A 10 run first inning means I can keep the game on but focus on the massive amounts of grad school work I have on my plate, right? Apparently not. In one of the craziest games I've seen, the Sox blew two different 10 run leads but came back in the 8th to win a 19-17 football, I mean baseball game. There were simply too many plays to go over all of them but here are some take-away highlights:
-Concerned about our 3-4 hitters without that guy from Washington Heights? Last night Papi/Youk were a combined 5-9, blasting 4 taters, with 11 rbi and 6 runs scored.
-Pedrioa just continues to hit, blasting 5 hits in 6 at bats.
-Rookie Charlie Zink (on three days rest) only went 4 1/3, allowing 8 runs on 11 hits.
-The 36 total runs ties an AL record for most runs in a game.
-Frank Catalanotto is forever a Red Sox killer.
-Youkilis should see some MVP votes this year (totally seroius here, but this is for a later post).
While my voice is horse this morning from all the yelling I did last night (and I'm sure my neighbors hate me), I'm still debating if I should be happy or upset with this win. If you watched the postgame you heard a lot of players say this was an uplifting victory for Boston. I'm not so sold, while I agree a loss in this game would have been devastating, and this win shows we have heart, but it also shows how poor our relief is. Simply put, the Sox pen' could not hold the powerful Texas lineup at bay, none of them could. There was no consistency and the Rangers took advantage of Zink's early exit. As good as Youk's 8th inning tater (and his near sprint around the bases) felt, the game should have NEVER got to that point. Sure, a great team wins the close ones, but great teams can also put teams away with two separate 10 run leads. So as good as this win felt and crazy as it was to watch, there are a lot of concerns to be had as a result
ITM notes:
-In late night action the Rays lost a close 2-1 game to Oakland, moving the Sox to within 3 games of the East Division lead. The Rays also said Carl Crawford had surgery on his finger and is expected to be out 6-8 weeks.
-Mariano Rivera blew his first save opportunity since September of 2007 but the Yanks came back via the homer in the 12th to win it 9-6. They remain 5 games behind the Sox and 8 behind the Rays.
(Video courtesy of NECN.com)
2 comments:
I was at a concert last night, and part of me is glad I missed this game. Seeing the sox put a 10 spot up in the first inning would have been nice, including Ortiz's 2 taters (fantasy points); however watching the lead vanish would have spiked my blood pressure to unsafe levels.
Not that we can pin all the sox problems on one person, but whats up with my boy Manny Delcarmen. I wish this close to buying his tshirt jersey. He's been around a few years now, I thought he was shapping up to be a dependable 7th or 8th inning guy.
He's damn good in the red sox bullpen band though, his base line is sick.
*was this close
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