May 11th, 2008 — Dice-K, Greg Maddux, Hall of Fame, Manny, Papelbon, Papi
Again, it’s a roller coaster of walks and biting the nails sometimes with Dice-K, but he was saved by the numbers 8 (Crisp) and 9 (Lowrie) and Paps to remain unbelievably undefeated. He has a Jon Lester record this year; squeaking out wins despite weird and sometimes erratic pitching.
Congratulations to Jed Lowrie, who will no doubt be a big-leaguer someday, who hit his first MLB home run. He golfed it out of the park just in to the third row, but that’s a huge deal for the kid. He explained to the reporters that the person gave him the ball from the stands if he received a Beckett-autographed baseball (which Beckett did… but probably tainted with chawjuice just to show he’s not a pansy when he signs balls and dates your sister).
Manny went 0-5… Not the quickest way to hitting 500.
Ortiz went 0-4. Expect him to be taken out of the lineup this year for his knee again. If not only for the DL rest, then possibly for another trip under the arthroscope.
Mr. Greg Maddux, please come forward to accept your award. Future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, holder of four Cy Young awards, a World Series ring and 17 Gold Gloves has finally reached a hell of a milestone: he’s the 9th pitcher in MLB history to record 350 wins. Simply, totally amazing. A career that, so far, spans 23 years in which only ONE season was not above 15 wins… this guy is one of the best pitchers of our generation and it’s been a pleasure to follow his career.
Finally, Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms out there. Children: do something nice, but do it yourself.
May 10th, 2008 — Lester, Manny, the game
Between the lazy chase of Manny in left to miss a play (resulting in a two-run lead), to Jon Lester’s lazy afternoon, laboring through 5 and 1/3 innings of awful pitching and Julio Lugo’s 13th (!!) error of the young season, the Sox need to wake up and get hungry.
Right now, there are a few people who have their heads in the right place but it seems like the team as an entity is experiencing some trouble clicking on all cylinders.
Last night’s game in Minnesota (one of my all-time least favorite places to see a televised game — probably the top one now that the Seattle Dome of Doom is dead) looked like an exhibition game or Spring Training.
The Sox need to get a little fire going. Maybe some frustrating losses (and a couple more blown saves, perhaps) will put the fire into the team. Who can say. It just seems like they mailed it in last night.
May 7th, 2008 — General
Punny.
So! The Wakefield we all know and love was on the mound last night and not his evil twin with the flat, hittable and highly overrated knuckler. Nope. We got the GOOD Wakefield last night and when that dude is on, his knuckleball is in a class by itself. Well, truth be told, he is in a class by himself since he was the only knuckle ball pitcher on any big-league roster as of Opening Day.
With Papi and Manny hitting back-to-back “dingers”, we see three home runs shy for Ramirez to hit 500. I thought for sure it would have happened already, but I guess we’re just lucky he’s making contact and getting on base.
Schilling continues to downplay his initial hardcore stance about surgery over therapy. We’ll see how it all goes…
May 6th, 2008 — Craig Hansen, Dice-K, Papelbon
Dice-K gave up EIGHT, count ‘em, EIGHT walks last night in a WIN in Detroit. How he could possibly escape after issuing eight walks is beyond me. Just to put this into perspective: Dice-K just gave up more walks in one game than David Wells did in his last partial season with the Sox. So far, the Dice-K gamble is paying off because the rest of the team seems to give him a ton of run support.
His starts haven’t been quality starts, but they’ve been wins. He’s 5-0.
Oh, and as far as Craig Hansen goes: I don’t think he’s major league ready. I’m not sure he ever will be and I don’t fully blame him. He came from St. John’s and pitched in his first-ever season in professional baseball, got knocked around and then sent back to the minors without much fanfare. They tell him, hey, it’s not going to work unless you get that changeup going. It’s still not going. His slider, I will say, is coming along pretty well. Also, I saw a level of anger that he’ll need to tone down; it’s absolutely affecting his delivery.
Want controlled anger (read: insanity)? Paps has his 10th save in 10 tries. He’s like a machine.
The Sox won, in Detroit, and they lead the division by 3.5 games. Not bad for all the issues they’ve had in this young season.
May 5th, 2008 — Ortiz, Youkilis
If you don’t know anything about baseball, that sounds incredibly lascivious. Thankfully, most of the people here have a little baseball knowledge to know that Youk is so hot with the glove AND the bat that he took the spot of the ailing Big(?) Papi. Ortiz’ right knee, the one he had surgery on a few months ago and that troubled him all of last year, is bugging the hell out of him and relegating him to the least dangerous place he can be: el bencho.
If it weren’t for past utter destruction in the clutch with said ailing knee, Ortiz would be thrown on the disabled list quicker than you can say Mike Hampton.
Youk, on the other hand, is doing unrealistically well this young season and definitely deserves to sit in the 3 hole for a bit. Well, at least until Papi decides to be himself again.