Lester v. Olson (Game 58)

That was a very exciting game (that turned out to also be a lot of fun.) Not only because of Manny's homerun (more on that later-thoughts need to be collected) but because they repeatedly gave up the lead only to snatch it right back in the next inning, because Pedroia and Ortiz went back-to-back, because Ellsbury legged himself out a triple and stole three bases, because David Aardsma went two whole innings without walking anyone, because Alex Cora and Dustin Pedroia combined for an important (and impressive) double play, and because Youkilis booked it home to beat out a double play.

Lester didn't pitch poorly but his performance wasn't particularly good either. He threw one hundred and three pitches over the course of five innings. He gave up three runs on seven hits, walked three, and struck out four. He seemed to have lost some of his first-pitch strike magic; of the twenty-four hitters he faced only twelve of them got a strike on the first pitch they saw.

David Aardsma came in for the sixth and seventh innings and did a really good job. He faced six batters and sat them all down. The closest he came to walking anyone was two balls to three of the batters. He played really good defense, as well-twice the batter grounded out to first and he covered nicely for Youkilis.

Okajima appeared for the eighth inning. He threw ten pitches to four batters. He gave up a hit but got a strike out, a ground out, and a force out.

Papelbon came out for the ninth inning and seemed to be having a terrible time finding the strike zone. He got the first batter to strike out on three pitches. Then he gave up a single, and walked the next batter on five pitches (some of those balls were nowhere near being strikes.) The last batter lined into a pretty double play-Cora caught the ball for the first out and flipped it to Pedroia for the second out.

The first two runs the Sox scored were on back-to-back homeruns by Pedroia and Ortiz in the third inning. In the sixth inning, Lowell was hit by a pitch, moved over to second on a balk, moved to third on a single by Youkilis, and then came around to score on a single by Varitek. Ellsbury started off the seventh inning with a triple to deep right and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ortiz. And then Manny hit number 500 to right center. In the eighth inning, Youkilis was hit by a pitch and then moved to third on a single by Youkilis. Crisp grounded into a double play and Youkilis booked it home.

Some of the not so good news: Ortiz did something to his wrist in the ninth inning and had to be pinch hit for. They also left a lot of runners on base-the Orioles didn't have a single 1-2-3 inning.

Dining With Daisuke.

If you've got an extra $10,000 lying around (and come one now, who doesn't?), the opportunity has presented itself to take part in, what can only be imagined as, a very awkward dinner. As part of the Good Sports Legends of the Ball fundraiser, Daisuke Matsuzaka has agreed to have dinner with four fans. He is dragging his wife and a translator along but it still seems like a situation which might provoke an international incident (liquored-up American fans and famous, super-polite Japanese people doesn't seem like a winning combination.) As far as I can tell, though, it seems that if you bid on the prize now, you could save yourself the $150 entrance fee to the shin-dig.

Besides the dinner with Daisuke, they do have some fabulous auction lots. The two that really struck my fancy were a pitching lesson with Manny Del and getting to spend the first three innings of the game inside the green monster with the official scorer as he scores the game. These two things, I would very much like to have. I would probably turn into a squicky fangirl mess around Manny Del as he attempted to teach me to throw in a non-Mariah Carey-esque fashion but if I could only have one, it would have to be the scoring the game adventure.

Beckett v. Cabrera (Game 57)

It may have required a trip deep into the murky depths of the Orioles bullpen but a win is a win (and to go thirteen rounds only to be KO'd would suck.) If there's a game tomorrow (NOAA has a dismal forecast for Baltimore), someone needs to stress to Lester that he's going to have to throw strikes. There isn't enough left in the Sox 'pen for him to start messing about walking people.

And while it wasn't a bad performance, I can't imagine that Beckett is very pleased with the way he pitched tonight. He threw one hundred and eighteen pitches over six innings. He was having a very hard time finding the strike zone and repeatedly fell behind the hitter. He faced twenty-six batters and rode the count full to nine of them. Miraculously, he struck out ten of them and only gave up four hits. He did allow two runs-one on a homerun. He also had a truly bizarre sixth inning. He got two strike outs (both swinging) and then walked the next three batters to load the bases. [Aside: I did think that the difference between the crowd's reaction when Beckett nearly hit Millar and when one of the relievers nearly hit one of the other Orioles (I don't remember who was involved-it's all a blur) was amusing. It sounded as if the whole crowd gasped for Millar and I may have yelled at the television: Don't hit Millar! And the later incidence? Not so much.] I'm not sure I've ever seen Beckett walk three batters in a row. He did get the last batter to strike out, though.

The bullpen, normally not a particularly strong point, did a nice job tonight. They went seven innings and didn't allow any runs. The first out was Okajima. He went two innings, gave up a hit and struck out one.

Manny Del emerged to pitch the ninth. He got two quick outs (on a fly-out and a strike out) before giving up a basehit (the runner would later steal second, narrowly avoiding being caught by Varitek.) He then walked a batter but came back to get the last out on a ground out to third and a nice throw by Lowell.

Javier Lopez was brought out next to face two lefties. It was a typical Lopez performance. He vacillates between being good and being not so good. Today, he gave up a hit to the first batter after falling behind three and one (not so good.) But he got the next batter to fly out to center and didn't allow the runner to advance (good.)

With righty Millar coming up, Lopez got the hook in favor of Hansen. Hansen ended up pitching an inning and a third. In Lopez' inning, he got Millar to ground out, intentionally walked the next batter, and got the last batter to strike out swinging. In his own inning, he got a ground out, a strike out, and a fly out.

Timlin came out for the twelfth inning. I'll admit that I cringed at the prospect and it didn't look like it was going to go to well. He got the first batter to strike out but then gave up a double to the second. They intentionally walked the next batter to get to Millar. I think Millar might have a soft spot for Timmeeh-in the last series, Millar popped out harmlessly to short for Timlin and tonight he grounded out to short but didn't make a super effort to beat out the throw. Then with two out and runners on second and third, Timlin again intentionally walked a batter. The last out of the inning came on a bases loaded fly out to left.

Papelbon, finally, finished the game off. He got a ground out and two strike outs.

I think I may have said (or maybe I just thought it) that the Orioles were not a particularly error-prone team. I mean, they weren't perfect but they weren't doing that badly before tonight. They did just have an epic game against the Yankees a couple of days ago; so maybe they were just tired. Regardless, it was the Orioles' errors that allowed the Sox to win the game.

They scored two runs off Daniel Cabrera in the first inning and things were looking up (although, not too far up-the last time they played Cabrera they scored three runs off him in the first inning only to have the lead blown by Okajima and Jay Payton.) Ellsbury started things off with a double. Pedroia sacrificed to move him over and then Ortiz got a single to bring Jacoby home. Manny doubled and Ortiz moved to third. And then Lowell had a sacrifice fly that knocked in Ortiz.

Then Cabrera mostly settled down and the Sox returned to the leaving-too-many-men-on-base-ways that plagued them the last time they were down there. They left eleven of them there tonight and only scored on two out of fifteen opportunities. There was a funky little attempt at a suicide squeeze play in the second inning. Coco had drawn a walk but the ball got away from the catcher so he hustled his way to second base. He then stole third. Cora then attempted the bunt but missed and Coco was caught.

Offensively, nothing particularly interesting happened again until the ninth inning. Coco was the second to bat and on a three-one count the umpire called him out on strikes. Coco turned around and gave him a look that said: What the hell are you talking about? He stepped back into the batter's box and had some words for the umpire. The umpire was not to pleased to be hearing it from Coco; but honestly, if the umpire doesn't know the count, then it's a sad state of affairs. Francona had to come out to settle things down and then Coco popped-out to short. Not exactly poetic justice, but it is what happened.

The Sox were finally able to break through in the top of the thirteenth inning. After getting a second chance because the Orioles catcher dropped a foul ball, Ortiz grounded out to first for the first out of the inning. Manny reached on a throwing error and then took second while they were still trying to find the ball. Lowell got a basehit and Manny booked his way around to be the go-ahead run. Youkilis got a basehit and Lowell moved to second. Then the two of them paired up to double steal second and third. Varitek struck out for the second out of the inning. Coco was safe at first on the shortstop's throwing error. And then, while they were trying to retrieve the ball, Lowell came around to score, Youkilis came around to score, and Coco took second. Coco then took third on a wild pitch. Lugo drew a walk and then stole second. Ellsbury, unfortunately, struck out swinging to end the fun.

A New Home For Craig Breslow.

So Craig left us in March for the Indians. But, as it turned out, the Indians weren't a good fit (they rarely bothered to use him.) Last week they DFA'd him to activate Borowski-which sucked. Why did they bother to grab him if they weren't going to use him? I was afraid he was going to have to toil away in freakin' Buffalo and he might lose faith. But all is not lost: the Twins have picked him up. With a series at home against the Twins in July, we may get to see him again. Yay!

Happy Birthday Manny!

Happy 36th birthday to Manny Ramirez. Perhaps he's a bit of a misunderstood soul but I really don't understand how anyone could dislike Manny Ramirez. He loves to play the game and he loves to have fun playing the game (and yes, he does occasionally have what amounts to a temper tantrum) but he's great fun to watch. And this? This is awesome.

I hope his old buddy Millar took him out for a drink last night to celebrate. I hope that he continues to just do his thing. And I hope that he has many more happy birthdays ahead of him.

Next Up: the Baltimore Orioles.

The last time they played Baltimore things did not go swimmingly. In the first game, Beckett pitched poorly and in the second, the bullpen imploded on Lester. They were still trying to set the record for the highest numbers of men left on base in a season (they've since abandoned that goal in favor of obtaining the record for the fewest number of men to reach first base) the last time out. They also hit into a considerable amount of double plays. The one bright spot of that series was Manny's catch.

Daniel Cabrera goes tomorrow against Beckett. He throws a really good fastball and an excellent changeup, both with good movement. He had a reputation for wildness but he seems to have really worked at getting the number of walks he allows down this year. That said, he still has bouts of inconsistency-in his last start he walked six in five and two-thirds of an inning against Tampa. The Red Sox hit him well the last time around. They combined for a total of ten hits (including two homeruns, courtesy of Lowell and Varitek.)

Garret Olson makes the start against Lester on Saturday. Olson throws a fastball, a changup, and a curveball. He tends to not throw his changeup to left-handed hitters. He has exhibited both good command and good control. Walks have, supposedly, been a problem for him but I don't see it (although when he does walk people they are generally lefties.) He does a good job of keeping the ball down and getting groundball outs. He also has a high LOB percentage. He did get absolutely shelled by the Yankees two starts ago.

Brian Burres pitches on Sunday against Bartolo Colon. Colon really keeps lucking out on teams/pitchers he gets to face. Although it has a nice sinking action, Burres' fastball is nothing special (it rides in the high eighties.) He also throws a slider and a changeup. If his command is off, he's going to get in to trouble. He doesn't walk many batters and he doesn't strike out many batters but he does give up a good number of hits.

The last pitcher of the series will be Jeremy Guthrie. Guthrie has a deceptive fastball, a good slider, and a nice changeup. He keeps the ball down and induces a lot of groundball outs. Last time out he held the Red Sox to three runs on eight hits, giving up only two extra base hits (doubles for Ortiz and Manny.) He walked one and struck out seven.

Nick Markakis, Brian Roberts, and Luke Scott are probably the Orioles best hitters. Melvin Mora and Aubrey Huff have been having decent seasons for themselves, as well. Brian Roberts has a team-leading thirteen steals on the season; he's also been caught stealing more times than most of the other batters on the team have successfully stolen a base. Melvin Mora should either not attempt to steal (he's been successful two out of the six times he's tried it) or he should pay closer attention to what's going on while he's on the basepath, so that he doesn't get picked off. The Orioles are not a particularly error-prone team (third baseman, Melvin Mora, has the most at seven.)

As a side note: Not that I would wish anyone hurt or anything, but if one of their pitchers should go down before a Red Sox series, then I hope that they make room for (and call up) Jon Leicester. The idea of a potential Jon Lester v. Jon Leicester pitching match up amuses me greatly.

Wakefield v. Bedard (Game 56)

That was another one to be filed under: Well, that sucked.

Wakefield pitched really well tonight. He went eight innings with only ninety-six pitches and held the Mariners to only five hits (one of them was, unfortunately, the game deciding homerun in the third inning.) He struck out eight and didn't walk anybody. Normally, such a dominating performance would be good for a win but not when vintage Erik Bedard is on the mound for the other side.

There was no offense to speak of. They were held to two singles (one by Manny and one by Lowell.) They drew six walks but made nothing of them. Ellsbury did have a very good steal of second in the third inning. He'd already made his break for second (after walking to first) when the throw came into first, so he just kept going and reached safely because of a poor throw from first. And that's about it.

One thing to be grateful of: For awhile, at least, that's it for middle of the night night-games. I'm so tired-I repeatedly fell asleep on the ride in to work this morning.