Believe me. The last thing I want to do is give a wrap on Game 3. I had proposed we just pretend it didn't happen and hope everyone might get confused into playing it over, but ITM insists we take the good with the bad.
Jon Lester threw 5 and 2/3 innings, giving up 8 hits, 5 runs (4 earned), walking 2 and giving up 2 dingers. Paul Byrd then came in for the final 3 and a 1/3 and put up eerily similar numbers. The Rays owned the Sox last night. No two ways about it.
On the offensive side, Pedroia and Kotsay were the only life, and that wasn't enough. Ellsbury and Ortiz continue hitless. Hitless. Anyone want to claim they'd foreseen that type of playoff performance back in April? For the Rays, Upton and Iwamura had big nights, but the real star was Rocco Baldelli, who went 3 for3 with a home run. Hate to see it happen at this precise moment, but glad Baldelli seems to be coming back stronger.
For the Rays pitching, Garza was sharp and didn't look intimidated one bit by playoff baseball in Fenway. The Rays bullpen proved once again that they've got a lockdown on the later innings.
And that's pretty much that. A bare bones report, but like I said, and I suspect you feel the same, I can't stomach much more than that. Let's just tip our hats to the Rays for coming in and making a hell of a statement game their first time in Fenway in October, and hope that someone puts a jolt of life into the Sox before Game 4.
Maybe this is Wakefield's moment. He's been a hero before.
Tuesday, October 14
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5 comments:
Short and sweet, moving on from game 3.
On to game 4, Crisp has to start and bat leadoff. Tek has the night off with Wake pitching and Lowrie should be back at short, maybe the can get something going at the plate tonight.
Need Wake to keep them in it at the very least, I have faith in that.
I wouldn't feel so down-and-out about all this, yet. You guys have Wake coming to the mound tonight. Yeah, he was 0-2 in three starts against the Rays this year, but he's 19-5 against them all-time, and what happened this regular season doesn't count, now.
We're putting Sonny up, and while he's been pretty damn reliable, the kid's still a rookie and, like all rookies, susceptible to growing pains. Especially in just his second career playoff start.
Based on what we've seen so far this year, I'd give the Rays the edge. However, the Sox were supposed to have a huge edge yesterday, and we see how well that played out.
I'm sorry but I think RSN is overreacting to this loss. Sure we expected to win this one but we've been here before, we can point to numerous times when we were down in a series looking much worse than this.
Wake is on the mound tonight and hopefully he can keep us in the game, a win tonight with Dice-K on the mound in game 5 will have everyone feeling better.
I can only speak for myself, however it wasn't that the sox lost, it was the way they lost. They once again didn't bring the lumber and our best pitcher got rocked in the 3rd.
Certainly the Red Sox have come back from much worse, I've written about their October expierence, and they can tie things up at 2 tonight.
I remain optimistic tonight, and if they do win its a brand new series once again.
sidenote, Amanda/or anyone else, how long has James Sheilds been refered to as James Big Game Sheilds?
Tim-
Started hearing it last season, but apparently "Big Game" been his clubhouse nickname for a while.
Half an hour til show time...
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