Entries Tagged 'Lester' ↓

Lester was obviously brilliant keeping his focus for both the first no-hitter and complete game of his young but amazingly storied career. The fact that emotions were as high as they were during the World Series last year had almost no deadening on what was about to happen a couple of nights ago. As much as I’d love to say that this kid is one of the best pitchers, he isn’t. He’s a damned fine lefty who will do a great job and make a ton of money during his tenure. He may end up with a Glavine-like career, which isn’t too bad at all.

Masterson was pretty darned good. Especially if you consider this is only his second one-day field trip to the majors and that he’s already back in Double-A ball. He’s definitely someone to watch, but I do hope he develops quickly. His delivery is deceptive, but it may get figured out since it takes so long for his arm to come out of the slot on breaking pitches. So far, so good.

And, finally, Mike Piazza has officially retired from Major League Baseball. Five years from now people will be deciding the first chance at his Hall status. Just to show you some highlights of his offensive career:

• 427 home runs, including the most home runs as a catcher (396)
• .308 Batting average
• 1335 RBIs
• .377 On-base percentage (not horrible by any means)

Piazza will go down in history as one of the best offensive catchers in baseball. As a 12 time All-Star selection, Piazza worked on his popularity and his swing playing early for the Dodgers and eventually got his defensive skills up to par. I’m glad he’s calling it quits at this point since he didn’t sign with anyone for ‘08 rather than trying a stint in Japan or hooking on with a minor league contract somewhere. He’ll go out on his own terms.

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.

Yesterday afternoon’s game was filled with some great “stoopit” trivia stuff. As pointed out by Boston.com:

• Kevin Youkilis has broken the record for consecutive games without an error by a first baseman (194)
•  Jon Lester is the first left-handed Sox starter to record a win in Oakland since 1995.
• Terry Francona still misses chew. (Yes, I made that one up, but I guarantee you he does.)

It’s not a bad thing to take care of Oakland, regardless of their 1 and 2 starters. They needed to walk out of there with the series win and give the fans a nice start to the season.

With J. D. Drew starting last night, the team finally felt a little like normal, I suppose. Tomorrow night, Tim Wakefield gets the start in Toronto’s home opener and Kevin Cash will begin the campaign to prove he’s not Mirabelli.

First homers for Papi and ‘Tek felt good as well. Nice to see it starting to become a “regular” season.

Right now there are a number of very nervous Red Sox fans waiting to see how bad Beckett’s back is doing. I’m certainly one of them. During a warm-up session, he came down hard on loose dirt and jammed his muscle (an MRI provided no indication of a bad disk).

Jon Lester, if Beckett is still hurt, will more than likely get the call for Opening Day in Japan.

How’s that for the southpaw? He comes up from the minors, proves to be a dependable lefty, then goes out for treatment of his lymphoma, then comes back the very next year and wins the final game of the World Series. Now, it seems, he’ll get another boost to his resume.

Congratulations to Yooouuuuuuuk!  He set the American League Record for consecutive games at first base without an error. The overall record is 193, so he could certainly do it this year. GO YOUK!

Notes:

• How about that Daniel Cabrera? He is a complete mental case. Wow. Nice job on the whole maturity thing. I suppose if you’re struggling and having a hard time, it’s only natural to actually beat your chest and give those scathing looks at people while they’re safely over 100 feet in the other direction. I loved Jerry’s quote, “If you want someone, go out there and get ‘em.”
• Jon Lester looked like a man on a mission last night. He pitched with a fire like he hasn’t had since early last year. The gloves came off. This kid wants to stick around and he’s not going to back down. Good for him. He’s 4-0 this year and he’s gaining more confidence every outing.
• Dice-K (14-11) goes today. Hope he doesn’t walk everyone.
• The Orioles haven’t given up, but they sure do look like they’re about to. We’ll see what happens today after the fire was lit last night. I assume that the only person on the Os who isn’t calmed down yet is Ramon Hernandez.
• Oh… and the Yanks won last night, but that doesn’t really matter very much at the moment.