Long Time, No See...

...A walkoff blast from Big Papi, that is! It's been almost two years, the last one coming in September of '07. Tonight, in a game that marked Wake's return to the rotation, and a very strong return at that, Papi broke a 2-all tie in the bottom of the ninth by taking a Tony Pena pitch high and deep into the right field seats. In the commercial break before that half-inning began, I was just thinking to myself how cool it would be if, for old time's sake, Papi did the walkoff thing he did time after time several years ago. Not that I'm taking credit for any ESP (Extra Sports Perception *wink*), but it sure was nice to watch my pseudo-prediction come true and see the team gather at the mound to greet the once and future Red Sox Nation hero. The patented Papi walkoff magic was actually his second long ball of the night. The first one came in the second inning, tying the game at one.

Wake and V-Mart, the other big story of the game: Wake went 7 innings, allowing 1 run, walking 1, and fanning 3. V-Mart, who had never caught a knuckler in a game situation before, did a fabulous job, with the only ball eluding his glove coming in the first inning with no-one on base. He embraced the challenge of catching the most unpredictable pitch known to man and came out on top. It's great to see Wake have such a strong outing after over a month on the DL; it's as if he never left. If he can keep it up, with V-Mart behind the plate, that's great news for the Red Sox.

Tomorrow they go for the sweep of those other Sox with Junichi Tazawa on the hill. Last time we saw Tazawa, he was blanking the Yanks over six innings. Dare we hope for a similar outing against the White Sox?

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!!

The One Where The Rookie Outpitches The Ace

It's about time to take a Missing Persons ad out for Commander Kick-Ass. The Imposter was on the mound again last night and he was baking some delicious cookies for the Yanks, tossing them out over the plate through eight innings as if to say "Snack time, boys!" The only thing missing was the milk.

Sabathia, on the other hand, wasn't lights out either, but he didn't have to be while his teammates were gobbling up the cookies and sending them flying out of the park. The only bright spot in that game was my mute button, so I didn't have to listen to the Yankee rah-rah spewing out of the mouths of Miller and Morgan.

Saturday's game was far more pleasant to watch, with the Sox hammering A.J. Burnett & Co. to the tune of 14 runs while Japanese rookie Junichi Tazawa spins 6 scoreless frames, escaping jams in a way his hero Dice-K would be proud of (while being a little less maddening to watch in the process). His dazzling performance bumped rapidly-declining Brad, the author of Friday night's debacle, to the bullpenny with Wake taking his spot in the rotation on Wednesday.

Tazawa's start was encouraging, especially after last Sunday's loss in Texas. Buchholz, who has put together a string of encouraging starts himself, toes the rubber tonight against favorite Red Sox pinata Jose Contreras. Sox-on-Sox action this week. May the best (*Red*) Sox win!

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!

The Commander Goes AWOL

Has anyone seen Commander Kick-Ass? He's gone missing. He was supposed to report to the mound at Rogers Centre tonight at 7:05, but some other guy showed up instead. He looks a lot like the Commander, a.k.a. Josh Beckett, but he sure as hell doesn't pitch like him. We've seen That Other Guy on the mound before, in Philly during interleague play and for the better part of April, but most of the time, we see The Commander instead. Guess even ass-kickers need a vacation every now and then.

The Sox won tonight, thanks to the lumber. Quel surprise! It took 10 runs to close the deal thanks to some 8th-inning shenanigans by our high-wire closer who looked about as discombobulated as That Other Guy Who Looks Like Beckett. Big Papi partied like it was June at the plate with a 2-RBI double and a dinger. Everyone in the lineup, even Gonzo The Glove, he of the .210 average, chimed in with a hit. Ricky Romero, one of the few rookies the Sox knock around this season (they OWN this kid) was chased after 3 2/3.

So I hear the quirky Rays skipper Joe Maddon dipped into the Grecian Formula to spark his team in anticipation of a "themed road trip". Ummm...bring me up to speed here: since when do baseball road trips have themes? MLB Fan House has a hilarious "Dugout" column about Maddon's latest exploit, featuring a parody of those ubiquitous "Just for Men" ads. Will the dye job work? For the sake of our Sox, let's hope not. Besides, I just can't see Tito sporting a rug; it just ain't right and it's scary on so many levels... The dome stays chrome.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!

Sink or Swim

I've come to the point where I blog only when I feel like I have something to say. Lazy, maybe, but it's a long, 162-game season and the way the Sox have been playing in the second half, save for a few bright spots (last night's game, for one), has been uninspiring, to say the least. They are still in the lead for the Wild Card, however, and that's what this blog's about.

From tomorrow's game forward, this team needs to play hard, play smart, and just plain PLAY BETTER! Watching the Little League games is more fun than watching the big boys play lately. On that note, congrats to the Peabody, Mass. team for advancing to the Little League World Series. They could seriously teach their Red Sox heroes a little about clutch hitting. The offense needs to produce consistently. The starters need to do a better job at holding runners on and pitching more economically. The same can be said for the bullpen, who may have been playing over their heads in the first few months of the season, especially Delcarmen and Ramirez. Defense needs to improve too.

I'm not offering this as an excuse, but all the roster shakeups of late can be rough on team chemistry. When you don't know who will be playing where from game to game, how can you be expected to play as a team? Adam LaRoche was a Red Sox for, like, five minutes, as was Chris Woodward. Their teammates get to know them and then they're gone. Shakeups can be a good thing, but there's something to be said for too much of a good thing. Who's on first? What's on second? I don't know who's locker's next to mine now... You think Tito and Millsy will go on the road with an Abbott and Costello bit anytime soon?

It's time for the 2009 Red Sox to show the rest of the league and the fans just who they are. Are they the 2006 (or pre-2004) team who folds it up early and hits the links in October? Or are they the 2005 team, who makes the playoffs, but gets their clocks cleaned once they get there? Perhaps last year's team, who came one win short of the World Series. It looks highly unlikely that they are the 2004 or 2007 teams who went all the way, but just about anything can happen in the game of baseball. Sink or swim, boys (and that includes the ones that run this show).

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!

V-Mart and Reddick and Youk, Oh My!

It's been awhile since we've seen the Sox break out the brooms and that's what they did this weekend to the O's at Camden. A sweep, and especially a road sweep, is just what the team needed to turn their turbulent second half around. In the first post-trade deadline series, there was a close game (Friday night's 6-5 win), a shutout (Saturday's 4-0) and a slugfest (today's 18-10 rout) The bookend games were about the offense picking up the Richter Scale pitching and the centerpiece was a Beckett gem, with one-inning cameos from Oki and Bard.

V-Mart showed the Red Sox why they made the right choice in trading for him by knocking 6 hits with 5 RBI in the series. All but one of those hits came this afternoon, when he tied his career high with a 5-hit game. Saturday night he spelled Lowell by playing first while Youk slid across to third and today he was behind the plate. Speaking of Youk, the guy's seriously raking. He was relentless against the O's, going 10 for 12 in the series with 3 walks and 5 RBI. AA call-up Josh Reddick, a 22-year-old outfielder who has yet to see action in Pawtucket, made a Jacoby Ellsbury in 2007-esque splash, going 4 for 11 with a single, two doubles, and his first major-league long ball. He made his major league debut as a pinch-hitter on Friday and started both Saturday and Sunday, due to injuries to Drew and J-Bay. If he keeps hitting like that, it'll be hard not to keep him up with the big club. At the very least, if he gets sent back down it should be to AAA Pawtucket, and then re-called next month when the roster expands.

Sweeping this series was especially important for the Sox because the next two stops on this road trip are The Trop and the Wind Tunnel (a.k.a. The New Yankee Stadium). Lester will pitch in both series and Beckett will pitch in the Yanks series. The rest of the rotation is very sketchy (Wakey, come back!) Let's hope the offense produces like they did in the O's series because these two coming up are going to be very interesting...

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!!

V-Mart Open for Business...

...and featuring a fine collection of First Basemen. The Red Sox made their statement yesterday in a hunt for lumber that brought coveted (though maybe not quite as much as Adrian Gonzalez) catcher/1B Victor Martinez to Boston, along with a first baseman switcheroo with Atlanta, shipping Adam "we hardly knew ye" LaRoche to the Braves and getting Casey Kotchman, former Brave and Angel, in return. Cliff Lee is a Phillie and Roy Halladay is still taking the hill north of the border. The Sox have upgraded their offensive attack, but are still vulnerable when Beckett and Lester aren't on the mound.

Overall, I like the trades and I'm glad the team made some much needed improvement on the offensive end of things. They had been clawing and scratching for runs lately and perhaps adding a bat like V-Mart, though he is slumping at the moment, could spark the on-again, off-again offense. A change of scenery and more protection in the lineup may help the switch-hitting slugger who gave the Red Sox fits whenever he played against them. It will take some lineup juggling on the part of the skipper, but that kind of depth means the team will not have to rely as heavily on Mike Lowell as they did in the first half. Kotchman is younger and hits for a higher average than LaRoche, albeit with less power. He also has a better glove and fits the bench role better than the guy he's replacing.

Pitching still worries me, however. Halladay would have been great, but the Jays played hardball with all teams interested in snagging him and as a result, he stays put. As it is now, Beckett and Lester are a formidable 1-2 punch. After them, the Sox have a glut of #5 starters (or those who wish they could be #5 starters). Buchholz shows promise, but he's still hampered with confidence issues when men are on base. Penny can be very good one outing and horrid the next. Dice's season was lost to the WBC and poor offseason conditioning. Smoltz is an experiment that just didn't pay off. He's trying as hard as he can, but the magic is gone. He has yet to have a quality start in a Red Sox uniform. Wake's on the DL and we don't know when he'll return and whether he will continue being as effective as he had in the first half. If he can pick up where he left off, he's been pitching like a #3. Of course, he has struggled mightily in the post-season, especially lately. Will the waiver wire this month net the Sox a decent third starter, or will they be more back-enders that the Sox already have too many of. Can Michael Bowden or even Junichi Tazawa fill the gaping hole in the middle of the rotation? We shall see...

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!!