Posts Tagged ‘Daniel Bard’

God, I love good pitching! Photo of Daniel Bard taken by Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.net in April 2009 and used with permission.

When Ramon Ramirez came in and, essentially, erased all the good Jon Lester did last night, I realized how much I wanted the team to win. (Mind you, I’m not blaming Ramirez here. I wanted Tito to go with Bard in the ninth instead of the 13th. If for no other reason than it seemed like they needed to just shut down the Phillies right there or the bullpen would end up depleted. And if we have to now start saving Masterson every game that comes before a Daisuke Matsuzaka start because the team might need him for long relief, I’m failing to see the point of having Daisuke in the rotation right now. Okay, I’m done with the complaining.) Unless it’s a must-win (or against the Yankees), I don’t usually get so worked up about the first game in a series. But the adrenaline from the Yankees series must have still been coursing through my veins because I REALLY wanted this one.

As an aside, I was also watching parts of the Yankees/Mets game. Both games gave me equal amounts of agita at certain moments but I wasn’t really invested in the New York game as much as I might have been, given the tense nature of the Sox game. Which is a good thing since I missed Luis Castillo drop an A*Rod pop up to end the game. Game would have been over, Mets would have won. Had the Sox lost I might have felt worse about this. As it is, I have friends who are Mets fans and I honestly just ache for what they’re going through right now. The Mets have lost three in a row to walk-offs…all three against rival teams. To lose so cheaply last night must be a dagger in the heart. Here’s hoping they come back and ground the Yankees into dust for the rest of the weekend.

Last night the Sox gave up 5 hits over the course of that game. Five hits and only 2 runs…along with twenty strike outs – 11 coming from Lester while Masterson struck out the side once (to be fair, he also gave up a double and an intentional walk in that same inning) and Daniel Bard struck out his side in the 13th freaking inning (after hitting a batter). Short of Ramirez’ hiccup in the ninth, the pitching was great and the bats hammered out 11 hits once all was done. (Okay, 5 runs on 11 hits might not SOUND great but the bottom line is the team won.) How impressive have our pitchers been lately? Even with Ramirez’ struggles this week, I still look into the bullpen and never once think that there is someone in there I don’t want to see come out. And when the starters needed to come up big, they all have.

If you look up “The Balls” in the dictionary, there should be a photo of our pitchers next to it. S’all I’m saying. Here’s hoping Daisuke got the ballsy memo.

It felt like it took forever and it wasn’t pretty (well, some of it was) but at least the Sox still came out on top. With Daisuke on the mound, tonight, I fear it’ll be a long, frustrating game. I still have faith that the Sox will win. 7 innings from Daisuke would be nice, though, wouldn’t it?

I can’t stop now…

Win, Daisuke. Just win. (And some runs would be nice too, fellas!) <–Even though Lester didn’t GET the win…I’m still considering it a streak.

Haven’t used any Kyle Snyder photos for good karma in a while. Kyle struck out 7 in his latest appearance with the Buffalo Bisons! (Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images North America)

Well that didn’t go as planned.

Thanks to one of Wake’s patented “this inning is going sour quickly and we don’t have a guy up in the bullpen yet” innings and the fact that the team couldn’t get men in scoring position to actually make it home, Sox break the Blue Jays 9-game losing streak.

Can’t have any hard feelings about Wake. Guy’s been a horse thus far. The hitters, on the other hand, I can fault (not-so) happily.

But let’s focus on the positive. How about Daniel freaking Bard, eh? Five consecutive strike outs of the 8 bats he faced? Quite impressive, kid, quite impressive.

Last night, Amalie Benjamin wrote on Twitter: “Not a lot of glory in being the team that ends another team’s nine-game losing streak.” I have to disagree. Well, maybe not “disagree” but I don’t think she is looking at it the right way. Do the players look at each other and think “Ugh, we just lost to a team that lost 9 in a row” or do they think “The Law of Averages caught up with them and we were unlucky enough to be the team they were playing”? To lose 10 in a row is huge. To lose a dozen in a row even worse. Did anyone think the Blue Jays were going to lose 12 straight games? I didn’t. I wanted them to but I didn’t think it would happen.

As I wrote in response to that Tweet, the odds of the Sox winning the next 2 just went up. It’s unfortunate that the loss came on a night when the Yankees won, placing them a half game ahead of the Sox to, temporarily (!) own first place but what are you going to do?

One note about the Yankees game: Pettitte came out of the game after getting himself in trouble. Two on, no out and a 2-0 count to the batter he was facing. He looked fine walking off the field but it gave the relief pitcher as much time as he wanted to warm up. There was no visible injury and when he threw his last pitch he didn’t grab himself or limp or wince. He hurt his back on Monday and, according to Peter Abraham, had been fighting through pain up until Girardi took him out. Also according to Abraham, Pettitte says he’ll definitely make his next start. I don’t know…sounds suspiciously like the old Roger Clemens trick of suddenly being injured to get out of a game. Although Pettitte was winning when he left his game. It sounds more like Girardi wanted his struggling starter out of the game before it got out of hand and pulled the “he’s injured” card so his reliever could get more warm-up time on the mound. Part of me wonders why Tito didn’t try this (hey, Wake has had a bad back in the past). “Oops he’s hurt! Let’s take him out and get someone else in there quickly!” Another part of me is very glad that Tito’s mind doesn’t work like Joe Girardi’s. Of course, I feel differently if it turns out Pettitte misses his next start and is genuinely hurt. For now, I don’t believe it for a second. Girardi got a fresh arm in there to take as many wam-up tosses as he needed and stopped what could have turned into a really ugly inning. Good managing or just more slimeballiness from Girardi? I suppose a little of both.

And the first one to tell me Pettitte wouldn’t be involved in such chicanery needs to be reminded of this.

Speaking of PED users: Bud Selig has decided that he’ll have to give some thought as to what to do if Manny Ramirez gets voted into the All Star Game. Seriously, I’d like to find every idiot who voted for him and slap them. Give your vote to a player who hasn’t been caught cheating. What a novel idea! And you can come back with “For all we know they’re ALL cheating” and that is very well true, but I don’t care. I’m not out to hang witches. If a player has been caught or admits to using then he cheated. I’m not pointing to every player who does well and say “He MUST be cheating!”. That’s bull. We KNOW Manny cheated. THIS YEAR. Why vote him in to the All Star Game when he is serving a suspension for that instead of playing baseball?

A quick shout-out to schadenfreude:

Brett has decided to have surgery,” added Amaro. “And it’s likely we’ll be missing him for a significant amount of time. We don’t know how much time, but he has elected to have surgery.”

According to a team spokesman, Myers was unavailable for comment.

It’s sad when bad things happen to good people isn’t it? Oh wait…

The Sox and Jays play at 1:07pm EST! So nice to have a Saturday game played in the early afternoon. I had considered live blogging it but won’t be. Tomorrow is still a possibility – we’ll see how the stars align for it. Today Brad Penny pitches against Brian Tallet. For as much of a hard time as I’ve given Penny this year, he’s been pretty solid for the Sox. We don’t need a stopper today we need a STARTER. Someone to start the winning series! I’ll be thrilled with the Sox leaving Toronto having won 2 out of 3. But for that to happen, GOOD Brad Penny needs to show up today (along with a bunch of hitters who don’t keep leaving men on, thanks!).

Daniel Bard pre-game the last time I visited McCoy Stadium. Photo taken by Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.

The only thing I care to recall about last night’s game:

“He kind of blew my doors off a little bit there,” Napoli said. “He’s got pretty easy cheese. He brings it up there pretty good, pretty firm. From what I saw, he has pretty good stuff.”

“Easy cheese”. Eck would be proud.

I surprised myself by being genuinely pumped during a Red Sox loss to see Daniel Bard get his Major League debut AND his first Major League strike out against the first batter he faced. (The “Easy Cheesy” Mike Napoli.) My focus is usually on the game and the stats for the individuals is secondary. But to see a player live up to the hype in his first appearance is pretty sweet.

Back in January, I got to see Bard at McCoy Stadium at the PawSox’ annual Hot Stove party. It’s funny to think of now, how so many were disappointed to not get to meet Lars Anderson while Kelly and I were more worried that Bard was going to have to suddenly leave. He was kind and funny when we met him and only slightly shell-shocked by the amount of people who showed up for the event. It was easy to see he didn’t rattle too easily. I was also fortunate enough to have been at Pawtucket for his first appearance there this season and saw him bring the heat (topping off at 99 mph that day). So watching him come into a 7-4 game with the Sox losing and men on second and third with no outs and get a .316-hitting batter to strike out swinging certainly made my night.

Kyle Snyder starts today for the Bisons against the Gwinnett Braves at 1:05pm. This is important insofar as if the rotation for the Bisons stands as is, Kyle will probably be starting against the PawSox when I go to see them this coming Tuesday. One can hope!

Sox have a chance to win the series today – that’s TODAY for those of you still sleepy from staying up to watch them lose, not toNIGHT. Today at 3:35pm, bane of my existence Brad Penny will face Ervin Santana before the guys hop a plane to Seattle for the weekend. I’ll be listening and hoping that Penny, yet again, does his impression of a pitcher who doesn’t stink too much while his offense gives him some run support so they can leave town with the series win. That’s all we need, right?

Daniel Bard during his first appearance at McCoy Stadium. Photo by Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.net. Used with permission.

Thanks, again, to everyone who stopped by for the marathon live blogging yesterday – I had a lot of fun and hope you enjoyed it as well.

Sox made it all worthwhile with two impressive wins and now we get a day off to recover before we have to gear up for the Yankees coming to town. I’ll be at the first game of the series on Friday night. I’m both excited and anxious about this. I always love being in Fenway but not so much when the Yankees come to visit. It seems the jerks amp it up to 11 for these games – both jerky Red Sox fans and jerky Yankees fans – and Friday will be ripe for the jerky pickings with Joba Chamberlain pitching. Between the Yankees fans who think he’s the second coming of Christ and the Red Sox fans who want Kevin Youkilis to shove a baseball bat where the sun doesn’t shine on Joba, things could get pretty ugly.

I certainly fall in the category of fan who wouldn’t mind seeing Youk put the beatdown on Joba. I absolutely believe Joba goes out of his way to try and hit Youk’s head and no amount of “Why would he do that” rationalizing will make me change my mind. On the other hand, I don’t want Youk either getting hurt, getting suspended or both. So I’d much prefer a weekend of nothing but baseball. No headhunting, no fighting, no arrests. Just play baseball, fellas.

As if the “thrill” of Joba isn’t enough to entice me into going to this game, Jon Lester is pitching against him. How can I not go to this game? The promise of annoying fans in the stands, an obnoxious starting pitcher for the Yankees and the Red Sox pitcher who seems to always suck whenever I go see him pitch in person. Can you sense my excitement?

I know this is going to turn out to be one of those games where, had I stayed home, I’d be biting off my nails waiting for it to end. Sox/Yankees games kill me. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I bought the tickets because EVERY year I tell myself I’m not going to any Sox/Yankees games and every year I go to at least one. (And I’m honestly not complaining – I know damn well how fortunate I am to be able to go to these games – I just need to start choosing my games better. Pettitte/Masterson would have probably been much less stressful!)

I’m typing tense…see the off day will be good for all of us!

Speaking of the Yankees, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees continued their dominance of the International League with a 6-1 drubbing of the Buffalo Bisons. The good news was that Kyle Snyder got in the game (I’ve yet to see this, though, as it happened while I was live blogging and could only listen). The bad news is that he gave up four hits and two runs in one inning of work. No matter. Bisons will have a chance to improve upon their 2-11 record at home this weekend.

Also in the International League, Jonathan Van Every made quite the mark during his first game after coming off the DL. A grand slam to tie the game in the ninth isn’t too shabby, huh? Pawtucket beat Rochester 8-7 in 11 innings and, although he didn’t get the win, Clay Buchholz started the game after some off-time with his hammy, and threw 5 good innings (giving up 3 hits and 2 runs and striking out two). Daniel Bard also threw an inning (the 9th) and strike out the side (all swinging). Things are looking good in Pawtucket right now!

Wednesday was a long day. I look forward to the day off. We need to rest up for this carnival of a weekend ahead!

Marcus McBeth, before the game, looking for someone to give a ball. This and some other photos of mine from yesterday are here at Flickr.

If the only thing to keep Saturday from being absolute sports heaven in New England had to be the Celtics losing, I’m okay with that.

Spent a beautiful (yet grey) day at McCoy Stadium and got to see the PawSox win – which is always nice. Had the opportunity to watch (among others) Michael Bowden, Charlie Zink and Clay Buchholz long toss before the game. Clay looked so relaxed and happy. It’s easier to believe the stories about his hamstring injury being minor after seeing him moving around in person. Most interesting sight of the day had to be watching Bowden and Zink toss to each other. Zink, the knuckleballer, really was just lobbing the ball to Bowden, occasionally warning him that he was going to throw the knuckler. But Bowden seemed to be taking this business quite seriously. He didn’t just “toss” the ball to Zink. Every throw was an actual pitch. He set himself as if standing on the mound, and he let loose with some hard pitches. At one point, Charlie finally called “uncle” and told him he wasn’t going to catch his pitches anymore. (All in good fun. Everyone, even Bowden, seemed to be in quite the good mood Saturday at McCoy.)

As an added attraction to the day, it happened to be Paws’ 10th birthday. Every New England mascot who is anyone was there to celebrate – including Wally (Lefty and Righty were, noticeably, absent!). Although we also wondered where the Alligator family (from Lowell) was. They were missed. (And I need to know how Paws knows Spiderman. He seemed wildly out of place with all the mascots so I’m guessing he’s just a good pal of Paws’.)

The whole team looked really good. Although we only got to see two Dusty Brown at-bats before umpire David Uyl tossed him from the game (at both his at-bats, Dusty took issue with Uyl’s called strikes). Dusty didn’t go quietly. We joked that for the rest of the game he was stalking the parking lot looking for Uyl’s car. Getting to see Daniel Bard make his Pawtucket debut was pretty amazing. He hit 99 at least once (and I snapped a shot to prove it). He did give up a home run but he also struck out two in the ninth. Odd highlight of the day: Some dope in a Teixeira t-shirt sitting in front of us for the last couple of innings. That he purposely wore a Yankees shirt to a PawSox/IronPigs game is bad enough (New York had no horse in this race) but when he started wildly cheering because Bard gave up that home run…well that was when I wanted to push him over the side and on to the field.

Instead, I grabbed the iPhone to see how the Yanks were doing. I didn’t realize they were the Saturday Fox game so the game had just started. As I checked the score, Teixeira was up at bat. I was hoping for a strike out so I could tell the t-shirt dude that his player just struck out, but no such luck. Teixeira hit a two-run home run. I shut down the phone and kept my mouth shut.

I told Kelly about this as we were leaving to get a cab and decided to check the score again. By that time, Wang had already given up 6 runs. So Kelly and I indulged in some major schadenfreude all the way from Pawtucket until we got to Boston by “watching” the game via iPhone.

It doesn’t matter what place the Red Sox are in right now. It’s immaterial that Papi is still struggling (although last night was encouraging!). Watching the Yankees lose 22-4 in the new Yankee Stadium made me happy. Wildly, excruciatingly, happy. I know it’s immature and I don’t care. So there you have it.

PawSox win; Red Sox win; Bruins beat the Canadiens; Indians annihilate the Yankees (at their brand-spanking-new stadium and on national television!). This equals a fabulous day in New England, baby!