Been Waiting To Use This One: "Do You Hear That, Mr. Anderson? That's The Sound of Inevitability."

I think that may win the award for my longest post title yet, but I so needed to write it. I really did, especially when I learned that the Sox have sent Lars Anderson to Pawtucket. I didn't even intend to write a post today, seeing as how there was no game, but I got very excited at the thought of this. I like Lars. Watching him struggle kind of sucked, so I'm glad he got it back on track. Dude was nice enough to autograph my ticket when I went to the Sea Dogs game, so he'll have my loyalty forever.

It was inevitable, you know. Eventually he would turn it around and get back on track. I'm glad he's made it up to Pawtucket... er... actually, down to Pawtucket. Rhode Island still is south of Maine, correct? Hell, you know what I mean. Good for Lars! And good for me for being able to use Matrix quotes for moments like this! It's the little pleasures in life that get me through.

April is now over. My goal was 23 posts. I believe this is my 27th, so good job to me for turning around my laziness. Hopefully both Lars and myself continue to excel in the month of May. And yes, I did just claim to be excelling. Stop looking at me like that.

Eleven Strikeouts: Good Way To Get On Track, Right?

Let's hope so. I'm tempering my excitement, because Johnny had a few of these false starts last year when he pitched really well and then fell back into the pattern of suck. But even for the sake of tempered excitement, I'm not going to pretend that the game last night wasn't fun to watch. It really was. Jon was finally good. He wasn't great, because he was falling behind a lot of hitters and getting very high up in the count to too many people, so it was a battle. Battle he did, though. Seven innings of 1-hit baseball, 11 K's, and only 2 BB's makes for a good-looking pitching line. The ERA is still a little gross, at 4.71, but a few more good performances like that and he'll get it down. Yes. I do care about ERA. Call me crazy, but I'm not going to stop.

B-P closed out the game. Oki finally got a night off. He'll have tonight off, too, so maybe if we need him against the O's tomorrow, he'll be rested and good. B-P combined for 4 K's (3 of which came from Bard), 1 hit, and no drama. I like no drama. Then again, it would seem only natural that Bard would appreciate drama, but I'm glad he decided to go with another form of literature last night. Perhaps a sonnet? I don't know, sonnet 60 seems to sum up pitching changes well:

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end,
Each changing place with that which goes before
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

I can definitely say the game felt like it picked up pace towards the end after Bard changed place with he who went before. And for the record, that's the last time I'll be putting anything Shakespeare related on this blog. Because I do not like Shakespeare. But I felt that was appropriate. What? Don't look at me like that. Just because I was an English major as an undergrad doesn't mean I have to like him. I'd take Lord Byron over Willy any day.... but chances are, he'd be too busy being taken by just about everyone else.

Back on to the topic at hand. Ronald was a crucial piece of both of our runs last night. He scored the first run and drove in the second (6th and 7th innings respectively). Brett Cecil was also good yesterday. He wasn't as good as Jon, but Jon wasn't as good as Dahmer, so I guess we all have something to aspire to, huh? Hm.... actually, Jon WAS as good as Dahmer. Better even in some senses. He didn't pitch as long, but he gave up fewer hits and runs, and got more strikeouts. New best pitching performance of the week? I don't know yet.

The offense wasn't great, but I always like a well-pitched game over a high scoring game. Tek didn't have a hit, but he also avoided striking out... which, really, just makes me happy. VMart, on the other hand... all he did was make five outs. One strikeout, a line-out, a fly-out, and one GIDP. Victor has now grounded into EIGHT double plays this month. He's on pace for nearly 50 double plays this year, so he better pull his shit together, because that's not ok. I don't know what his deal is, but I'd rather see him strike out than knock a runner off base. Nothing kills a potential rally like a double play. C'mon, Victor... I'm looking for a reason to want you in the lineup. Give me one! Anything! I'm willing to work with you here. Also, our resident dyslexic has been getting himself on track, but I'd really like to see fewer strikeouts, so maybe we should work on that? Then again, if it comes down to a strikeout or a GIDP, just take the K and spare me the anguish. Other than that, I'm not going to complain about the offense because we won.

No, really. We swept a series. I swear I'm not making this up! We've won three games in a row. Heck, I would have been happy with just winning the series, but sweeping it makes me giddy! There was a lot of good baseball played up at the Rogers Centre in the last few days. We went mostly error-free, and the team looked like they were collectively ready to break out and get the season going right. Plus, we're up to .500! We haven't had a win the day before an off-day since April 4th. It's a good feeling going into a day off, knowing that atoning for the game the night before isn't neccessary. I almost forgot what this feels like.

So we look towards Friday night in Baltimore and John Lackey to keep the good vibes going. I think he'll be just fine. After all, he doesn't want to be shown up by the kids, right?

Mr. Awesome: Offense-Based Hero

Make no mistake, the real hero of the night was Dahmer. Eight innings and one ER. I can safely and confidently say that he provided the best starting pitching performance of the season thus far from the Sox rotation. And believe me, that's not something I readily admit to. While one performance does not an ace make, perhaps I'm ready to give the kid a little bit of credit. We needed that, and he was fantastic. Absolutely no complaints from a pitching standpoint in this game. Even Rambo had a nice, clean, drama-free inning to close it out. He stepped up. Sure, it was only one inning, but we didn't have any other arms available. He knew it was going to him, and he delivered. We can't overlook stuff like that, you know. There will be days when we need a good performance, and he won't deliver, and we'll be angry with him... so keep stuff like this in mind. In a one run game when no one else was available, he sealed up the win. Fantastic work, Dahmer and Rambo. Talk about an unlikely duo to be thanking on a baseball blog...

I know a majority of the game was tied, but I honestly felt like we were going to win this one. Our pitching was just too sharp. I didn't know who it would be, exactly, playing the role of the hero, but I knew it would be us. The second inning was incredibly amusing to me. I think Papi was 3-1, and Marcum had only thrown 26 pitches in the game. My logic dictates that if our pitchers are throwing less than 15 pitches per inning, that's fine. If the opposing pitcher is throwing less than 15 pitches per inning, that is not fine. I very nicely asked Papi to take at least five more pitches. Well, he took exactly five more pitches and added the extra bonus of getting on base. So, I tried again with Beltre. I asked for just a little tiny base hit. He obliged. I figured I would try again with Wolverine. Before I could figure out what I wanted from him, he was 0-2. I asked for four more pitches and a base hit. That's what I got (and I have witnesses proving that I actually did ask for these things). Sure enough, Papi came 'round to score and the game was tied. Sometimes, a 'please' takes you a long way. Most times it doesn't, but I'm glad it worked in the second inning of last night's game.

Let's see. Who else did a good job? Oh! Forgot to mention about Mikey's heroics. Let me start by saying the fact that Tito felt the need to pull Papi from the game made me sad, but ultimately I believe it was the right decision. Bases loaded, 2 outs in the eighth, Toronto brings in their closer. Maybe I missed a pitch, but I'm pretty sure he walked Mr. Awesome on four straight balls, bringing the winning run home. Isn't this the second game we've won with a bases-loaded walk? There had to have been another one. As usual, I don't care how it gets done, I'm just glad it got done.

This win brings us back up to .500 for the first time in seemingly forever. That's a good thing! It also provided us with a quick, relatively painless win that didn't embarrass and abuse our entire pitching staff. Two pitchers, only 128 pitches. Sure, Dahmer allowed 7 hits, but it's ok because he didn't panic about that. His lack of panic was more reassuring that anything. Gives me a little hope.

Yesterday, the Red Sox brought up Fabio Castro as a bullpen backup plan. All of our arms were tired. BOP was unavailable to pitch, and Atchinson had pitched quite a bit in the past few days, so they swapped Atchinson for Castro. And for a brief moment in time, Dustin Pedroia was not the shortest man on the team! They interviewed Scutaro in the pre-game, and he discussed being the judge of the contest with a laugh. The joy for Munchkin was short-lived, however, as after the game the Sox optioned Castro back to Pawtucket to make room for Alan Embree. Alan wanted to back in the big leagues by Friday, and the Sox obviously wanted to keep him. He seemed to be doing pretty good in Pawtucket, so hopefully his minor-league success will translate to being able to help out this taxed bullpen. Either way, welcome back to the big leagues, Alan.

And in my last bit o'info for the day... congratulations to the Celtics in advancing to the second round of the playoffs. I think they're on schedule to face the Cavs in the next round. If they do, that should be an interesting series. Guess we'll have to wait and see!

Manny Delcarmen: Now Our Best Pitcher

A week ago, I declared to some friends that Manny was not long for this team. But after last night's debacle, I am now declaring him safe. Two scoreless innings. It was brilliant and so very needed.

If you didn't watch last night's suck-fest, consider yourself lucky. There was a lot of suck on behalf of our pitchers. I don't even know if I can call them pitchers. Last night, Josh was a mere thrower. There was no pitching involved after the second inning. Which is funny, because he didn't last much past the second inning. And he still managed to give up eight runs. There are probably only a handful of people in the world who don't know Josh personally who are as big of fans of him as I am. Or maybe there are thousands. What do I know? I base my opinions off of information I have readily available to me. Anyway. While I didn't expect Beckett to have a great season, because it is an even-numbered year, I would like him to pull back on the suck just a little. Like, maybe he could not have an ERA over 7. Maybe he needs to set the damn example for the rest of our starters, being the official ace and all. NESN showed a breakdown of our starting rotation after the game last night. Let's just say this: It makes the Pirates pitching staff look pretty good right about now. Our starters... all five of them... have something like 2 wins combined. I get it; it's not all their fault. Offense and bullpen problems can lead to not getting wins. But pitching like garbage also leads to not getting wins. It all starts with Josh. He needs to be the first to pull his shit together, and then maybe the others will follow.

As far as the bullpen goes, Atchinson did well enough. No, he didn't do well, but he did well enough. Schoe... um... 1/3rd of an inning, 1 run allowed. Not good enough for me, but good enough to get that illusive "W," so who am I to complain? Oki... Jesus, Tito, give this dude a break. He didn't get a single out and still managed to give up two runs. THAT was ugly. That was Beckett bad. He's clearly exhausted. Bard.... meh. He was average, but I'm figuring he's just as exhausted as Oki. Paps, thankfully, was good and he didn't give us that one last heart attack at the end of the game. He'll never know how much I appreciated that. But Manny D... I'll tell ya, we needed that. We really did. So how does everyone thing Rambo felt? Being literally the only reliever that Tito did not use last night? Has to tell him something, I'd imagine.

Now, for the good part... the offense. We had offense! We had TONS of offense, finishing with 18 hits and 13 runs. My Captain... my dearest, darling Jason was able to hit TWICE with the bases loaded. There was a long period of time (think every year before right now) that Jason would see the bases loaded and panic, and more often than not strike out on a high fastball. Not last night. Last night, he knocked in his first four non-solo-home-run RBI's of the season, and finished the night with three hits. Sure, the two AB's that he didn't hit, he struck out, but I'm so incredibly happy with his performance. That's the kind of Captain we need. He was awesome. Maybe could have called a better game, but I'm just going to lay the blame solely on our pitching staff.

We ended up with five batters having three hits of the night. The only slot in our lineup that didn't have a hit was the number 8 spot. Bill Hall and Wolverine combined for 0 hits, 2 strikeouts, and one walk in five total AB's. You'll never hear me say this again, but Mikey Lowell was probably the biggest disappointment of the night. If he had just gotten one timely hit, this game wouldn't have come down to one run (at least I'm assuming it wouldn't). In six AB's, he got one hit and no RBI's. Mikey left eight men on base. Not that I think Papi would have done much better, but I'm sorry Mike, that wasn't good enough. Even JD ".182" Drew had an RBI. This team was 11 for 20with RISP... and... I'm not going to complain about the offense. It was there. It saved us.

Youk, of course, had to be the one to get hit by a pitch. He's ok, but why does everyone target Youk? It's the beard, isn't it? It's scary, and they just want to conquer their fears. Anyhow... 2 SB's for Munchkin (also one of the members of the 3-hit club). Munchkin, of course, was our little spark-plug. As usual. Without Pedroia, there is no game.

I don't know what else I can say about this game. From a pitching standpoint, it was downright horrifying. From an offense standpoint, no one should complain... except perhaps Blue Jays fans. But I'm not a Blue Jays fan, so I don't care.

Also, congratulations to the Bruins in advancing to the second round of the playoffs as a result of a very exciting game that was a great distraction for me while the Sox pitching staff was making me want to rip my hair out. Way to go!

Vomit: My Reaction To Tonight

On a night where Jason Varitek has four RBIs and was able to get hits with the bases loaded, you would think I'd be happy... but no. Beckett decided that he wants me to be bulimic, because his pitching made me lose my dinner.

I can't think of words bad enough to describe our pitching staff and outfield defense. I can't even invent enough vulgarities to make this ok. I am embarrassed for these pitchers. Not like they care, they're millionaires.

I'll have more to say tomorrow. I'm too busy throwing up right now. Josh ruined my night. Thanks a lot, Beckett. After the month of April, I would totally be justified in taking a hit out on our starters. Thank goodness Wake is in the pen now. He's safe.

Timmy Wakefield: Deserving of a Better Send-Off

As we all know, Timmy Wonderpitches, AKA Tim Wakefield, has temporarily lost his roster spot and is being shoved into the bullpen. The sentimental side of me thinks this is a horrible injustice, especially after such a well-pitched game on Sunday. But the world is not fair, and there is just no room for Timothy in the rotation right now. I don't doubt for a second that Tim will be back before we know it. He deserves to get those 18 wins that he needs, and the world should be perfect enough to give them to him.

So, about the game.... there's really not much positive to take away from it, but that's not how I roll. Sure, I succumb to moments of weakness where my bitching about the team comes on out, but I try to be a good soldier and be nice to the guys. It was an ugly 10-inning loss in which we saw the Sox go 6 for 18 with runners in scoring position. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but we've been having trouble getting hits with runners in scoring position. Weird. Thirteen hits and six runs, and we still couldn't fend off the O's. Maybe they were just so tired of losing that they decided to fight back for once. Or maybe our bullpen just gagged away the victory.

Tim deserved that win. Why Tito took him out with two outs in the 7th, I do not know. Tito has his reasons, and I'm sure he felt like it was his best move at the time. I really try very hard not second guess Tito. Oki came in and promptly gave up the tying runs. Okajima will hold the game more often than not, but he just furthers the point that our bullpen is a little scary even though it shouldn't be. And with the talent we have in there, it should not be scary. Maybe Timmy will give us some stability in that sense. I can hope, right? But it does look like Scott Atchinson is going to be hitting the road, so if he is indeed done in Boston, I wish him well.

Speaking of hitting the road... Alan Embree seems primed to hitch hike on out of Pawtucket. He wants a call up to the bigs, but it doesn't look like he's going to get it. Besides, Theo doesn't take kindly to ultimatums. Not that I approve of what Theo does, but even I know he won't respond to threats.

There's not really much I can say about the game that hasn't been said. It was ugly. We shouldn't have lost it, but we did, so we move on. As I type this, the Monday night game has already started. Yeah, I'm a tad behind. It's cool, I'll catch up.

I just really hate to see Tim Wakefield sad... and by all accounts, that's exactly what he is.

Lackey: Getting A Win

Another game that just wasn't pretty to watch. Lackey lasted 7 innings, but I wouldn't even dare venture to say that any of those innings were relaxing. He allowed 3 runs on ten (10!) hits, giving up 2 walks and getting 3 strikeouts. It's the Orioles. The Orioles probably hadn't had ten hits in all their other games for the entire week before this game. They ended up finishing the game with an absurd 17 hits, making our measley 9 hits look even more pathetic. Usually in a game where you have nine hits, you feel good about it. But when you get outhit, by almost double your hit total, by a team that only has two wins to call their own for the month of April, you start to wonder if perhaps the pride is unjustified. I don't know. All I know is that Lackey and Lester are both still sporting ERA's over 5. I don't care how discredited the good ol' ERA has become. It's still a big, garish number that you have to look at, and it still shows you on average how many runs you can expect your starter to surrender. We're almost at the point where the sample sizes are large enough to actually give you a decent indication of how our pitching is doing. They're, in a word, crappy. But there is room and time for improvement, so I'll just keep that with me and bury all of my hopes into it.

On the plus side, my darling Jason hit his fourth home run of the season. He's batting over .300 on the year. In 23 AB's, Jason has 7 hits. Four of them are home runs. All of those home runs are solo shots. What, no one can get on base in front of him? I know this pace isn't going to keep up, but it makes me really happy for right now. Any time I get to see Jason on my screen, I will refrain from complaining. And as much as I want to like Victor Martinez and I want him to succeed, I don't think he's going to be around for the long haul. The Red Sox are targeting catchers left and right. We need someone who can throw out base runners, and it's clear that Jason and Victor aren't big on that. Tek has allowed 11 SB's, and caught no one. Victor has allowed 27 SB's and caught 2 runners. 38 SB's off Red Sox catchers in APRIL! Ugh, that just gave me a stomach ache. Let's not think about that any more.

So the Sox put up 7 runs on three home runs. Tek's was obviously a solo shot. Scutaro got hold of a pitch for a three run blast in the 7th, and Youk followed up with his own three run shot in the same inning. We were a whole 2 for 4 with RISP. Doesn't exactly make you feel good knowing that all the offense came directly from home runs, but at the same time, I'll never complain about a home run. Wolverine did have an error in this game, but what's a Sox game with no errors by our defense? Boring, that's what it is!

Oh! That's right, I don't want to forget... a GIANT welcome back to Vantastic. He was dumped by the Pirates and picked back up by the Sox. When I tell you I love this kid, you can believe that I truly love him. I don't know what it is about itty bitty baby Sox outfielders, but I think I have a soft spot in my heart for them. It's fine. I'm happy that he's back, even if he didn't do much in terms of adding value to the ball club on Saturday night. He'll come in handy as CRW continues to recover from his fractured ribs. I know that Vantastic can field, at least. And every once in a while, he has been known to pop up with a much needed hit, so there's that. I love getting to welcome people back. Time to update the nickname list!

Then there's the bullpen. Oh, bullpen. I'll give them their dues. They were superb during the Rangers series. They went a good long while without allowing a run between them all. BOP was almost unhittable during that series. Unfortunately, starting Friday night, they were pretty damn hittable. In a total of two innings that the pen had to work, we had three relievers. Rambo actually took the biggest hit to his ERA, but Paps was the one that allowed the hits that caused those runs to score. There were five straight hits in the ninth. Schoe was great in the 2/3rds of an inning he was allowed to pitch. After getting the first out in the 9th, Rambo gave up a HR and a double and was lifted for Pap. Pap allowed the next three batters to reach on singles. I was ripping my hair out, as I'm sure you guessed. Finally, Farrell came out, smacked Paps in the head and told him to cut the shit*, after which he promptly and excruciatingly retired the next two batters via strikeout. Damage done, though, as two batters had already come around to score. I don't know what gets into Paps sometimes, but that many hits to the Orioles? Ugly. Just glad he got out of it.

*Disclaimer: This has never actually happened, but it's the only thing I want to see John Farrell do before he retires. Come on! It would be so damn funny! And probably effective!

So that was Saturday. Again, a win is a win. Doesn't matter if it's ugly. Unfortunately, ugly catches up with you eventually. When I can stomach it, I'll write about Sunday's game. It may take me until the start of tonight's game, but I'll do it. I promise! Have I ever lied to you? Sure I have, but you guys don't care. You're good troopers!