Entries Tagged 'post season' ↓

I am quietly hating and loving the standings of the AL East. On the one hand, we have the Red Sox, my team from birth with whom I have felt an enormous emotional connection through good times and bad.

On the other, the streaking, red-hot, in-your-face, talented Rays. The former bottom-feeders who just couldn’t scrape together a winning season (Boggs or not).

The fact that the Rays are now a very comfortable 5.5 games ahead of Boston means little to the Red Sox, who will tell you that it just doesn’t matter and that they’ll catch up or take a Wild Card if necessary. They don’t care. They took the Wild Card in ‘04, ended an 86 year drought and kicked ass through a four game sweep.

Will it happen again?

The Red Sox need to get back the injured talent (no excuses; everyone who plays in the bigs IS a big league player and should perform as such). They also need to learn from their mistakes. Not as defensively sound as they could be, the Sox still enjoy one of the better defenses in all of baseball. Keeping their youngest players mentally checked-in will prove to be a hell of a task if they get to the post season.

The Ray and the Sox have six games against each other through the rest of the season. Standings notwithstanding, they need to sweep one or two of those series.

The other interesting thing is that they don’t play the Twins (very tightly up the rear end of the Sox for the Wild Card; 3.5 games as of today). As a matter of fact, they play Texas and Cleveland, which can only help the Twins and White Sox. Such a predicament for the Sox at this point in the season is not a good thing.

So! The help the Sox need is all about the schedule of the Rays.

Hey, Sox… Earn that spot.

PEDROIA AND BECKETT AND EVEN J.D. AND OMG.

The Sox aren’t headed anywhere. They have home field advantage to play the opening game Wednesday night at Fenway Park in the 2007 World Series.

The ALCS was all about the home crowd. If you succumb to the notion of visiting teams during any regular season game that the home crowd is nice, but “we don’t need it”, then you’re fooling yourself. The crowd may not be as electric as they are in the post season, but they’re behind the team; especially in good times.

Beckett is the MVP, deservedly so, but the rest of the team including J.D. Drew, Lugo and the defensive skills of  Coco Crisp were enough to go against the other team with the best record in baseball. The difference? Boston won one more game. That’s it. What separated the entire season is one game. How amazing is it, then, that the Red Sox found themselves in the World Series based on the fact that they won the season series against Cleveland. If it had been the other way around and Cleveland was working with home field advantage, would they be headed to the Fall Classic?

Dice-K had a gutsy first three innings. Unfortunately, that’s all I can say about that specific performance. What irks me and others is the perceived lack of intensity. I believe inside he’s intense and he’s serious about winning. How else do you accomplish the level of success he’s had? You don’t. Interestingly enough, J. D. Drew shows the same perceived lack of intensity. Yes. He wants to win. Yes. He plays hard when he’s trying. But, unlike Dice-K, Drew’s intensity is measured by his bat. A pitcher has the chance for 10 strikeouts or be shown on camera pumping their fist about 100 times during a game. A fielder gets to show off if  a) the ball is hit to them or b) they get into a position where they can perform at the plate in a meaningful situation. Go back and watch J. D. Drew on any tape of any game he’s been in and you’ll see that other than when he’s at the plate, the man is playing hard. It doesn’t make me any more of a fan, but it does make me take a breath and think about his season.

Ellsbury will be a star (if he isn’t already).

Pedroia made himself heard last night and shoved a big, fat “FACE” smackdown to anyone who doubted his ability. Good for him. I’m not the tallest guy either and I can certainly appreciate where he is and what he’s been able to do.

Papelbon got his first-ever six out save AND his first-ever post season save. That dude is really good. Wow. He can dance anytime, anyplace so long as he pitches like that for us until he’s lost the gas in his tank. He will be a Hall of Famer.

And now… we wait. They need the rest. They’re tired and they’re happy. They’ll actually relax a little before the media day and the onslaught of public scrutiny hits them one more time before they get a short off-season. Let’s just hope the World Series sends them off to that short rest with a big smile.

It’s the Transformer interstitial that drives me crazy, not the “Cleveland Rocks” song playing every 45 seconds.

Even with a back-to-back-to-back home run derby, the Sox can’t collect ANY more offense… What a waste of talent. During the regular season they hit .278 as a team. That was 5th best in the AL. This post season? Don’t want to think about it, but I would guess it’s around .220 or slightly lower.

Here are my questions so far:

1. Why not Ellsbury in right? You have a righty on the mound and he could do some damage.
2. Why go through even ONE more batter with Wake? Even though Delcarmen gave up the home run, it was time to pull Wake the minute they realized he was going up in the zone.
3. Why not pinch hit for Mirabelli? Wake is out of the game — go get ‘Tek.
4. What the hell do you do for an encore after three straight losses? Their backs are to the wall.

It’s not looking good, but then again, it didn’t look good in NY in ‘04. Can they do it again? Maybe those home runs were what they needed…

GAME 3 PREVIEW

Jacobs Field, Monday, October 15, 2007 — 7:07 PM, EST (FOX Television)

Matsuzaka (0-0)- vs. Jake Westbrook (0-0)

Two .500 pitchers. One with an immense amount of hype and a huge multi million dollar paycheck and one with a losing record and a good changeup. This match up would be incredibly lopsided on paper if the year was just starting, with Matsuzaka easily taking the odds. Unfortunately, he’s had a very marginal second half and he’s lucky to have escaped a couple of games without completely impacting the Sox (they won his mediocre ALDS start).

It’s funny how things work. The Sox had the chance to blow out the Indians in the second game and couldn’t get that crucial hit in the ninth. And then the country saw how horrible our ‘pen is once you get past Pap.

Let’s hope this is a quick, clean game and a Sox win. They need the momentum to go back into their favor or this is going to be a LONG week.

No way does Francona trust Gagne in ANY game, no matter WHAT the situation… He must be put on ice for the remainder of the post season.

I’m one of those people who decided to stay up and watch the whole thing. I wanted to see how badly the bullpen was going to fall apart once Gagne caved in. You’re wondering what would have happened next if Gagne hadn’t come in? Well, Lopez proved his instability for us. I actually said out loud to no one in particular that the kid was going to collapse. Lester? He was warming up at the time as well. What would have happened if Lester had just simply come in for long relief without the call to Gagne? I know hind sight is 20-20, but that was not the right call. I personally don’t want to see Gagne come into the game unless it’s 20-1, either side.

Schilling and Carmona were dead weight as well. They both came out of the game, having little impact on all of this. (In other words, they were both completely ineffective.)

Congratulations to Manny (23) for breaking the post season home run record formerly held by Bernie Williams (22).

Congratulations to Ortiz for tying the post season record for consecutive times safely reaching base (10).

Congratulations if you stayed up even though the bullpen was sleeping.

MAN that stinks.