-Oct 2008 as he was in 2007) and a good road trip. Now, lets hope that the temporary set-backs can stall the Rays out a bit to get the Sox back in contention. (What, I still am, and will always be, worried that the Yankees are going to go on a run at the end and take it all away from us)

Back at home tonight with the high-scoring Texas Rangers (yee-haw!) Good news: Zink is pitching in his MLB debut (13-4, 2.89 ERA, .228 opponents batting average in the minors). That means most of these batters have never seen him before. Hopefully Tito and Cash and all the guys can allay his nerves and he'll be the heir-apparent to Wake (the guy is 42, he'll retire eventually)

I leave you with a question. There have been (not counting war years and a few lost to injury) five major players spanning the years to play in Left Field at Fenway: Lewis (whose cliff is now gone), Williams, Yaz, Rice, Greenwell, and Manny. Will Bay be like the few, the proud, the Sox Left Fielders? Or will he be like the names we don't mention here, a handful of starters scattered over the near 100 years of Fenway and the Monster? Who knows, he's a young guy, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.