Next Up: the New York Yankees

I hate Yankee games. Hate them.

That said, tonight is supposed to be Chien-Ming Wang. Wang throws a fast ball in the mid-nineties, a sinker, a slider, a change-up, and a splitter. He's a ground ball pitcher who induces a lot of double plays. He doesn't give up many home runs (only 9 last year), he doesn't walk many batters (only 59 last year), and he doesn't strike out many either (104 last year.) In the past Wang hasn't done well in Fenway park, last year he gave up 5 of his walks in the 11 and a third innings he pitched there and allowed 19 hits.

On Saturday, the Yankees trot out Mike Mussina. He has very good command and throws a low-nineties fast ball. He's also got a splitter, a slider, a change-up, a curve ball, and a knuckle curve. He's also got a history of excellence at fielding. Mussina is supposed to be showing his age but it doesn't really look like it to me. So far this year he's had two pretty good outings striking out one batter for every two hits he allows. He has already given up two home runs but so has Manny Del. Having faced forty-seven batters he's only walked three of them.

On Sunday, the scheduled Yankees pitcher is Phil Hughes. From all I can tell, Hughes is practically the pride and joy of the Yankees organization. So far this season (and it's two games in) Hughes hasn't had the success that they were hoping for from him. He had a no-decision against Toronto that was widely blamed on poor umpiring and a loss to Kansas City that was blamed on the weather. Hughes could be a beast. He's got a four-seam fast ball in the low-mid nineties, a two-seam fast ball in the high eighties to low nineties, a knuckle curve and a change up.

The Yankees lineup is the Yankees lineup and you just have to hope to out-pitch them. They typically don't hit well against pitchers they've never seen before, so that's a plus for Buchholz. Beckett has sometimes been excellent against the Yankees and other times sort of blah. Last year they hit pretty well against Daisuke. With Jeter and maybe Posada out of the lineup they'll be a little bit hobbled.

As a bonus for tonight, the Red Sox have generally hit well against Wang; especially Manny, Ortiz, Youkilis and Pedroia.

Happy Birthday El Capitan!

Today is Jason Varitek's thirty-sixth birthday. There is no doubt that he is vital to this team-witness the monumental collapse of 2006 when he was out with a bum knee for proof. Josh Beckett needed to learn to trust 'Tek when he first arrived. You feel as if, given the opportunity, he is capable of steering the S.S. Boston Red Sox safely to port every time. There's no worry with Jason Varitek: He's got everything under control.

What's more, he seems like a quiet, stoic, decent human being both between the lines and outside of them. He comes to the defense of his pitchers both physically (saving Bronson from Rodriguez) and verbally/emotionally (steadfastly defending Jon Lester's performance from two nights ago.) He gave out autographs for Halloween. He's always been closed off emotionally-hard to get a good read on-but more recently, he's shown a little bit of a goofy side; suggesting to Pedroia that he look into Nutrisystem after the dance competition, pranking the Josten's salesguy.

He's not much of a hitter and he started off the season with a mini-slump (I don't really think you can call it a slump if it's only a couple of games) but tore out of the gates up in Toronto. Hopefully, he can have a fabulous 2008.

Any way. Many happy and healthy returns to Jason Varitek.

And the Moral of the Series (Detroit: Games 8-10) is...

The series was all over the place. Good pitching (and poor defense by the Tigers) won the first game, poor pitching lost the second game, and moving people across home plate won the third game. I suppose you could take away from that, that there are a couple of ways to win games but, barring sub-par defense, there is only one way to lose. Too many base runners and too many balls in play will come back to bite you.

The Good: Kevin Cash has shown that not only can he do a good job catching Wake but he can contribute offensively, as well. Lugo seems to have gotten his feet beneath him again. Drew and Manny are still swinging the bat well (and Manny seems to be having a hell of a lot of fun doing it.) Youkilis seems to remember how to play third base well.

The Bad: Ortiz still isn't swinging well. The bullpen remains a weak spot-perhaps the return of Timlin will terrify them back into shape. Lowell busted his thumb and won't be available until almost the Tampa series and Alex Cora may have injured himself as well.

Robertson v. Wakefield (Game 10)

Today's win is brought to you by the skill set of run production.



Not to take away anything from Wakefield's pitching (which was good) but the Red Sox won this game the old-fashioned way: They scored more runs that the Detroit Tigers. The story of this game was the ability of the Red Sox to get walks, swing their bats, and make it across home plate in spades. Doubles from Manny, Youkilis, Casey and Coco (which on a luckier day would have been a triple), base hits from Lugo, Coco, Casey, Cash, two from Pedroia, and three from Drew, and converting 9 walks into 8 runs, resulted in the win.

Wakefield pitched five innings and if he was any other pitcher his line would be worrisome. He faced twenty-five batters, got five out on strikes, walked five, allowed three hits, hit two batters with a pitch and allowed two runs (only one of which was earned.) He threw 108 pitches and got himself into and out of jams relatively unscathed. The knuckle ball was moving all over the place last night but Wake is a wily, old guy and he pitched the way he always does. (He'll keep the opponent's score low and you score some runs.) Cash put in a really good defensive performance, as well. When the bases were loaded he had really good control of that ball and prevented any extra runs.

When Wakefield came out of the game he was replaced by Manny Del. He pitched one and two thirds innings (starting in the sixth) and struck out one, didn't walk anybody, and gave up two hits-a base hit to Rodriguez and a home run to Ordonez. [aside: Magglio Ordonez looks like a curly-haired verstion of the good Johnny Damon.] Ordonez is a very good hitter. At some point the excuse that the runs Manny Del is allowing are coming off very good hitters may get old but I'm not worried about him yet. Okajima finished off the inning for him. With four pitches he induced a ground out and was done for the night.

Tavarez came out for the eighth inning and struggled with his command. He walked two, allowed three hits, a stolen base, and three runs before he even got an out. Luckily for him, Julio Lugo managed to start a double play on the next ball in put in play and so ended Tavarez' night. Papelbon finished the inning with a fly out. In the ninth inning he got a strike out, gave up a double, got a strike out, gave up a base hit, and got the force out at second to end the game.

Medic!

Mike Lowell came out of last night's game after the first inning and half due to an sprained right thumb. Apparently, the x-ray showed nothing horrible and he's list as day-to-day. I did think it was impressive the way Kevin Youkilis slide so easily across the diamond (I know he came up as a third baseman but he's been at first for so long that it seems like he would have to prepare himself mentally but he seemed fine with it) especially, after he took a bad hop to the chest during the top of the second inning. It really looked like it took the wind out of him.

Bonderman v. Lester (Game 9)

The story of this game was, once again, Lester's propensity for walking batters. He pitched five and a third innings and walked four without striking out a single batter. Although through the first three innings he gave up two walks and a hit, he managed to emerge unscathed. He was not as lucky, however, in the fourth inning. He got a put out at first for the first batter and then proceeded to walk two in a row. He followed that up by giving a double to tie the game and then a home run to put the Tigers up by two. Once the bases were cleared he ended the inning with two put outs at first.

His performance in the fifth inning was either not bad or lucky. He got a fly out, a put out, gave up a base hit, and then had a force out at second. In the sixth inning, he had a put out and gave up a double before he was pulled. When he left the game, the game was still manageable; in typical Jon Lester fashion, some timely hitting could have gotten Jon Lester the win.

David Aardsma came in to relieve Lester and while his performance didn't sparkle, it did its job. He pitched one and two thirds innings without allowing any runs. He did walk two but he also had the first Red Sox strike out of the night. Corey came in to replace him and didn't do nearly as well. He walked the first batter he faced, gave up a base hit to the second, got a put out at first on the third, and the fourth (and last) batter he faced hit a ground ball to center that allowed two additional runs to score. He was replaced by Julian Tavarez who gave up a base hit, hit a batter with a pitch, but then turned a very nice double play to end the inning and save a run (it went Tavarez to Varitek to Casey.) The last Red Sox pitcher of the night was Javier Lopez. He started off well-he got a put out at first and a strike out on the first two batters. In quick succession, though, he then gave up a home run, a walk, and a base hit, before getting the fly out.

The problems in the game weren't solely the fault of the lackluster pitching. There was a distinct lack of offensive production going on. The two runs that the Red Sox did score both came in the second inning; the first was off a bases loaded walk to Ellsbury and the second off a base hit by Lugo. In every inning after that, with the exception of the fifth, the Red Sox had at least one man on base. The Red Sox had a total of nine hits (three for extra bases) but didn't seem to be able to do much with them. Both Youkilis and Lugo were caught stealing (though Lugo was pretty much safe.)

Rogers v. Matsuzaka (Game 8) or Opening Day: Take 4

Daisuke to the rescue!

Another nice outing for Daisuke. He pitched six and two thirds scoreless innings and gave up only four hits and four walks. He struck out seven batters. He threw 108 pitches, sixty-two of them for strikes. He did load the bases with two outs in the sixth (on two base hits and a walk) but the next batter flew out to center for the third out.

Manny Del came in for an inning and a third and did much better than he had done against the Jays. He got two fly outs, two strike outs, and allowed a base hit. Okajima closed the game with a strike out, a fly out, and another strike out.

Offensively, Kevin Youkilis played really well today. In his five plate appearances, he had three hits (one of which was a double), a walk, and a sacrifice fly. Drew continues to play pretty well. He had a base hit, a strike out, and two walks. Dustin Pedroia, Jason Varitek, and Julio Lugo each had two base hits. Coco had a base hit and sacrifice fly. And then there was Manny. Manny had a double that, for some reason, he decided to try to leg it into a triple. He probably would have been out at third if it wasn't for a throwing error by Polanco. Instead, the ball ended up in Detroit's dugout and they gave Manny the base.

So that's how you win against the Tigers: You have excellent pitching to stymie their lineup, have very good defense to prevent any runs, get to their bullpen as quickly as you can, and hit the ball as often as you can because they struggle defensively.