Toeing the Rubber

Jed Lowrie and Jacoby Ellsbury Photo Taken by Me on Wednesday Night

I’m wiped.  This week has sucked the something right the hell out of me.  So I look forward to tonight’s game with the hope and expectation that the Sox will bounce back from these last two losses and kick some bluebird ass.  There’s also the possibility that I just might pass out during the game and miss most of it…so I’m stocking up on the Red Bull this morning.

I hate going to the PawSox site and not having any news about the team.  I feel like a huge chunk of my baseball season is missing.  It doesn’t help that we’ll get no news on the guys (read: Kyle Snyder!) unless something drastic happens.  I really  love the Fall but I hate the “end” of baseball season.  So September is a jumble of different emotions for me.

Because of a good and generous friend, I’m planning to be at tomorrow’s afternoon game (12:35pm!) and then at a family party during the second game.  Tomorrow will be a long day regardless, but TWO baseball games?  In the middle of a pennant race?  I’m keeping the wine handy as well.

It’s time to hand the Blue Jays their hats, fellas, and tell them thanks for playing but get lost!  I’ll take a split of the series, but I’d rather a win!

I have no idea where this Tom Brady photo came from...I just figured some beefcake was appropriate for the start of football season!

This weekend has gone by much more quickly than I would prefer - but what are you going to do?  Last night was suckorama for Red Sox fans.  No PawSox game, Wake and the Red Sox getting their hats handed to them…I choose to focus on the fact that the BoSox lost no ground in the division.  So we scrape last  night off the bottom of our shoes and we move on to today.

I’d love to say that the 1pm Pats game will fill the void until the 3pm Sox game…but that would be a lie.  Sure, I want the Pats to win but September is still my baseball time.  Once the post-season ends (even if the Sox aren’t in it, October is dedicated, mostly for me, to baseball) I can focus on caring about whether or not the Pats are winning.  Although, in my first season playing Fantasy Football, I admit to being a little giddy that I have Eli Manning and Plaxico Burress on my team, thus giving me what will probably be the only lead I have all season in the league!

As a kind of wrap-up of the Taylor Family story…Tru will be on WRKO radio tonight with Kevin Whalen to talk about what happened at Fenway and how the family is doing.    It’s on at 9:30 tonight and folks can call in with questions if they like.   You can click here and listen live if you don’t get RKO in your area.  Here’s where I really do have to send out another “thank you” to Stan Grossfeld because interest in the family and their well-being has just increased with the publishing of his story.  I hope the good karma comes back to him!

Paul Byrd on the mound today in the rubber game.  I want the Sox to win (obviously) because I want them to continue winning each series they’re in (especially with the Rays coming to town this week).  I still don’t have blind faith in Byrd, but, hell, I certainly want him to help the team win.

PawSox at 5pm in a make or break game.  They win and they live to play another game…they lose and the Red Sox can start picking from the roster, if they want, with no concerns about the playoffs because the PawSox will be out of it.  Bartolo Colon takes the mound against Philip Hughes.  You can listen to it OR watch it live through milb.com (or do what KellyO and I do and watch it without the sound on and listen to the PawSox dudes’ radio broadcast!).  Good luck, fellas!  With any luck, the postponed game will give Kyle another opportunity to pitch and his season won’t be over just yet!

It’s a beautiful, sunny day here today…I hope everyone reading this has toughed out the the bad weather and has a great day to enjoy!

Brandon Morrow Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

The PawSox lost tonight.  This bummed me out much more than I expected.  Best I can figure, I’m subconsciously anticipating how I’ll feel when their season is over if Kyle Snyder doesn’t get a call-up.  Which, as the month goes on, becomes more possible than not.  And THAT truly bums me out.

So I’m going to try and not focus on that and focus on the awesomeness that is a Red Sox can of whoop ass and a Tampa Bay loss to boot.  Josh Beckett was, as they say, the balls.  Four hits and seven strike outs in five scoreless innings.  How’s that tingling working for you, JP?  8-1 was the final score (Okajima giving one up in the ninth…isn’t it nice when that doesn’t matter?) and the Jays took down the Rays 6-4.  This means the Sox are now 2.5 games out of first place.  Can you dig it?  I knew you could!

Speaking of seasons ending…Clay Buchholz’ just did, unless he gets bumped up.  Portland lost their third game in a row to the Trenton Thunder and got booted out of the playoffs.   I hate the slow death of baseball every year.  It’s completely depressing.  I need something to cheer me up…back to the Red Sox!

Mike Lowell came back from his mini-vacation to hit four rbi, including a home run, and hit a triple short of the cycle.  Maybe we should put more guys on the DL and have them come back gangbusters like Lowell and Beckett?

Coco Crisp also had 3 hits, and Jason Varitek had 2.  David Ortiz and Mark Kotsay were the only two in the Sox lineup to NOT get a hit.  Add to that, Manny Delcarmen and Justin Masterson pitching scoreless innings to get to the ninth and you have a really well-rounded, ass-kicking team!  I know at least 3 people who were there tonight and what a game they got to see!

Over in the National League, Bronson Arroyo got his 14th win by pitching almost seven innings and giving up only four hits and one run.  And Reds fans were worried about him at the beginning of the season!

And back to my favorite pitcher…Kyle got in the game tonight and faced six batters.  He gave up a walk and a single and he struck out Matt Carson (fly out, pop up, ground out,  were how he got his other outs).  So 1.1 scoreless innings tonight.  Kyle’s pitching well.  I’m working on which player is on the 40-man who I can put the whammy on to get Kyle a spot over there.  (I’m clueless about this, mind you.  Live in my own little world where I can mess with the 40-man roster whenever I want…)  I think it’s a toss up between Chris Carter and Marcus McBeth.   They need to have a Celebrity Deathmatch-like battle to see who gets the boot.

When I was in 8th grade, April Vigliotta wrote in my autograph book “Maybe someday you’ll own the Red Sox”.  I’ll settle for being the GM. 

Currently watching the Mariners and their rookie pitcher, thus far, kicking Yankee ass.  It’s a nice way to end the evening.  (In his first MLB game, Brandon Morrow just struck out his seventh batter - one Alex Rodriguez.  It’s the end of the seventh inning and, let’s just say, if you can watch this game…you’d really want to right now!)

Edited to add:  The Mariners announcers keep saying exactly what Morrow is doing and it’s making me crazy.  I didn’t realize I was as superstitious about this as I, apparently, am!

Second edit:  Brandon Morrow is out of the game.  Wilson Betemit hit an rbi double to break up the no-hitter with two outs in the 8th inning.  Kid kicked ass…good for him.  Now finish the game for him, Mariners, and get the kid the damn win!

Josh Beckett Photo by Brita Meng Outzen

Well there’s good and bad news on the minor league playoff front.  The good?  The PawSox won a heck of a game last night (Devern Hansack pitched 6 no-hit innings!).  The bad?  Clay Buchholz and the SeaDogs lost their second game to the Thunder (actually Clay didn’t lose.  He got a no-decision).

Oh well…today is a new day, right?  BoSox are in Texas, PawSox are in Pennsylvania and the SeaDogs are home tonight!  It’ll be a great night for baseball all around!

Yesterday was a long and weird day.  I’m hoping the weirdness ended last night.

Red Sox fans hit the trifecta tonight:  Sean Casey, Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett all back in action!  I’d love for Joshua Patrick to throw a no-hitter; hell a perfect game, that would be good too!  But I’ll settle for six solid innings and the lead when he leaves.

I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Kyle Snyder Head Shot from the PawSox Site

I went from thinking I was too tired to write, to writing my third of four new posts (I think four - as of now the fourth will be a post about last Friday for tomorrow…I might be inspired to write more though).  Postapalooza, as Ted says!

Both the PawSox and the SeaDogs lost the first of their playoff games tonight.  PawSox just got hammered by the Yankees and the SeaDogs lost a 2-1 game to the Thunder.  Meh…one game, right?  Just one game.  They have plenty of time left to come back.

Much to my delight, Kyle got into the game tonight.  He faced 8 batters, striking out three in a row (swinging) and giving up three hits.  One of his strike outs was Shelley Duncan.  Yeah, that pleased the hell out of me.

Thanks to an amazing, late-inning comeback, the Red Sox helped themselves pick up another game in the division.  The Yanks just beat the Rays (yep, I was rooting for the Yanks - go figure!) so it’s been quite the day for baseball.

We also saw history tonight on ESPN…first time “Instant Replay” was used in MLB.  And, what a surprise, eh Kenny Rogers, it was used during a Yankees game.  ARod gets his homer and his rbi and the Rays get their loss.  We’re coming to get you, Tampa Bay! 

Dustin Pedroia Photo lifted from the Sacramento Bee

So I know I promised a write up of our Friday with the Taylors - but timing hasn’t worked out and that will have to wait until tomorrow.  (And not only will you get my take on the day, but Tru’s as well…it’ll be Taylorpalooza around here tomorrow!)

And a shout out to the Taylors who, by now, are all back home.  It’s my privilege to say that I know you all.

On to baseball and he who is crabby:

“It’s a long season with a lot of innings, and right now I feel pretty good and hopefully can just keep riding that wave.”

What wave is that, Jon? The suck wave that only got you the win because your offense went insane?  (And, no, I’m not saying Lester sucks…I’m saying he suckED.  Last night.  And he did.  And his saying he “felt good” and had “good stuff” made me want to pluck my eyeballs out.  That’s all.

On the other hand, Dustin Pedroia didn’t suck and doesn’t seem like likely to suck anywhere in the near future.  It is, again, interesting that I’ve stopped getting those “How can you think Pedroia is a better player than Cano” emails. 

Sox gained a full game in the standings with the Yankees beating the Rays.  Hey, it works for me.

I had a ticket to today’s game, which I will, sadly, not be using.  Another shout out, this time to Dori, who I feel like I always miss her texts and then respond to her emails way late.  It isn’t intentional!!!  Hope you have a great time today!

Spinners won their final home game last night at a game I was also supposed to be at.  The SG gang brought the good mojo!  Spinners now move on to the playoffs - and speaking of which, PawSox play the Yankees tonight at McCoy.  Charlie Zink (woo!) gets the start against Chase Wright.  You all remember Chase Wright.  He’s the kid who gave up the back to back to back to back home runs last year.  Good times.

Good luck to Charlie and the rest of the PawSox.  Kick some Yankee ass!

The SeaDogs also start the playoffs tonight.  They’re up against the Trenton Thunder (another Yankees affiliate team).  Kris Johnson gets the start in Trenton tonight and Clay Buchholz goes tomorrow.  You can follow both the PawSox and SeaDogs games over at Milb.com.  With the BoSox playing an afternoon game - you’ll need SOMETHING to occupy your empty baseball time!

One last shout out for the day - to my mom.  Without getting all personal, she’s been, in a word, fabulous over the last week.  Hell, she’s usually fabulous, but this time she went above and beyond.  Mom’s don’t get enough credit, sometimes, so here’s mine to her.  Thanks for everything, MD, I love you!

Jon Lester reverted to the Lester of old for at least one game.  Here’s hoping Daisuke Matsuzka doesn’t do the same or today’s game might not end until midnight.

Good luck, fellas.  Kick ass!

Stephen Drew Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

So says Tom Caron about Paul Byrd.  Gee, pitching in his “home” park is going to be a problem.  That’s friggin’ terrific.  Good scouting there.

Listen, the Sox won the game and I’m thrilled.  But if I watch Paul Byrd have continuous multi-home run games for the rest of the season, I’m going to kick someone.  Preferably Theo.

Three home runs tonight.  Three.  Thankfully it was against the Orioles and our guys tore their pitching apart.  But wins alone are an over-rated stat for a pitcher.   The fact that Byrd got the win tonight betrays how many shitty pitches he put out there.  This is NOT a guy I want to see pitching for the Sox in the post-season.

PawSox won their final game of the regular season today and have a record 85 wins on the season.  Woot!  Well done, fellas, well done.  No Kyle in the game today and no call ups any time in the near future.  If he doesn’t end up getting a call-up, it’ll be a pretty cool thing if he has back to back championship seasons in the bigs and then AAA.

Cliff Lee got his twentieth win tonight, Stephen Drew hit for the cycle and Eric Gagne blew another lead, giving up 3 runs and getting the loss against the Mets today.  For a day with not that many games in it, there was a bit of excitement all around!

Crabcakes is on the mound tomorrow night…another win would be nice.