The time difference may have had the game start at 3 am, but with the glorious invention of Tivo, I was able to watch the game from start to finish when I got up at 7. And what a game it was. Talk about a roller coaster.
Let's start with Dice-K. Back in his home country, I expected quite a show. And while it was definitely a nail biter, it wasn't the kind I wanted. His first couple innings were lousy. The A's scored twice and I was sitting on the couch thinking that championship was nice while it lasted. But he settled down in the 3rd and had three up three down in the 4th and 5th. Whew. And thanks to a couple doubles from Manny and Moss we're winning 3-2. Dice-K can leave the game as the winning pitcher.
But then they put in Snyder. Now here's a guy who can go either way. Sometimes he's lights out and sometimes he's frightening - and not in a good way. This outing, unfortunately was one of the latter. He gave up the go ahead run. I couldn't believe it. As soon as that happened they pulled him and put in Lopez. Thank God. He retired the side but now the Sox are losing with three innings left to play.
Things got interesting again in the 8th, but Ellsbury made another phenomenal catch dashing any hopes the A's had. This kid's amazing. He's definitely one of my new favorite players and has been since he came in at the end of last season. But with that catch came a scary crash into the center field wall which I hope is not the reason behind his absence in Game 2. Guess we'll have to wait and see when they come back to California. Dad, you can tell me how he is when you see him in Oakland.
And because the Sox never go quietly, in the 9th Moss comes up to bat. Now Brandon Moss was not supposed to play. JD Drew was scheduled to start. But right before game time his back was bothering him, so the Sox thought it might be better if he sat this game out. I believe things happen for a reason. And clearly the reason JD was benched was so that Moss could come to bat in the 9th and hit a home run off Street and tie the game 4-4. (Too bad he's been sent back to Pawtucket to improve his defense at first base. Hmmm... wonder what that means for Youkilis.)
Who would've thought the season opener would go into extra innings. Here we are in the 10th. Lugo gets on. They intentionally walk Papi and then Manny hits another double. 6-4 yippee!
And now it's Papelbon. I love this guy. Even when things get tight he's still awesome. And of course things got tight. He gave up a run making it 6-5. And I'm right there with you, Dad, thinking, you can't blow this. Please... And he didn't. He buckled down, turned on that ice cold stare of his and the Sox won. Ready for game two.
And speaking of Game 2... I don't want to. Manny may have hit a home run, but Papi and Varitek are 0 for 7 and 0 for 8 respectively which isn't good. I'm not too worried about Papi, but Varitek isn't the hitter he used to be. He wasn't great last year, and after these two games I'm concerned about the 2008 season. Then there's Lester, our starting pitcher, who was pulled after giving up 4 runs in 4 innings... All in all, it just wasn't a good game.
Can't wait for Saturday though, when the Sox play the Dodgers in their original stadium - the Los Angeles Coliseum. I know it's a pre-season game, but I'm still excited to see my Sox and it'll be interesting to see Joe Torre in something other than pinstripes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment