From the Left Coast

Well, after the partial debacle with the Stripes (at least we got game 2) and the A-Fraud bullshit (going back and hitting A-Fraud was, in my opinion a very stupid mistake--I mean, I understand how a cheat using or hiding the system that promotes and provides PED's should not be playing, but once you got your message our there --the first pitch behind A-F-- your message sending should be over.), and the subsequent blowing of a three run lead, the Sox came west to the area where those of you who follow this site know is the home of this native born Bostonian to play the Giants, or as the Spanish jerseys they sometimes wear proclaim, Los Gigantes. One thing about this and two or three other September series is that whoever the idiot is that created the schedule, has the Sox, in the middle of a pennant race, playing in a NL park where they can't use a DH. So Papi has to play first base or miss a number of games. Last night he played first, but don't know which or how many others he'll do similarly in.
This time Lester was facing the homies and was the Lester, more or less, we like to see. He went 8 1/3 shutout innings, allowing just a half dozen hits, the final two in the 9th inning before leaving the mound.  He allowed just a pair of freebies and none of the hits were for extra bases. Although he only picked up three K's, he was clearly in control most of the evening. Jenn's sister was in attendance at the ball yard and keeping me up to date from her point of view with a variety of texted messages and pics. Some of the comments in the texts were choice as well. Early on, when the Sox put a trey on the board in the 2d, one from a balk by Lincecum, Sara's comment was, "what an idiot the pitcher is!" And I know Sara hasn't seen that many balks in her 30+ years.
Sox heroes, beside Lester's effort, included 3/4 nights by both Vic and Nava, as well as the Dustman's trip. Salty picked up his 34th double of the year, a number that leaves him in fourth place in the AL for that stat.
Today the Hose are throwing Jake Peavy against Vogelsong, and here's hoping we get the Peavy who pitched his first game for the Sox, not the subsequent pair.
Off the field, the Hose called up their number one prospect, an infielder named Xander Bogaerts. He's the third youngest in MLB now, and a native of Aruba, so he has Dutch citizenship. He may start tonight, but Farrell has said he'll be used to spell Drew and Middlebrooks, so as not to rush him into development. But, his minors play so far this year has been both good for average and power as he has 15 HR's and 67 ribbies in 116 games split between AA and AAA ball. The bad news is that it looks as if Bucky is done for the year. The Sox put him on the 60 day DL, and with just 35 games left in the season, that's kind of it for the year. Too bad--his early start was looking like a thing of beauty, pitching wise.
Tomorrow I've got tix next to the Sox dugout for the series finale.

Once A Grinder, Always A Grinder

That even holds true for new members of the team. One thing about this year's Sox team, and I've mentioned it here before, is that no matter how far down the team may get in a given game, they are still there to the bitter end, clawing away, digging, digging to try to get back and win. Last night's game was no exception. After coming back from a one zip deficit in the 7th to take the lead, 2-1, the Hose found themselves suddenly in danger of dropping the game after all. In the very next frame, Tazawa, the Sox' usually reliable setup man, gave up a solo shot to the Jays' Arencibia as he led off the 8th. That tied the game, and while no further damage occurred, the Sox found themselves having to go into extra innings to try to win the game. The Sox starter, Dempster, had done well, allowing just a single run in the 5th, while allowing just a total of four hits and a pair of BB's in seven strong innings, a game WHIP of just 0.86, an excellent mark. But it was all for naught when Tazawa's pitch went sailing into the cheaps. So the team moved through the 8th and 9th with only a lone hit to try to get over. Fortunately, the Sox pen from that point on was untouchable. Breslow took the ball with two gone in the 9th and closed that inning out, followed by a perfect two thirds of an inning in the 10th. Then, the Sox closer, Uehara, took over and eliminated all four batters he faced consecutively. No hits, no walks, nothing--Game Over. It took him just 20 pitches to do this, and in the process, he trimmed his ERA to a minuscule 1.32.
Offensively, the Sox couldn't seem to get anything going until the top of the 11th, but it was worth the wait. Middlebrooks led off with a hit, and Jake followed with one as well, sending Middlebrook to third. Before anything else could transpire, Jake then swiped his second base of the game, his 44th of the season to extend his MLB lead, thus eliminating the chance for a grounder becoming a DP. More on this stat later. Vic came to the plate 0-4 for the evening, and wasted little time rifling a single to score both Sox runners and returning the lead to the Sox for what would eventually become the final score, 4-2.
Coming back for a moment to Jake's lead in stolen bases, he is now ahead of anyone else in MLB by seven, SD's Cabrera, who's out on a PED suspension and was already trailing Jake at the time he went on suspension, and leads his closest competitor in the AL, the Jays' Davis, by a full ten swipes. How high the number will go by season's end is, of course, subject to the course of the season between now and then, but at his present pace, he'd end up with 59.
With the win, the Sox increased their Division lead over the Rays to four, and the distance between them and the O's to six. The Stripes stayed 9.5 back with their 14-7 laugher over the Angels.
Lester goes tonight, and the hope here is we get the Lester that has everything working and no wildness. I don't want to think about the other version that occasionally shows up in his place.

Grinding and Winning

Well, last night's final game against the Astros was pretty much a repeat of the prior two, the only exception being the Sox broke on top for a change before allowing the 'Stros to take the lead. Once they did, however, the guys from Houston held on right to the biotter end. The only runs the Hose could seem to muster were the pair they scored at the start and then on it almost all Houston in the scoring department. Result: the Hose found themselves once again trailing entering the final innings, 5-2.  It seemed that whenever the Sox tried to mount a rally, Houston's hurler would finally find a way to squelch it. In the 6th, they had a bases loaded opportunity with just one gone. Unfortunately, both Jake and Vic were K'd--end of rally.To make matters worse, Vic was tossed in the next inning when he suddenly ran out of the dugout to argue strikes with the ump. But not to worry. In their half of the 7th, the Hose put a runner on and Johnny Gomes saw to it that he wouldn't be left there. One swing and the score was 5-4, 'Stros--still behind, but a lot closer. Nothing else in the 8th.
Then came the 9th. Papi led off with another single, his fourth hit of the game for the second consecutive evening (at one point earlier on, he was seven for seven over the two games). Gomes walked to put two on, and then up came Drew. The next thing you knew the folks in the cheaps in right had a souvenir, and the Sox had the lead, 7-5, which would be the final score.
The pitching was a little sketchy at the start. Dempster got his usual high K's for innings pitched with seven K's for 6 innings. But he also allowed seven hits and five runs in that time, which means he's given up a dozen in as many innings over his last two starts.  In the late innings, though, the pen was outstanding! First, Tazawa pitched a pair of perfect innings, eventually getting the W. Then, the W was assured when Uehara slammed the proverbial door on any ideas the Houstonians might have had by striking out the side for his eleventh save.

It's Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

Well, at least once we'll quote a famous Yankee--Yogi, of course. And, once again, it proved true! After losing two zip on Monday to the MLB worst Astros, the Sox immediately found themselves behind last night in the first inning by three zip, then 5-0 after two and it wasn't looking good. Sox catcher Lavernway had a big part in this early deficit, as he allowed FOUR passed balls in the first inning, a "feat" that ties an all time MLB record for futility. Four passed balls in one inning and that isn't particularly a record you want to have on your record. After the Sox narrowed the gap a bit in the top of the 3d to 5-3, helped in part by Jake's first of a pair of homers, things immediately went south again when the 'Stros added a pair of runs in their half of the inning. However, starting the very next inning, the Sox took control of the game. In each of the 5th and 6th innings, the Hose batted around and tacked a five spot on the board, the net result being that by the end of their half of the 6th, they were up 13-7, on the way to a final of 15-10.
Nearly everybody had a hand in the eruption. Jake, Papi and Pedey had a pair of ribbies apiece, Papi while going 4-4, and Vic had himself a 3-5 evening. Sox totaled 15 hits. As for the pitching, after the first few innings, it was not bad, with the pen holding down the Houstonians when it was really necessary.
Nice added benefits were that everybody else in the division except the Birds lost, so the Sox added a little breathing room, while dropping the Stripes 10.5 back.

Dubi, Jake, Dusty and the Sun

Well, the headline pretty much sums up most of the credit for today's Sox victory. Felix Dubront gave his 15th consecutive start of at least seven innings with three or fewer runs (today was zero) allowed. Jake drove in a pair of runs and The Dustman hit a screaming double down the line in left that plated another.

The sun? For the Dback right fielder, Parra, it made fielding an exercise in futility. Early on, Papi hit a smoker to right, and when Parra got under it, he finally couldn't find it and it ricocheted off his glove. Later, in the 6th, with men on second and third, Jake hit a fly to right and, once again, Parra lost it in the sun. This time, it looked at the last second as if he were trying to avoid getting hit in the head by the ball and was ducking out of the way. The ball fell harmlessly a few feet to his right and Jake had a single and an RBI.

As for the pitching, Dubi's performance pretty well speaks for itself. His streak is the longest by any Sox pitcher of this type since Wakefield had 17 in 1995, and extends his streak for this type of start by a portsider as the longest since at least 1920. The pen, as usual, did a good job of slamming the door. Both Britton and Uehara threw one hit shutout innings, Britton's on just nine pitches, and the game was over with another W for the Sox. They now are at a season high 23 games over .500, with fortynine games to go for the season.

Peavy Pays Off!

Well, if tonight's any guide, the Sox acquisition of Jake Peavy this week to bolster the rotation was a master stroke! Pitching seven plus innings, the veteran hurler allowed just four hits and a pair of freebies, while striking out seven. The last of those hits was the leadoff batter in the 7th. In fact, the only possible negative in the whole evening was the solo HR he allowed early in the game to a DB hitter. He left with a 3-1 lead, and got the W after the game was closed out first by Salty's 2 run shot into Koji Uehara's outstretched glove in the pen, followed by Uehara's one walk shutout tenth save. Final: Sox 5-2. During the game, the Hose also got a yard shot by Vic to tie the early Dback lead at 1. Later, Jake swiped his 40th base of the year, tying Sox Hall of Famer Tris Speaker as the only franchised members to ever have at least three seasons of 40 steals per year. Other items of note: with his hit tonight, Papi has now reached base in 17 straight games. Defensively, in the top of the 8th when the Dbacks were threatening to tie, having the sacks jammed and nobody out, the DB's Hill got a base hit to left and Gomes proved that he is not just dangerous with a bat in his hands, but that he also has a gun for an arm. One run scored from third on the hit, but with a perfect peg from left, Gomes had the ball waiting in Salty's mitt about two or three steps before the next Arizona base runner even arrived at home. What would have been the tying run at that point turned into the first out of the inning and the last gasp of the Dbacks.

And If That's Not Good Enough....

Well, after last night's game, it seemed unlikely that the Sox could outdo the walk-off excitement tonight. WRONG! Increasing their position as the team with the most walk-off wins this season, the Sox won their eleventh walk-off victory tonight by sending ten men to the plate in the bottom of the 9th to come from five runs down to win the game, 8-7. Nava started and ended the final frame. Opening with a walk, he closed the inning and the game with a one out bases loaded single, sending the Hose dugout berserk and the fans home in a similar frenzy.
Up until then, the game had seemed almost all Seattle. The M's had their ace, "King" Hernandez on the mound and, after leading 2-1, opened what seemed an insurmountable lead at 7-1 on the third career grand slam, second this season, of  their catcher, Blanco. It seems that as a .176 "hitter" he either goes the max and gets four or goes nowhere. Talk about all or nothing at all!
But that was in the top of the 5th. There were still four and a half innings to go, and in baseball, that can be a lifetime. However, the Sox against Hernandez looked as if they could have twenty innings left to change the score and it wouldn't make any difference. However, these are the Sox, admitted by most experts as the expert 'Grinders'. They just keep swinging and most of the time start to chip away at whoever is in the other dugout. It's like water over a rock. First the rock is there and then as time passes, it's not.
Finally, in the 8th, Vic took a nothing and one count over the Monster. Seven-two, M's. Still, that's a pretty big hill that this Sisyphus had to push that rock up, as nothing else was added to the Hose total in that inning. However, the M's hadn't been able to add to their lead as Wright had thrown three lights out frames at the M's. Yielding just a pair of harmless hits, he shut the team from the Northwest out to set up the climactic ending.
And climactic it most definitely was! Starting with Nava's freebie, the Sox started on a rapidly rising swell that finally swept away, and swept, the M's for the night and the series. Lavarnway singled and was followed by a two bagger by Holt, scoring Nava--seven to three. Then Jake walked and Vic immediately greeted the new pitcher with a two run single--seven to five. The fans are starting to buzz; in fact, they're more than just buzzing. Continuing the eruption, The Dustman took a pitch to left for a base hit and Jake scored. Suddenly, it's seven-six and the fans are insane! And there are still no outs--and the Sox have two men on. After Papi K's for what becomes the only out of the inning, Gomes takes a pitch to center for another hit, and as the run crosses the plate, the Sox have tied it at seven. The fans are more excited that the French were when they guillotined Louis XIV. The only thing that eclipses this crowd are the 2004 comebacks from three zip against the Stripes and the following Series win. But, wait--because, unlike last night, tonight the Hose aren't going to. Drew walks to jam the sacks and Nava, the tenth batter to step to the plate, still with only one out, drills his single into the Fenway outfield and the Sox pull it off!
The lead over the Rays increases to one full game and the Hose also gain a half game on the Stripes, who are idle, while the O's cannot gain any ground even with their win.