Thursday, July 29, 2010

Beckett: Gets the Win!

I don't know who is more excited about that win yesterday, me or Josh Beckett. My guess is probably me. After watching Josh for the last four seasons, I don't really thinks he gets excited about too much. And you know what? I'm still waiting for that jig he promised to do if the Sox won the WS in 2007. Did that happen and I just missed it? If so, does someone have a video?

And if not, someone grab a pistol and we'll make him dance.

I kid, of course. I don't know how to shoot a pistol, and I definitely wouldn't practice by shooting at the feet of someone who owns his own hunting ranch. THAT would be ridiculous. Back to my point... I'm shameless in my adoration for certain players, and Beckett is just one of those guys. His winning makes me happy. It brightens my day. I'm sure it makes him less neutral than normal, but he's probably focused more on the big picture than I am right now. As sad as this sounds, knowing that Josh just got his second win of the season makes me happy. On top of his second win, he earned the sweep. I do love sweeps, and I'm sure the Sox do, too. After that grim performance in Seattle, we sure needed that.

It's not really going to get any easier, though, so I hope that Munchkin heals up and Varitek comes back strong, and maybe, JUST MAYBE, we'll have an actual outfield someday.

I'm not really in the mood to rehash the entire game, but if almost all my love goes to Beckett for his performance in the game, the rest of it goes to Scutaro for allowing his performance to not be wasted. Now, I really hope the Red Sox are paying attention, because this is incredibly important: When you all are batting with the bases loaded, grand slams are a good thing. I know that grounding out weakly or flying out to shallow center have been the preferred results over the course of the road trip (and let's face it, the season... or at least that's how it seems), but I really am tired of squandering bases loaded situations, so perhaps we can do more grand slamming and less grounding out. Ok? Awesome!

Just out of my own curiosity, I am going to look up the team numbers with bases loaded this season. If you hear me weeping, you'll know why. Wait for it...

::Sob:: Ok... so, cumulatively, the Sox have seen a bases loaded situation 110 times this season. Seems like a lot, doesn't it? I guess it's not really, but it seems that way. In those 110 plate appearances, they've come away with 21 hits and seven walks. 76 runs have been scored. The Sox have recorded three grand slams (assuming that baseball-reference has already updated since yesterday's game). The frightening thing to me is that there's only a .001% difference between their batting average with bases loaded (.223) and their batting average on balls in play with the bases loaded (.222). Does this mean that we've been unbelievably unlucky this year or that we just aren't putting good swings on the ball? I don't even want to guess.

It doesn't matter. We got a win. But there will be baseballessness in my life today as the boys travel back from the west coast, so I guess I'm going to have to find something else to do with my time. Oh, I know! I'll catch up on the sleep I've been deprived over the last week and a half. Good plan. Goodnight all!

No comments: