Entries Tagged 'Youkilis' ↓

The Sox handed themselves a Wild Card entry last night as the rain, some powerful hits against crappy pitching and a long, long night that flipped the clock ended any guess as to where they would be headed on Tuesday. With this season all over except a couple games that mean absolutely nothing –unless someone gets hurt, that is– I look at the playoffs with a few lingering thoughts:

• Mike Lowell is most likely done. As soon as he hit that ball last night you could tell it was over. Thank you, Mikey, you did a great job this year.
• The rotation is looking good, but I’m still nervous about Masterson and Delcarmen “shoring up” the bridge to Pap.
•  The 2008 AL Cy goes to Clifton Phifer Lee. At 22-3, Clif Lee has done an incredible job in the Indians rotation against almost every team he’s faced. Also, it’s excellent that there’s no “close call” this year. I think his record and performance basically leave no question.
• The 2008 AL MVP is a toss-up for me. I like Joe Mauer of the Twins, and I think he’ll get some serious consideration, but how can you not choose either Pedroia or Youkilis? Kevin Youkilis, especially, has stepped into the 4-hole and is bordering on thirty home runs and has over 115 RBIs. He’s become the power-hitting corner infielder that they need him to be.
• The trading deadline and wire waiver deals brought us Kotsay and Bay. I like both of the additions. Kotsay has certainly helped give the team “room for injury” and is able to handle Right and First without embarassing himself.
• Was it just me, or did it bring back all sorts of memories when Casey let the ball go through his glove at first last night? Eeep. That’s the kind of superstitious bullshit that’ll make a ballplayer say the Hail Mary five hundred times.
• The Sox are going to Anaheim and I think it’s going to take all five games if they want to get to the ALCS. The Angels aren’t the same team they’ve seen over the past two series. Don’t let K-Rod out of the gate.
• The Rays have won the AL East and they deserve it. That doesn’t, however, mean they’ll be able to perform as well as they did in the regular season. We shall see how they fair against the AL Central winners (We all know it’s the Twins, right?).
• I’m really, really pulling for the Brewers to get the Wild Card. They haven’t seen the post season since ‘82. And, they have a couple of really fun players to watch.
• I need to say that I am psyched that Don Orsillo is getting some games in as a broadcaster for the ALDS. Don Orsillo is articulate, knows the game and has a fantastic delivery. He’s become one of my favorites over the last few years.

SO! With the Wild Card secured and the Sox headed to Anaheim, I will trust that Tito makes the right calls for the ALDS and let the good times roll.

It’s happening already: the talk about the Sox taking on the Cubs in the World Series.

Right now? I’m not sure anyone wants to face the Cubs. They seem to be on a holy war effort to claim a post season spot, and even with Soriano taking a six week break, the Cubbies are on pace to keep the best record in baseball by the All-Star break.

Papelbon bailed out…

It took back-t0-back home runs by Youk and Crisp (you may want to cut and paste or bookmark this page since I believe it’ll be the last time that happens in Boston) to save Paps from a loss. He blew the save (his first blown save since May 9), and it looked like Hanson was going to cough it up again in the 10th, but the Sox stuck it to them and Youk can have his ALMOST cycle day in Cinci’ (he was just missing a triple).

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.

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.

Kevin Youkilis and the Sox avoided arbitration and came to agreement on a 3 million dollar, one year deal. Initially, Youk was asking for 3.7 and the Sox countered with just over 2 million.

Nice pay day for a solid defensive and go-to clubhouse guy.

This means that Epstein has successfully avoided arbitration with any of his players since taking over as GM.