Opening Day: Take 2

Let's hope that the second go 'round has a better outcome than the first.

4/1: Daisuke Matsuzaka v. Joe Blanton

The last time Daisuke pitched against Joe Blanton and the As his command was crap. He was, presumably, unable to get the pitch to go where he wanted it to go. He pitched five innings and gave up five walks, allowed two runs, gave up a home run, and struck out only six. His lack of command has been commonly attributed to nerves. It's not really a good thing if he lets a situation get to him like that but, at least, it shouldn't prove to be a problem again any time soon.

Papelbon didn't pitch well in Japan. In his one inning he gave up one walk and three hits, he allowed one run, and only struck out one. I will say, in his defense, that in the photos from Tokyo he looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion. But he hasn't pitched well since they came back either. Still I refuse to worry about him, yet.

Offensively, Manny was the only one able to do any damage against Blanton. He knocked in a total of four runs. Moss also contributed two runs but he's now safely ensconced in Pawtucket.

4/2: Lester v. Harden

Lester's outing in Tokyo was a typical game for him. He's never had particularly good command. As he settles down, though, and gets deeper into a game-the fewer pitches he needs to get his three outs. But until he learns to refine his command, Jon Lester is not going to win a pitcher's duel.

That's not to say that he can't win. He can-if he has the offense to back him up. Unfortunately, on the day of his last start, the offense decided that getting up at four in the morning to play a baseball game was silly. Harden gave up three hits but the only run he allowed was the home run by Manny. Hopefully, they'll all decide to play on Wednesday.

Since getting back from Japan the As have been engaged in a three game series with the Giants. Who, by most accounts, are not going to be a spectacular team this year. They lost the first of the three but won the last two.

Bobby Out?

According to the Globe, Bobby Kielty may be willing to except a minor league assignment to Pawtucket. His contract, however, gives him the option to hit the road on April 1st and his agent has told him that there may be another major league club offering him a position, so he might choose to leave. Can't fault him that, really.

In other Bobby Kielty news, in today's spring training game against the Dodgers the Red Sox were hitless except for a single by Kielty.

Although I Wish That We Hadn't Briefly Been Teased with Real Baseball, I'm Really Glad That This One Didn't Count.

I wasn't paying too close attention to today's game but Clay started out really well. He went two scoreless innings and looked very sharp. (He ended up with five strike outs and three walks before his outing was over.)

In the third inning, however, he ran into some trouble. He allowed a hit but then picked off the runner at first. The next batter shattered his bat and made it to first. He got the next batter to tap a ball to third but Lowell couldn't make the play. Then he got a fly ball to center that Coco wasn't able to keep his grip on. So he'd loaded the bases when if things had gone more smoothly the inning would have been over. Probably unnerved by the turn of events, he walked the next batter and things got away from him. He allowed another hit before the inning was over and the score was 4-0.

I'm not really down on Clay after today's performance. At the beginning of the game he was spot on and for the most part his command was much, much better than it had been so far this spring. He needs to work on pitching well when things get out of hand but that's something (I presume) that only comes with practice.

It's a Claim to Fame. I Guess.

All day long on the MSN homepage, there was a picture in their slide show of a hot dog to accompany an article on how to be cheap at a ballpark. I kept thinking: I must be really hungry because that hot dog looks really good.

As it turns out, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (aren't you glad such a council exists?) Boston fans will consume 1.7 million hot dogs at Fenway Park during the 2008 season. It's a total second only to the Mets. The Mets will sell more than 2 million hot dogs this season. [aside: I think that is perfectly reasonable. I don't really like hot dogs but I do like Nathan's, which is the brand they sell down in Queens.]

According to the honorable council the 30 million hot dogs that will be sold in major league ball parks this season would round the bases 41,776 times. By my calculation, the hot dogs sold at Fenway would round the bases only 2,361.13 times. Or consider: The hot dog eating champion last year ate 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes, it would take him 214 days 15 hours 30 minutes and 54.5 seconds of continuous eating to consume all of those hot dogs.

That's a lot of hot dogs.

Spring Training?

The Forgotten Man.

Josh Beckett doesn't need his teammates or a trip to Japan to have a good time. As is evidenced in the above photo, he's having a grand old time in Florida by himself. Thank you very much.

No real word on how he's doing down there but judging from the almost smile on his face, I'd say he gets a kick out of whoopin' minor leaguer ass.

Just Catching Up.

This story is a couple days old but I was away and I like it.

J.D. Drew told Rob Bradford:

"My thought process is that I just hope the fans back me and say, 'J.D. turned it around and we saw what's he about at the end.' More than anything you need your home base to be behind you, especially when you carry as much of a contingent as we do. You definitely don't want them against you. There were times last year when I struggling and I felt like saying to them, 'It's not like I'm trying to make outs. I'm trying to get this thing fixed.' And then, all of a sudden, I got to the point where I wanted to be."

The thing that struck me about that quote was that he said "we." It would have been almost as easy to say "the Red Sox" but he said "we" like he finally thinks he's part of the team. He always seemed to be so solitary and (maybe it's just me projecting) miserable. I can't imagine how awful being friendless and mostly living out of a hotel must be. But Drew and I really aren't all that similar personality wise so maybe he was secretly happy as an oyster.

And he does care if he sucks. Good to know.

And We're Back.

And first up: the Oakland Athletics.

Their scheduled pitchers for the first two games are Joe Blanton (3/25) and Rich Harden (3/26.) Blanton is not a star pitcher but he's still talented. He won fourteen games last season with an ERA of 3.95. He has very good control; last season he struck out an average of 4.12 batters per game and he walked only 1.18 batters per game. He's not unhittable, though; his fast ball tops out around ninety miles per hour. He gave up an average of seven hits per game last year. On average he gave up a home run just about every other game. He is a horse and can go really deep into games.

Rich Harden, on the other hand, has the potential to be a very, very good pitcher. His issue has been recurring shoulder problems, these have consistently kept him on the disabled list and from reaching his potential. He appeared in only seven games last spring. It's still too early for him to have hurt himself significantly this season and so far he has pitched well this spring. When healthy he has the ability to hit 100 on the radar gun with his fast ball. He also has a splitter that moves a little bit like a knuckleball.

Their designated hitter is Jack Cust. Last year he was more likely to strike out than get a hit. He was also slightly more likely to draw a walk than to get a hit. His batting average was only .256 but his on base percentage was .408. When he does get a piece of a ball he can launch them-almost 26% of the balls he hit were home runs. His slugging average was .504. He also had 82 RBIs. Their starting lineup for tomorrow/today hasn't been published anywhere (that I can find) but if Daric Barton is playing he has the potential to be a very good hitter.

Bread and Roses.

A potential work stoppage has now been avoided and they are on their way to Chicago to connect to Tokyo as I type this but I just had to say that I am so freakin proud of this team. The misunderstanding may have been largely on their part but they saw an injustice and stood up for the little guy.

Professional athletes have a reputation for being egotistical and self-involved. Ridiculously inflated salaries lead to the perception that they are money-grubbing; charitable work is viewed cynically. Athletes are always looking out for number one. And that's fine-that's what we expect of them. They put themselves in injury's way for our entertainment and MLB (in this case) makes an enormous sum of money off the risk they take; they should get a piece of that pie.

Today this group proved themselves to be better than the stereotype. Led by Varitek, Lowell, Schill, Youk, and Casey they collectively said: No. There is a certain standard of treatment that is acceptable and we will not stand by and allow you to treat people at a level beneath it if we can do something to prevent it. I won't say that it restores one's faith in humanity because that would be an overstatement but it was still very cool to see.

You say that this or that player seems like a good guy, when really you mean that he plays the game well, for the most part gets along with his teammates, and doesn't have a mistress in every city that the team visits. They're low standard we have for athletes.

Generally, professional athletes aren't the smartest creatures you'll ever meet. We imagine that they have trouble thinking about anyone other than themselves, what they're agent has told them, or about the state of the world at large. After all, they live in a fantasy world; one that they created when they were eight-years-old.

These guys proved themselves to be better than that morally. They also proved that they're smarter than the average bear. Morally because they thought about someone besides themselves and cared enough about that someone to take a stand for them, even though there might have been personal repercussions. Intellectually because they realized that the situation with the coaches wasn't a good one and that by taking a stand they could affect a change.

It makes me glad. It makes me happy that these are my boys and my team.

Also, I've got to say that I'd only half-remembered that Schilling was still on this team. See what happens when you forget about Schill? He leads a revolution in honor of the peons of the clubhouse.

Snag A Ram.

Sometimes my job is really boring. Boring to the point where I'm seriously contemplating knocking over a filing cabinet so that I can re-organize it's contents or purposefully screwing up an account so that I can go back and fix it later, just to break up the monotony. Today is one of those days. It's at times like these I need to come up with some innocent diversion that isn't destructive, won't get me fired, and, most importantly, will make it look like I'm doing actual work.

Today's activity: Anagrams. I've been taking ballplayers names and trying to rearrange the letters into a fitting description of that person. Ideally, the anagram would use all of the letters but I've relaxed the rules because it's nearly impossible to meet those conditions. So far, I've only had success with one player's name-and it's really nearly perfect. (There are a lot of names on this team with 'j's or 'k's or 'v's or 'z's; or names that have very few consonants or conversely, very few vowels. They also seem to be plagued with players who have very little variety in terms of letters in their name-looking at you David Aardsma-four 'a's, three 'd's, a 'v', and not much else. I'll tell you what those letters are good for spelling: David Aardsma and that's about it *ends grumble.) But...

Need a description of Joshua P. Beckett?

Put: Bet he's a jock.

Just thought I'd share.

That's Certainly Less of a Reason to Like Craig Breslow.

Oh, Craig. You're killing me.

Even though Kyle Snyder's pants are too big, he threw three strong innings today. He faced eleven batters; struck out two of them, walked one, allowed one hit (a double), but didn't give up any runs. Okajima also had a nice outing. He threw two shut-out innings. He allowed two hits, walked one, and struck out one.

Mike Timlin came in for the sixth inning. It wasn't a terribly good outing for Timlin. He did strike out one. He also gave up three hits (two singles and a double) and allowed two runs to score.

Then came Breslow. I will admit that just watching it on television it was less horrible than it seemed on the radio. The Pirates benefited by some poor fielding by the outfield. Regardless, he gave up two doubles and two singles. He allowed three earned runs and also allowed an unearned run when George Kottaras threw the ball back to him poorly and he didn't manage to catch it. He did strike out the last batter, though.

Papelbon came out for the eigth inning and it was three up-three down.

As for offense, Pedroia had a home run in the first inning and Joe Thurston hit a home run in the eighth. That was it for extra base hits. The other run was scored off a sacrifice fly by Chris Carter in the sixth. Julio Lugo had two singles, as did Alex Cora. Bobby Kielty, Kevin Youkilis, Jed Lowrie and Sean Danielson had a hit each. And that was that.

More Reason to Like Craig Breslow

If there wasn't already enough of a reason to pull for Craig Breslow, he recently started a charity to raise money for children's cancer research.

His sister was diagnosed with thyroid cancer when she was fourteen and that, quite obviously, had a significant impact on Breslow. The goal of his new foundation is to raise the recovery rate of children from seventy-eight percent to eighty-five percent by the end of the year. It's a lofty goal.

Lugo's Back.

Having recovered from his back problems, Lugo is indeed back. (Shut up. I'm rather proud of that little bit of cleverness.) And he played pretty well for having been out so long. During his three at bats, he hit a double, a single, and struck out. He also stole third base in the first inning.

Lester started out well enough. During his first two innings he was throwing pitches for strikes. His first inning was three up-three down. He threw eight pitches and only two of them were balls. His second inning he threw thirteen pitches to four batters. The first two outs of the inning were pretty quick. He gave up a hit to the next batter but the runner was stranded on first when he struck out the last batter.

His next inning started out with a walk (Bako.) Perhaps he was rattled when the second hitter (Hairston) hit a double because his second pitch to the third hitter (Patterson) was a wild pitch that allowed Bako to score. Patterson then grounded to second and was out but Hairston came around to give the Reds another run. The second out of the inning was pretty simple-a ground ball hit to third. He finally got the last batter to strike out after throwing him eight pitches.

The fourth inning started out well-he got two strikes and then a fly ball to left field for the out. The second batter saw two balls and then hit a line drive to right for a double. To the third batter he threw two balls and then a strike. His next pitch, however, was his second wild pitch of the game and allowed the runner to advance to third. The batter hit the next pitch foul and the one after that between short and third for a single-and the Reds had another run. The fourth batter of the inning saw eight pitches before sending one out to right field where it was caught by Drew for the second out. He was able to strike out the last batter of the inning but only after some minor controversy. On his second pitch, the runner stole second base. The umpire called the pitch a strike; the guys on the radio called it a ball. Apparently the guy in charge of the scoreboard was listening to the radio and not to the umpire because he had it down as a ball.

He was relieved by Bryan Corey who went one and two-thirds of an inning. He gave up three hits but was throwing a lot of strikes (like twenty-five of them.) Aardsma came in to finish off the inning and had to throw six pitches before the batter hit a line drive to center for the out. Aardsma came back out for the first two outs of the seventh inning. The first batter was out after he hit the first pitch to third. The second batter hit a double. Aardsma struck out the third batter. The fourth batter hit a home run off the only pitch he saw-allowing the Reds to score two more runs. He walked the last batter that he faced. At that point, Lopez came in as the situational lefty, and much to my surprise, struck the batter out (and he only needed four pitches to do it!) Lopez was back on the mound for the eighth inning. He gave up two hits in the inning (one a double and the other a single) and allowed the last run that the Reds were to score.

Hansen came in for the ninth inning. Granted, it was only one inning but he did well. It was a 1-2-3 inning. He struck out the first two batters and the last batter sent one out to left for the out. I was impressed.

Interestingly, there was some offense to talk about today (I suppose there would have to be with sixteen runs scored.) If Joe Castiglione is to be believed, then Brandon Moss hit one of the most amazing home runs ever in the second inning. Varitek hit a three run home run in the fourth inning and minor-leaguer Andrew Pinckney hit a home run in the sixth inning. Reid Engel hit a triple in the sixth inning and a double in the eighth. Keith Ginter also hit a double in the eighth. Youkilis hit a double in the fourth inning. David Ortiz hit a double in the third inning. Lugo hit a double in the first inning.

Mike Lowell hit a single in the first inning, had a sacrifice fly in the third, and was hit by a pitch in the fourth inning. Drew had nice collection of singles; he hit three in his three at bats, knocking in two runs.

It was a long game. Maybe not the most exciting game ever played. There were some long at bats-the Reds have a very patient hitter in Jolbert Cabrera. I suppose it also shows some stick-to-it-tive-ness on the parts of Lester and Corey to keep pitching to him for strikes. It was good to see/hear some offense, though. People who are supposed to be able to hit are finding their swings. Good stuff.

Congrats Daisuke!

Daisuke's wife gave birth to a son this morning. They aren't releasing the name of the kiddo at the moment-maybe for privacy reasons (as is stated in the article), maybe because Japanese children typically aren't given names until they are a week old. Either way, my guess for a first name would be Ichiro (which means first son.)

No official announcement but it looks as if he'll be able to pitch in Japan after all. So that's good news.

Happy Birthday Mr. Youkilis!

I had originally titled this 'Happy Birthday Kevin!' but that just looked wrong. So I changed it to 'Happy Birthday Youk!' but that didn't seem any better. So with pretty much no other options, I've gone formal.

In case you didn't realize: It's Kevin Youkilis' twenty-ninth birthday today.

He seems like a good enough guy; down-to-earth, mostly pleasant. He's got a normal person car. He likes kids. He does have bad taste in music, though. And has shown poor judgment when it comes to products he chooses to endorse.

But he's a good ball player; even if he does have that funky batting stance. He's serious and intense; goes to work and does his job as best he can and is disappointed when he doesn't live up to his expectations of himself. He's supposedly got miraculously awesome eyesight that enables him to tell balls from strikes better than anyone. He played defense really well last year. And he seems well-liked by his team mates.

Another year of more of the same from Kevin Youkilis would be something to be celebrated.

Many happy and healthy returns to you! May twenty-nine be as good as, or better than, twenty-eight was.

Chris Carter Knows What It's Like.

(Lifted from Sittingstill.net)

There was a nice little article on Chris Carter in the Worcester paper yesterday. Mostly it's just "I'm happy to be here" and "I'm working hard" type stuff.

Carter is an interesting guy. The article doesn't really touch upon it too much but, right now, he's best suited to be a DH. It's a role he would probably do fairly well at, except for the large Dominican man currently filling the position.

This spring they've been trying him in left and at first. It's a work in progress. But he says that he has been working on his defensive play:

"I think they're both equally important. You can win a game either way, with the glove or with the bat. I work harder on defense, but I do work hard on offense."

What I thought was interesting about the article was that he grew up a Sox fan, an affliction he inherited from his father. (Isn't that how most of us caught it?) His dad was a big Ted Williams and a big Yaz fan. Regarding getting to play for his pop's team:

"Oh yeah. That would be, I don't even know how to explain it. You know how people say 'a dream come true?' It's definitely more than that. It would really mean a lot to me."

Say it with me: Awwww!

Dougie Out.

Awww, Doug. This shouldn't make me as sad as it does. I know that he's a crap baseball player. He's slow and old. He can't hit to save his life. But it does make me sad. I'll miss him. He seems like a good guy; full of good humour. His teammates all seemed to like him.

Besides, which player other than Dougie could possibly make Beckett respond like this?

If only he'd gotten his home run against the Twins, then maybe he wouldn't be in this situation. Still $150,000 isn't a bad paycheck to receive for less than a month of work. Good luck to you in the future, Doug.

Holy Crap!

Kevin Cash just hit a home run. Kevin Cash. That leaves Dougie as the only catcher to not hit a home run against the Twins.

David J. Neal (of the Miami Herald) loves Jacoby!

The newest member of the "I *heart* Jacoby forever" fan club has been inducted. His name is David J. Neal and he writes for the Miami Herald. I like the kid as much as the next sane person (I swear that it's true) but this seems a bit excessive.

Neal named Jacoby as one of the twenty next "cultural touchstone, sporting icons." He had this to say about him:

"Jacoby Ellsbury, MLB, 24--Plus: Sprinter's speed, defensive ability, a great bat to go with heartthrob looks. Minus: Could be a Mark Fidrych one-season wonder."

For God's sake, give him more of an opportunity to completely fall flat on his face than thirty-three games before declaring him to be the next big brand name a la Michael Jordan or Derek Jeter.

Granted, he's already started down that path-he did help design a pair of shoes for Nike and he's got his modeling business on the side-but the baseball season is long and arduous. He's been a bit fragile in the past. It might be a little too early to pop the cork on the champagne and start counting the sponsorship checks.

Just for clarification: It's not that I want Ellsbury to fail. It may seem that way because of how down on the Ellsbury hype that his lovely new agent has set up for him (I have no proof that any of this is on him but I think it's a safe assumption) that I am, but I'm not. I'm also not worried about Ellsbury buying into his hype, he seems like a good guy; well-grounded and polite. I'm worried about the general public/casual fan buying into it. They called him freakin' "baby Jesus in cleats" in the Men's Vogue article. They keep talking about how he hit near .400 in the post season. He's not going to hit near .400 next year. When he doesn't live up to the hype (and he won't because that would be impossible) the casual fan/general public is going to turn on him like a pack of wolves. I worry about him because he seems like such a nice little boy.

Dueling Leprechauns

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if these two end up on the bench together they'll spend they're time trying to out-leprechaun each other. In order to avoid that catastrophe (and in honor of St. Patrick's Day), I say we have an old fashioned Irish brawl right now-Limerick style (I imagine that people from Limerick speak in limerick all the time.) Ideally, I would have embedded the clips, as the website seems to indicate you can do, but that since that didn't work, I shall link it up. We certainly wouldn't want my poetic genius to be lost.

So, without further ado. In this corner we've got the ginger from California Bobby Kielty! And in the other corner, though he looks less the part, he's most certainly a man from Erin. How could he not be with a name like, Seaaaan Casey! Fight!

Notes: I realize that he's not a hobbyist but there really aren't too many words that rhyme with Bobby, so just go with me on that. Also, Sean may need some translating. He stands on first base and we'll not well at the end. The apostrophe was in there but he just didn't seem to be able to pronounce it.

He's Back!

Josh was good enough to address the media this morning regarding the problem he had with his back.

From Boston.com:

"Today wasn't as good as yesterday. We'll just have to wait and see I guess. Doctors told me yesterday that there was a possibility I'd come in and feel like I do today so as far as that goes, the doctors were right.''

Why was that, Josh?

"I'm not a doctor, I don't know.''

Did it happen because of looseness of mound dirt Saturday?

"I'm not going to get into the blame thing, Everybody's doing their job. Nobody's job is any easier than anybody else's. I'm not getting into that.''

Was there a mis-step on the mound Saturday?

"I'm not getting into that. It's nobody's fault. It's something that happens.''

It looks pretty doubtful for you to pitch in Japan.

"I don't know. We'll make those decisions as they come.''

Realistically, two weeks from today they open, you haven't faced big-league hitters yet, can you be ready by the 24th?

"I don't know. If I'd had as much progress from yesterday to today as I did from the first day to the second day, I wouldn't have ruled that out. Today I'm just holding up my obligation (to talk to media). It probably would have been better to talk to you guys yesterday because I was a little more optimistic. I'm in a pretty crappy mood as far as this thing goes because it was a pretty frustrating day because yesterday was good and today's kind of horse(bleep).''

Lower back?

''Yes."

Any discussion about an injection to reduce inflammation?

"No. I kicked around some of those ideas because it's a tough time in spring training, trying to get everything going. You don't really want setbacks this time of year. They basically told me that they couldn't find a spot to put the shot in there.''

Did they discuss that maybe putting you on a plane for 17 hours (to Japan) might not be wise because of your back?

"No. We haven't discussed any of that. We're just doing what we're saying, going day to day on how I feel. I pretty much have an interview with two or three doctors every day and report to the manager and pitching coach and my trainer."

Have you had an MRI?

"Yes. We've done a number of tests. There's nothing wrong with the disks, and I think that's what they wanted to make sure of. It's definitely a strained muscle or pulled muscle, whatever you want to call it. It heals when it heals.''

Have you had anything like this?

"No. Not like this.''

Back issues before?

''No.''

Any idea when you'll be healthy?

''No, I have no idea.''

Can you look far enough ahead to know the next time you can be on a mound?

''No. We're going to make sure it's completely pain free. I can't even really if laying in one position too long, or sitting in one position too long or standing in one position too long it kind of goes backwards. I've got to keep moving and stuff like that.''

What do you do tomorrow?

"Whatever they want me to do. Probably the same as what today was.''

Did it respond to treatment? As you're standing here right now, is it feeling better?

"It's kind of numb right now. I've had six or seven ice packs on it this morning. I was a lot more optimistic yesterday than I am today. A lot of that has to do with being in a (expletive) mood because I didn't sleep well.''

Aww, kitten!

Do you have any idea how happy this press conference makes me?

Pleasant, likable Josh was an interesting phenomenon the first time he showed up but to be honest, he was kind of boring. And lately he was starting to annoy me (I had written a snark-filled post about Mr. Beckett but felt the need to censor myself because he might not have deserved it.)

This presser, though, it had it all. Monosyllabic responses. Swearing. Snarling and snapping at his interviewers. You could practically read his eye-rolling.

Ahhh. Baseball really is starting, isn't it.

Happy Birthday Mike Timlin!

He's everything a good reliever ought to be, really. He's intense and sort of scary. When he's healthy, he does his job well. He was a member of a frat in college. He's slightly off his rocker. He's unpredictable. Despite all of that, he seems like a perfectly nice, likable, genuine guy.

So happy forty-second birthday Mike Timlin and many happy returns to you.

Not the Pronoun, But a Player With the Unlikely Name of "Who" is on First.

This may be a blatantly obvious thing to say, but I'm easily amused. Hu getting on first? This is one thing I've really been looking forward to in this spring training series. Castiglione's "Hu is no longer on first" was pretty good, too.

And just because it's so classic:

Manny Del's Big Day Out

So they lost. But, despite that fact, it was a really good game.

Beckett was pulled before he even started because of back spasms. Apparently, the pitcher's mound gave way a little bit when he stepped on a particular spot and he slipped. It was kind of amusing to hear the radio folks freak out about it-you'd have thought he had somehow gotten a compound fracture in his arm and there were bits of bone sticking through his skin from the way they reacted. I tell you, it was doomsday.

Delcarmen got the start instead and did really well. He went two innings without giving up a hit. Timlin was up next and he also went two innings. He threw eleven pitches in his first inning and didn't give up a hit. In his second inning, he gave up a double to Hanley Ramirez but also struck out two and caused Jeremy Hermida to line to right (which Kielty caught), leaving Hanley on second.

Hansen allowed two runs in the fifth. The first pitch he threw was a ground ball to center. He struck out his second batter but in the process of doing that he allowed the runner to steal second base. The next batter also managed to connect with the ball and a bad decision by Ellsbury led to the runner moving up to third. With runners on first and third, the next batter hit a ground ball-they got the force out at second but a run scored. With two outs and a runner on first, Hansen walked the next batter. The next batter (Hanley Ramirez) hit a single and another run scored. Hansen caused the next batter to ground to short and they got their final out of the inning.

I thought that Hansen started out the sixth inning well enough. He struck out the first batter and caused the second to ground to short for the out. He walked the next batter and was pulled.

He was replaced by Craig Breslow, who did really well in his inning and a third. He faced five batters in the game today. He struck out three of them, walked one, and the last one hit a ground ball to third for the easy out. It was a really nice performance.

The pitcher in the eighth inning was Lee Gronkiewicz. Gronkiewicz performed badly the other day but redeemed himself, somewhat, today with a 1-2-3 inning. The last pitcher they brought into the game was Michael James. He played at AA Portland last year and didn't do very well today (but what else would you expect, right?) He got his first batter out, then gave up a home run, walked his third batter, then gave up a home run, he got the next batter out, then gave up a double (Hey! He's getting better!), then finally got the last batter out.

Offensively, Ellsbury started to live up to his hype. He had three hits this game: a single, a double, and a home run. So, his home run wasn't against the world's greatest pitcher and his double was really a single that he just happened to be able to out run-it's still an improvement. (I'm not being too harsh, am I? I like the kid. I do.)

I imagine that Coco's groin may find itself miraculously better tomorrow. I'm under the impression that Coco is the intelligent sort-the kind of person who hides his intelligence to make other people feel more comfortable-but a smart guy, nonetheless. He can tell the lay of the land; he knows how things work. Ellsbury's big advantage over Crisp was that he could hit. So far this spring, though, the poor kid hasn't been able to hit anything. So Coco gets a good start to the year, then "injures" his groin, and then "Ouch! I have a toothache. I need a root canal." All the while he's lying in wait, like a spider, as Ellsbury sucks at the plate. Perhaps, I'm making him out to be a little too Machiavellian. (I mean it all in jest, of course. By all accounts, Coco is a good guy.)

Don't Knock Softball

If you were wondering who won the team's Drop Drill Contest (I know I read about it somewhere) for catchers, Kottaras was the victor. There's an interesting article on SouthCoastToday about him.

Another thing I didn't know about him: He played fast pitch softball until he was 15 and didn't play high school baseball (because it wasn't an option.)

He's generally had pretty good offensive numbers but lacked in defensive ability. According to the article, though, both Theo and Varitek believe that he could figure out how to be a good catcher.

Manny Being Generous

I love this team. That is all. (I imagine that Pesky must be congratulating him in this picture.)

A Cordial Meeting Between Torre and Terry

The game started out well enough; they were up five to two going into the ninth. Wakefield went three innings and gave up only one hit. He walked two batters and struck out three. He was replaced by Mike Timlin. He went one inning and gave up two hits (one of them a home run to Matt Kemp.) David Aardsma took over in the fifth. He went two innings, gave up three hits and struck out one. Bryan Corey was up in the seventh and gave up a hit.

Craig Breslow pitched in the eighth. I've admitted before that I really want him to do well but today wasn't really his day. During his inning he didn't give up any hits but he did load the bases with three walks. He did manage to strike out the last batter but before he could do that he gave up the second run for the Dodgers. Peter Gammons mentioned during the broadcast that there were a couple of teams that might be interested in Breslow if they sent him back to Pawtucket. His main competition for the role of second lefty in the 'pen seems to be Lopez; if they choose to go with Lopez over Breslow (which would require Lopez really getting his act together), then I suppose that would be best for him. I was kind of hoping he would slip through waivers and then when the Front Office figured out that Lopez sucks at getting out lefties, they could bring him up. Still at the end of his inning, the Sox were still up five to two.

Then came Hunter Jones. During his two thirds of an inning, he struck out one batter, walked one batter, and gave up one hit (which happened to be a grand slam). Only two of the four runs he allowed were earned. Jones split his time almost evenly between A and AA last season, where he did very well. It's hard to blame him for the performance, especially after how disappointed he looked in the dugout when it was over.

The pitcher brought in to finish Jones' inning was Lee Gronkiewicz. Gronkiewicz needed to face six batters to get his out. He walked a batter, hit a batter with a pitch, allowed three hits, and ultimately, allowed the Dodgers to score three runs before he got the strike out.

Offensively: Jacoby, Pedroia, Sean Casey and Chris Carter each hit a double. Pedroia, Lowell, Casey, Moss and Kottaras each also hit a single. An amusing moment occurred when Derek Lowe accidentally hit Mirabelli with a pitch-they sort of laughed at each other.

Overall, Casey had a nice game. Besides what he provided offensively, he made some nice plays at first base (he helped turn two double plays, one rather dramatic.) Jacoby made a nice play in center. And while Pedroia was charged with an error for an errant throw to Lowrie, he did participate successfully in three double plays.

In other interesting news, Coco was supposed to start today's game but was scratched due to a root canal he had this morning. He did appear to be at the game, smiling away; I don't know what sort of pain killers they must have put him on.

We're Talkin' Homer...

Jon Lester went three innings in today's loss. He allowed four hits, one run, and struck out two. But hey! He only walked one batter today. Okajima, Delcarmen, and Jon Switzer all had nice outings. Hansack pitched two innings; he gave up a hit, a run, walked one, and struck out two. Lopez struggled mightily and was charged with the loss as a result. He went one inning and gave up four hits and five runs (none of them earned). He walked one batter and hit another with a pitch.

Offensively, the big story was Kevin Cash. Who knew the man could hit? Perhaps he shouldn't have been excused from the catchers who hit home runs against the Twins race. He had a double that knocked in two runs. Almost all of the other seventeen hits were singles (with Keith Ginter, Joe Thurston, Manny Ramirez, and Alex Cora each hitting two), although Keith Ginter and Jonathan Van Every both hit doubles.

The Somewhat Virtuous Alex Cora (It was also the Time of his Run In With the Law)

The Red Sox are supposed to be very patient hitters. Alex Cora may very well be the epitome of hitting patience. When he was with the Dodgers in 2004, Cora had an eighteen pitch at bat against Matt Clement (then with the Chicago Cubs.) He fouled off fourteen straight pitches before finally smacking a home run. He talks about it a little bit here.

A Tie, A Loss, and a New Drew

During the first game of the day, Josh Beckett tied the Twins 2-2 in an un-packed house. During the press conference he said:

"It felt like we were in the loser's bracket of an AAU tournament. I spent my whole life in the loser's bracket of AAU tournaments. Because I was hitting fourth, probably."

They're better than the fountain of youth, those good humor waters of Fort Myers.

Kyle Snyder has massive hands. It just needed to be pointed out.

He went three score-less innings, giving up two hits and a walk. Dan Kolb didn't fair as well. (Though I couldn't tell you how poorly he did. It's hard to pay close attention to the game with work getting in the way.) Masterson also pitched poorly. The only other pitcher I remember anything about is Breslow. He struck out his first batter, the second either flew out or was put out, he walked the next two batters, and I think he struck out the last batter. Can you tell I'm pulling for him?

Offensively, not much happened. Jacoby had a sacrifice fly and maybe stole a base. I think he may have had a base hit, as well.

It's really very difficult to recap a game a couple hours after it ended without any notes. I'll do better next time.

What I really wanted to talk about was the new and (hopefully) improved J.D. Drew. He seems to be another member of the team to have partaken of the Fort Myers waters. Last week he told the Herald that he wanted to get into the Oval Office so he could look for secret drawers like in National Treasure II (which was very cute) and then on NESN's Red Sox Spring Break tonight he told Tina Cervasio (clearly, it was filmed before he got at the waters but close enough) that when he played backyard ball with his brothers, his Granny played shortstop. The whole interview (which mostly consisted of Drew driving around his hometown) seemed very un-guarded and the comment about his Granny made me smile.

Oh, the Inanity

Boo! I was promised Gabe. Sort of. I wanted Kap.

Alright. Fine. Flying from Arizona to Florida for a cookie taste testing event would have been silly but come on where were the man's priorities? At least I can still get my dose of Kap here: Cookie Off One and Cookie Off Two.

Anyway Cookie Off Three.

Highlights:

Mike Lowell complaining that Kap shouldn't be allowed in because he's with the Brewers. I think Mikey is just jealous; as of right now, he's by far the best looking man on the team but if Kap is in the picture he falls to a distant second. And he can't have that. The lunch lady agrees with me on this point.

Coco offering himself up to be in cookie commercials.

Also, when Alex Cora was explaining his vote he had a cookie crumb on his chin.

Youk making fun of Roche's pun. His cookie monster impression was pretty good too.

And Papelbon being confused when Roche calls him something like "Mr. Honey-Baked Ham Taster." That was pretty funny too. He's probably a compulsive liar. He just says whatever occurs to him.

A tie between Kap and Youk will have to do. I will agree with Kap's statement (which isn't attached to the online footage), how hard could it have been to ask a couple more people for opinions?

Oy.

There were a couple of disappointments in today's game.

The first was that Dougie didn't get his home run. He looks like he's more fit this season and I was really pulling for him.

The second was Coco's performance. I got distracted from my score keeping pretty early in the game by the dancing but I think he had two at bats; the first was a strike out swinging and the second a fly out to shallow right. Plus, there was the catch he didn't make. If I'm right, he's still batting four hundred but come on Coco. Don't give up yet.

Buchholz had a rough first inning (giving up four runs) but performed much more strongly during his second inning. Hansen also had quite a bit of trouble in his inning (he gave up four runs.)

Wakefield looked good for his couple of innings. Kottaras made a couple of good plays at the plate. Mike Lowell hit himself a home run. And Julio Lugo made a couple of good plays.

No Words

Alright. Now that I've had time to process, I can think of something to say. [aside: I really was shell-shocked last night. My mind went blank looking at these pictures.] At some point this spring there was a photo of a bunch of guys stretching or doing lunges or something, which prompted me to think: Never ask any of them to dance. They looked awkward, ridiculous, and uncoordinated. Turns out I was right.



We've already thoroughly dissected Papelbon's dancing ability. I will say that his right hand is not properly positioned but since he only had two hours of lessons, we'll let it slide. I will, however, comment on his costume choice. The belt cuts him off at a very unfortunate place and makes him look very hippy. It's like he's got the bottom half of an hour glass figure. Unfortunately (well probably very fortunately for Paps), he's very flat chested. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if he was wearing a man's shirt but there's no way a see-through, black lace, three-quarter length sleeve, shirt with a deep v, was not intended to be worn by a woman.


Poor Dustin. His partner was probably taller than him without her heels on. They probably paired him with the shortest gal available and she still towered over him. He was at a distinct disadvantage before he even started to cha-cha.

Now, Mike Lowell. You can tell Mike Lowell knows how to move. No doubt, that's why he hosted the competition. I don't know if he's waving to someone in the audience but it's an odd bit of choreography if he isn't.

Mark My Words

Tomorrow may just be Dougie's day. Consider: Yesterday, both Varitek and Kottaras hit home runs. Today, the only ball that left the park, left off the bat of Dustin Brown; which leaves Dougie and Cash as the only catchers who haven't hit home runs off the Twins. With Dougie almost certainly catching tomorrow, he'll be the next up to continue the streak (and if Kevin Cash goes to the Marlins game on Monday, he'd be off the hook.)



There was no television coverage but I love listening to the games on the radio. My dad always preferred to listen to the game on the radio. We'd drive around weekend afternoons, crank open the windows, stop for ice cream somewhere or head down to Misquamicut, bring the little radio to the beach. Just chill-me, my dad, and baseball. Good times. Of course, dad now lives in Florida, gas is way too expensive to go driving around for three hours, and I was listening to the radio via computer because I don't have an actual radio in my house but the idea is the same.



It was a long game. Neither of the starting pitchers threw particularly well. Lester exhibited some of the same command issues he's had in the past, he loaded the bases twice in the little over one inning he pitched. By my count he threw forty-three pitches, twenty-three of them for balls and seven for strikes. He said he was nervous because it was the first game and that's why he over-threw pitches, and that he was being picky and not going after guys. I could understand being nervous at the World Series or at Opening Day but this was a spring training game. Then again, I'm about as far from a professional (let alone little league) level pitcher as you could possibly get, so what do I know. One would hope that over the next three weeks he can conquer those nerves and settle down. Perhaps by following Josh Beckett around like a lost puppy something will rub off on him.



Papelbon and Hansack both had nice outings. The shortest half an inning was thrown by David Pauley, seven pitches at the bottom of the seventh, it took me by surprise when it was over. And Jon Switzer finished the game well.


Offensively, besides Dustin Brown's home run the only extra base hit was a double by Chris Carter in the second inning. They had a total of thirteen hits and seven walks. If I was the type to gloat, I might point out that so far this spring training season Ellsbury is hitting .250 to Crisp's .666 but I'm not, so I won't.

The Trend Continues

No doubt. He's up to something.

So first we have friendly Josh Beckett, then silly Jason Varitek, and now? Now, it seems that Terry Francona (at the moment it's the video on the front page) has also partaken of the goofy water in Fort Myers. Shutting out Donny O. during the post game interview, I don't know what to make of it.

Coco on a Mission

It became pretty obvious last night that Coco is not going down without a fight. He had a single, a walk, a double, stole two bases, and made three plays in center. Now if only he could keep that kind of play up (he had a batting average of .666, an OBP of 1.00, a SLG of 1.00, and an OPS of 2.00) he might get himself a fair shake for the job in center. It's really too bad that the games don't count.

He told the Herald that he was happy with his performance last night.

"I feel as good as I did then (two years ago.) That's when I was able to workout in the off season. Last year was different. But now I feel like I did two years ago."

I'm glad he's making a serious run at the job or at the least, getting himself a good situation somewhere else.

Also, Kottaras' home run was very exciting.