Four Managers--Sox Streak At Five

Well, tonight the Sox had their tempers up due to a series of hit batters--and in the end did the hitting that won their fifth in a row.  Very early on Papi was hit by Rays ace, David Price, leading to warnings to both teams by the home plate umpire. When Sox manager Farrell came out to argue over Papi's getting hit and Price staying in, he was tossed. As the game continued, Carp got hit by Price and some pushing and shoving followed. Sox substitute manager, Bench Coach Luvollo complained as Price was allowed to stay in even though this was his second 'hit' of the game and he'd already been warned. Result: Luvollo gets tossed. At least Farrell had some company in the clubhouse. But it wasn't over yet, not even close! Comes the Rays 6th and Sox hurler Workman sent a message pitch about three feet behind Rays third sacker Longoria--and Workman predictably gets tossed--along with Sox third base coach Butterfield, although I'm not certain what the logic was in the case of Butterfield. Maybe the umps felt they were getting in the swing of things and it felt good to do the "throw" motion.  If you have any idea, let me know.  Anyway, now the Sox are down to their hitting coach, Greg Colbrunn, doing the managing. So, eventually the Sox tie the score and we roll into the bottom of the 10th. Koji's already come and gone, preceded by Taz and Badenhop, and it's still two all. But, never fear--the turnaround mojo post-ten game losing streak is still working. Gomes comes to the plate with one gone--and, you guessed it--gets hit. After a very understandably long hard stare at Rays reliever Oviedo, Gomes takes his base. He doesn't have to wait long. Pierzynski grabs a bat and takes matters into his own hands. Driving a pitch deep into the right center field triangle, he collects a walkoff triple. Gomes scores, the Sox win and everyone is happy--with the possible exception of the Rays--and various and sundry members of the Sox team and coaching staff. Papi after the game said it very clearly.  If Price holds a grudge over Papi's pair of shots in last fall's playoffs and wants to repeat his throws at Sox batters, then he and Papi will have to put the gloves on outside the park and settle matters.
Stats-wise, the Sox outhit the Rays, 8-4, with Papi getting an RBI and Bogaerts going 3-5, including his 14th double of the season and Pierzynski going 2-5, his aforementioned trip and a two bagger doing the damage. As for pitching, Workman did a decent job for the five and a third he was in before getting an early shower, compliments of the umps. He gave up four hits and three freebies, but balanced it with four K's. The pen crew was even better! No runs, no hits and just a pair of freebies total from all five Sox relievers. If that's not enough, throw in an additional three K's for good measure, topped off by Miller getting the final out on the only batter he faced on just two pitches.  Oh, yeah! He also got the win, a fitting payback for the lousy luck he had to endure during some fairly good pitching during the losing streak.
So the win streak's now at five, and Sox pitcher Rubby de la Rosa is set to get his first start of the year tomorrow. Here's to making it a victorious one!

Spox Sweep Braves--Streak At Four

Well, as previously noted, I'd said the recent losing streak would stop at ten and then the Sox would turn things around. Since then they've played their former fellow Bostonians, the Braves, four times and swept them. Tonight's was the best example, in my humble opinion, of how a winning team makes things happen and takes advantage of errors or miscues of their opponents. Sown 2-1 entering the 8th, they gave up another run and things looked like the Braves might get away with one. Not to worry. In their half of the same inning, the Sox added a pair to tie things up, taking full advantage of a pair of errors to go with singles by Holt, Bogaerts, Pedey and Pierzynski.  Papi, held out of the lineup due to a bruised calf then pinch hit, and rather than try to deal with Mr. Clutch, the Braves intentionally passed him. The Hose couldn't get his pinch runner home for the lead at that moment, but the win was just a few minutes away. After Koji tossed a shutout inning on nine pitches, including a brilliant K on a pair of 'up the ladder' fast balls, as opposed to his trademark killer cutter, the Sox took their turn.  Wasting no time, they struck. Bradley and Holt both grabbed freebies, followed by an infield single by Bogaerts. The Braves could have held things there with crisp clean fielding, but their second sacker, La Stella, screwed it up and Bradley never stopped running when he reached third on the hit. He just kept churning those legs and slid head first across the plate a good five feet ahead of the ball for the winning run. It's the type of aggressiveness that winning teams always employ to pressure the opposition into careless mistakes that produce runs. Bradley may not have Jake's legs, but he's not slower by very much, and when he's on the move, if you're not ready to gun him down, get the hell out of the way because he's crossing the dish no matter what.
The Sox pitching was also pretty damn good overall. Peavey threw eight solid innings, giving up eight hits and a free pass, for a game WHIP of 1.125--very respectable, especially when you add in his four K's along the way. Then, Koji came in, threw nine pitches and headed for the shower, freshly minted W firmly in his grasp. He probably didn't even break a sweat--as always.
On the negative, Nap and Vic now have company on the DL, as the team yesterday put Bucky on the DL, his injury very possibly being related to his horrible no control effort the last time out. Hopefully, he'll get better fast and get back to being the Bucky we expect to have out there. Drew is busy on his rehab, and hopefully, will add some oomph to the roster on his return to the parent club.

IT'S OVER!!!!

Well, I called it--lose ten in a row and then the rebound will begin! Sox just closed out Atlanta, 8-6 to end the losing streak. Down 6-1 after four and looking worse, the Sox exploded for five in the 5th, punctuated by Papi's three run shot to the center field cheaps after the Dustman had driven a pair with a very timely hit. In the 7th, the Hose added a pair for the winning runs, Papi accounting for one of those as well. As if all of this weren't enough, with the Sox holding that two run lead to open the last of the 9th, Atlanta's leadoff hitter, Justin Upton, sent a solid liner into the outfield for a hit. He kept on running hard for second, looking like a good bet to end up with a double. However, Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley, Jr. had other ideas. A perfect pickup and recovery followed by a bullet to second arrived a nanosecond too late to get Upton. BUT, N O T  S O  F A S T! Because of the accuracy of Bradley's throw, coupled with Pedey's excellent coverage of the base as the throw came in, Upton slid past the bag and Pedey was ready. Not wasting a second, he pounced. Instead of a leadoff double, Upton became a loud out. Uehara gave up a single to left that barely cleared a leaping Bogaerts, but then slammed the door with a cutter that brought up a solid ground ball to Pedey for a 4-6-3 DP--Game Over; STREAK OVER! Now let's keep it rolling and take back the Div! Lester goes tomorrow against the Braves, and says he feels at his best. Go JL!

Seven and Counting

Well, things sure have gone south in a big way! With today's loss to the Jays, the Sox have now dropped seven in a row, and are only slightly ahead of the Rays in avoiding the cellar. A short week ago, they were a half game out of first in the AL East. It's no one thing that seems to be hurting them. The pitching hasn't been good, for the most part, and when it has, no hits, at least timely ones with men on base, have come. And speaking of hitting, a  number of team members averages have plummeted, while others still haven't started hitting yet. Papi was playing like this was the World Series a week ago in the Twins series, and now he's dropped to .275 from over .300.  Pierzynski has been deep in a major slump, something now like 4 for 40, or somewhere in that neighborhood. Vic has dropped from over .300 to .253 after today's abortion, and so on and so on. As for pitching, Lester, who up to today was pitching far better than his record showed, gave up ten hits, a pair of freebies and seven (not a typo) runs in 6 2/3, and got only 3 K's, which for him is a disaster. The streak is now more than twice as long as the worst losing streak of last year, and is the worst steak since the Hose lost their final eight games in 2012. You remember 2012--well, maybe you've deliberately built a mental wall against ever remembering that Valentine tainted year, but trust me, it wasn't pretty. Which is the way that this short season so far is beginning to look.
On the plus side, as the rest of the Div hasn't done overwhelmingly well, the Sox are still well within reach of the other teams, but they can't let this go on for too long. Drew finally signed a contract, having given up getting paid NOTHING for his free agency try, and Holt is not only holding above .300, he's actually climbing. PREDICTION: streak goes to 10 (hello Billy Jurges) and then the team turns it around. If they don't....

Sox Beat Twins--Papi Incandescent!

Well, in the two games the Hose have played in the Twin Cities, they lost one on a walk-off 2 run shot last night, but then engulfed the Twinkies tonight 9-4. Dubront tonight was very good,only allowing a single run in 6 1/3, on seven hits and a freebie. The big story of both nights, however, is, as noted in the headline, Big Papi. The man is on fire over his last few games. Starting in Texas, he had (after a scoring correction against Darvish) the only hits that night, followed next day by a shot to the freebies, and followed again by back to back two homer games against the Twinkies. In this short span, his B. A. has shot up from .257 to over .300, and he's now tied for second in the league in HR's with eleven, and has raised his ribbie total to be in the top ten in the AL.  Almost reminds one of his World Series performance of last year.
What is even more interesting is where he now sits on the larger scale--or, in this case, scales, since there are at least two of them. In the entire history of the team, Papi is now the sole possessor of career Red Sox home runs with 384 as a Sox member. He's over 400 total for his career. Yaz is second and Teddy Ballgame is, of course, in first. While Papi will never approach TW's numbers, he could with a couple of 30+ years after this year, get close to a solid challenge to Yaz.
The second scale I alluded to is the number of four ribbie games he's piled up. Over the past ten years, he has more games with at least four ribbies per game than anyone in MLB. People trailing him include Pujols to kind of give you an idea of the rare neighborhood he's now inhabiting. This is classic Papi. Historically with the Sox, every so many games, he suddenly goes on a tair of unbelievable proportions when the HR's seem to come as naturally as breathing. So it is for now. May it continue for a good while.

Over .500; Sox Take Texas Series--Lackey looks Great!

Well, today's game resulted in another Sox win and the taking of a series from what has become, over the past several years, a real nemesis, Texas. Today, the punch came early with Nap and Pierzynski bringing home the runs and giving the Hose a three zip early lead, upped to four an inning later. After that things kind of progressed bit by bit. The Rangers got a HR from Chin that made it 4-1, Sox and after Pedey added a shot to the cheaps, the Sox rode home to a 5-2 final on the collective arms of Lackey, now 5-2 for the season and the pen, which contributed a pair of perfect innings to slam the door on any thoughts Texas may have had about coming back. Both of the last two Sox hurlers, Miller and Koji, picked up a pair of K's, Miller in fifteen pitches and Koji in fourteen. Koji got his ninth save for his efforts as well.
As all other AL East teams lost today, the Hose picked up a game everywhere, and should now be two games out in third, a half game behind the Stripes, and a game and a half ahead of the Jays.

Back to .500--Another Team Victory!

Well, after dropping below .500 last night due to the near no-no by Darvish (only Papi got a hit--with two gone in the 9th), the Sox rebounded to pummel the Rangers tonight, winning 8-3 on an across the board effort by the Hose.  Offensively, Papi showed the way with a shot to the cheaps and a ribbie producing two bagger, while Vic substantially backed him up with a solid 3-4 effort that produced four ribbies and a run scored for the feisty right fielder. As always, Dusty was also in the mix with a pair of hits backed by two freebies and a run scored, followed at the other end of the order by Bradley's pair of hits.
As far as hurling goes, Sox starter Lester continued on his solid K-producing path, adding eight to his season total to move into a tie for the AL K lead with Detroit's Scherzer at 66 K's on the season.  The Hose pen did a good job closing out the game after Lester finished his seven, Miller finishing the final batter on a three pitch K--game over.
Incidentally, Papi's homer is his 380th with the Sox, breaking a tie for franchise positioning with Dwight Evans. Pap's now alone at fourth in franchise history, just a pair behind Sox number three, Hall of Famer Jim Rice, at 382. Total career HR's: Papi is well past 400 and counting.

Back to .500! A True Team Victory!

Well, the Sox got back to .500 tonight. Up to now, it seemed that every time they got within a game of breakeven, they'd then lose a couple of close ones and have to start the climb all over again--kinds' like Sisyphus. Not tonight. Hosting the Reds again at the Fens, the Hose allowed their guests to get on the board first and then proceeded to play catchup for the remainder of the evening, finally putting the winning score across the plat in the bottom of the 8th. While Middlebrooks drove home the clincher, the 10 hit offense was pretty much spread across the entire lineup.  Papi had a pair of hits and added a ribbie; Vic and Pierzynski were each 2-4 with the former scoring a run and the latter plating one. Nap had a two bagger for a ribbie, and for once, the timely hit showed up often enough (like last night) to make a difference.
As for pitching, Peavy took the ball to start and, although he gave up four each of hits and BB's, he also matched the freebies with 4 K's and kept the damage under control through six, until the Sox bats could take over. Then the pen took control--four pitchers, no hits, a single freebie and, frosting on the cake: Koji K'd all three batters he faced on a total of just thirteen pitches, ten of which were strikes. So, in this case, the Sox have won a series before the final game is played, a trend that has taken some time showing up so farm, unlike last year when the Hose Heroes started right out of the gate doing that for the most part.

Pap, Nap, Sizemore & Pedey Lead Sox to Victory

Sounds almost like a law firm: Pap, Nap, Sizemore and Pedey. But no case here of Dewey, Cheetum and Howe here! Tonight's game was won by a solid combo of Sox bats and, for the most part, shut down hurling from the pen.  In the former case, the Hose had, in spite of mid-game lack of timely hitting, followed the lead of the aforementioned batsmen to first build a lead of three to one that held until the 8th, and then, finally in the 12th, get a quick string of hits to walk off with a W.  Although the Sox overall pen work was shutdown, and in the cases of Badenhop and Miller even perfect, the Reds made everyone in the Fens tonight start to sweat as Taz was reached for enough baserunners to allow the tying runs and earn a rare BS for himself.  While this was transpiring, our Hub Heroes were constantly leaving men on base and frustrating the Hell out of this observer.  Not to worry, though. After our resident Yalie held the Redlegs scoreless in the top of the 12th, grabbing a pair of K's while allowing a lone single that just cleared a leaping Dustman's glove, the Sox came to the plate. Someone must have figured that this had gone on long enough.  I mean although the pay in MLB is excellent by any standard, the guys don't earn overtime, and the game was now over four hours old. Papi led off with a sharp single past a diving second sacker, the ball cutting into the outfield almost surgically in its line to the grass. Nap followed him to the dish and, bingo--another hit and men on first and second. Up comes Sizemore, he of the injury-lost last couple of years, and with one solid swing of the club, the game was over. He banged one off the Monster right between two Reds outfielders. Normally a double, when he saw it hit the wall, knowing that he had driven in Papi with the winner, he quit his dash toward second, costing himself the two bagger and settling for a single, just so he could more quickly join Nap in a game winning hug in mid-infield. As for Pedey, oh, yes. All he did was once again show what Mariano Rivera (see my earlier post today) was talking about. As Mo said, there's never a time when Pedroia isn't trying as hard as he possibly can to win the game; always aggressive and on the attack to help the Sox walk away fists clenched in victory. Tonight he played his usual killer second base and at the plate, went 3-5 with a pair of ringing two baggers. In fact, the second of these was his 200th of his career, another trophy to place alongside his 100th homer and 100th swipe of his career. As noted when he got there last week, he is now second only in Sox history, along with Yaz, in having at least 100 of each, homers and steals. Can't be too many guys in Hose History with those stats and the additional one of 200 dubs.  In fact, once again it's Yaz that he shares this lofty position with.

Praise for Pedey!

Normally, you get a review of the latest Sox game. Today, it's about praise for The Dustman--from a most unlikely source! Call him Pedey, call him The Dustman; whatever you prefer, he's Dustin Pedroia and he's the BEST second sacker in the game today. Yes, there are other 2b's who'll be on the wall in Cooperstown that are playing today, Cano among them. But, Dusty's the best! And from an entirely unexpected source, more praise of that type. Mariano Rivera, yes that Mariano Rivera, came out in his soon to be published memoir and said if her were picking his second baseman, the one he'd most definitely want before any other is our guy, Pedey! Asked about his former teammate, Cano, he said that he's good, but that Mo isn't sure about his commitment to winning. On the other hand, he said no-one has a stronger passion for winning, no matter the circumstances than our guy. Mo says, "you know that you'll get total attention to trying to win for all 27 outs." What more can be said? Always thought Mo was one of the very few members of the Evil Empire who was not only a good player, but also a true sportsman and gentleman.

Compliments of Pedey & Bucky

Well, after taking 3 of 4, the Sox then seemed to run into their so far season-long problem--can't get to .500. They had a twi-night doubler against the Rays, and in each case, lost by a single run. The Rays closer Balfour took saves in each game and, horror of all, our guy, Koji, gave up the winner in the 9th of game two on a shot to the cheaps that cost him a loss--no blown save, though as the score was tied when he took the hill.
Anyway, that put us in place to receive the former Sox fueled A's last night. The A's had the AL's best team mark going in, but the team of Bucky & Pedey took care of that fast. Bucky went six and a third, allowing just three hits, accompanied by a like number of freebies. His game WHIP was just under one--damn fine. But, more important, whenever he got himself into a jam, he bore down and PITCHED. Worked out of almost everything he got himself into. By the time he left, the Sox were ahead for good, and the A's had scored only their sole run for the evening.

The other half of this duo, the Dustman, as I've preferred to call him for these several years, finished off any ideas the folks from Oaktown might have had about coming back. With the bases loaded, he stepped into a pitch and drove it over the Monster and into the Monster Seats. A brief dispute ensued by the A's skipper, Melvin as to whether it had actually cleared the wall before a happy Sox Nation citizen grabbed it, but the review said "Homer", and that pretty much took care of the evening, as it had jumped the score at the time to 5-1, Sox. Final, 7-1.