Hey everybody. Since I’m more well-acquainted with football than baseball anyway, I decided to throw together some stuff to look out for in today’s game. It’s going to be mostly scheme-related stuff from last week. Will New England continue to do the same things they did last week against the Steelers?
The Patriots used what looked like a nickel base against Pittsburgh. That means that they exchanged a member of the front seven (linemen and linebackers) for an extra defensive back. Usually, this means taking away a linebacker and replacing him with a cornerback to cover an extra wide receiver. The Patriots did this, but they also stood their defensive ends (usually Rob Ninkovich and Chandler Jones) up in a two-point stance, like this:
Depending on how you use it, this gives you the power of a typical four-man defensive line or the versatility of a 3-4 look.
The other thing that New England did with this alignment was bring in an extra safety instead of a cornerback. They did rotate corners in, of course, when the Steelers brought an extra receiver onto the field. But New England stayed in its “nickel” look for virtually the entire game, even when Pittsburgh went with a heavier look. Against these heavier personnel groups, Patrick Chung came into the game and played near the line of scrimmage, looking for all the world like an outside linebacker.
Despite the Patriots’ lack of typical defensive linemen in the game, they were still able to cram the box with bodies when they brought Chung into the game, as seen here:
Despite the Patriots use of only two linemen with their hands in the dirt, they showed a look that discouraged the run and encouraged a pass. And with so many bodies to keep track of, Donta Hightower was able to sprint past the center to sack Roethlisberger and put Pittsburgh in a third-and-long from deep in its own territory.
I would’ve liked to do a better job with this, but I’m kind of in a rush. Next week this’ll be top notch I’m sure.
This is already late, and it’s going to be short and sweet on top of that. And there aren’t going to be any fun videos or examples of my sharp wit. Lefty and Righty are moving today, and things aren’t going particularly well. I’m writing this on my phone on the way to pick up our U-Haul.
Boston’s still playing well, and they have a chance to cap off August in style tonight against the Yankees. But playing well isn’t going to be enough to make any real noise. They hit well against acclaimed Mets phenom Noah Syndergaard, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to conquer Wade Miley’s current susceptibility to contact.
David Ortiz hit the 494th home run of his career in the 6th inning…
UPDATE: It is now like 20 hours after I started this post, and I was up till 6 a.m., and it’s likely that no one’s that interested in a recap of the Mets game that we lost.
Instead, here’s a timeline of our move:
All day up until 6 p.m. – Relentless, ineffective packing.
6 p.m.– Let’s go get the U-Haul! That won’t take long!
7 p.m. – Okay, we’re ready to pack the U-Haul!
8 p.m. – Gee, we sure do have a lot of stuff.
9 p.m. – First off, where in the name of all that is holy is our pizza? Secondly, we are screwed.
10 p.m. – Finally on our way over to the new place! But first, let’s pick up this couch from my brother’s old roommates and oh never mind, the pullout bed is made of jagged steel designed to drive mortal men insane.
11 p.m. – Progress is slow. The mood is grim. We are sweating very badly. I am developing several rashes.
12 a.m. – Why is this happening.
12:10 a.m. – One of our new neighbors from next door (not in our apartment building thankfully) comes outside and delivers this line to me as I’m standing there leaning on the last thing we took out of the U-Haul: “No. No. Ten minutes and that’s it.”
Me (sweating): “Uh, what?”
Him: “Something something you guys are being noisy something something Allston is THAT way (aggressive pointing gesture) something something I’m calling the cops.”
Me (depressed): “Wait, can’t we just talk about this – wait, stop calling the cops, don’t dial –”
Him: “Hello, yes, I’m a very angry middle-aged man. Instead of having a rational conversation with this young tired fellow, I’m calling the cops while he stares at me. It’s a really good time.” (Hangs up).
Him (to me): “They said to call 911.”
Me: “…okay. Well, we’re leaving, and we probably won’t be back for another few hours.”
Him (spluttering angrily at the idea of us doing any more moving, threatening to call 911 if he hears any more noise, walking back to his apartment): “Something something Allston is THAT way (pointing).”
Me: “What’s your name?”
Him: “I live at [address].”
[door closes]
Scene.
I am very depressed at this point.
12:30 a.m. – We head back to our old residence to clean up and put together our second truckload. It takes a long time. We are miserable.
2 a.m. (???) – We finish packing up. No one is happy. Everyone is unhappy.
2:15 a.m. – We double park the U-Haul and proceed to unload everything into the lobby of our apartment as quietly as possible. It actually starts to become not so miserable because it kind of feels like we’re playing Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell or some other sneaky video game.
4:08 a.m. – We officially get everything into the new apartment. Much whispered rejoicing.
4:10 a.m. – I flip the bird in the general direction of the mean guy from earlier. Well, his apartment building. Whatever.
4:30 a.m. – We bring the U-Haul back to the U-Haul Center. We then have some trouble getting an Uber but eventually we get one.
5:00 a.m. – We arrive at our new place. I start organizing my bed and get ready to pass out…until I realize that I left my backpack at the U-Haul place. I kid you not.
5:15 a.m. – I get in another Uber and head back to the U-Haul Center, where the early workers have taken my backpack inside. I am very, very grateful that nothing has happened to it.
5:40 a.m. – I get back home. I shower.
5:55 a.m. – Bed. Sleep. But only 2.5 hours of it. Ain’t life grand?
New Red Sox President of Baseball Operations – Dave Dombrowski (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)
The Red Sox stormed their way to a 9-1 victory over the Indians last night behind a relentless, 16 hit offensive attack and an outstanding outing by Eduardo Rodriguez. But that was overshadowed by the big news that broke late in the game: the Red Sox hired Dave Dombrowski as President of Baseball Operations, and Ben Cherington declined to stay on as the team’s general manager.
There’s a lot to digest here, but first and foremost, this was a smart baseball decision. Dave Dombrowski is a great executive and has proven his ability to build talented teams in Montreal, Florida, and Detroit. Better yet he did it through a healthy balance of drafting, trading, and free agent signings. He’s well respected and was very, very highly sought after once he parted ways with the Tigers. In his statement he said he made it clear to John Henry (who he worked for on the Marlins) and the rest of the Red Sox ownership that Boston was his first choice.
Of course, the flip side of this is the fact that Ben Cherington declined to stay on as GM and will be moving on when the season ends (he’s staying on until then to help Dombrowski with the transition). Cherington has been with the Red Sox his entire career — since 1999. He’s had a hand in all of the wonderful things we’ve enjoyed as Red Sox fans in that time period and was the chief architect of the 2013 World Series team.
I’m curious as to how this played out behind the scenes. Did Cherington feel forced out, or could he not reconcile the fact that he wouldn’t have the final say in baseball decisions? Many teams in baseball now have a president of baseball operations and a general manager, most notably the Cubs with former Red Sox executives Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer. If he felt forced out, it would be a bit of a raw deal for Cherington, who despite two consecutive last place finishes (maybe) I thought was doing a fine job. The farm system is as strong as ever and the contracts that didn’t work out in ’15 were very similar to the contracts that won the Sox a World Series in ’13. In any case Cherington will be missed, and you could tell some of the players were emotional in their postgame interviews, most notably Pedroia and Ortiz.
The Game:
Eduardo Rodriguez spun a real gem on Tuesday night. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)
Rollercoaster Rodriguez was back on the bump, and true to form, followed up his most recent awful outing with his most recent spectacular outing.
Pitchers
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
HR
PC-ST
ERA
Rodríguez (W, 7-5)
8.0
6
1
1
0
5
1
114-79
4.48
I guess this up-and-down pattern is better than stringing multiple bad starts together, but I think everyone in the organization is looking for a little more consistency out of Eddie. Interestingly, his ERA is now 1.67 in night games and 10.67 in day games. Maybe Duardo isn’t a morning person.
The one run he surrendered was a longball by Michael Brantley. Home runs have been a problem for Rodriguez, he’s now given up 11 in 14 starts.
The offense, meanwhile, continued to be a well-oiled machine. They pounded out 9 runs on 16 hits.
The big blow came in the bottom of the second on a bit of a lucky break for the Red Sox. The bases were loaded with one out for Mookie Betts, who appeared to strike out on an 0-2 hook from Indians’ starter Trevor Bauer. As Betts was walking towards the dugout, the first base ump trotted in towards the plate, had a brief chat with the home plate ump, and they eventually ruled that Mookie had fouled it off. Replays showed pretty conclusively that Betts never made contact with the pitch – the ball didn’t appear to change direction or rotation after the swing.
In any case, Mookie climbed back in, Bauer tried two more curveballs, but after seeing that pitch three times in a row, Betts was ready for it and cleared the bases with a double. I can’t ever remember the first base umpire coming in out of his own volition to rule that a swing and miss had actually been fouled off at home plate, but I’ll take it.
Travis Shaw smacked four more hits and is now hitting .371. I’ve also decided that he swings like a righty; his swing looks like it’s dominated by his top hand.
Other offensive highlights:
Brock Holt! was 3-5 with two RBIs.
Papi was 2-4 with two doubles, a walk and an RBI.
Sandoval was 2-5 with two singles, but both balls would have been doubles for virtually any other player on the team.
Swihart was 2-3 with a walk and two RBIs and is hitting .438 over his last four games.
Every starter had a hit except Hanley.
Notes:
-The Jimmy Fund annual Radio-Telethon is going on right now, donate if you can.
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)
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.
