Boston Red Sox 2007: Rolling the Dice-K - Page 2

Yep, that one will haunt us. I hate starting out May like that when April was damn-near perfect.

A costly, dramatic win for the Sox today. Josh Beckett leaving early with a torn flap of skin on his right middle finger to the Sox insane 9th inning, 6-run comeback. Hopefully Beckett will only be out 15 days...I was hoping we'd keep on rollin', avoiding the injury bug. Here we go...let's see how we handle this.

He had a similar problem last year, but I don't remember how long he was sidelined. Hopefully he only misses one start. Is he on the 15-day DL or is he day-to-day?

Of all people to get a home run off Eric Gagne. That was a great at bat. Made him throw 12 pitches to get one he wanted and it ended up being the game-winning run. Pedroia is really starting to come into his own. Tavarez continues to drastically improve, today's 4-run 6th notwithstanding. And of course Coco's lovely catch. Here's hoping Schilling can get back wins tomorrow, and Beckett hopefully has not lost anything with the spot on the DL.

36-15 with a 12 game cushion on May 29th. Insane.

Welcome back, Mr. Beckett. Youkilis is a monster. 21-game hitting streak, 9 consecutive multi-hit games, back-to-back games with a home run, yesterday's being inside-the-park, and a .358 avg. I figured we'd do decently enough against the tribe yesterday and today, but tomorrow we face Byrd, and we have Dice-K, who is hopefully okay after last week's stomach problems. And the Yankees are in last place. I don't know what to say about that.

Now THAT is how you end a losing streak! I believe I drew blood from all the nail-biting I did listening to this game on my XM at work. That was a really great game. Some truly great plays, Ortiz breaking out of his homer-less slump, and, of course, Curt Schilling taking a no-hitter all the way until the final out of the bottom of the ninth. Despite their record, the A's are a really great team, and to do this, especially after being pretty ineffective the last three games, is really something special. Hopefully they're back to their winning ways. I'm seeing them Saturday and Sunday against the Diamondbacks, so those games will surely be great ones. Sunday's game pits Dice-K against Randy Johnson. Johnson has made a great return to form after back surgery, and Dice-K runs hot and cold, and if he runs hot on Sunday, it will be a classic.

The Sox start strong every year (pretty much). Wait to see what their cushion is on August 1 before you start wanking.

It was almost yesterday. May 29th, 16 days ago, it was 14.5. Now it's 7.5. This, too, is the reason I don't talk smack. It's inevitable.

There's not way the Sox were 14.5 games better than the Yanks, but damn boys. It's time for the bats to fucking wake up and to win some games.

Actually, with today's results, it's now 7.5. Yeah, our bats are just about non-existent right now, but at least Lugo has been sent to the #9 spot, where, frankly, he belongs. There has been some tinkering with the leadoff spot this week, and I think Pedroia should get the spot. He's still hitting on a pretty consistent basis, even in the "slump." J.D. Drew shows some signs of coming back to life (7 ribbies last Friday), but Coco and Lugo remain our weakest spots in the lineup. I really hope Theo learned from last year, and we make some moves for the trade deadline. Oh how I would love Ichiro to play CF for us. So yeah, the Sox are floundering a bit, and the Yankees have a 9-game winning streak, but I'm really not worried. At least it's a lot more of an actual competition now, instead of a complete blowout. I can't believe Boston STILL has the best record in baseball after all this. Tomorrow we face San Francisco, that HAS to work in our favor...right? Hopefully the Mets can start to win again, starting tomorrow.

Sox don't need to trade, they have the East wrapped up. See you in October.

Gabbard put up a career 4.07 ERA in the minor leagues for 7 seasons. Thankfully, he had some great starts recently, but there's nothing to suggest he was going to be anything more than a #4 or #5 for the Sox.

As of today, August 1st 2007:
Red Sox 0.0
Yankees 7.0

Do I have your permission to wank now?

Can't wait to see Jorge knock an RBI double off Gagne in October.

No. August is just starting. Wait until mid-September before you break out the vaseline.

Ah yes, the bitter Yankee fan. Can't ever let a Red Sox fan have any fun. How about this:

8/2/07:
Red Sox 0.0
Yankees 8.0

Roger sure earned his $1 million today.

In other news, Wake pitched a nice game today. Gagne had his Red Sox debut, and the Sox won. Excellent.

Yep, things are still going well for the Sox all year so far. The Gagne trade, the returns of Jon Lester and Curt Schilling, the resurgence of Mike Timlin, Manny's rejuvenated bat...things are indeed going well. I'm continuing to be cautiously optimistic, though. The Yankees did have a very rough start to the season, but they certainly have made up it. I don't think they'll drop below .500 anymore this year. In fact, I think it's a pretty safe bet that they will nab the Wild Card. But the AL East looks to be ours. Aside from the Seattle series that starts tomorrow, we don't face many great challenges for the rest of the season. Sure, things can always change, but I like the position the Sox are in, and hope to possibly see a repeat of the 2004 ALCS.

Resurrecting this thread for a very good reason.

Clay Buchholz, in only his second game in the majors, just threw a no-hitter. I think he's ready to stay in the big leagues now. Thankfully, he was brought up for a game a few weeks ago, so he's elligible for post-season play.

Pedroia's play was incredible. I damn near cried.

I want to say that hopefully this is the win we need to give us momentum for the rest of the season, but I thought that after Boston crushed Chicago in the series before the Yanks. Maybe the Mariners will stop sucking and actually give the Yankees a fight this week? I doubt it.

Amazing to think that Buchholz was a compensation pick after Pedro left. Beautiful. I doubt Buccholz will start again this year, but moving him to the 'pen makes my heart warm. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but our rotation for next year starts with Beckett and Dice-K, and will include Wake and Buchholz. Damn.

At this point, I'm starting to wonder if any sort of achievement set against the Baltimore Orioles should carry with it an asterisk.

Yeah, Orioles fans have had a tough year. Tough few years, I guess.

I mentioned the same thing to my friend while we were watching the Sox lose to the Yanks Wednesday night...how sad it is to see the Orioles suck so badly for so long now. Same about Pittsburgh, K.C., etc. I suppose.

It's a little different for Baltimore. This isn't a 'small-market team' - it's a team with a successful tradition which somehow lost its footing in the 80s and 90s despite the presence of stalwarts such as Ripken.* Being in the AL East doesn't help.



*Actually, maybe he didn't have so much help.

It's funny to say, but the Sox really needed last night's win. What was encouraging was the fact that Beckett pitched like the man he is, the Sox beat the Yanks ace, and the Sox were able to rebound in dramatic fashion after that gut-wrenching loss on Friday night. Seriously, I didn't think I'd ever feel that way again after the Sox won the series in '04. I was wrong. Of course, I'm in NYC currently, and the last city on Earth I want to be in after a terrible loss like that is NYC.

(it's strange...I've now been to NYC 3 times, and each time the Sox played the Yanks)

The magic number is now down to 9, and with Detroit heating up, the Yanks could be in trouble. For the first time in a while, I can breathe a *little* easier. Hopefully the Sox can get some rest here and there in preparation for the post-season.

Oh, and our young players are fucking AMAZING to watch. Pedroia, Buchholz and of course, Jacoby "Navajo" Ellsbury are just the tip of the iceberg. I love it.

Friday's loss hurt so bad. Seeing both Okajima AND Papelbon stumble like that was really painful to witness. I firmly believe in Papelbon's case that what he said about it being a mental issues, and that it was a one-time-thing, is true. I'm more worried about Okajima. He is said to be pretty worn out. Hopefully we can build up some substantial leads in the remaining games so that we can rest him and give Gagne some time in there. And yes, Ellsbury is something to behold. That man better be on the roster full-time in '08. He has proven himself in only 21 days. This is a really great year for the Red Sox. Pedroia for Rookie-Of-The-Year, Beckett for Cy Young. To think, we got this far without the power of Manny OR Ortiz.

Jeter sucks.

Such a heartbreaker. Two close calls this series. I really feel sorry for Schilling. Does he have any wins since returning from tendinitis?

What was that stat tonight? Rivera has a 92% save conversion vs. the rest of the league, but only preserves 73% of the save opportunities vs. the BoSox?

My uncle (a big Yankee fan):

Thanks red sux for making this a pennant race!!

And a special thank you to Eric Gagme.

Do you know what Gagne (French) means in English?

My response:

Gagne = "I fucking suck" in English

The Rangers and Yanks are laughing their asses off at that trade. So am I. At least now we know for sure-sure that Gagne will never pitch for the Red Sox again. I'm glad it only took FOUR blown saves and a ridiculous ERA to prove it. Worst trade in recent Red Sox history, and Gagne may possibly go down as the worst player in Red Sox history. Astonishing, considering his numbers in Texas. The choking bitch just can't handle the pressure.

I would thank the Orioles for being a joke of a franchise before thanking the Sox. Then thank Fancona, as he's obviously on the Yankee payroll with his dumbfuck coaching over the last few weeks.

The ONLY thing that keeps me sane through this nonsense is the fact that the Sox are almost assured a playoff spot. Yes, they need to win a game, I know, but the Tigers are blowing it just as bad. It's too bad as I would have liked to have gone wire to wire in the division, but what can you do. Injuries are killing us, but mostly it's the coaching. Not only the insane moves that continue to be mind-boggling bad, but the lack of ANY urgency. That pisses me off more than anything. We could have EASILY closed this thing out, but Francona just doesn't seem to care. Remember too, that this isn't a Sox collapse nearly as much as it's a Yankee team playing out of their minds. As everyone at the beginning of the year predicted, when the Yanks are healthy and firing on all cylinders, they are clearly the best team in baseball. It took a while, but the $200 million juggernaut finally started playing like one. This is an important year for the Yankees, and it shows. With a lot of free agents hitting the market this year, and ARod opting out, it's now or never.

I was thinking of you last night Joe, as Francona was doing one hell of a Grady Little impersonation. Yesterday I read that Francona is planning to give each of his starters more days between starts than usual. I suspect that might change...

As for Gagne, what would you expect? The guy's a Canadian.

Sadly, as long as Francona is the manager, Gagne will continue to get time on the mound. If he absolutely must be used, it should be in situations where we either have a huge lead, or we have no chance of rallying.

I hope Buchholz can turn us around today. At the moment, the Tigers are down 4-2 in the top of the 8th, so as long as that sticks, our magic number for any sort of post-season play would go down to 3. At this point I'll take what I can get.

Go Indians (for reasons MUCH different than Tim's)!

Not really. Every year is important for the Yankees, but the Yanks have more good young pitchers coming up now than since the mid-90s with Pettite, Rivera etc. Bodes well for the future.

I would imagine it's because of the Yankees' 6-0 record against the Tribe this year.

Thankfully the Sox played like mad early in the year and built a nice big cushion because they're cashing it all in right now. Injuries, tired arms, no offense and bad coaching are all killing us. At this point, we're doing what we can do rest up and prepare for the post-season. The division would be nice, but all that really matters is the WS. Seriously, do you think the Yanks of '04 feel better because they won the East? Or any Yank team from 2001-2006?

All that matters is the WS.

See, I think the NY Yankees actually do care. They haven't not won the division in going on ten years, and they look at it as a point of pride. Whether or not they should, that's up for debate, but you better believe they want that division title.

I think all teams care, as well they should. However, if the Sox somehow hold off the Yanks for the AL East title, yet the Yanks go on to win the World Series, I doubt any of them would be disappointed that they didn't win the East.

The Yankees' streak is remarkable and it should be a point of pride, but ask any of them and they will all say the goal is to win the World Series, no matter how they get there.

I'm sure they'd like to win the division, but within the Yankee organization (and particularly with the made Yankees) anything less than a parade down the Canyon of Heroes is a failure.

Should the Yanks overtake the BoSox it would be a great story for the next Yankeeography (which would likely postulate that the Yanks did in fact win the Gagne sweepstakes), but winning the WS is all that really matters to those guys. Jeter, Posada, Pettitte, Mo, Clemens, Damon and Mink (albeit with Boston) have rings. The rest (with the exception of the rookies) signed with the Yankees to get a ring. Doesn't matter what path you take (WC or Division). It's the destination that counts.

Anyways, I've been reading posts in the SOSH forums (BoSox fans). Wow. Those guys should be on a suicide watch.

Boston forums are always good for a little drama.

From a post at SOSH last night:

There's some funny shit over there.

SOSH is a second home...and it does get crazy over there. What do you expect, though? Pavlov's dogs...it's ingrained in us that we're going to fail. '04 helped a LOT, but c'mon...you can't erase 86 years of futility that easily.

See, now, if you're a Yankee fan: "It ain't over 'til it's over."

In Yogi we trust.

I'm a Yankee fan and I got curious so I dipped into this thread to take a look at what's written by Boston fans. Like Rob Rocco said earlier, all we really care about here in NYC is winning the WS. Yeah, it'd be kind of cool to beat the Sox for division, but honestly not that many fans here give as much a shit about it as Red Sox fans do. In fact, Boston's almost looked upon with amusement by Yankee fans with the fanaticism that goes on over there. We look at it all more like, over 100 years of baseball we've won a quarter of the World Series titles.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to put you guys down or anything. I just think that Yankee fans are looser about all of this than Red Sox fans are. Which considering all the history is a given. I still believe that the Sox are going to win the division but NY's already looking towards the playoffs.

Yankee fans are not loose. Well, the women maybe.

i just cant believe how close this race has become. so crazy.

Yankee fans are looser? The hell you say. They may not be so quick to believe that the sky is falling, though that first half sure had quite a few converts, but just you wait until the playoffs.

Alex Rodriguez's first ohfer in front of the hometown fans will be a riot.