Sunday, May 3

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y...Night!

So first off, a confession. After the second inning, I was watching the Sox game somewhat haphazardly. During C's-Bulls commercials, timeouts, and even free-throws, I would flip over quick and resolve to watch an entire at-bat, but invariably I'd get nervous that I was going to miss a Jesus-3 or a Rondo scrape and I'd flip back quick, then realize I overshot the return by about two and a half minutes, flip back to the Sox, then the vicious cycle repeated itself. So that while I think I saw a pretty substantial portion of the Sox 10-6 victory over the Rays, really my impressions can't be trusted. But, here's what I gathered from the onslaught:

---Jacoby and Pedey combined for another big night, looking more and more like the 1-2 combination we're hoping is going to carry us for a long time. And once again, the 3 hole came up empty. (Papi did draw 2 walks, continuing to gradually lower the bar, so that he gets a fist pump from me everytime he watches 4 go by and brings Youk to the plate. Is this really all we need from our 3 hole?)

---Nick Green went 3 for 5, driving in 3 and improving to .304 on the season, with a .371 OBP and .464 SLG. (Uptown got its hustlers, Bowery got its bums, Red Sox got Mean Nick Green, he's a sweet-swinging son of a gun.) Only Jason Bartlett and Yuniesky Betancourt are better on the season from the SS position.

---Tim Wakefield, though he ultimately gave up 5 and got pulled after giving up a single to start the 6th, did what he had to do and held off the Rays until the Sox could build up a sizeable lead. He improved to 3-1 on the year, and is, sadly, the only Sox starter with an ERA under 3. (The closest is Masterson, on a smaller sample, at a nothing to brag about 4.37.

---Now I could be wrong about this game note, but I'm pretty sure Eddie House hit a double in the 6th to drive in Ellsbury and Pedroia. That could have been the still red-hot Youk, but I feel fairly confident this morning that it was Eddie House.

---The Sox pen had another stellar night. Oki and Ramirez combined for another scoreless 3 innings, and while Saito gave up another 9th inning run, it was the result, in part, of a defensive indifference advance. All in all, another strong night for the best pen in baseball.

---A bad sign for the Sox: Pat Burrell looks like he might finally be starting to hit. If he regains form after a slow start, the Rays are going to have a damn lethal lineup.

---Evan Longoria is a beast. I'm not going to say anything more, except that the Upton-Crawford-Longoria opener scares the crap out of me every time.

Altogether a good night for the Sox and a good night for Boston. The Sox have a 1:35 start today, and on a rainy day up and down the East Coast, that dome never looked so good.

(A final aside. Brad Penny's start today is pissing off a lot of Yankees fans. I've had 3 people ask me this week if he was lined up to start the Monday opener in Yankee stadium. I mean, I know he hasn't pitched great this year, but he hasn't been so bad as to explain the kind salivating he inspires in New Yorkers. Do they suspect something I don't?)

4 comments:

DVicino said...

The Yanks have their own set of major issues...I keep hearing "once A-rod comes back healthy, and Wang figures it out, and Teix starts hitting, and CC finds his groove, and Hughes dominates....the AL East is ours" You can apply that to Pirates at this point.

Solid performance out of Penny for the most part today (he should get one free punch at Lugo), reassuring even if we don't take home a W.

Anonymous said...

Joe Murph,
Spring for some of the money NYC lets you keep and get a picture-in=a-picture set. Love your commentary but missing the action is unacceptable. Is it the technology or your attention span?

Joe Murph said...

It's my eyes, actually. I have a pretty decent size flatscreen, but already I have to sit about three feet from it. If I messed with the screen any or tried a picture-in-picture, I'd be done for.

I'll try to come up with a solution next time.

Joe Murph said...

Also, speaking of Penny and Lugo, Penny did not hold back the frustration on that play one bit. Is it just me, or is that pretty rare to see. Usually there's one muffled 'sh*t' into the glove, a snap catch, and then just stoic. Penny did some flatout haranguing to my eyes. Any concerns? The word on him coming in was 'not a good teammate'.

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