Completely Off Topic.

I think that the Sox need to hire a new advertising firm. Last year they had their "I Can't Wait" campaign but it absolutely smacked of lack of effort and it looked like it was made on the cheap. If at all possible, they should hire whichever firm puts together the Twins ads. Because I like it. (And it's all about me. Hey. I watch a lot of baseball game., I have an opinion. And I have a blog to write about that opinion on: Fear me.)

Joe Mauer wrapped in bubble wrap? Michael Cuddyer popping out of a box of Styrofoam packing peanuts? Even Joe Nathan, with his pip-squeaky little "Hi!", manages to slightly redeemed himself from his horrid post-season. (Sort of.)

It's fun. It gets you excited for the season. They should do something like this instead of having frozen people telling me that they're excited for the new season.

Kelt to the Twins.

Yay for the hair! Bobby Kielty has signed a minor-league deal with the Twins. Hopefully, this time around works out for him. Unless, of course, the Sox win the division and the Twins take the wild card-then all bets are off.

Manny Needed That.

The smile says it all.

Maybe, he was getting a little antsy on the road; his thighs were bugging him, things weren't working the way he wanted them to, he couldn't figure out how to fix the problem, frustration was setting in (and spilling out), and he was becoming unhappy. An unhappy Manny is both a strange and unpleasant sight. Then he got back home, re-centered himself, got his feet back beneath him and figured it out.

Last night, he got a single to drive in the winning run. Tonight, he launched a game-tying, two-run home run over the monster. And a cheer rose throughout the land celebrating the return of Manny. Hopefully, he hangs around for awhile.

Next Up: the Minnesota Twins.

Scott Baker throws tomorrow. He throws a mid-nineties sinking fastball, a good change up, a slider, and a knuckle-curve. He has very good command and doesn't walk many people. He gives up a fair number of hits but he does get strike outs. Lefties have pretty good success against him.

Nick Blackburn is scheduled to pitch on Tuesday. He has very good control and doesn't walk many. He pitches to contact, so he does give up hits. He has a high eighties four-seam fastball, a two-seamer, a curveball, a slider, and a change-up. He's been inconsistent this year but if he's having a good day, it's a really good day. He's easier on righties than on lefties.

Livan Hernandez takes the mound on Wednesday. Hernandez has pretty good control but he struggles against lefties. His mid-eighties fastball has become hittable, as it's pretty flat. His change-up isn't all that much of a change from his fastball. His out-pitch is an eephus pitch. He'll last pretty deep into the game. He won't walk many and he won't give up many home runs.

They have a good lineup but their biggest bats are Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Alexi Casilla (with Denard Span filling in very nicely for the injured Michael Cuddyer.) The Twins are a well-trained team, so they don't make a lot of errors. They turn a lot of double plays. They're not a particularly free swinging team (Mauer, in particular, doesn't strike out very often.) Carlos Gomez is the biggest threat to steal a base (having taken twenty-one this season.) I would send a friendly wave to Craig Breslow but it didn't turn out that well the last time I did that, so I won't (he's been doing well-hasn't given up a run yet, really cut down on the walks-he did wrench his back recently and he hasn't pitched since June 30.)

Buchholz v. Hernandez (Game 41)

Another bump in the road for Clay. Six earned runs on eight hits is not good but a day when a rookie pitcher seems unable to find the plate is to be expected. It's unfortunate that it followed such a bad game by Wakefield but sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles. In the process of issuing those eight hits, he also gave up five walks while only striking out four.

The bullpen, seemingly problematic this season, did a decent job last night. Lopez pitched the remaining two outs of the fifth inning (after Clay was pulled) and the sixth inning. He gave up two hits but didn't allow any runs to score. Hansen came out for the seventh inning and got two ground outs and a strike out. Timlin finished it off in the eighth. He gave up a hit but erased it by induceing a nice double play, and got a ground out.

When they took the field to begin the game it looked like they were going to cruise. Coco got a lead-off double. Pedroia had a sacrifice fly to move him over to third. Ortiz got a single that brought Coco home. Then Manny hit number 498 to right to bring them both in. And that was it for offense. They continue to leave men on base at an impressive clip, however; nine in this game.

Wakefield v. Blackburn (Game 40)

Oh well. It's the nature of having Tim Wakefield as a pitcher on your team; sometimes he'll give a really stellar performance (like his last start against Detroit) and sometimes he'll just totally crap out. As far as I can tell, there's no way to tell what that ball is going to do or is not going to do after it comes out of his hand until he starts to throw. More often than not, the really good performances even out with the truly terrible ones and he'll end up with a winning record based on his performance during the bulk of his games-not spectacular but certainly not terrible, just good solid pitching.

That said, the Wakefield who pitched tonight was hideous. He made it only two and two-thirds of an inning into the game before Francona pulled him. In that time he gave up seven runs on seven hits, including two home runs (a three-run shot and a two-run shot, both in the second inning.) He also walked two and struck out two.

Tavarez replaced Wake in the third inning and got a fly out to end things. He also pitched the fourth inning. He started off strongly enough (he got a strike out and a ground out) but then things started to fall apart. He walked a batter, gave up a hit, and then walked another batter to load the bases. The next batter reached safely, courtesy of a throwing error by Mike Lowell, and knocked in another Twins run.

Aardsma pitched the fifth and sixth innings and did quite well. He got three quick outs in the fifth inning. With one out, he did give up a hit, followed by a walk in the sixth inning but got himself out of the situation by inducing a double play. Timlin pitched the seventh and beginning of the eighth inning and did a good job of it, as well. Yes, he did give up a lead off home run and I can guess that the blame for the loss is probably going to be placed squarely on Timlin's shoulders when he's not responsible for it. If there is someone to be blamed for the fact that the Twins had an extra run at the end of the game, blame Lowell for the error or Cash for the passed ball in the third or Ellsbury for not having a hit on the night. [Aside: Normally, I'm not the type to spread blame around. Blaming someone for the loss makes it seem as if they owed me a win when, of course, they didn't. Also, every single one of those players wants to win more than I want them to win. They're not out there to lose.] I believe that I read somewhere that Timlin was pretty sure that this was going to be his last year. So far it probably isn't turning out as swansong-y as he would have liked. Anyway, after Timlin gave up the home run he had a quick inning, getting a ground out, a fly out, and another ground out in the seventh. Then he got two quick outs in the eighth with a fly out (greatly assisted by a running/diving/sliding catch made by Ellsbury) and a pop out. Lopez took over the responsibility of getting the last Twins batter of the night out and got him to fly out to left on a three-two count.

The impressive thing about play of the Red Sox was that they came back to nearly win the game (if the Twins had a Derek Jeter caliber short stop, then the base hit by Manny would probably have made it through and the game would have been tied.) The Red Sox got their first run of the night in the third inning. Ellsbury was hit by a pitch, Pedroia was hit by a pitch, and Ortiz singled. Youkilis lined out to third and Mike Lowell hit a sacrifice fly that brought Ellsbury around, for the first two outs. Drew lined out to shortstop to end the inning.

Coco started off the fourth inning with a triple and Kevin Cash hit a single to bring him around. Cora then got a base hit. Ellsbury lined out for the first out of the inning. Pedroia followed him by hitting into a fielder's choice that forced out Cora at second but allowed Cash to score. Pedroia then took second on a throwing error. Ortiz walked. Youkils then hit a single and knocked in Pedroia.

The next time that the Red Sox scored was in the seventh inning. With two outs, Drew hit a single. My hero, Coco then hit another home run to bring the Sox within striking distance. They would put more runs on the board again in the ninth inning. With one out, Youkilis got a base hit and then Lowell got a base hit, as well. Drew doubled to bring in Lowell. Coco hit into a fielder's choice for the force out at third but he did pick up another RBI. Coco stole second but Manny grounded out before he could think about stealing third and maybe, eventually, home plate.

Matsuzaka v. Perkins (Game 39)

That's (almost) more like it!

For the most part, Matsuzaka had a really nice outing. He went seven innings. He worked efficiently, only needing ninety-six pitches to get his twenty-one outs. He struck out seven. He only walked three! He threw first pitch strikes to twenty of the twenty-nine batters he faced. He did run into some real trouble in the second inning. He walked the first batter, got a fly out, gave up two base hits to load the bases and then got a swinging strike out. But then on five pitches issued a walk to to the next batter to knock in the first Twins run of the night. It certainly wasn't a terrible turn of events, considering that he was close to getting out of the jam, but it is a little troubling.

Both Okajima and Papelbon had good outings. Okajima pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, featuring a fly out, a ground out, and a pop out. Papelbon pitched the ninth inning and was much improved over his last few games. He did give up a bizarre little base hit. The ball was popped up high but had very little forward motion. Lowell, Varitek, and Youkilis all circled around it but no one bothered to catch it as it landed halfway to the pitchers mound.

As for offense, Youkilis popped a homerun to left in the second inning-a team-leading eighth of the year. Coco and Lowrie had back-to-back homeruns in the seventh inning. Lowell had a home run in the eighth. And in the ninth, Lowrie hit a single, moved on to second on a sacrifice by Ellsbury, and scored on a single from Pedroia.

And not to always harp on the negative but the ninth inning was the only inning where they successfully moved a baserunner across the plate (which is why the game was only almost good.) On the whole, they've been stranding a lot of baserunners-ten in this game alone. I know that "a win is a win" and I shouldn't complain but it's unlikely that they're going to be able to hit four homeruns a game.

Next Up: the Minnesota Twins.

The last time the Red Sox faced the much slimmed-down Boof Bonser was on February 29, in the first spring training game of the season. If I recall correctly (and it meant anything), I believe that both Varitek and Lowell had home runs in that game. Bonser is the power pitcher-type, in that he usually throws strikes but his fastball is only in the low nineties. He does do a nice job of changing speeds. He has a really good curve ball. Command can sometimes be an issue for him but he is able to work himself out of jams.

Saturday's scheduled pitcher is Glen Perkins. He has a low-nineties fastball with good movement that he can push into the mid-nineties if the occasion warrants it. He gets a lot of strike outs with the fastball. He has a very good change up and two curveballs (one with a hard break and a slow one.) He has exhibited very good command and has functioned well in high pressure situations. He has the ability to go deep into a game but this will be his first start of the season.

Sunday's starter against Wakefield is Nick Blackburn. He's got a four-seam fastball in the high eighties, a two-seam fastball, a curveball, a slider, and a change-up. Blackburn has excellent control-he has to-if his control isn't absolutely perfect, he's going to get brutalized. He pitches to contact. If the defense isn't also spot-on then the Twins are going to give up a lot of hits. He's had seven starts this season and given up fifty-three hits (approximately 1.2 per inning pitched.)

Monday's pitcher is Livan Hernandez. Hernadez has pretty good control but he struggles against left-handed hitters. He is a very good fielder. His fastball sits in the mid-eighties (he occasionally throws a change-up but it really isn't any different from his fastball.) His fastball is also remarkably flat. His out pitch is a slow hook that might come in at below sixty miles per hour.

Offensively, it's really the usual suspects when it comes to Twins hitting. Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, and Joe Mauer are all off to hot starts (with Mauer having the hottest start of them all); though, Carlos Gomez and Delmon Young aren't making insignificant contributions.

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.