Month: July 2015

Lefty and Righty Visit Cooperstown, Red Sox Win Series Against Tigers

Posted on July 27, 2015 in Game Recap, Players, Random Stuff

As everyone knows, Pedro Jamie Martinez was inducted into the Hall of Fame yesterday in Cooperstown, NY. As some of you know, Lefty and I were on hand to witness the pageantry and beauty of it all.

It was an early morning for your two heroes, leaving Boston at 7:45AM after returning to Boston from the South Shore at 1:30AM, but thanks to the AC and loud music, I was able to stay awake while driving and Lefty was able to stay awake while doing Saturday’s recap.

We got to the Cooperstown area around 11:50, which left us plenty of time to drive all around town to find the free “Red” parking lot, which of course was full by the time we got there. So we settled for an adjacent lot that was hawking fresh coconuts infused with rum and charged $20 to park. We walked into the village, I got a chocolate ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles and a hot dog, then we started the trek out to the big field where the induction ceremony took place.

Pedro’s induction and speech were last since they didn’t want a mass exodus of people after he was done, leaving a fraction of the crowd for the remaining inductee(s). Biggio, Smoltz, and Johnson all had fine speeches – Johnson’s was particularly interesting – but I think we would’ve enjoyed them much more had we been a little more prepared. It was mid-to-upper 80s and we were sitting in the middle of an open field without chairs or sunscreen. I’ve never rooted for cloud cover harder in my life. Biggio’s address, while heartfelt and emotional, was structured similarly to a high school graduation speech and seemed to last forever, but was widely praised, probably by people who watched it in a climate-controlled atmosphere. By the time he was done Lefty and Righty were both experts in predicting which way the clouds were moving and when there would be 5 glorious minutes of shade.

After a couple hours and my and Lefty’s bodies being 50 shades of red, it was Pedro’s turn to get inducted. His intro video gave me goosebumps and his speech, while a little disjointed and repetitive at times, was awesome. Enthusiastic, energetic, and an electric atmosphere, thanks mostly to the large Dominican contingent in attendance. It felt almost like a Pedro start, with drums, whistles, air horns, chants, and of course Dominican flags everywhere.

This atmosphere wasn’t just for Martinez’ starts at Fenway, either. One of my most vivid memories of a Pedro start was at Yankee Stadium. My family and I were sitting in the upper deck and I was about 12 years old, decked out in Red Sox gear, probably wearing my Pedro All Star shirsey (I was there for the ’99 All-Star game), so naturally the Yankees fans were twice as nasty because they knew I wouldn’t fight back. But sitting a couple rows behind us was a group of about 12 Dominicans with drums and whistles and an enormous Dominican flag. They were like our guardian angels, shouting down anyone who heckled us and going nuts every time Petey struck someone out (which I think was about 13 times). There was a bewitching, tangible energy in the ballpark, with Yankees fans hating Pedro and Red Sox fans loving him. Like all of Pedro’s starts it was one where you’d go to the bathroom when the Red Sox were hitting so you wouldn’t miss anything he did on the mound. I think the bullpen ended up blowing the game for the Sox (again, vintage Pedro), but it was something I’ll never forget.

The journey home was uneventful except for the exceptionally unexceptional McDonald’s we stopped at in Cobleskill, NY. We made a four mile detour to get there and it was evident that many who were at Cooperstown had the same idea. The staff was not prepared for that kind of influx of customers.

The Game:

Classic Papi Follow Through (Photo Credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Classic Papi Follow Through (Photo Credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne)

It appears that the rumors of David Ortiz‘ demise have been greatly exaggerated. Once again Papi got off to a slow start this year, and people were saying this was the end of the line, he just can’t do it anymore and he’s finally aged. I would gently point out that he’s started nearly every season since 2009 this way, and it has always turned out ok. Last night Ortiz hit his 18th and 19th round trippers of the season and drove in a career-high 7 men, pushing his OPS back up to .800 in the process.

Xander added four hits to his total on the season, padding his lead for most hits by a shortstop in the big leagues this year.

Every Red Sox starter had a hit, and they piled up 20 in total.

Eduardo Rodriguez was the starter and went seven strong innings, a very nice bounce back start after a disastrous last outing against Los Angeles.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Rodríguez (W, 6-3) 7.0 3 1 1 1 6 1 4.26

Eddie didn’t seem to be tipping his pitches in this one, and as Lou Merloni pointed out on WEEI, he even tucked his chin (the “tip” that something offspeed was coming) before buzzing a 97 MPH fastball in on Victor Martinez. Hopefully we can put that whole mess behind us now.

Notes:

-Some bad news: Brock Holt! had to leave the game after awkwardly rounding first in the first inning. He would remain in the game and even collect another hit before giving way to recent call up Jemile Weeks. Holt going down is the last thing this team needs.

The Sox Have Lost 9 of 10, Are Pretty Depressing

Posted on July 26, 2015 in Game Recap

Lefty and Righty are on their way to Cooperstown right now to see Pedro Martinez’s Baseball Hall of Fame induction, so this blog is gonna be lacking in production value. Also, I’m exhausted. Also, the Red Sox lost, and it wasn’t really ever close. They’ve now lost 9 of their last 10.

Steven Wright gave up a solo home run in the first inning to former Red Sox great Yoenis Cespedes. After a scoreless response from Boston, J.D. Martinez drew a four-pitch walk from Wright to start the second inning and Blake Swihart’s problems catching knuckleballs started.

1. With 1 out, J.D. Martinez advances to 2nd on passed ball on ball 1 to Alex Avila.

2. Avila strikes out swinging, but it gets by Swihart. Avila gets to 1st easily and Martinez advances to 3rd. James McCann grounds out to third (still with 1 out) and Martinez scores. 2-0, Tigers.

In the bottom half of the second, David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez tried to get the Sox back into it with a double and a single, respectively, but Ortiz was thrown out at home for the 1st out of the inning. Unfortunately, it goes down as another questionable decision by Brian Butterfield.

After 1-2-3 innings for both teams, the Tigers got back-to-back singles to start the 4th. Of course, Blake chose this moment to let another one get by him.

3. Passed ball. The runners advance to 2nd and 3rd. A ground rule double to the center field triangle by Nick Castellanos scores both Victor and J.D. Martinez (no relation, I think).

In the bottom half of the 4th, Boston responded by loading the bases with 2 outs by way of two walks and a single. But Mike Napoli grounded out, and the inning ended harmlessly.

4. After leading off the 5th with a double, Jose Iglesias takes third on another Swihart passed ball. Fortunately, Noe Ramirez comes in for Wright and gets out of the inning without allowing a run.

Blake did his best to make up for his struggles behind the plate by tripling in the bottom of the 5th and scoring on a Mookie Betts ground out. But it was canceled out by Nick Castellanos’ solo home run to lead off the 6th. 5-1, Tigers.

The rest of the game pretty much passed without incident. Hey, maybe we’ll win the series. We’ll take some pictures of Pedro for you.

Xander Bogaerts, Such the Man

Posted on July 25, 2015 in Game Recap
Xander Bogaerts Puts the Team on His Back (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Xander Bogaerts Puts the Team on His Back (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

For the love of all that is holy… we needed that.

At this point, everyone knows that Xander Bogaerts has been fantastic during the 2015 season. He’s been on fire for the better part of two months but, perhaps more encouragingly, has been consistently good for the entirety of this calendar year. His defensive progression and clutch hitting have been well documented by the proprietors of this here blog. One of us, who tends to be less optimistic than the other but shall remain nameless, just said as recently as yesterday that The X was bound to come back down to earth and stop hitting in the clutch. The other just grinned and acknowledged the theoretical statistical validity of this claim, but chose to ignore it and believe in the superpowers of an extremely handsome and talented young man from Aruba.

Xander came to bat in the bottom of the 11th (already with two hits under his belt) with a runner on second and the game on the line. Once again in a crucial situation with two strikes Bogaerts came through, delivering a line drive single on a changeup well off the plate outside.

He may end up being the single fiber that tethers me to my sanity as the 2015 season plays out. Like an All Section High School Athlete transferring to prep school to squeeze out one last year of high school eligibility before accepting his fate to ride the pine at a D-2 state school, I’m going to hold on as tight as I can.

Xander ameliorated an otherwise regrettable situation wherein Frederick Porcello turned in arguably his best start of the year, but the Sox offense again failed to back a strong outing. (How has Chili Davis escaped blame in this whole charade? The offense, as a whole, has been abysmal. It must be his cool name).

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA
Porcello 7.0 5 1 1 0 6 0 105-71 5.51

<rant>I like Ryan Hanigan a lot. He gets on base all the time, and he is a good receiver. Most of the guys on the staff seem to have a lower ERA when throwing to him. Which makes it all the more baffling as to why he is prone to making mistakes that your average high school catcher would not. For instance, he doesn’t protect his throwing hand when catching. As a result he’s been hit on that hand by foul balls more times than I can count this year (math never came easily to me), and it caused him to miss significant time. What really drives me crazy though is the amount of balls in the dirt he casually tries to backhand with runners on base. Last night in the 2nd, Porcello threw a pitch that barely fell short of being able to be caught on the fly – the easiest kind of ball to block. Hanigan tried to backhand it and it skipped under his glove, moving the runner into scoring position with one out. A wild pitch by rule, but really a passed ball. Maybe I just got spoiled growing up watching Jason Varitek, who could’ve blocked that in his sleep. But the last thing this starting staff needs is someone making it even easier for the opposition to score.</rant>

Notes:

-I have Verlander on my fantasy team so this was about as perfect as the night could’ve gone for me.

Sox Play Pretty Well, Still Lose

Posted on July 24, 2015 in Game Recap

Altuve cranks it, Sox lose. Lather, rinse, repeat. (ESPN Photo)

I’m gonna level with you here. I fell asleep during the game last night, so I’m officially an old man. We were up 2-1 when I fell asleep and we were down 3-2 when I woke up and I was too tired and ashamed to rewind and figure out where I nodded off, so I just went to bed.

At this point, the fact that the Sox lost isn’t even surprising or interesting to me anymore, so let’s talk about how much Jerry Remy hates Josh Maurer instead. It’s palpable. Maurer’s just doing his thing, describing every single detail he can possibly latch onto, and he’ll throw it over to Jerry, and he gets nothing. Crickets. It’s even better when they cut to a view of the booth and Maurer has a grin plastered on his face during every awkward exchange. Pure comedy. We need to get in the Vine game and put together a blog of every uncomfortable moment.

Worse, Maurer has gone 0-7 during his stint as the play-by-play man, and while I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice guy, his presence has clearly been poison. And like Righty said last night, Remy can probably hardly stand Orsillo, so throwing some young go-getter from Pawtucket in the booth with him was doomed from the start. Or from my perspective, television gold.

Anyway, what happened in this game? Wade Miley didn’t pitch very well (the 5 walks jump out at me), but he got around the trouble he found himself in and only gave up 1 run through 6 innings.

PITCHERS IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Miley 6.0 4 1 1 5 4 1 4.33

Mookie Betts and David Ortiz both doubled in the first inning to open the scoring, but Miley gave that run right back on a solo home run by Marwin “Not a Real First Name” Gonzalez in the bottom half of the inning.

With two outs in the top of the 2nd and Mike Napoli coming to the plate, most Red Sox fans were probably thinking about what channel they’d switch to at the commercial, but Napoli absolutely crushed a Lance McCullers breaking ball that he left high and inside over the porch in left field. Ryan Hanigan followed that with a single, and Betts walked, and Holt singled…! But Brian Butterfield made a bad decision in sending Hanigan home, and the catcher was thrown out pretty easily to end the two-out rally.

Miley held strong throughout his start, allowing several runners into scoring position but preventing them from actually scoring. He even got some help from Hanigan in the 5th, who threw out Altuve at third on a ball on the dirt.

It was in the 7th inning that I fell asleep and things went sour. Alexi Ogando relieved Miley, got an out, then promptly gave up a game-tying home run to a pinch-hitting lefty Colby Rasmus. 2-2. Then he gave up a single to Altuve and was relieved by Junichi Tazawa, who was probably not expecting to enter the game before the 8th. But that’s no excuse for his performance: two doubles and a single, giving up two runs in the process. The damage would have been worse if not for a good relay that got Marwin “Not a Real First Name” Gonzalez stretching for a triple.

It looks to me like Mookie screwed up by stepping forward first, but it was solid contact either way, and Tazawa clearly just didn’t have it. Tommy Layne came in to get the last out of the inning.

But guess what happened in the top of the 8th? The Sox rallied! Against no less than Will Harris, one of the best relievers in MLB this year. Big Papi took him deep to open the inning and make it 4-3. The Astros had been throwing him high fastballs all night, and you could tell he was just itching to take one over the fence. Then Hanley Ramirez singled on a bloop down the right field line and stole second!

Sandoval struck out and De Aza popped out, and old reliable came up to the plate with 2 outs. That’s right, Mike Napoli. As it turns out, I don’t know what got into him last night, but he was clutch again. Or the baseball gods gave the Sox a break after Betts’ poor defensive play in the 7th, because Preston Tucker’s reaction was even worse. He just kind of stood there as the ball sailed over his head. It was a legitimate super-clutch double off Luke Gregerson, brought in specifically to get Napoli out (?!). And the score was tied at 4. Napoli advanced to third on a wild pitch, but Hanigan grounded out to end the chance.

Craig Breslow came in for the 8th and made quick work of Carter, Conger, and Hoes. But after getting Rasmus to fly out in the 9th, he gave up a walkoff solo shot to Jose Altuve of all people. Turns out Altuve has 9 home runs on the year, but still. Not a great look. It was actually a pretty good pitch, low in the zone. But Altuve is pretty low in the zone himself.

At least the trip is over.