Sox take 2 of 3 from Tampa Bay

No surprise here, the Red Sox dominated the Devil Rays. They probably should have won all three games, but Wakefield, again, was forced to take a loss after pitching very well.

Let's start with Tuesday night's game. Clement pitched much better than his Toronto start, giving up 3 ERs on 8 hits in 7 innings. He also struck out six Rays. The bats were quiet most of the game. In six innings, the only run the Sox scored was on a Manny Ramirez double that plated David Ortiz. In the seventh and eighth innings, both teams' pitching collapsed, and the Rays scored 4 runs in both innings, and the Sox scored six. With the score tied at 4-4 in the bottom of the eighth, Youkilis hit a huge double that scored two runs. He has really impressed me with his bat and 1B defense this year, considering he is still learning the position. With the Sox now up three runs, Papelbon's ninth inning proved to be his roughest outing thus far. He loaded the bases on a single and two walks before Damon Hollins hit a line drive that Adam Stern dove and caught in center field. It really was an unbelievable catch that saved the tying runs from scoring. This game proved that Papelbon is, indeed, human -- contrary to popular belief.

On Wednesday, Curt Schilling picked up his fourth win in a shellacking of the Devil Rays. Amazingly, this is the first time in the future Hall of Famer's career that he has begun the season 4-0. Youkilis led off the game with a home run, and ended up 3-4 with 2 RBIs to lead the offensive tear. The Sox's seven-run third inning was the most runs they've scored in an inning all year. Check out this line:

- M. Loretta singled to center, K. Youkilis to third, K. Youkilis scored, M. Loretta to third on center fielder J. Gathright's throwing error
- T. Nixon singled to right, M. Loretta scored, D. Ortiz to third, M. Ramirez to second
- J. Varitek hit sacrifice fly to center, D. Ortiz scored, M. Ramirez to third
- M. Lowell doubled to deep center, M. Ramirez and T. Nixon scored
- A. Stern safe at first on pitcher J. Childers' fielding error, M. Lowell scored
- K. Youkilis singled to shallow left, A. Stern scored, A. Gonzalez to third

Tampa Bay is such a terrible, terrible ball club.

Schilling only went six innings, but he was at 108 pitches, so Francona definitely made a wise decision to pull him, especially with the huge lead. Seanez, Tavarez and Foulke finished Schilling's masterful game-- giving up no runs and only one combined hit. For all the people who doubted Curt Schilling's recovery, I think it's safe to say that you were wrong and you might want to pencil him in as an early favorite for the Cy Young Award. (Yes, I think it's April...)

The Red Sox lost on Thursday night to the Rays by a score of 5-1. When Scott Kazmir isn't busy beaning Red Sox players, he actually really owns us. He made Ortiz and a few other lefties look ridiculous with his slider. The Sox were leading 1-0 on a Dustan Mohr home run until Josh Bard's defense screwed us again. Travis Lee scored on his passed ball. Jonny Gomes also hit two tape-measure shots, one off Wakefield in the seventh and the other off Julian Tavarez in the ninth that put the game out of reach.

Wakefield really didn't pitch all that badly. Like I mentioned in another entry, you just cannot expect the Sox to win for Timmy if they don't score at least four runs. He only gave up two earned runs on four hits. His ERA is incredibly low for Wakefield (3.71), and the fact that his record stands at 1-3 is depressing. You have to feel bad for the kid...

The Sox put up a valiant effort to come back in the bottom of the ninth against Dan Miceli. Down four runs thanks to Julian Tavarez' inability to hold the line, the Sox ended up loading the bases. With only one out, Nixon Kd and Varitek, who pinch hit for Bard, flied out.

Oh well, two out of three ain't bad. We're at Toronto for a three-game series that starts tonight. The Red Sox always struggle with Toronto, so if we can just win Beckett's start tonight, I'll be happy. In the mismatch of the century, Lenny Dinardo has to go up against Roy Halladay on Saturday. And you never know about Matt Clement on Sunday...

Mariners Series- Sox take 3 of 4

I am incredibly impressed with how the Red Sox are battling through some key injuries (Crisp, Wells, Nixon), and still winning close games. All three of our victories over Seattle were by one run. In all three, Papelbon picked up more saves. He is now seven-for-seven in save opportunities. In the process, he tied Jeff Gray's team record set in 1990 for saves by a rookie in one month, and let's also not forget that he is boasting a 0.00 ERA-- that's right, not a single run allowed yet. I knew Papelbon would be a special pitcher, but I had no idea how dominant he would be in his first full season in the majors.

The one loss to the Mariners was on Saturday, and Wakefield actually pitched brilliantly. Our bats were just shut down by Joél Pineiro. There is also no excuse whatsoever for loading the bases and not scoring a run. The lineup on Saturday was pretty ugly, and I'm not sure I agree with Terry Francona's decision to give Mike Lowell and Mark Loretta the afternoon off, especially factoring in that Bard had to be in the lineup, as he is Wakefield's personal catcher. Wakefield should NOT have had to take a loss in this game. He pitched beautifully. You have to believe that Wakefield, with his crazy knuckler, is going to give up at least four runs in a game, so therefore the offense must score five. Didn't happen on Saturday... but we sure had a great chance to sweep this series.

The pitching performances from Schilling on Friday and Beckett on Sunday were remarkable. Schilling's fastball is up to mid-90s, and he really looks comfortable out there on the mound, for what it's worth. He only allowed three hits in eight innings, striking out seven and walking NONE. This is also his first time since 2002 that he has started out 3-0. He lowered his ERA to 1.64, and his WHIP is a ridiculous 0.64, which is good for first in the majors.

From one 3-0 starter to the next, Josh Beckett just looked unhittable on Sunday. He was getting his fastball up close to 100 mph on NESN's radar gun. When he did allow runners to reach base, like in the sixth inning when Raul Ibanez was on third thanks to WMP's error, Beckett struck out two straight Mariners to get out of the jam. Beckett's 1.29 ERA thus far just shows that he is adapting well to the American League, and hopefully picking up a few pointers here and there from Schilling. You always see them sitting together in the dugout...

I suppose I should mention Mark Loretta's walk-off home run on Patriots' Day. The Sox were down one going into the bottom of the ninth. Kevin Youkilus hit a dribbler to José Lopez on second and hustled to beat out the throw. Loretta followed with the game-winner into the Monster Seats, just minutes after all of the Marathoners had passed through Kenmore Square. Loretta said after the game that it was his first walk-off home run ever, including Little League and Legion Ball and all that good stuff. The feeling must have been euphoric. Have I mentioned that I'm really, really taking a liking to Mark Loretta? The improvement over Mark Bellhorn is just outstanding.

I also would like to mention that Wily Mo Peña may be the most worthless POS player this team has had in a looong time. We're talking Tony Clark-worthless here. He makes Manny Ramirez look like freaking Ichiro out there. He's a total basketcase. He can't field balls in the deep right field triangle, and he lets fly balls go right over his head. His error total doesn't show it, because he can't even get the glove on the ball. There needs to be a new stat in baseball called "Stupid Wily Mo Peña-esque errors," and I think Peña would lead the league in his own category. He's terrible... just attrocious. Trot Nixon cannot get back soon enough. And another thing, it's not even like the guy is making up for it at the plate. I cannot believe the Red Sox pinch hit for Alex Cora in the bottom of the ninth of Monday's game. Predictably, he struck out. At least Alex Gonzalez is a terrible hitter, but makes up for it by fielding nicely. Wily Mo does nothing. I haven't even seen the so-called "power" that scouts said he has. He's hit one home run and is batting .261, which I'm sure will drop as the season progresses and he gets more at-bats.

Well, that's my short recap of the Mariners series. Tonight the Red Sox (9-4, 1st place AL East) begin a three-game series with Tampa Bay (7-6, 3rd place in the division) at Fenway. Clement will look to rebound from a bad start at Toronto, when he gave up seven runs in four innings. He faces lefty and former Red Sox Casey Fossum, whose cousin lives down the street from me (just added that for good measure). Last season, C-ment went 2-0 with a 3.14 ERA against the Devil Rays. This may be his first time facing them since he took a Carl Crawford line drive off his face. But I'm too lazy to look it up. Manny has great lifetime numbers against the Devil Rays, so look for him to bust out of his slump with authority.

Sorry for the lack of updates

I have amassed a loyal following of about four readers, so my apologies for not updating on the M's series. I've been very busy with classes, finals approaching and working two jobs. Look for a big update once the series ends after the matinee game tomorrow.

Game 9: Jays 8, Sox 6

Ted Lilly continued his baffling mastery over the Red Sox last night, and the Blue Jays held off a ninth inning rally by the Sox to take the rubber game of the three-game series at the Fens.

The game was over by the top of the second, when Matt Clement loaded the bases and gave up a grand slam to Vernon Wells, his fourth home run of the year.

Ortiz continued to swing the bat well, perhaps a result of his new $52-million-dollar contract. He has now homered in three consecutive games. But we really needed a homer in the bottom of the ninth, when he represented the tying run with two outs. The Sox were down 8-3, and they battled back to make it 8-6 on a Youkilis double that scored J.T. Snow and Wily Mo Pena, and a Loretta single that scored Youkilis. Ortiz ended up flying out to right field to end the game. I guess you can't expect him to get the clutch hit every time he's up. (Sabermetricians argue that there is no such thing as clutch anyway...)

The attendance last night, 36,524, was the largest crowd to see a game at Fenway in more than 60 years. I cannot wait to get up there in July for a couple of games.

Tonight the Mariners (5-5) come to Fenway for the start of a four-game series. Monday will be the annual Patriots Day matinee game. As for tonight, it's Curt Schilling (2-0, 1.93 ERA) against Jamie Moyer (0-1, 4.38 ERA). Moyer has been destroyed by the Boston bats over the past three seasons, going only 13.1 innings over 3 starts, and posting an ERA of 11.48.

I feel confident that the losing streak stops tonight. Let's go Curt!

Game 8: Blue Jays 8, Red Sox 4

So the other day in sports reporting class, Andrew Abramson had a remarkable suggestion that Major League Baseball should have Barry Bonds secretly assassinated.

I wouldn't mind if MLB did the same to David Wells.

That is really all I have to say about this game.

Game 7: Sox 5, Blue Jays 3

Thank God for the Florida Marlins' firesale. Marlins' castoffs Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell led us to our fifth straight win yesterday, a 5-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. We're now sitting at 6-1 and 2.5 games ahead of second-place Baltimore in the AL East.

I didn't get to watch the game because I was stuck in class. Many thanks to professor Marvel for letting me follow the game on my computer though :) Apparently I missed Jerry Remy in rare form. He has now dubbed our infield the "Santana Infield," because "Yo Lo Go Lo Va" sounds like "Oye Como Va" in his obscure form of Remy Spanish. (By the way, if you didn't get that, YO LO GO LO VA is Youkilis, Loretta, Gonzalez, Lowell, and Varitek catching).

We may need to rethink Last-Out-Lowell's nickname after his 4-4, one-RBI performance. He doubled in Trot Nixon for our first run of the game in the second, a critical run with Beckett struggling to find his control at the beginning of the game. Josh ended up pitching seven innings and giving up one earned run on three hits, although he walked four (including walking in a run), and only K'd two.

Ortiz picked up his second home run of the year, a seventh-inning blast off Vinnie Chulk that just cleared the right-field fence.

Unfortunately, my Sox are dropping like flies to injuries. Crisp is officially on the Disabled List, and Trot Nixon had to leave the game in top of the fourth with a strained left groin. Wily Mo Pena took his place, and it is very apparent that he has NO idea what he's doing in the outfield. The "home run" that Keith Foulke gave up bounced right off his glove and into the Sox bullpen. Way to go, Wily Mo. Worthless assclown.

Can we get Bronson Arroyo back still? Maybe he can be the DH... he does have two home runs already this year. Which is two home runs more than Barry Bonds has.

Papelbon got his fourth save, and once again, I'd like to say "you're welcome" to all of the people who I told to pick him up as a closer for Fantasy Baseball. His ERA is sitting at 0.00 still.

Game two of the Blue Jays-Sox series commences at 7:05 tonight. David Wells will get his first start of the year. He is opposed by southpaw Gustavo Chacin (1-0, 4.05 ERA). I have a feeling that our win streak will stop tonight, but then again, I have no faith in David Wells as a human being.

Ortiz extended through 2010 (with 2011 club option)

We've been hearing about the Red Sox's extension of David Ortiz being "imminent" for about a week now. Today, it became official.

David Ortiz will play in a Red Sox uniform through at least 2010.

I'm at work, so I wasn't able to hear the press conference live, but here are some tidbits that I picked up from various message boards.

Theo opened by announcing that, on behalf of the Sox, David Ortiz will get an extension to 2010, with a club option for 2011. He mentioned that Papi is a player who means so much for the organization, and wants to stay in Boston. David Ortiz then said that he's happy to be in Boston, and proud to be a Red Sox player. He said that he wants to finish his career in Boston, and he thanked Lucchino, Henry, Werner and Theo.

John Henry then said that in the negotiation w/ Papi, he kept expressing his love for Boston—the city, the fans, the organization. Henry said it was a first for him as an owner — that he'd never had a player say something like that during a negotiation.

When asked why Ortiz didn't opt for free agency, he said something along the lines of, "You have a lot of people coming right at you when you are on the market. I feel great playing in Boston. I feel like this is my house. I want to protect my house. I like to put everything I have out there every single day. I thank the Red Sox for doing this while they still have control of me."

(Love that quote about wanting to protect 'his house.' David Ortiz is amazing.)

Theo was asked "Why sign David Ortiz, and why now?" Again, this is paraphrased. Not an exact quote.

I can't think of a player who contributes in so many different ways. He embodies what we want a player to be. He has worked hard, supports his teammates, sees big picture, has a smile all the time, sets right mood, means a lot to our franchise, in the Dominican, throughout Boston, throughout Red Sox Nation. We think he will continue to contribute that much and more. Why now? I think it is a good time. The club approached David about exploring the extension. 98% of work was done in spring training. The finishing touches were just finalized. Many thought we wouldn't be able to keep David if he hit free agency. We put a value on players and stick to it.

Ortiz then praised playing in Fenway, and what it means to play in front of the greatest fans in baseball:

"I keep telling the new guys, 'Wait until you play your first game at Fenway Park. You might need a diaper... You might need a diaper, homey. It's gonna be like that every day.' It's outstanding."



For the Red Sox, this is one of those players that, no matter what he is demanding, or what it would have taken to sign him, the team absolutely had to keep that guy in a Red Sox uniform. David Ortiz means SO much to my team. I can't even express how grateful I am that this man will be tearing shit up for us for 4-5 more years after 2006. Yes, PECOTA and other sabermetric projections have his numbers seriously declining. Yes, we may have overpaid a bit for Ortiz, just like we did to keep Varitek here in the 2004 off-season. But the bottom line is, you can't let a guy like Ortiz walk away. Having him not retire a Red Sox would be a mockery. It looks like he probably will now. And I am happy.

Can this signing officially cement Ortiz as the "Yaz" of my generation?

Uh Oh...

Per WHDH Boston and Joe Amorosino, it looks like Coco Crisp may have broken or fractured his hand on that slide that I said in yesterday's blog would only keep him out day-to-day. It appears that Crisp didn't think the injury was serious, but then it swelled up after the game. Nobody else has this story besides WHDH. WEEI and BostonDirtDogs are just using the WHDH report as a source. Amorosino is claiming Crisp will be out a month minimum, and more like 6-8 weeks.

Pleeeeeaase for the love of all that is good, let this be false. I need a confirmation from a credible news source before I start flipping out.

If it's true, who is our new center fielder? I gotta think Adam Stern gets the nod over WMP.

*Edit* The Red Sox are going to announce what the hell is going on with Coco's left index finger during Ortiz's 3 p.m. press conference.

Per the Globe:

Boston Red Sox Medical Director Dr. Thomas Gill this afternoon issued the following statement regarding the condition of outfielder Coco Crisp:

“Coco has a non-displaced fracture at the base of his left index finger,” said Gill. “He will be placed in a splint for 10 days and reevaluated at that time. Once sufficient healing has occurred, Coco can begin batting and return to baseball activities. No surgery is indicated at this time.”

So he's out a minimum of 10 days. Please God don't let it be any worse than that...

*another edit*

The news keeps changing on this story. As of right now, he's going to be in a splint for 10 days, then might need surgery afterwards depending on the re-evaluation. This spring, Luis Rivas had a nondisplaced fracture in his hand and was initially supposed to miss only about 15 days. After later evaluation, he needed surgery and the recovery time was uppoed to 6-8 weeks. Godspeed, Coco!

If this team cannot win without their leadoff hitter for a month, then they weren't built for a title run in the first place. Let's just hope Timmy Wakefield isn't matched up against too many lefties this month, so we see a lot of Stern, and not so much Wily Mo.

An update on the Ortiz extension is coming. Boy, it's been a busy day for Red Sox news today.

Game 6: Red Sox 2, Orioles 1

The Red Sox picked up another win in a close game this afternoon. I'm gaining more and more faith in how good this team is daily.

Wakefield rebounded from a tough first start, allowing only one uneared run the entire game, and consistently pitching out of trouble. In the bottom of the sixth, he had runners on second and third with no outs, and he struck out the side. He only retired the Baltimore side in one inning (third). Wakefield's only charged run came in the first on a Tejada single. It was unearned because of Loretta's first fielding error of the season.

Crisp didn't play this afternoon due to jamming his finger on his caught stealing at third base last night, but Adam Stern filled in nicely in the leadoff spot, going two for five with 2 RBIs. Crisp is day-to-day, and with the offday tomorrow, I expect to see him in the lineup on Tuesday. Loretta had the other Sox RBI on a lineout that scored Josh Bard.

Speaking of Bard, he looked a little better today catching Wakefield.

Papelbon continues to look like a dominating closer. Yes, he let two runners reach base in the bottom of the ninth, but he retired who he needed to. He got Kevin Millar to pop out on the first pitch to end the game... how fitting. Timlin pitched the seventh, allowing a single to Jay Gibbons and a walk to Kevin Millar, but nobody scored on him.

Keith Foulke had an impressive eighth inning. His velocity looked good, he was hitting his spots and most importantly, batters were swinging and missing his changeups. Our bullpen could be filthy ridiculous if we can get him back to 100% healthy. I still stand by J-Paps as the closer though. Julian Tavarez will be back Thursday from his suspension as well.

A sweep over Baltimore is a good thing. We always dominate them at Camden, and they come into Fenway and own us.

I am very impressed with this team's 5-1 start. I haven't felt this good about a Red Sox team this early since the '99 team, who coincidently were the last team to start off 5-1. The Yankees are off to a slow 2-4 start, but I think I read the last time they started off 2-4 was 1998, and we all know what happened that year. I will never, ever count the Yankees out until the 162nd game of the season is over, but I like the direction that my team is going in right now. First place feels nice, even if it is the first week of the season.

Game 5: Red Sox 2, Baltimore 1

Any doubt that Curt Schilling could not rebound from his pathetic 2005 season has effectively been erased. And I'd like to add that these Boston Red Sox are going to be a scary-good team this year. Just give me credit and say you heard it here first when we're hoisting the 2006 World Series trophy.

There isn't a whole hell of a lot to say about today's game. Not much action occured. Schilling picked up his second win of the season. He went 7 strong innings, allowing only one run on a solo homerun to Luis Matos. Schill gave up three hits, walked two and struck out four. Even in in the seventh, he looked like he reached back for another gear and was blowing the ball past the O's hitters.

We've now gotten seven strong innings out of Curt in both starts, as well as Beckett in his start and Clement last night. And I really, REALLY like the concept of Timlin in the eighth and Papelbon in the ninth. Remember the motto that Grady Little managed to fuck up in the 2003 ALCS-- Williamson in the 8th, Timlin in the 9th? Well Tito isn't going to mess this one up. He knows how strong of a closer Paps is, and I hope to God we never see Keith Foulke doing anything but mop-up duty.

This team has proven to me already that they can win close games when they don't score many runs (like tonight), and win big when the offense kicks it up a notch (see last night). NESN said today that we've only had one error in five games so far, which is incredible. I can't even think of who committed that error right now-- I must have missed it. Although we did have a scary defensive moment when, during today's game, Varitek went chasing after a foul popup and slid knees-first into the bricks behind home plate. Seriously, who the hell's idea was it to put bricks behind the plate? That's an injury waiting-to-happen. He started clutching his knees at first, but then appeared fine.

And Manny "the Gazelle" Ramirez had another fine play in the outfield this afternoon, on a hit that would have surely scored 2 runs for Baltimore. Manny's working hard on improving his Gold Glove status.

Wily Mo Peña has got to do something about his reckless swing. An MLB.com article described how he's been working with Manny and Ortiz on hitting. I hope Papa Jack had a word with him today during or after the game. He looked terrible, swinging at 3 straight fastballs out of the strike zone in his first at-bat. When he actually took a pitch in his 2nd at-bat, the crowd at Camden (Fenway South) cheered him. He managed to strike out on four pitches though. Ortiz has taken to calling WMP "Little Papi," but he has a long way to go before he lives up to that nickname.

Two miscelaneous notes:

Baltimore pitcher Sendy Rleal gave up an RBI double to Varitek today. Does his name not look like a bad typo? How in the world did that extra L get in there? It's pronounced like "Real" of Real Madrid fame... royal in Spanish. I thought NESN had messed up the graphic at first when his name appeared on the screen.

I can't find the quote in the Globe right now, but apparently during yesterday's game, many Red Sox players were seen reading in the clubhouse... including Coco, who was reading and highlighting passages from a book, Timlin and Schilling. On last year's team, Kevin Millar and Johnny Damon would throw grapes at you if you were caught reading. Looks like now that the "idiots" are gone, we have a team full of librarians*. I think I prefer the 2006 guys.

(* Except Manny. I don't think Manny can read yet.)

Pitching and defense win championships, look out for the '06 Sox. You heard it here first... remember that.

Game 4: Sox 14, Orioles 8

Well, I thought I was safe leaving the house with the Red Sox up 11-0. I guess I didn't account for the Rudy Seanez factor. He just continues to suck-- the 2006 version of Mike Remlinger, if you will. Because of his craptacular pitching, the O's jumped back into the game. Seanez has now given up 6 hits in 2/3 of an inning, or three hits per out. Now that is what you call ineffective middle relief.

Francona left Clement in an inning too long tonight (story of his 2005 season), but other than that the guy looked fantastic. His line doesn't look that great on paper (7 innings, 9 hits, 4 R all earned, 1 BB, 7 K), but keep in mind almost all of that damage came in the seventh inning. Before that he was mowing down one Oriole after another. Clement improved his record to 5-0 all time against Baltimore.

The Sox offense got to Daniel Cabrera early. I fell asleep somewhere in the first inning during all of the walks, but they scored 4 runs in the first, 3 on bases-loaded walks, and one on a sac fly with the bases loaded. Cabrera walked 6 in the first alone. To say that he had no control would be a bit of an understatement. The Red Sox offense saw an astounding 223 pitches tonight.

Manny finally decided to contribute to this team offensively. He came in at 1-11 on the season, and went 3-4 tonight with 2 RBIs and a walk. Welcome to the Red Sox, Manny. He came up twice with the bases loaded today. I know he's sitting at only a few off of the all-time record for grand slams. I think Gehrig has the record. I'm too lazy to look it up though. I think he's two or three off though still. Ramírez has 20 in his career.

Some of the subs got to see some playing time tonight with the blowout. Francona took a lot of starters out when the game was at 11-0, Sox. Adam Stern, Alex Cora and JT Snow all played.

I like the way that Tito used Foulke. He came in the ninth with the Sox up 6 runs. I think Foulkie needs to get some confidence back before he's ever named closer again. I hope to God Papelbon stays in that role all season though... and not just because I told three different people last week to pick Paps up. Foulke hit 86-88 mph on the radar gun tonight, and his body language and location looked a lot better than Game 1.

Schilling posted a gem of a quote today on SoSH. I'm not sure how in the world he posted this, since it was during the eighth inning of the game, but he was talking about how back in the day he predicted to a journalist that BK Kim would be one of the best pitchers in the majors.

"You got me, sort of. I now remember the quote, and the hard part to convey is that anyone not in uniform that didn't know him would have a hard time understanding the 'if' part of that comment. BK was as physcially talented as I said, if you could have seen what I saw in 2000 when I first went to Az you'd have agreed. He never changed, he never listened and he never adapted. I have never seen anyone get more shots and have more people at the ready to help when/if he needed it than he got. Nor did I ever see anyone basically say 'f you' to every single person that took time and put in effort to make him better, ever. Josh Beckett and BK belong in the same breath like Curt Schilling and Mariano Rivera, it's not even close, no comparison."

Good to know where Curt thinks he stands. He needs to stay off the computer during games. Hopefully he'll have a good start tomorrow.

Game 3: Sox 2, Rangers 1

The Red Sox improved their record to 2-1 with a solid fundamental win over the Rangers tonight. We always struggle at Texas, so a series win is a nice way to get out of the enema bag of the country. We were stuck w/ the Texas announcers on Extra Innings tonight. Apparently we missed a gem of a freudian slip from Don Orsillo on NESN when he mentioned young GMs "having success" and instead said "having sex." Remy cracked on him all game for it. Too bad we were stuck with the Rangers' broadcasters, who were nearly as bad as the Devil Rays' guys... and that's bad.

Back to the game:

It's fairly obvious to me that Keith Foulke has lost his closing job. Your new Boston Red Sox closer has got to be Jonathan Papelbon. He came in in the ninth in a one-run game and shut the door on Texas, striking out two, and getting his first major league save. Good for Paps. Happy Trails, Keith Foulke. Thanks for 2004, but there's a new sheriff in town.

The offense looked terrible against Cameron Loe pretty much all game. He induced 2 GIDP from Papi, and pretty much every out until Trot Nixon's 2-run home run was a weak, infield grounder. Nixon's blast proved the difference in the game. It was a tough loss for Loe, but somebody's gotta take the L, and it wasn't going to be Josh Beckett tonight.

Speaking of Beckett, he started out shaky, but finished REALLY strong. I was incredibly impressed with his outing. He had some trouble locating his fastball in the early goings, and he threw a few curve balls about 58 feet. But he got his act together and picked up his first (of hopefully many) Red Sox wins. Beckett had 5 K and only 1 BB, and threw 75 strikes out of 109 pitches. I thought Francona kept him in the game the exact right innings. I've been impressed with Tito's bullpen/starter management thus far this season... and especially that he had the cojones to bring in Paps over Foulke tonight.

Mike Timlin tried to blow the game in the eighth inning, but the Rangers got Sveumed when Mark Teixeira was thrown out at the plate by quite a few feet. It looked like Jason might have missed the tag in the slow-mo replay, but Manny's relay to third, and Lowell's throw home were very accurate and on time. That proved to be the difference, as that would have been the tying run in the ballgame. It doesn't happen often that you can put three runners on and not allow a run, but Timlin managed to tonight.

I'd just like to add that my buddy Brad Wilkerson is tearing shit up. I remember when I used to spend many-a-nights taking in Gator baseball games with Brad in the left field bleachers at McKethan Stadium. He and Mark Ellis used to talk baseball with my friend Laura and I for hours on end. I never had any doubt that either of those guys would end up playing in the majors. They're two of the nicest guys I've ever talked to in my life, and I wish them all the success in the world, except when they play the Sox. I'll hopefully see Mark again this summer at the Sox-A's game at Fenway. Ah, the perks of growing up in Gainesville. Good times.

On to Baltimore after an offday on Thursday.

The guys at Baseball Prospectus are geniuses

ESPN Page 2 posted some fascinating excerpts from Baseball Prospectus' "Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game is Wrong."

I've been into sabermetrics for a few years now thanks to the nerds at Sons of Sam Horn, and BP is definitely a daily must-read for me.

For years, sabermetricians have argued that there is no such thing as clutch hitting. They simply argue that good hitters are clutch hitters... with the exception of A-Rod, who couldn't make a clutch play/hit if his life depended on it. Okay, I made that up, but one day I will do a study proving that A-Rod is the worst clutch hitter in the history of baseball. Besides Rob Neyer's Insider columns, ESPN doesn't show a lot of love to sabermetrics. Just look at Joe Morgan, who vehemently opposes all of the work that Billy Beane has done in Oakland. Hell, Morgan still thinks that Billy Beane actually wrote Moneyball. It's not like sabermetrics is difficult stuff to comprehend. Bill James couldn't lay it out any simpler in his Baseball Abstracts. I wish ESPN and media outlets in general would switch over to OBP, OPS, Runs Created, etc, instead of Batting Average, which is pretty much a worthless statistic.

Anyway, I enjoyed Nate Silver's piece on David Ortiz and Clutch Hitting, and you will too if you read it:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=betweenthenumbers/ortiz/060405

And in other news: Bronson Arroyo just hit a home run in his Cincinnati Reds debut. Can we get that trade retracted? I have a bad feeling we're going to need Bronson this season when Wells and Schilling start to show their age.

Nomar Garciaparra was put on the DL... again. Is there any doubt in ANYONE's mind that that guy was on some serious steroids cerca 1998-2000.

Game 2: Rangers 10, Sox 4

I'm not sure what the Red Sox are trying to prove by having Tim Wakefield be their second starter. This guy is a FIFTH starter on just about any team. He's good for a 10-10 record any year, with a couple gems when the knuckler is on (usually against Tampa Bay), and a couple major blowouts... case in point tonight. Beckett needs to be the No. 2 guy.

Timmy left a lot of knuckle balls up high, and the Rangers crushed him. Especially Phil Nevin, who is now batting like .500 against Tim Wakefield. The game was over in the first inning after Nevin's 3-run home run. What's even more disturbing is that Josh Bard has no idea whatsoever how to catch Tim Wakefield. Doug Mirabelli was Wake's designated catcher last season, but we traded him away to the Padres for Mark Loretta. Granted, Loretta is looking great so far this season at the plate, with some fantastic at-bats, but right now, I'm really missing Doug "Stud who hits bombs" Mirabelli. (If you don't frequent Sons of Sam Horn, you won't get that nickname).

Riske and Seanez look as if their Spring Training suckitude is going to continue into the 2006 season. But after Papelbon's performance in Game One, I'm really not worried about the pen. Julian Tavarez will be back in eight games anyway. And as Bill Simmons pointed out in his always-hilarious Running Game Commentary of Opening Day, Paps is going to be the closer very soon. Look out, Keith Foulke. I feel so proud for telling George to draft Jonathan Papelbon high in his fantasy draft. That kid has "stud" written all over him.

Anyway, I'm pleasantly surprised by the offense thus far. Ortiz is hitting like everyone knew he would, but Loretta and Crisp are looking great too. We have a fantastic 1-2-3-4 punch. The only problem is once you get past Varitek and Nixon and head into the bottom of the lineup, we've got nothing. My dad had a good point during the first game of the season when he said that any hit we get out of Gonzo/Cora/Lowell is just bonus to what we thought they would do. Manny is looking shitty at the plate thus far, but his Aprils always stink. He'll come around... just Manny being Manny.

I'm looking forward to watching Josh Beckett's Red Sox debut tomorrow night. Hopefully it goes smoother than Wakefield's first start tonight. He's such a bum. (But when he wins, we like him... Red Sox fans are as fickle as they come).

In non-MLB news, the Gators won their first NCAA basketball championship last night. I think I read in Andrew's column that we're only the sixth school in NCAA history to win a football and basketball championship. While the party on University was nowhere near as cool as the '96-'97 football championship, it was still pretty fun. Too bad I was watching the celebration live on a television in the 95-degree Sports Desk at The Alligator. I'm proud to say that I've been in Gainesville for both title wins, and I hope to God I'll be in Gainesville for Urban's first championship. I wish the Gator baseball team would take a page from the basketball team and figure out how to gel together and win. Their starters stink-- nobody besides Brian Augenstein can even find the plate these days. Even Mr. Reliable Darren O'Day blew it tonight-- we lost to freaking NORTH FLORIDA 6-5. That is despicable.

All right, enough Gator/Sox ramblings. I am about to update my Opening Day entry w/ quotes from Bill Simmons' column, so check that out.

Opening Day-- Sox 7, Rangers 3

Overall, it was a very succesful Opening Day. I couldn't have asked for much more from Schilling. I've had a really nasty stomach virus since this morning though, so I'm going to have to cut the update short. I will add more analysis on the game after I stop throwing up every 20 minutes. I have to work until close to 2 a.m. with the Gators playing for the national title tonight. So pretty much today sucked and will continue to suck-- but at least my boys are back and they won! More on Opening Day later.

_______________________________

Instead of me updating about the first game of the season, I'm going to let Bill Simmons do it for me.

Here was our lineup, in the comical fashion that Simmons is the master of:

1. Coco Crisp, CF
2. Mark Loretta, 2B
3. The Real 2005 A.L. MVP, DH (HAH!)
4. Manny Being Manny, LF
5. Gerry McNamara, RF
6. Jason Varitek, C
7. Mike Lowell, RIP-er, 3B
8. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
9. The Alex Gonzalez Who Always Does Well In The Winter World Series, SS.

(P.S. How much does Trot Nixon look like Gerry McNamara? Why can't I come up with this stuff? How is it that Simmons comes up with all the witty stuff that is on the tip of every member of Red Sox Nation's pens?)

Great quote from the Boston Sports Guy: "There are about 7,000 reasons why I'm excited to have baseball back, but I think the chance to have David Ortiz back in my life on an everyday basis cracks the top 10. It might even rank first."

Thank God for David Ortiz, seriously. I love his big, gap-toothed smile.

"11:30 -- Our first glimpse of Manny Ramirez, who grew dreadlocks and bleached them gold for the 2006 season. I'm just glad that he didn't randomly decide to pierce his left eyeball or something. Manny grounds out to second, then jogs to the dugout with an "If I poop in the shower after the game, maybe they'll try harder to trade me" look on his face. Thirty cents on the dollar, here we come!"

(That was a gem. Thanks for putting Manny in his place, Bill.)

"1:33 -- Nix robs Trot Nixon of a double. He's on pace for 1,444 fantastic catches this season. Meanwhile, after 10 minutes of the ESPN guys discussing Clemens' possible return and the steroids scandal in lieu of the actual game, I contemplate switching back to Don and Jerry (HDTV be damned). Is this "Around the Horn" or a baseball game?"

(Reason No. 5,683 that I refuse to watch ESPN broadcast a baseball game. Thank God for MLB Extra Innings. Don Orsillo may be annoying as hell, but he's nowhere near as bad as Jon, Joe, Rick Sutcliffe, David Justice, John Kruk, Harold Reynolds... pretty much anyone who mentions baseball on ESPN).

"12:54 -- Hey, is it a bad sign for the Lowell Era that Texas' outfielders are moving up 10 steps for his ABs, almost like the token chick coming up during a company softball game? I say it is. He just flew out to left. More importantly, the top of the sixth just ended with a pitcher named Feldman striking out Youkilis. That's the Jewish baseball moment of the year so far.

1:00 -- Good Golly. Manny just chased down a Michael Young bomb, hauled it in and crashed into the fence, followed by Schilling accidentally making an "I can't believe that nimwit just saved my ass" face ... quickly followed by Manny sitting down Indian style and eating three handfuls of paste. OK, I made that last part up. But the rest happened."

(Simmons, you crack me up... cracking on Manny is way too easy though. Schilling's look really was priceless.)

"1:28 -- After a Trot Nixon single, Joaquin Benoit comes in for the beleagured Rangers bullpen. Have you noticed that "Joaquin" is the Latin version of Antoine? You can spell it Joaquin, Joaquim, Joaqim, Joakim ... when will someone break out the "Joa'quine" for hoops? However you spell it, he gets Texas out of the inning."

(Nice to see Simmons showing some love to UF's own Joakim Noah, but Joakim sounds nothing like Joaquín, and no self-respecting Spanish person spells Joaquín any different than Joaquín Benoit does).

"1:57 -- Pitching the eighth inning: One of the keys to a 95-win season (and both of my fantasy teams) ... young Jonathan Papelbon. And yes, I'm a believer. If there weren't 25,000 companies making baseball cards right now, I would even buy one of his rookie cards.

(Of course, he retires the side on 13 pitches. If you don't think he'll be closing for this team within five weeks, you're insane. Pick him up for your fantasy team. Do it. Trust me.)"

(I knew this months ago. Hence why all of my friends have Pap on their Fantasy Teams).

"2:16 -- With one out, Crisp robs Nix with a leaping grab at the warning track (not only was that catch a 9.9 out of 10, Damon wouldn't have come within five feet of that ball). That's followed by Barajas barely missing a homer down the left field line and eventually grounding out to end the game. Our final score: Sox 7, Rangers 3.

"Well, Keith Foulke, kind of a rough outing in the ninth," Orsillo tells us, guaranteeing himself the 2006 ESPY for "Understatement of the Year."

I can't even speak right now. Why throw Foulke out there? Why? Couldn't we enjoy one satisfying Opening Day win in peace? Now I'm going to spend the rest of the day worrying about this. Five-year grace period, five-year schmace period."


(So true. Foulke is toast and the season has barely started. Give me Papelbon now!)