Pap Continues to Kick Me in the Teeth

They almost had me. Three outs away from a sweep in NY and I was starting to do the math in my head. The odds were amazingly against us, but the Yanks had been playing so bad, and with 3 more games against them to close out the season at Fenway, why not us?

I should really know better by now.

Everyone else was watching the Jets and Dolphins in a close one while I watched a closer who continues to ask for a top of the market contract implode yet again.

Pap has now blown 8 saves, most in the AL. His ERA sits at 4.02, by far the highest in his career. Against the hated Yanks? His ERA balloons to 8.64.

You can blame a squeezed strike zone if you want Pap, but the reality is, you're just not that good, and haven't been for nearly two years now....and you're certainly not as good as you think you are.

Last night, you ended the season for the Sox yet again, just like in the 09' ALDS.

Luckily for you, Tom Brady and his Justin Bieber hair was busy saving his defense's ass all day, and as a result, not many people will notice.

When do the Bruins and Celts start up again?

Not a Good Weekend

There just isn't that much to say. A half-empty Tropicana ringing with a few weak cowbells saw the Sox fall again tonight, putting them 6 and 1/2 back in the division and wild card. A particularly disappointing finish to what looked like it might be a glimmer-of-hope weekend.

Is it insurmountable? No. If Buchholz and Lester start going on 2 days rest, then the Sox are right in the hunt. But it's tough to see how they're going to make up these games without a dramatic improvement from Beckett and Lackey. The dog days have been lackluster, though, and even hardened Sox fans, knowing that this was possibly a make-or-break series, had a tough time feeling the magic of late-summer baseball. I for one only mustered a few choice mutterings when Jed Lowrie, the tying run, got called out on a ball a foot out of the zone on a swing that didn't go a quarter of the way around. But that was that, and that's the way August has been.

That said, there's a month of baseball to be played, and only a week's worth of games to make up. The Sox have the Rays for 3 more at home next week and a big 3 game set in NYC at the end of September. For the latter, ITM is calling now for a summit. I'm fleeing New York for autumn in Massachusetts, and I'm calling the Vicinos and Murphys together for one last pull. We might still be 6 games out with 6 to go at that point, but dammit if we're not going to believe against all reason. We might just reclaim the old Sox mantle - baseball's Knights of Faith.

It's Clay's World and We're All Just Living in it...

Clay Buchholz's season of dominance kept chugging along today. Another ho-hum outing of keeping a powerful lineup off the scoreboard. It's just Buchh being Buchh.

And another reason to keep a small bit of playoff hope for these Red Sox.

A weekend family wedding kept me away from the games, but it's nice to know that I have nothing to really worry about when Buchholz is on the bump.

Second in the AL with 15 wins, leading the league with an unreal 2.26 ERA, and STILL under the radar. I don't get it, but I'll certainly take it.

I'm lucky enough to have money seats to tomorrow's game, right on the first base line.....and with my luck it'll rain on me the entire time. Regardless, I'm just hopeful they can get the game in, the Sox can get on a run, and Heidi is close by.

....an open bar wedding means I desperately need sleep. Go Sox

Beckett Can't Get The Sox Over the Hump

(I hear ya Tito, loud and clear)

I'm not saying he pitched poorly, but he certainly continues to fail in rising to the occasion. Things were going well for a bit, but then Josh Beckett let up a three run tater to Godzilla and the Sox never had a chance after that.

I'm not going to rant and rage about Beckett's inconsistency, lack of ace-like stuff, or ability to dominate important games throughout the year (..or did i just do that?). I will however say that having Josh Beckett (on the Red Sox and/or on your Fantasy team) is like having a hot ex girlfriend. She was great for a while, but you don't trust her anymore, you want nothing to do with her, but deep down, you know she's still got "it" somewhere, and you can't help but stay interested.

This is by no means directly applicable to me, I just watch a lot of Entourage.

Either way, with the Rays losing late night, the Sox missed yet another chance to gain ground in the Wild Card race......a "race" that is becoming more and more one sided.

You're Kililng Us Pap!

We here at ITM are too angry to submit a real post right now. Safe to say people are ducking me in the hallways after that BS performance from someone who is supposed to be an elite closer in the league.

Joe Murph and I were all ready to blog about Jed Lowrie's studliness and my borderline creepy man love with Salty.

Way to ruin it Pap, way to ruin it for everyone.

Rays are idle, Yanks are playing a tough Texas team tonight.....biggest loss of the season.

Also, you can stop asking to be the highest paid closer in the league now, you shouldn't sniff anywhere close to that level of money at this point. Lastly - how symbolic was the Tito taking out Pap and putting in Bard? Can't fault Bard for giving up a sac fly considering he inherited a piece of crap.

Yo, Rocco! He's Back - Again - But Is This Photo Real Life?

Rocco Baldelli is back! but tell me, is this photo real life? Nothing about this picture says a 28 year old Italian American with great athletic talent who once drew comparisons to Joe DiMaggio.

Seriously, what's the deal with the sketchy porn star stache??? Did he lose a bet? Has he lost his vision as a result of his case of mono?

Joe Murph just commented that he looks like a character from "Gangs of New York". True story, he looks more like defeated 35 + league softball player than anything else.

He almost looks like mentally challenged David Arquette.

But seriously Rocco, buona fortuna. Me, and the entire state of Rhode Island, are rooting for ya.

Just make sure the Sox pass you guys for the wild card.

Sox-Angels Preview

Okay, so that title's not entirely accurate. It's more of an ITM anxiety preview. I'm worried. I'm sitting here with a glass of whiskey neat - what should be a warm treat on a crisp October night. But undeniably, this is just medicine for my nerves. There's nothing pleasurable or autumnal or old-fashioned about this drink. It might as well be robitussin going down my throat.

Were you aware that the Angels hit 15 points better than the Red Sox, with a league-leading .285? Or that they had as many hits as the Yankees - over a hundred more than the Red Sox? That they actually were right around the league average in walks, something the old Angels never even approached? Or how about that they actually struck out fewer times than the Sox? I used to calm myself by noting that they were the free-swinging Angels, a strategy that never worked in the cool twilights of October. That was then. Now I'm looking at pregame clips of Bobby Abreu. The man travels between Venezuela and the U.S. on an ocean liner, that's how patient he is!

But we've got Jon Lester and Josh Beckett and a hell of a bullpen. I try to tell myself that a few times every minute. And we've got J.D. Drew. Don't ask me how, but I've convinced myself that he's gonna be the hero this series. It must be the whiskey writing.

I'm not sure how many more Octobers I can take. I profess to love all these chilly thrills, but really, I'm sort of a dog-days kind of guy. I like the slow pace of baseball. The oh-well-there's-always-tomorrow attitude. The statistical evening out. These games count. How am I supposed to handle that?

I looked to my ITM-comrades earlier today for the answer to that question, but instead we ended up sending this link back and forth:

I'd say that about sums it up. It's gonna be a long ALDS.

Doing it with Style

So they're in. After 5 straight losses (that last one is on Vicino) and a week of pitching concerns, the Sox clinched a playoff spot after a 5-2 Rangers loss. Which means baseball, truly the sport of averages, of evening out, will once again, as though 162 games were just meaningless forms, pit the Angels against the Sox to kick off October.

And I have to say, I might be going against the tide a bit here, but I like the way the Sox did it. I think the only way to describe them right now is to say they're playing with a sense of aristocratic ease.

Think about it. First, they allow others to do the work. They hardly lifted a finger the last week. I can say that for certain since I was about twenty yards away from them on Sunday, the only really close game of this stretch, and I'll bet you've never seen quite so many yawns out of a professional dugout. They sort of finished off this season like a British lord, stretched on a divan in a silk robe, with a snifter of brandy, watching the servants flit about in anticipation of a fox hunt or something. I liked it.

Second, they still got some style points. Last night in the 8th, they gave you a bit of flash, reminding you what pretty baseball they can play. But they made their point. To have actually won the game would have been ostentatious. It's like Cassius Clay knocking out Sonny Liston. That big bear of a man was swirling down toward the mat and Clay had his fist raised and could have pounded him into oblivion at any moment in that sequence, but it would have been superfluous, and for that reason philistine. He compared brushes to paint strokes. The Sox already had their 2009 masterpiece complete. No need to ruin it with a victory.

So I'm gonna stick with my gut on this one: the Sox are the class of the 2009 season. They do what's necessary, and they do it with a sense of aristocratic ease. And if they don't watch the hell out, they could get smacked with the business side of a proletarian revolution starting real soon.

My Bad

Let it be known throughout Red Sox Nation, tonight's terrible loss is on me, I take complete blame.

I had to do it, had to point out how unhittable Clay Buchholz has been, I believed I even used the phrase "Grienkie-like". I should have known better. Any Red Sox fan knows not to give a player, or their team too much credit, for fear of things getting screwed up...but I must not have listened well enough.

Clay Buchholz got absolutely shelled tonight. I'm pretty sure one of Toronto's taters actually hit my apartment building. Every single out was loud from a Jays team that is bashing the ball like the 2008 ALCS Rays all of sudden. Buchholz's velocity seemed down from the beginning, and all of his breaking stuff was catching too much of the plate. None of that mattered, after reading my previous ITM post calling him the second half team MVP, he never had a chance.

One bad start certainly doesn't label Buchholz as unreliable come playoff time, but it continues a concerning trend surrounding the Sox front line pitchers.

The Sox have now lost 5 straight while defining the term "backing into the playoffs". I almost hope the Rangers win later on tonight, so the Sox can earn it on their home field tomorrow night.

Sleep well Red Sox Nation, sleep well.

Don't Look Now...

The Red Sox pitching staff is shaping into playoff form at the exact right time, meanwhile, the Yankees are struggling to find playoff-ready pitchers.

The Sox won again today, 9-3 over the god-awful Orioles. Dice-K continued his journey back to 2007 form with a strong outing. Meanwhile, on the West coast, the Yanks got pummelled by Seattle 7-1. The Joba experiment was dealt another blow today as the hurler was shelled for 7 earned runs over just three innings.

So don't look now, but the Red Sox are arguably the hottest team in baseball, the AL Wildcard is in the bag, and the Yanks are struggling to find any consistency. As a result, the Sox sit only 4 games back in the loss column. With the Yanks moving on to face the Angels in So Cal, and the Sox still on their schedule for three games this upcoming weekend, the possibility is there....I'm not expecting it....but, I'm just saying, it's there.

Now I've had multiple conversations with the other ITM writers about the AL East, and they continue to tell me to calm down, we don't need the division, let's get our pitching in order. And while I'm in agreement with them, there is a big part of me that still wants the East, not at the expense of our playoff potential, but still, I want it. I'm just saying...

Late September, Sox Win, Life Good

A good start to a long trip. Those first few miles of highway always seem to set the tone, and the Sox put them happily in the rearview with an efficient 3-1 win. Young Buchholz continued his progress, improving to 6-3 on the season, going six strong and giving up only 5 hits and one run, a hanging change to Luke "I've hit how many home runs?" Scott. Tonight marked Buchh's fourth win in five tries. During that stretch of five games, he's thrown 34 and 1/3 innings and given up only 6 earned runs. If that's not a case for the third playoff start, I don't know what is.

The Sox just seem to click in Baltimore - despite lingering under .500 on the road, they're 6 for 7 at the Inner Harbor. Tonight they only got three runs on the board, but they pieced together eleven hits and seemed in control on offense throughout the night. No surprise that it happened in Baltimore - Camden has uncrowned Coors Field this season for the highest stadium batting average, coming in at a cool .288 (Angels Stadium is 2nd at .282, followed by Kauffman and Coors tied at .277).

Jacoby and Kotchman provided much of the evening's firepower, along with a home run from Jason Bay, who swung his bat like it was a hot potato. Seriously, one second it was on his shoulder, the next it was halfway flung to the dugout and the ball was sailing into the bleachers. (A personal aside - I've watched many games from the Camden bleachers, but by far the best moment was when I offered my then-girlfriend to warming reliever Rich Garces, if only he would get three outs. El Guapo, as only El Guapo could, looked her over, opened the gate, turned back, shrugged, and hollered "okay." I rushed her to the train after, looking over my shoulder all that week.) Bay later left the game with flu-like symptoms, meaning no more crab cakes before tomorrow's games.

All in all another chilly victory. Someone should measure the correlation between cool-evening baseball and life happiness. Right now I'm thinking the numbers are gonna be off the charts. Another month or so of this and I might just be ready for the first three quarters of Patriots football and some Rasheed Wallace antics. I'll be a calm man. Autumn baseball is just good for the soul.

The Dominance Continues....

Anyone who watched the game tonight knows one thing for sure, the Halos are cursed. There is simply no other way to explain it. They just can't beat the Red Sox, especially at Fenway, it's jut not their destiny.

The Sox did everything in their power to lose tonight's game, instead, Anaheim (and the umpires) gave it right back to them, allowing two separate comebacks that had me screaming like a 12 year old girl.

First the Pats on Monday night, and now the Sox, someone is surely on Boston's side as we've pulled off getting W's in games we had no reason winning.

Anaheim fans have every reason to be upset, the ball 4 call to Nick Green was undoubtedly a strike, especially considering the situation. Name me one other time in recent memory when an ump hasn't rung up a guy to end a game on a pitch that close? Perhaps the ump fell to the pressure of 38,000 screaming Red Sox fans, either way, the Angels just can't close out the Sox.

I'm wondering if Anaheim will even bother showing up against Boston if the standings hold and they meet in the ALDS (totally kidding here, but you can't help but think we're totally in their heads).

So the Red Sox technically now own the 2nd best record in baseball, with only 58 losses. They've rolled off 7 straight wins at the perfect time and have rendered the faltering Rangers effectively insignificant. All that makes it easy to go to bed with a smile on my face tonight

5 Innings, a W, and a Reminder

If you take a read through the Boston media after last night's 5 inning, rain-soaked victory, you would think Josh Beckett tossed a complete game 1 hitter, striking out 14. While I'm excited about Beckett's improved performance, I'm not ready to label him "back". In fact, in my opinion, the biggest takeaway from last night's game may not have even been Beckett.....in my mind, it was Gonzo....and his reminder to his all.

The defensive wizz at short stop continues to rake in a Boston uniform....hitting about .100 points higher than any Boston short stop in recent memory. Currently, he's hitting .295 with the Sox, has smashed 4 taters (one more than he had all season with the Reds), and knocked in 11 runs from the number 9 spot in the order. No longer do pitchers look at the bottom of this lineup and consider it comparable to one from the NL Central.....and absolutely none of it has to do with Tek.

Gonzo has deepened an already deep lineup, something he wasn't exactly brought in here to do. And oh yeah, he's solidified a defense that has been in the bottom third of the league all year.

That being said, I'm still extremely confused by the questions surrounding who will play short stop for the 2010 Red Sox. You have your answer, he's right in front of you.....pick up his 6 million dollar option, end the questions, and provide a little clarity for a 2010 team that currently has question marks all over the field (think about it, the only positional definites are Pedey, JD, and Jacoby.....especially since we don't know what position Youk or VMart will be playing).

Maybe it's all a ploy and they have every intention on signing Gonzo....or maybe management doesn't like the fact that he's had 88 at bats here in Boston and has yet to walk once. I can see Theo shaking his head from here.

The Sox padded their wild card lead to three games last night, the Yanks lost, there is a double header today, and it's the first Sunday of the NFL season......all good reasons for me not to do any homework today....

Go Sox.

Looking Ahead, Joba foils Sox again

A few quick, premature thoughts on playoff possibilities. More specifically, the pitching concerns that are getting harder and harder not to address.

Word coming out of New York today is that the Yankees currently favor moving Joba into the bullpen. For the remainder of the season and, potentially, the playoffs. After last night's game, Girardi told reporters: "There's two different divisional series. In one, you need three starters and in one you need four. I'll leave it at that." Joba's last start came on September 4th, where he was pulled after giving up three runs on six hits in three innings. The new Joba rules appear to restrict him to three or four innings per start. Presumably, if he starts in the playoffs, the gloves will come off. But based on his performance since the re-implementation of the Joba rules, it's unclear whether the Yankees want to rely on him for anything quite so important.

That's particularly significant to Sox fans for this reason - the Yankees look more and more to be a lock for the best record in the AL (5 games up on the Angels for the moment). Given the choice, it looks like they're going with the three-man rotation ALDS. That means that if the Sox can get the Wild Card, they'll be in the four-man rotation series. So we can all congratulate Clay Buchholz on locking down that third spot, but it's just not going to be that easy. The Sox will need a 4th starter for the playoffs.

Paul Byrd goes against the Orioles tonight. It's a start to watch, for both short and long-term reasons. Is he going to earn that fourth spot? Are the Sox going to look to Daisuke? A weakened Wakefield? More questions than answers, but more and more, it looks like New York is going to require that the Sox come up with a solution.

A Few Post Game Thoughts....

(AP photo)

Fortunately for me, because of a weekend wedding I missed the previous two Sox games, text messages from the other ITM writers assured me it was bad, real bad, so I guess I shouldn't complain. It felt like I hadn't watched a Sox game in a month, so today was a great afternoon of baseball. Here are some general takeaways:

-Jon Lester: The most consistent pitcher on the staff this year tossed another gem. After going 7 solid innings, not allowing a run and striking out 8, he admitted he didn't have his best stuff. "Today was a battle, not only with their good-hitting lineup, but with myself," he said. "I was trying to do maybe a little bit too much at times and not staying within myself. I got myself into some trouble, but made some pitches when I had to." Man, if I put my dirty clothes in the laundry basket my wife considers the day a success...talk about hard on himself.


-The Ace: I know calling Lester the "co-ace" or even the "current ace" is disrespectful to Beckett, but if he keeps giving up 8 taters a game, and the big lefty continues his domination, how much longer can that really be offensive? (My general conclusion is until Lester outperforms Beckett in the playoffs, but who knows).


-Pedroia and Papi: Unfortunately for me, I have both of these players on my fantasy team....and considering I was fighting for a playoff spot this week, they officially sank my battleship. Pedey made an unbelievable play in the field early on today, but neither the big lefty, or the tiny righty have been able to get anything going at the plate. Good thing for them, Jacoby and V-Mart have picked up the slack.


-Speaking of V-Mart.....Are any of his hits ever of the insignificant variety? Joe Murph and I were talking about it the other day, every time the Sox are in need of a timely hit, V-Mart seems to be walking up to the plate, and he gets it done. Man love.


-Alex Rios: It's been tough to figure out the Whitesox and their recent moves...but a real disappointment has to be Alex Rios. Granted, he has been having a down season all year, but there were a lot of people out there who expected a change of scenery would jump start Rios and his quiet bat. That certainly hasn't been the case however as he has gone 4-for-46 over his last 12 games and continues to bat in the 8th spot with an average below .250. (ITM note: again, unfortunately for me, he is on my fantasy team, not a starter, but on the team nonetheless...it's bad for the "Roger Dorn's Revenge" clubhouse).


-The Wildcard: The Rangers can't seem to solve the Orioles, losing again today and sliding 3 games behind the Sox in the wildcard standings. There is something mentally comforting about being 3 games up on a team instead of 2, I'm not sure what it is, but it's a big number for me. And you can forget about the Rays, they're out the picture, especially with their difficult upcoming schedule. Joe Maddan can die his hair fluorescent green if he wants, I'm calling it, they're donski.



And oh yeah, the Yanks lost today too. Good day all around. Go Sox.

Sox set the tone....and don't allow a SB?

Just a quick morning post about something I didn't pick up on after last night's game....stolen bases. Tampa, who was dominated by both Jacoby's defense and Papelpon's fastball in the late innings, failed to steal a base against the Sox last night.

This has to be a first right? I mean, they stole like 23 bases against us in a game earlier this year didn't they? Maybe that by itself is the immediate impact of getting rid of Brad Penny. Thanks Brad, but if you start throwing gems and holding runners on in San Fran, I'm going to bash you.

Not only did the Rays not steal a base, but their fans didn't turn out for the most important game of the year for Tampa thus far. Only a little over 17 thousand decided to go and watch a great baseball game. No wonder why they shipped Kazmir out of town, they'll need to start charging 20 bucks a beer to keep their 65 million dollar payroll at this rate. The kids go back to school and no one shows up, simple as that (then again the Rays are 12th in the AL in attendance anyways).

The Sox turn to Beckett tonight in what is a must win game for Tampa. With Papelbon and Wagner both likely unavailiable tonight, the ace will need to go deep into the game.

So the Sox have set the tone. Tito showed last night, by going to Papelbon for a 6 out save (something he's never done), that he wants to eliminate the Rays in this series. Maybe a few stolen bases and a thousand more fans will keep the Tampa's season alive tonight.

Autumn Leaves

The Red Sox next game will be played in September. The Red Sox next game will be played in September. A phrase so nice I typed it twice. But like every year, a little frightening, too. September is when you want no more question marks, but inevitably you find them at every turn. We're not in it alone. The Yanks don't know what to do with Joba. The Rays are trading up aces and bringing up colts. The Rangers are wondering if their pitching can keep going this good. But the Sox have their own set of worries. Unfortunately, it's in the area that you really, really don't want to have to worry about this time of year - starting pitching.

Perhaps the Sox troubles aren't as bad as we think. The five-man rotation only needs to survive maybe four more passes until it can be chiseled down. But those four-passes are all important, and we're currently coming up at least two short. At least, I say, because while Buchholz was a magician against Toronto, he isn't up there as a sure thing. And Beckett is suddenly looking more than mortal.

That's all to say that this is going to be one hell of a meaningful road-trip. A make or break road-trip, really. The Sox kick off September with three in Tampa Bay and another four-setter at Chicago. After that, they have only one road swing left on the season. That's right, we're talking 'last of the seasons' now. And while that trip will involve a brutal finish in New York, it begins in Kansas City and goes on to Baltimore. So if the Sox can stay hot against the Rays and White Sox, and if they get a couple quality starts out of someone not named Beckett and Lester, we might start to talk realistically about the prospect of the proper fall baseball to come.

That means it's up to Paul Byrd - who was famously throwing batting-practice to twelve year olds a month ago - Tim Wakefield - who couldn't stand up after his return start - Daisuke Matsuzaka - who couldn't get through AA ball without giving up five runs in an inning - and Junichi Tazawa - a kid who was recently throwing in the Japanese Industrial League. The Sox probably only need one of them to really step up. And here's my handicap on it - Wakefield, Byrd, Matsuzaka, Tazawa. But here's my vote - Tazawa. Yeah he got hit pretty hard and likely he's got little chance of taking the fourth spot, but I can't help feeling the kid might be the answer. Pretty scary.

A final note in this Ode to Autumn, just to show you that we here at ITM aren't exclusively worry and negativity. Praise where praise is due. The Sox pulled it together on offense in August big time. They'd hit a collective .248 in July, with a .328 OBP and a .419 SLG, all numbers well below the AL average on the month. In August, the Sox cranked out a .274 average, with a .358 OBP and a whopping .494 SLG. At the beginning of the month, we were floundering, wondering where in the world four runs were ever going to come from. Then suddenly there was Victor, JD, and, of course, Ortiz. As has been pointed out here, if Papi replicates his numbers from the last three months (three months he's been doing it now), he'll finish the season with right around 30 HRs and 100 RBIs. I'm not saying it's gonna happen. I'm not saying JD will keep this up. I'm not saying Martinez will get a hit every time we need it. I'm just saying thank you, to them and to the front office, for righting the ship in August.

So there you have it: a quick preview. A whetting of the whistle. A flipping for real: hitting's up, pitching's down. The Sox are 3 games up, but questions abound. It's September baseball.

Is that you David?

For a second tonight, I was back in college...drinking beers on a Weds night, watching the Sox, screaming as David Ortiz hit a walk off homerun, and seeing Dennis Drinkwater (with a rocket up his ass) nearly in his car by the time the ball landed. Only it wasn't 2004, it's late August of 2009, the Sox are in the middle of a pennant race, and Ortiz is on fire.

The night belongs to Ortiz, but knuckleballer Tim Wakefield needs his fair share of credit. He threw 94 pitches, 73 for strikes, allowing just four hits and one run over seven innings (see how much he poured?). The potential number three starter in a hypothetical playoff series showed signs of a tight calf, but was still able to produce quality innings. In my opinion, the rotation clearly depends on consistency of Wake and Buchholz, we should consider Tazawa, Penny, Byrd, Bowden, etc, only as potential add ins in the revolving door that is the 5th starter....one that, if and when the Sox make the playoffs, won't see any playing time (or at least they better not).

As for Big Papi...don't look now, but he could somehow end up with close to 30 taters and over 100 RBI....how many of us thought that was even close to possible just a few short months ago when he was hitting -.007? Good for you Ortiz, PEDs or not, you're shoving it down the collective ITM throat. In addition, he's quietly creeping up the all time walk off homerun list with 10, with the all time leader having 12, that record could easily fall before Ortiz puts his eye drops down.

Most importantly, the Sox gained games on both the Rangers and the Rays tonight. Good night all around, hump day notwithstanding. Go Sox.

This Just In, Buchholz is not Playoff Ready

Blogging from the third base line at Fenway with T Murph. The game has required a post saying that Buchholz must look better on TV than from the stands. His body language has been comparable to a 13 year old girl who just got dumped via text.

7 runs over 4 and 2 thirds is Brad Penny material. Way to sink our optimistic battleship Buchholz, now members of the ITM staff need to pay for a few more 9 dollar beers as a result.

Not ready for a spot in the playoff rotation quite yet...so does that mean our hopes rest on a Dice-K return?

Go Sox.

To the Victor, Rangers Spoiled

Quite a finish to a big night. Couldn't have been stranger in the end, but boy did the Sox come up with a pivotal win. Victor Martinez was the hero of the night, with Jon Lester and David Ortiz not far behind.

Got to start off with the 9th. Wild. Frankie Francisco, who has emerged as the Rangers closer (with young gun Neftali Faliz nipping at his heels - we'll see this kid soon), came on in the 9th with a 4-2 lead, but Ortiz, who already had provided the Sox offense on the night, started it off with a double. Then the strangeness really began. Varitek - read that again, Varitek - beat out an infield single. Granted, it was the type of play that only Omar Vizquel could make close to begin with; and yes, Varitek was out. But still, the old man beat it out. Then Jacoby, pinch hitting for Nick Green (who's can't be feeling too good that the Sox pinch hit for him and traded for a new shortstop on the same day), knocked one up the middle - Francisco missed catching that by inches, inches. And so the game turned. Ortiz scored, and then things got really weird. Chris Woodward couldn't get down the bunt, so he seemed to decide that a strike out was best, not wanting to risk the double play. Then Tito sent out Clay Buchholz to pinch run for Varitek. Now I understand the thinking. I agreed with it when it was happening. Buchholz is an amazing athlete. He can easily dunk a basketball from a dead standstill. He runs a mean 40. But it sure looked like he hadn't run the bases in a good long while. Pedroia hit a rocket to left. Jacoby took off and waited on second base until seeing the ball hit the wall, then he bolted. Unfortunately, Clay was doing the Men in Black shuffle about two thirds of the way between second and third. He just didn't seem sure that Murphy hadn't caught the ball. After a near collision between Jacoby and Clay and a missed cutoff throw in from left, Clay finally got going, with a sort of flailing run and dive in home. It was a valiant effort. It was a heck of an exciting play. It was out by a couple yards. Kudos to the Michael Young on that throw home and kudos on the Teagarden tag. Kudos all around, since it didn't end up hurting the Sox.

(Quick pause - For the record, I was freaking out pretty good at this point. That play ran over and over, and I started to wonder how I was going to fall asleep any time in the next week. I just pictured that haunting the rest of the season then pushing into the winter. I kept repeating over and over, "Oh, baseball," trying to convince myself that it was all in the fun. But really, I was just freaking out and muttering like a madman. Then up came Victor Martinez, and the onslaught began.)

Martinez fought Francisco in an epic eight pitch at bat, ripping the final pitch down the right field line, scoring Jacoby and Pedey and giving the Sox the lead for good. A Jason Bay single and a J.D. Drew home run later, and the Sox were going into the bottom of the 9th with a 4 run lead and a raucous Arlington population that suddenly revealed itself as a Sox crowd. (Where did all those people come from? I have to say, I have my doubts as to their allegiances. The guy who caught the Michael Young homer in the first was wearing Sox gear, but changed intoa full Rangers outfit in about two minutes flat and then announced on the Texas broadcast that he was no longer a Red Sox fan. What the? I plan on messing with Texas the next time I get a chance.)

Papelbon got into relatively little trouble in the 9th and there it was. The first in a huge series. Lester was big on the night, buckling down and sweating through a hot August night in Texas. He only went 6 (relatively short compared to recent outings) but struck out 11. That gives him a gnarly 187 strikeouts in 159 innings this year.

So the Sox gained a game on both the Rangers and the Rays. And more importantly, they got a shot in the arm in the first game of what is going to no doubt be a brutal two week stretch. Let's hope that Oklahoma boy Brad Penny can give the Sox another good start tomorrow and get them rolling through this road swing. Way too early to start saying 'the Sox needed that one,' but it was awful tempting tonight, at least once it was all over. Oh, baseball.