Posts Tagged ‘Jason Varitek’
Sometimes it's good to remember that this is for fun! Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.
Didn’t watch one minute of the Sox/Rangers game last night. Listened to a few minutes on the ride home but didn’t see any of it. Which is helpful the day after a game of suck that makes most people punch walls and kick things. So while I’m bummed by the blown lead (8-2? Really? They couldn’t hold an 8-2 lead?) I’m not bothered like I would have been had I watched the game and shut it off as Wake gave up that home run. I’m thankful for the little gifts in life because had I watched that I’d be pounding this keyboard right now and today I’m not.
Royals beat the Yankees and Orioles beat the Rays. I saw neither of those outcomes coming. Good job, fellas.
There’s a small possibility I’ll miss tonight’s game and I’m definitely going to miss Sunday’s. I don’t mind if I miss a good game (as long as the finish is favorable for us) but even mores so I don’t mind missing a bad one and, regardless of the offensive output by the Sox last night, I really don’t mind having missed that game.
Looks like I missed Jacoby re-injure himself last night. Can’t decide what bothers me more, that the kid is in that broken-rib type pain again, that the team loses him again, or that I’ll have to listen to/read all the people complaining about how soft he is again.
Since this post has just been a ray of sunshine already, let me brighten it more by sending you to Caryn’s (aka Metsgrrl) blog to read about Rob Dibble. Let’s just say, I’m grateful that I’ve never encountered that kind of misogyny from Don or Jerry and even though I’m not in their market, I sent MASN a nasty email about it.
It isn’t often that I am thankful for an 8′clock game on a Saturday but today I am. Go out and enjoy the day, folks, and wash the memories of last night’s game out of your brains. Jon Lester takes the mound tonight to give us all a little hope.
…because the shit has most definitely hit the fan.
If you go to RedSox.com and look up the 40-man roster you’ll find this symbol next to the names of eight players: 
By Friday morning it will, most likely, be next to ten players.
Josh Beckett, Junichi Tazawa, Victor Martinez, Dustin Pedroia, Jed Lowrie, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jeremy Hermida and Mike Lowell are all on the disabled list (Tazawa and Lowrie on the 60-day, the rest on the 15-day). Supposedly, Manny Delcarmen will be added to that list and Friday, if Dan Roche’s sources are accurate (and Rochie is one Boston sports reporter who I tend to trust implicitly), Jason Varitek will join him on the 15-day disabled list. Add to that both Mike Cameron and JD Drew being out sporadically with various injuries, Youk and Scutaro being banged up as well as Daisuke Matsuzaka only recently coming back from the DL then watching Clay Buchholz come up lame last week..well you all already know how this has gone this season.
As an aside, the Sox traded Angel Sanchez for Kevin Cash. Your catcher and back up catcher? Gustavo Molina and Kevin Cash.
(Edited to add this link to an amazing timeline created by “sibpin” over at the Sons of Sam Horn that shows not only the players who have been on the DL this season, but those who have missed time for various other reasons as well. It’s quite sobering.)
If I hear one Red Sox fan complain about where the Sox sit in the AL East, I think I might stomp them to death.
Tim Wakefield (with Scott Schoeneweis) can finish off the series with a sweep! Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.
Maybe the Blue Jays are just cranky about their own front office selling them out and giving the Phillies three home games in June that should have been theirs?
Before I gloat about last night’s game, honestly, could they have found a worse way to screw their fans and their team? I’m sorry but the fact that they’ll use American League rules and that statistically the games will be considered Toronto home games does NOTHING to change the fact that 1) they’ll be playing in front of a Phillies fan base instead of their own and 2) the Jays fans get hosed out of being able to welcome Roy Halladay back. (Also, the team hosed the fans AGAIN but not giving them refunds but VOUCHERS for another game. This isn’t like a rain out. THEY made the decision to move the game and the fans shouldn’t have to be penalized for it.)
Boston Globe photo by Barry Chin and used without permission
Ugly night in Boston sports all around. I don’t even want to think about it. The rain is coming down now washing away the disappointment of Friday night, ready to serve us up a brand new day.
Without wondering what the hell is going on with Beckett (I just can’t wrap my mind around it right now), I looked up some numbers.
This morning, the Yankees are in second place in the division, 1.5 games out of first place behind Tampa Bay with a record of 20-8. The Red Sox are in second to last place in the division, 7.5 games out of first just ahead of Baltimore with a 15-15 record. The Sox and Yanks have met 4 times and the Sox only won one of those games.
On May 8, 2009, the Red Sox were in first place in the division with a record of 19-11. The Yankees were in third place in the division, 4.5 games out of first with a 14-15 record. The Sox and Yanks had met 5 times and the Sox won all five games.
I am in no way comparing the individuals on each of these teams. My point is this: A record of 15-15 doesn’t indicate that the Red Sox won’t be successful this year. Anything can and does happen in baseball and as agonizingly painful as it was to watch Beckett meltdown last night and as awful as it was to have the Sox lose so badly after coming off a four game sweep, it isn’t the end of the world, people. If this team has done anything this year they’ve been consistently inconsistent. We’re going to have to deal with it.
Since I’d rather remember the past this morning, I was thinking about a rainy Saturday back on July 24, 2004. Going into the game on Friday the 23rd, the Sox were 8.5 games out of first place behind the Yankees. That Friday night game was going to be a classic until Curt Schilling had his own meltdown and gave up seven earned runs in just over 5 innings. The Sox came back to tie the game, only to lose it in the ninth when Keith Foulke gave up a single to Alex Rodriguez that scored Gary Sheffield. Many Yankees fans refer to this game as the game where Curt Schilling cried – He didn’t. He buried his face in a towel out of frustration but in 2004 we let the Yankees fans grasp on to whatever they can. The two pitchers we picked up in the off-season to add the extra oomph the team needed to get past the Yankees had both imploded against them. The Sox went into Saturday, July 24, 2004, 9.5 games behind the Yankees.
Given that 2004 was before the Red Sox had their fancy new drainage system installed, with all the rain happening Saturday morning, even though it wasn’t expected to rain during the game, no one thought there would be a game that day. Quite disappointing for many reasons but mostly because 1) it was going to be on Fox and more people would be able to see it and 2) who wants to sit around and NOT have a game after such a soul-crushing loss? The story we heard later that afternoon was that the game was being called and when they found out about it, the Sox, lead by Jason Varitek, mounted a protest and told everyone who would listen that there WOULD be a game that day. Curt Schilling told it to Alex Speier this way:
We wanted to play, the front office did not. They were very concerned about the ‘gate’ and we were dead set on playing. I remember a “[Expletive] that, we want to play” response when they came and told us they wanted to bang the game.
The game did not get ‘banged’. (I also remember a story about the Yankees already being on the team bus in their civies when they got the call to get their butts back to the clubhouse. I still don’t know if it’s true, but I like it so I repeat it often.) Bronson Arroyo makes the history-altering move of hitting ARod (keep in mind, this is before he became “Slappy”) and all hell breaks lose. For my birthday in 2004 (which is in December) my sister gave me what I call the “smoosh” photo – Tek asking ARod how his glove smells – and it is, to this day, one of my most prized possessions. Long story short, the Sox give the Yankees their own soul-crushing loss when they go into the bottom of the 9th with the Yanks up 10-8 and end up losing with Mariano Rivera on the mound. A double to begin the inning is followed by a fly ball, a single (which scored a run) and then the historic Bill Mueller two-run homer to end the game.
After that game, we thought the Sox were indestructible. They came back to win the game on Sunday as well and the Sox owned the Yankees for the weekend. More good things were to come (although it took some time for the Sox to really bounce back) and October 27th made all of the pain of that Friday night game (and the games prior to that which put the Sox in the 8.5 games behind hole they were in) totally worth it.
My point is, people, who knows what this year’s team is capable of? I’m not ready to give into the idea that the Sox won’t be sniffing the post-season this year just because of a disappointingly slow start (and a frustrating inability for them to string together many wins – see, I do get how lousy this all has been – I’m just not giving up on this team). Again, sure it sucks. But I’m willing to accept the suck given the possibility of how great it could eventually be.
Great could begin today. Of course the guys have to fight their way through CC Sabathia but with Clay Buchholz on the mound I dig our chances. Adding to my “this feels like July 2004″ mojo? The game today is on Fox. How sweet would it be for McCarver and Buck to have to eat all their negative words (and you KNOW there will be negative words) when the Sox embarrass the Yankees?
One of the few bright spots on the team so far! Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net ad used with permission.
I had work to be done last night and I watched the game with the sound off so I wouldn’t be distracted. Every so often I would look up from the laptop and see someone running around the bases and think “it’s going to be a long game”. I had no idea.
One of my favorite tweets of the night came from Joe Giza at WBZ:
All I know is the Yankees must be pretty ticked that the Red Sox would play a game at this slow a pace without them.
And that was, pretty much, the only amusing thing about last night.
(Let me digress for a moment…I noticed on the NESN website that there is an interview with Jonathan Van Every – welcome back, JVE! – conducted by Heidi Watney. Is she back? Am I so oblivious to her now that I didn’t notice her during the games on Sunday or last night? To be fair, I only watched some of the game on Sunday and last night’s without sound, but still, I didn’t think I disliked her so much that I would erase her from my mind any time she showed up on tv. I’m glad she isn’t injured any more but I certainly didn’t miss her.)
Anyway. All of Red Sox Nation is ready to start the novenas for Josh Beckett but one Tony Lee over at NESN has some good(?) news for us:
If Beckett is searching for some sort of excuse, he could point to the issues he has had throughout his career at Rogers Centre, where his ERA after six starts now stands at 9.28. But even a casual observer could see that what Beckett was throwing Monday would not translate to success in his own backyard.
If he is looking for a pick-me-up, he could look to last April. The right-hander gave up 23 earned runs in 28 2/3 innings in April 2009, but was 15-4 with a 3.33 ERA thereafter. Eerily, he finished this April giving up 23 earned runs in 28 2/3 innings.
Everything that could go wrong this season, so far, has. Okay, not everything, it still could be worse. I’d rather not think about how much worse the already ugly season could be right now. But things are pretty damn bad. Still, winning three out of these last four games, no matter how ugly they all were, has to be moderately encouraging. The Red Sox are 5.5 games out of first place on April 27th. That doesn’t sound as bad as I expected it to.
I’m not sure if I want to find out that there is something physically wrong with Beckett, so they can fix it, or if I’d prefer it’s just some whacked issue he and his pal Lester have about pitching in April. What I really want, though, is to watch a Red Sox game where they get the lead, keep the lead, and the starting pitcher doesn’t get beaten up. I’d like a few of these in a row, thanks.
Extremely jealous of Mets fans today! They get a real doubleheader starting at 4:10pm because their game against the Dodgers got rained out last night. I’d love to go to single admission doubleheader at Fenway Park. I’ve been to one where they had to herd everyone out, clean up the park and the herd the new crowd in…it’s fun but I think a true doubleheader would be even more fun.
Tonight Clay is on the mound against Shaun Marcum. There has to come a point when the starting pitchers (for the Sox!) all get their acts together, right? We’ll find out together! Tonight is the second Toeing the Rubber Live Chat of the season. Hope to see yo there! (So far we’re 1 for 1!)
If JD Drew can smile...so can you! (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission)
Well it was nice to miss all the suck yesterday. Due to obligations unrelated to baseball I watched a total of about an inning and a half last night.
But I refuse to dwell on the negative. It’s been a shitty April so far and there’s no denying it. We just have to be grateful that the Orioles only have one win this month so the Sox aren’t sitting in the basement. Still, if I let a bad month of baseball ruin my Red Sox-loving attitude, what would the point be? Anything can happen in a season and while I would like to see a more cohesive unit out there I certainly am not even close to giving up on this team. That isn’t to say that the way they’ve been playing and the outcomes of these games haven’t been utterly frustrating. They have. But if I gave up on my team in April I would have missed out on a lot of good games. Besides, what kind of fan only pays attention to or roots for their team when they’re winning?
Today is another day and the Sox get another chance to start that winning streak.
