Wednesday, April 27

I hate losing

BALTIMORE 11 (14-7) WP JULIO
BOSTON 8 (11-10) LP/BS FOULKE

We gave up 20 hits last night, yes 20. And we lost again. The saddest part about it is that we had an 8-3 lead. Usually with the Sox and a 5 run lead I feel pretty good about our chances. Not so this year though. Foulke came on in the 8th with an 8-7 Sox lead. First batter got a single. Next batter hit a HR and the Sox were down 9-8. A couple batters later it was 11-8 after he gave up ANOTHER 2 Run HR. TWO-TWO RUN HR’S IN ONE INNNING WHEN YOU ARE THE CLOSER IS NOT OK! Matt Clement didn’t really look so hot as the starter either giving up a bunch of hits and runs.

I missed the first 5 innings of the game last night as Trisha and I were at the vet visiting Taba. She is doing much better; she even rolled around a bit so we could rub her on her belly. We will be picking her up to bring her home tonight at 5pm. Very exciting. So when we left the vet it was 8-6 (I had Trisha call her sister to get the score) and when I got home it was 8-7. Watched the last few innings, which was not fun.

Manny had another good game with a big 3 run HR and Damon continues to hit well. I was also not too please with out two errors. We seem to be getting a lot of those this year.

I don’t like losing. I know it’s early and all that stuff but I am not to thrilled about the last few games. Sure the Sunday Devil Rays game was good but we lost two to them before that. Then we lost two to the Orioles. All the while looking like a very mediocre baseball team at the same time. We are only one game over .500 which is not so hot either. The O’s have a 3 game lead on us and the Yankees are now only a game and a half behind us. They smoked the Angels last night 12-4 and fag-rod had a 10 RBI game. This is all starting to look very familiar.

The O’s should be a team that contends this year. They are pretty damn good.

Couple other off the field things going on that make me nervous. Wells is on the 15day DL but is probably out at least a month. They bought up Lenny DiNardo from the minors to cover for him. They moved Halama into the starting rotation and DiNardo is another reliever. Today we hear that Schilling is also going to go onto the 15day DL.

That puts our two “aces” out of the starting lineup. No good. No good at all. We’ll see tomorrow what kind of shuffling goes on now.

We are supposed to play the O’s in the last game of the series today. It was a 1:05 start but it has been delayed because of the rain. I am not very optimistic that they will get it in at all. Getting swept would not be good. It is also been blacked out on MLB.TV because it is on ESPN. That is a bummer. Now I’ll have to go backstage or something if I want to watch it and that sucks.

We need some pitching help in a major way. This is our slowest start since 1999. Boo Sad.

LET’S GO RED SOX!

UPDATE-Sadly today’s game was rained out. It looks flat out nasty in Boston. I thought maybe they would try and play it tonight or maybe tomorrow (since both teams are off) but that doesn’t seem to be the case. So now the next game is on Friday at Texas. That seems very far away. Two full days without some Sox baseball. Bummer. Maybe they’ll figure out what to do with the pitching situation on the two days off.

Monday, April 25

The Begining

So I’m reading the book that Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan wrote about the 2004 Red Sox season so I decided to do my own little version. Ya see, I never really liked baseball until this year. But then all the hockey players decided that they didn’t make enough money so there was no hockey. Usually about this time of the year I am completely engrossed by the NHL playoffs and it’s all I ever watch or follow. I am also usually gearing up to go to Williamstown (where I would spend the summers working as the PM) and I don’t really have the time to follow baseball.
There is also the fact that I never really found baseball all that exciting, in fact I used to think it was pretty damn boring. I would show some interest in September then watch the playoffs but I was nowhere near what you would call and every day fan. I’m not really sure what happened to change my mind about that but all of the sudden I am kinda a complete freak about it. I think that part of it is that my work at the moment is not exactly crazy busy. I am used to being so busy it ain’t even funny at this time of the year. When I was doing WTF I would be busy all the damn time. Now I have a “real” job at LCT and I sit in my little cubicle 8 hours a day. Sadly there is really not a lot going on at the moment so the Red Sox have become my way of passing the time.
DISCLAIMER-I just want to point out that I am not a bandwagon Sox fan. There are many fans out there who have liked and followed the Sox for much longer then I have but I have been following them for a couple of years. I started to follow the Sox after I spent three years in Boston going to school (1999-2001). I loved Boston and had a great time there. In fact I often wish I could go back there. Sadly enough I am living in NYC at the moment and see those damn Yankee fans all the time. In a bit of irony I moved to a new apartment in December and I can now walk to Yankee stadium. I actually went to a game with Trisha and Carny, but I’ll tell you about that some other day.
So that’s how I became a Sox fan. Sadly I never went to a game when I was there for various reasons. I did get to go to Fenway last summer. It was a grand time. We had cool seats on the right field roof and got the see Schilling pitch.
I think my addiction to EA MVP Baseball 2006 on X-Box has added to my freakish addiction at the moment. To help with my addiction I have a subscription to MLB.TV and I also just got Extra Innings. So now I can watch almost every Red Sox game! Very exciting stuff, especially since I live in NYC. I’m hoping to have a nice long weekend and get up to Boston for a game or two this summer. Ohh, and I am playing Fantasy Baseball as well. My team, Frank and His Tanks, are doing ok. We had a slow start as I tried to figure out what the hell I was doing. Wakefield and Manny are my big point getters. I tried to have an all Red Sox team but I couldn’t afford it. Damn Salary Caps.
So I have a very long and slow summer at work ahead of me so I am going to do this little thing to keep me entertained. Maybe I’ll even do that whole Blog thing, we’ll see.
Hopefully the Sox can win the whole thing again. That would be cool. Then maybe someone will want to publish this, and I’ll be rich! YIPEEEEEEE! Keep dreaming there Chris.

Let’s see what I can do to make this a cool little thing.

And away we go………………………………

A Recap of the early season

The Sox opened up in the Bronx for three games. The lost the first two then won the last. The last game was exciting. The rest were not so much. I wish the Sox could win every game. The first game was also the first game of the season for MLB. There was lot’s of hoopla about the first Sox trip to Yankee Stadium after last years choke of epic proportions by the Yankees. The first team ever to go up in a series 3-0 then lose in 7 games. HA. I like it when the Yankees get beat/choke/suck/ do anything bad. I don’t like it when the Yankees win.

After that was a three game set in Toronto. The Sox again lost two of three. I think the boys just wanted to get home. The last game featured a nice ninth inning rally but it just wasn’t enough.

2-4 after the road trip, not the best start ever.

Then it was time for the first game of the year at Fenway, and it was against the Yankees. This was the day the Sox got their rings and there was a big hour-long ceremony to celebrate winning the series. Then the Sox won the game. It was a good day. They took 2 out of three from the Yankees in the series. That puts the season series at 3-3 for the year.

After that the Devil Rays came to town and we swept them. That was exciting. Also the first weekend I had Extra Innings at home. Wicked exciting stuff. Then we hosted Toronto for a short two game set. The first game was the Patriots day game played at 11am. It was a good offensive showing by the Sox and an ok game for Schilling in his second game back. Good thing we had a lot of runs cause he gave up quite a few. Manny had two home runs, which was sweet. We lost the second game after the bullpen blew a great game played by Arroyo. The bullpen has been suspect for most of the early part of the season. Even Foulke hasn’t looked that good.

After that it was off to Baltimore for another two game set. Coming into the series the Orioles where on fire. They had swept the Yankees the weekend before and were putting up crazy offensive numbers. The Sox got great pitching performances from Clement and Wells and won both games. They didn’t allow the Orioles to score any runs either.

The last part of the road trip was a trip to Tamap Bay. How does the scheduling get done that we end up playing the same teams over and over in the first few weeks? Very weird. Anyway. We went down to Tampa Bay and didn’t look to hot. The first game was tied in the Top of the ninth when Embree got rocked on his first pitch for a walk off home run. Saturday night Schilling looked like crap and we lost again. The highlight(s) of the game as two homeruns by Ortiz that he hit like 53 miles. Losing two the Devil Rays is not ok in my book. Sunday we got on the winning track with the help of a big grand slam from Jay Payton. Manny also hit a monster shot. There was also two bench clearing brawls. Fun stuff.

So as I start this little thing the Sox are 11-8. Looking ok at times and kinda mediocre at others. The bullpen doesn’t make me feel so great but our starting pitching has been pretty good. I like watching the Sox play baseball this year. It is fun.

LAST NIGHTS GAME

BALTIMORE 8 (17-7) WP-CHEN

BOSTON 4 (13-11) LP-WELLS

Sadly for various reasons I haven’t really been able to watch most of the games since last Friday. Trisha’s kitty cat Taba (aka the princess) had to go to the kitty ER early on Friday with some complications relating to her diabetes. She was in pretty bad shape. So we have spent most of the evenings since then at the hospital visiting her. So I’ve missed watching a few games. Here’s an interesting little tidbit though. Since we got Extra Innings every game that I have watched the Sox have won, everything that I missed they have lost. I think I need to watch more games.

I missed most of last night’s game while I was at the hospital. Wells did not pitch very well (he got the loss and is now 2-3) and had to leave the game after he hurt his foot. This was the first time we have given up a run in the first inning all year. The bullpen did a pretty good job holding things at bay after Wells left but there just wasn’t a lot of offense for the Sox. It was a weird lineup as well. Manny was the DH so he could rest a sore quad. Big Pappi played first and Kevin Millar played LF. Nixon was out because of the left-handed pitcher (Chen) for the Orioles. Bill Mueller is still out with the flu so Vasquez played third again. The Orioles offense that I was worried about last week showed up this week and hit the ball all over the place. Damon had another good night going 3-3 and getting on base every time he came to the plate. Tek hit another home run.

Wells injury doesn’t seem to bad and hopefully he’ll be ready for his next start. Mantei (one of the relief pitchers) also twisted his ankle but it doesn’t seem to be serious. The two errors are not good but I didn’t see the game so I’m not sure what happened. I think one was Ortiz’s fault. This was his first time at 1B all year.

The O’s are in first place and we are in second 2 games back. We play them again tonight and hopefully the outcome will be in our favor. Clement is pitching for us. Looks like I’ll be journeying to the kitty hospital again tonight so hopefully the jinx of the Sox losing games that I don’t watch will not continue.

The Yankees are not playing all that great this season. Sadly we can’t seem to build a big lead on them. When they lose we lose and when they win we win. I wish we had won some of the close games that we lost so that we could be building a bigger lead. Ohh well.

In other news my first year dynasty of the Sox on X-Box is going very well. After a mixed start the Sox have been on fire for the month of May. We won 15 in a row and something like 21 of the last 23. I had to make a few moves after injuries hurt the team. Bill Mueller is out for the year and I sadly released Youkalis and can’t seem to get him back. So Vasquez is my third baseman. I picked up Tony Womack from the Yankees and he and Bellhorn rotate at second. Womack is also pretty fast and is a good pinch runner late in the game. My offense struggle at times (I wish I could get extra points for hitting the ball right where the defenders are…over and over and over again) but that’s ok because my pitching it top notch. Through 50 something games we have allowed only 70 something runs. Tek is my HR leader.

Even after winning all 21 of the last 23 I am only 4 games ahead of the Yankees. Bummer. Would really like to pick up another third baseman (or find Youkalis) but everything is going well. Hitting is hard, but that’s life I guess. X-Box is fun.

Until tomorrow, LET”S GO RED SOX!