2009 Boston Red Sox Discussion

Thankfully that rain delay bump made it so the Marlins were in HD here instead of the Sox game. Hurray nature!

Some of my co-workers took yesterday as a vacation day, and are now in the office today. Cosmic injustice? Perhaps.

For me, the rain delay has kind of sucked the energy out of Opening Day. Nothing like a delay due to inclement weather to take the wind out of your Opening Day sails (so to speak).

Then again all that pent-up anxiety is still running through my veins, and my urgent need to see the Ray's hitting clash with the Sox's defense must be satisfied!

So far so good. 6th inning and we're ahead. Just have to keep it together.

Drew's having a day, huh?

Beautiful game, beautiful start. Beckett rocked it yesterday. Tek got in what'll probably end up being one of his only shots of the season, but I'm not complaining.

So, this ISN'T the way you start a season. Going 1-2 in the first series isn't what I'd call an auspicious start. Still, no reason to panic (which of course everyone is doing-- the Globe's Tony Massarotti is already jumping the shark on that), since we still have time to catch up.

Maybe the Sox can pull out a miracle in the 9th, but I'm not counting on it. It's going to sting to walk out of the first series of the season losing to the same people who blocked you from the World Series the previous season.

I agree-- seeing Tek's hit kind of made up (in advance) for losing the series to TB (fuck Massarotti). Still, it stings to lose the first series of the season to the same team that blocked the Sox on their way to the World Series.

I also happen to have a friend who is a "diehard" TB fan who only started giving a shit about them when they started to win. Nothing more obnoxious than that.

Good job to TB, and good job to the Sox for their rally. They almost came back. We'll see how they do on the West coast. Really, this just makes me anticipate the next TB-Sox series all the more-- everything between now and then is filler.

We can't be the only Sox fans on these boards.

...can we?

Your not alone...its early in the season..the cold, plus the loss to TB brings back some Fall memories.

Indeed. There are lots of us here.

The magic of opening day seems so long ago. A 1-3 start isn't what I anticipated after that day. JohnnyZ is right...losing a series to the Rays feels just like it did last season. The way the Sox have played in their three losses makes it feel exactly like it did last season.

Their pitching is going to be brilliant at times; at times, it's going to be 'good enough'. However, the offense is abysmal. Papi looks cooked. Tek is leading the homer barrage with 2 of the 3 that have been hit. TEK. The team has no power at all. None.

However, they've also run up against a brutal opening stretch of pitching. They also had the privilege of being LA's opponent for their first game since Adenhart's death. In LA. There was no way in hell they were winning last night.

SO, with all of that, I am not worried, just disappointed with the start. The team is healthly, and Beckett looked like a man. Mike Lowell is now the slowest player in baseball (the Molina 3 are all happy about that), but I'm so thrilled to see him out there again.

They are on Fox today as well! Yay, national TV. I purchased HD mlb.tv package. It's awesome getting the NESN HD feed all of the time, but it doesn't compare to true HD baseball. Maybe one of these days, I'll be able to get all of the NESN HD games, without having to move up to NE. Maybe...

I agree. Better to skid now than later.

And skid we have. Not that I'm panicking, since we're only six games in. This simply isn't how I thought our season would go after Opening Day.

I am wondering how the offense is going to be shored up as the season progresses. As Poulsonator points out, the offense looks worn out and done, and we're barely getting started. Not that you'd be able to tell, since it sounds like Armageddon's coming over here.

These opening series are like the "ghosts of playoffs past". Tampa, Angels, and the A's. The Angels must really hate facing the Sox in the playoffs.

Im going to the Baltimore game on Sunday..hope some homefield advantage helps..

I spent $170 on the Extra Innings package for this?! Yikes. Obviously we have plenty of time, so I'm not worried, but I'm also not happy. Ah well, not everyone can be.

At least the Yankees are getting killed today. Who would've thought that Wang's career might not rebound after injuring his foot running to first base?

My thoughts exactly.

It's still really early. Whatever happened to "We Believe?"

No one but the Massarottis* of the world is questioning their faith over a 2-5 record in the first seven games of the season, but I'm well within my fan's rights to be disappointed with the team's performance following their beautiful opening day.



*I mean, come on, the guy is already arguing that this could be baseline performance and not a season-opening slump.

This sounds terrible, but I'm almost glad they're doing poorly. I'm sick of the fair-weather fans and I almost hope the Red Sox have a couple of terrible seasons so that it's uncool to like them again.

Maybe I could go to the park more often after that.

I'm only half kidding. Naturally I want them to be doing better. I'm glad that Bay is still performing. I saw his first game at the park and it was a beauty. He's been one of my favorites ever since.

Not a BoSox fan, but i'm as happy as you all must be to be seeing the Yankees sucking so horribly.

You know, I kind of agree. It's much more enjoyable to go to Fenway with people who love the Sox through thick and thin, win or lose. I might not be happy that they're losing-- because what fan would be?-- but you better believe I'm standing behind them all the way.

I'd rather we not have a couple of shitty seasons, but the idea of sending the band wagon fans packing is pretty tempting.

Stick a fork into Papi. Or tell him to get on the juice again.

obviously it's still early, but the offense really does have me worried. I just can't see them scoring runs when they have to, the way they've been able to the last six years. Maybe it is just that it's early (and the pitching has been mostly good so far, last night notwithstanding, which helps a lot in covering up the weaknesses), but I feel like if they make the trade for miguel cabrera or adam dunn, we'd be a lot better off this season

I think the Red Sox are going to have problem scoring runs all year. You've gone from Manny and Ortiz in their primes to a way over the hill Ortiz and Jason Bay. Youkilis and Pedroia are both good hitters but the middle of that order no longer strikes fear.

well that's what i mean. they can't go about things the same way they always have. so what's the plan now? they can't mash anymore, and they don't appear to have the kind of line-up to play small ball and manufacture runs. I hope it shakes out soon, 'cause this ain't looking so hot right now.

Our bats finally made their presence felt last night, but Matsuzaka's arm fatigue did us in. I'll take something positive away from the loss, though, and be comforted by the reminder that we can, in fact, bring in the runs.

Really bad night for Matsuzaka, though. More ammo for his detractors.

Yeah, that too. Last night really highlighted our strengths and exposed a couple more weaknesses-- again, something that is better to do early in the season instead of later on. Our bullpen is strong, and we've got the bats to get the job done.

Really the only major disappointment in last night's game was Daisuke.

And Papi. Bases loaded in the tenth inning and he can't make anything happen. He used to thrive in situations like that.

Daisuke had an off game, but I still think he's an amazing pitcher in general.

We really should not have lost that game.

He is an amazing pitcher, but when he's off it's a train wreck. Papi aside, the game shouldn't have gone into extra innings, and Matsuzaka's performance is the primary reason why it did.

Though I agree that Papi's lost his shine. At this point though I'm almost used to him not coming through in situations like that. Is that bad?

Nah, I'm the same way. I keep waiting for him to surprise me but it never happens. He's pretty much done. I still love the hell out of the guy, though, for everything he's done for the team. I'm never going to boo him or talk shit or anything.

Parker, I don't think I could have said it better myself.

daisuke's on the DL

awesome.

ETA: think any teams are going to be on-board at all for the WBC next time around?

Probably. The Sox would do well to forbid any of their players from going near it. That said I don't think that the WBC is really to blame for Daisuke's problems.

Sox fans, if you want to depress yourselves, look here. I do find it funny that all the talk leading up to Opening Day was about how things were going to be between TB, the Yankees, and the Sox...and yet you have Toronto and the Orioles on top. Frankly, I could be more disappointed-- I'm also an Orioles fan, something that developed in my four years going to school in the Baltimore area-- but I'm still crushed to see the Sox on the bottom of the pile.

francona seems to think so, if you read his quotes on the globe's site.

I don't think the sox are gonna be anywhere close to as bad as they have been so far. They're still top-down the best team in the al east, all things considered. It's just hard not to be troubled by these games so far (and bummed about how ortiz looks right now). and goddamn, is it a pain in the ass not to be able to afford mlb.tv this year!

I have a hard time buying it, even if Terry says that that's the case. I won't say that the WBC didn't at least partially contribute to the problem, but Daisuke would have been pitching even if he was in Spring Training. Isn't it more likely that a 2007 and 2008 workload of 408 pitched innings between both seasons has taken it's toll on him? I don't know, it just feels too convenient to blame it on the WBC-- but I'm willing to accept it and move on.

And I agree that the Sox are* going to remain as bad as they've been in the first 8 games. They can swing things back in their favor easily-- but as you say, it's hard to be positive when you see games go as badly as they have, and when you see workhorses like Papi looking worn out and done.

*Aren't. Aren't going to remain as bad. I could easily have edited the sentence and left it at that but that would be cheating.

So I guess the best way to get the Sox to start winning is to grouse about them on internet forums.

Hey bats! Good to see you again!

A shame, but hey I'm just content with the whole winning thing.

Assuming that something retarded doesn't happen.

Seriously. And Papi started it with a double (right after we wrote him off, too).

I feel much better about Wakefield after this game. Last weekend was a little rocky for him.

awesome! is there anything better than a surprise wakefield shutdown performance?

I guess now we have a new game to be replayed on NESN for Sox classics. Bullpen looked good, (Penny-notsomuch). Green may have been channeling Kevin Romine and Troy Oleary..