Starting A New Streak!

Well, after extending the season's longest to date streak to six wins, the Hose lost yesterday, basically on a single bad pitch by JB. Otherwise, he was excellent and looking like the JB we're used to seeing. So, back to the Fens for tonight's contest against the A's. After spotting the Oaklanders an early run, the Sox quickly seized the lead with Papi starting the ball rolling (actually, flying--out of the park) in the very next inning as the start of a four run inning. This was followed by a deuce in the 3d, with, who else, Papi, scoring the initial run ahead of McDonald's shot into the cheaps. Before too long, it was 11-1 and looked as if the Hose were going to sail home easily. That was until the pitching fell apart. Bucky gave up a five spot in the 7th to turn a laugher into a somewhat competitive game, and it took the combined efforts of the Sox' pen to stave things from getting any scarier until Aceves could get in and keep the Hose on top by slamming the door.  (In Laserland, by the way, Pap now has 8 saves in 8 attempts with a continuing sub-2 ERA). The Sox, overall, had a pretty good evening at the dish. Papi and McDonald led the way, with the former getting a pair of jacks, both solo, to raise his total so far to six, get his BA back above 400 and his ribbie total to 20. The latter went 3-4, including a two-bagger and the aforementioned HR, for a pair of ribbies. Also among the leaders tonight was the Hose new SS, Aviles. He was 2-5, but made every hit count, garnering four RBI's.
Separately, away from the Fens, Dice is scheduled to make another rehab start, this time with the Pawsox, one more step on the way back to the best ballpark in history. We could have a rotation yet (fingers firmly crossed).

Four In A Row!

Well, here we are in the Windy City after sweeping the Twinkies in their home park. Dubront (the victim of V's yanking vs the Yankees) against the newest perfect gamer. Sox settled that issue fast tonight. One batter, no second perfecto. Two batters, no second consec no-no (Johnny Vander Meer relaxes wherever he's buried). By the end of the inning, the Hose were up two zip and well on their way to an eventual laugher of 10-3, with Dubront getting his first W.  He tossed a respectable six innings and was succeeded by the Hose' latest Japanese hurler, Tazawa. After no pitching last year from injuries, he has looked excellent out of the pen in his first pair of outings. He still has a 0.00 ERA, and has an excellent repertoire, including a devastating cutter--just drops through the floor. He got the save tonight, although I'm not certain how a reliever who comes in with a 9-3 lead is eligible for a save. Anyway, based on his efforts so far this season, he may be the stopper the Hose have been looking for since Pap took his talents south to the world's pretzel capital (where he's five saves out of 5 tries, so far, with a sub-2 ERA).
The heroics tonight were spread throughout the lineup with every starter except Anderson getting at least one hit and Yoouuukkkk getting three. The biggest was his third inning Slam, basically putting the game away early. His average is now up to .241, and he added four ribbies. Other stats: maintaining their place among the league leaders in ribbies were Papi with his 16th and Gonzo with his 14th, while Salty put a pair in the cheaps to reach his fourth of the season. While doing so, tonight and his recent hitting binge has gotten his BA into respectability at .261. Papi continues to lead the league in hitting, well over .400, which while always a very nice number, will not start to excite me until I see it after his name well after June. The farther after June I see it, the more excited I'll get.
On a negative note, the Globe reported that Crawford will be out until at least late June with his injury. Remdog mentioned tonight during the telecast that there are unconfirmed rumors that Jake may be out as long. Neither prospect is encouraging.
Bard goes tomorrow and hopefully, the Sox can get closer to breakeven, perhaps even reach it by the start of the week. Wouldn't that be sweet!

V Goes Both Ways

Well, tonight the Sox could have dropped another, but hung in there and took the W. What made it interesting was that after leading 3-0 and then dropping behind 5-3 (shades of Saturday), Lester hung tough and gave the Hose a couple of good solid innings, limiting the damage. He appears to be just a few innings away from the Lester we've come to expect the past several years. Hopefully, he gets all the way back before too much longer. Anyway, V announced before the game that, for the time being--at least a couple of games--he was sending Bard to the pen to try to stabilize the group of firemen that have morphed into the Arson Squad. Bard was, understandably, less than enthusiastic, commenting he wasn't going to get eight other guys to start winning just by being in the pen. Yet when the time came, he came in with a man on third, score at 6-5, Sox,(complements of Ross' pair of bleacher shots --more later on that), and got the first two batters without giving up a run. Then, what does V do? He's got things going well--just one more batter to get. Does he do the logical & leave Bard to close things out? Are you kidding me? No, he brings in Aceves. Now, I grant youy Aceves has had some success so far this year as the de facto closer, but, at this moment it was starting to resemble Saturday's removal of Dubronte while he was cruising along over thye Yankees. And we all know ehere that brilliant idea went. This time we got lucky; Aceves closed out the game on a simple grounder and the Sox were back in the winning column, albeit quite a bit deeper in last than when they last had won.
Back to Ross. He got his 4th & 5th shots of the young season to put himself squarely in the race for the HR lead for the moment. These two made the diff tonight. Perhaps the magical thong has been reactivated (You'd have to look back two years to the Giants' Championship history to understand the connection). Papi and Sweeney, with a pair of knocks apiece, remain at or near the top of the league in the batting race, and Ross jumped into the fray for league lead in ribbies at 13.
A good night, all things considered, but let's hope it's just the first in a long run.

Well, yesterday's game was frustrating enough, Sox losing 6-2 as the Yanks got five solo HR's while the Hose couldn't generate enough offense, although they did have 11 hits. Today, though, shows exactly the Sox' biggest problem, even given their long, long injury list. I mean, yeah, at least a couple or mnore of the Yankees' runs likely wouldn't have happened if Jake were in CF & not on the DL. No blame to Ross, but, face it, Ross's no Ellsbury. All of that aside, however, the real issue and one that will unequivocally KILL any Sox chances this year is named for a February holiday--VALENTINE!! Here we are, cruising along 9-1, the only blemish on Dubronte's great start being Texeira's solo shot in the 6th. What does V do? After 99 pitches of quality ball, he pulls Dubront. From that point on, it wasn't downhill--it was over a cliff! Final score, 15-9, Yankees. This is unforgivable, and it's something that NEVER would have happened under Terry! I have no idea who would replace Valentine, although Terry would be a great idea, if the Hose could swallow and reverse what they never should have done to begin with. But, this cannot continue. The way things are going now, and I know I'm dating myself, this will be worse than the year before the Impossible Dream team! Goodbye, Valentine!

Ugly! and Interesting News

First, the ugly! I'll keep this as short as possible. Yesterday the Hose got slaughtered by the Rangers, 18-3. Things started off well enough, with Pedey driving a two-run shot over the wall for a quick two zip lead. You figured with Lester pitching, things had to look pretty good for the Sox. WRONG! Texas wasted no time at all in retaking the lead, with a homer of their own, plus some other hits. When the dust finally settle, 6 hurlers had labored for the Sox, giving up a like number of HR's and 21 hits in all. Not pretty. Hopefully, things will be better with JB taking the ball today.
Separately, the Evil Empire has announced that, in honor of the Centennial celebration of Fenway this Friday, they'll wear throwback uniforms from the era. Saw them online and they look pretty good (for a Yankees uni). Actually, the Yankees of that year were still playing as the Highlanders, changing to the present name the following year.

Missed It By THat Much!

Well, as those of you in Sox Nation likely already know, the Sox had stormed back from their miserable start to take the first three games of the four game set with the Rays by just overwhelming the Rays--11 runs in game 1, 13 in game 2, and a more sedate 6 in yesterday's round. Today, in the traditional Patriots Day game, they tried, but couldn't carry it to four in a row. They lost a tight 1-0 pitching duel with the Rays' Shields. What hurt worst was the way the Rays got the game's only run--on a bases loaded free pass!
Youk might have made a difference, but, for whatever reason, he was not in the lineup. Which brings up the latest issue with the Sox--Bobby V's comments about him implying he wasn't the Yoouuk of past seasons because he, in Valentine's opinion, wasn't giving his all for the team. To imply anything remotely like that of Yoouuk, is so far beyond ridiculous that you can't even see it on your radar! Adding this to V's pre-season comments on the rotation's members makes one begin to believe that maybe he should be replaced, as Ken Rosenfield suggests, if it keeps up--by Francona! At least Terry knew how to win in the Hub.

News--Good & Horrible!

Well, I confess. I haven't been keeping all of you out there up on the latest Sox results. That's because the effort so far this year was beginning to look quite a bit like 2011. True, we didn't go 0-6 like last year, as our first win came after only 0-3. But then we dropped the next pair, resulting in our arrival back in the Fens at 1-5, and firmly ensconced in last. Could it get worse? Oh, Yeah! Really worse! If what happened today is any omen, I think I'll start waiting for the Pats this fall, followed by the 2013 Sox. I know it's only the 7th game in, and we did win. Actually, in the box score, it looks great! Sox 12, Rays 2. JB pitched not only much better than last week; he looked like the JB we've come to expect, allowing just a single run in 8 innings; five hits and a single freebie. Game WHIP was 0.75. So why am I sounding like the voice of doom? Well, in 2010, the Sox were expected to be a sure thing to make the playoffs, possibly win another Series. Until they hit an unbelievable string of injuries. Last year, they had many more injuries, although not quite as many as '10. Nevertheless, what they had didn't help the Sox as they missed the post-season for the second consec year. Believe me, the injuries had more to do with the results than off day chicken and beer that the writers were BS'ing about!
Anyway, here we are in 2012 minus a couple of starters due to major arm problems/surgery and back surgery, and in the 4th inning today, things took a decidedly drastic turn south. After getting his second hit of the game, Jake was on first and sped to second trying to break up a DP on Dusty's grounder. The Rays second sacker stepped on the bag, forcing Jake and then, in trying (successfully) to finish the DP, fell on Jake's arm, injuring it badly enough that the Hose centerfielder had to leave the game, obviously in pain, holding his arm with his other hand. No diagnosis yet, but it didn't look good. If you recall 2010, after an early season collision in center, he missed almost all of the rest of the season.
Keep your fingers crossed. This is one guy the Sox can't afford to lose.
On the positive side, by winning today, the Sox maintained their streak of victorious home openers, the longest in MLB at the present time.Also, although JB only got one K, his string of games with at least one K since he began his MLB career is now 281, second in MLB history only to Dwight Gooden's at 349.
Besides Jake, Gonzo, Yooouukk, Papi and Shoppach all had multi-hit games, with Sweeney, Papi and Shoppach each getting a pair of ribbies and Yoouukk getting a trey.
One other thing--if you see things differently, or have a comment you want to add, DON'T BE SHY! Write it up and submit. That's what the little pencil icon at the bottom is for. After all, we're Red Sox Nation; let's have some give and take here!

Getting Ugly!

Well, in the season's second game, things definitely took a major turn for the worse. Aside from Jake, Yoouk, and Dusty hitting very little of not at all, the pitching by JB, not to mention his successors, was worse than terrible. After four innings, it was Zip Five for the Hose, Zip Seven after six and went downhill from there. Both Bengals players Cabrera and Fielder had a pair of roundtrippers. Beckett had the worst start of his career, statistically (maybe his thumb really is in serious condition). I know it's just two games, but this is BAD!

Season Begins!

Well, with a chorus or two of "Put me in, Co", the season opener has finally been played. Results not much different from last year, although it went right down to the bottom of the 9th in Detroit. Facing the reigning Cy Young Award winner, Justin Verlander, the Sox had their work cut out from the start. However, after finding themselves down two zip, they came back late in the game to tie, right fielder Sweeney plating the tying run with a triple, his second hit of the day. This came after Papi picked up where he left off last year with a ribbie to get the Hose within one. Lester looked pretty good getting through the first six, but unfortunately, the Sox closer doesn't exist yet, at least not anywhere near the Sox. Melanson came in for the 9th to hold the tie and give the Sox a chance in extra innings. As it turned out, they never got that far. Facing 3 batters, he gave up a pair of hits, one of which became the winning run when Aceves allowed a walk-off run scoring single. Did you have to go to Philly, Pap? Not much else to say about the game. The Hose pick up on Saturday, with JB scheduled to take the ball, assuming his thumb is OK.

It Gets Worse!

Just came across the wire, so to speak. Bailey's definitely hurting and will have ligament repair surgery on his thumb. He'll be lost for at least 3-4 months! Hope our new GM has some ideas on getting a closer at this late date.

Not Again!

This is getting a bit monotonous! Here we are not even starting the season and already two of the Hose hurlers are injured and checking with the docs. Bailey, our newly anointed closer, has somehow injured his thumb and may be out "for....months", according to Manager Valentine, although Valentine says it could also be "days"; he just doesn't know yet. Doesn't look good. On top of that, JB is seeing the same hand specialist because of a 'minor' thumb injury that could sideline him or not, depending on what the doc finds. For now, he & Valentine are saying he'll pitch game 2 of the season as scheduled. So, we'll see.