5/23 @ Oakland Athletics

[Jayhawk Bill]

Time zone differences suck.

 

I remember, in a previous job, having to go frequently on the first morning flight from Washington Dulles to LAX, where I would get a rental car and drive first to morning meetings in San Pedro (just south of LA) and then to afternoon meetings in San Diego. Post 9/11, I had to be at Dulles around 4:45 AM Eastern Time, and my afternoon meetings would wrap up around 9:00 PM Eastern Time. That sucked.

 

Having a follow-on evening meeting where I had to hit Rich Harden's pitching would've sucked worse.

 

Boston plays in Oakland tonight, facing one of the best pitchers in the American League, Rich Harden. Harden is healthy; while that may be a rare situation, when he is healthy he's deadly effective. Facing tired Boston hitters will only tend to make him more dominating.

 

On the mound for Boston is Tim Wakefield. Wakefield hasn't pitched particularly well in Oakland over the course of his career, and the current A's lineup includes several guys who've hit Wakefield well. Mark Ellis returns to the lineup tonight: he's batted .455 career vs. Wakefield. Cust is .375; Sweeney is .333; Frank Thomas is .263 with 3 HR in just 19 AB.

 

There are dozens of reasons to expect that the Red Sox will struggle tonight in Oakland. There are three reasons for hope:

 

1) The Red Sox have been winning;

 

2) Oakland has been losing; and

 

3) Mojo.

 

Boston:

 

Tim Wakefield

RHP

(3-2) 4.33 ERA

 

Oakland:

 

Rich Harden

RHP

(2-0) 2.91 ERA

 

Current weather: 57 degrees, fair, wing blowing right to left at 8 mph.

 

DFWMM. :thumbsup:

[yeszir]

Keep the JHB momentum alive.

[ORS]

Having problems on the road? No worries, mate, just give this bloke a call.....

 

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/070615/action/roadwarrior_l.jpg

[Jayhawk Bill]

Having problems on the road? No worries, mate, just give this bloke a call.....

 

http://www.dvdtown.com/images/displayimage.php?id=6385

 

John Farrell in an odd leather outfit? :dunno:

[ORS]

John Farrell doesn't know where there's a rig that can haul that tanker.

[BoSox21]

geez, is Oakland gonna come to Boston at some point?

[TheKilo]

Rich Harden has made five starts including tonight, and three of them have been against the Red Sox.

 

Seriously, WTF?

[Jayhawk Bill]

The wind is now blowing out to left field at 14 mph.

[Jayhawk Bill]

Red Sox

 

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF

2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B

3. David Ortiz, DH

4. Manny Ramirez, LF

5. Mike Lowell, 3B

6. Kevin Youkilis, 1B

7. J.D. Drew, RF

8. Julio Lugo, SS

9. Kevin Cash, C

 

Tim Wakefield, SP

 

Athletics

 

1. Jack Hannahan, 3B

2. Bobby Crosby, SS

3. Jack Cust, LF

4. Frank Thomas, DH

5. Ryan Sweeney, CF

6. Emil Brown, RF

7. Mark Ellis, 2B

8. Daric Barton, 1B

9. Kurt Suzuki, C

 

Rich Harden, SP

[Jayhawk Bill]

Called strike three to Ellsbury was 2-3 inches outside the strike zone...let's see what Wakefield gets.

[The Dustball]

Ugh f***kkkkkkkkk 3-0 already. Luckily with Wake he has the ability to settle down and keep us in the game, let's hope it happens

[SchillingIsTheNatural]

Rich Harden looks awesome...this game might be trouble

[Jayhawk Bill]

While Harden has received no further charity, Wakefield has had four strikes called balls so far.

[The Dustball]

Pedroia with a homerun, too bad Wakefield couldn't pitch for s*** tonight.

[Beaneater]

Looks like we're gonna get our posteriors handed to us tonight. So let's break up the no-hitter and win the series. Oh, and win tonight if possible, of course, but them's pretty long odds right now.

 

EDIT: Pedroia HR while I typed so the ignominious threat of getting totally shut down is gone.

[Beaneater]

Did someone say something about the wind blowing out to LF? Anyone want to guess an over/under on HRs tonight?

[Beaneater]

It's time to play Strand-That-Leadoff-Runner-In-Scoring-Position!!!

 

/would like to be wrong

[Beaneater]

Jacoby Ellsbury is the mac da-- uh, I mean, he performed well in that situation.

[Beaneater]

Ellsbury caught stealing? What the heck is that?

 

And I am now officially declaring this GT dead. Time of death: 12:07 am. In lieu of flowers, a memorial gift may be made to Beaneater Global Services, Inc.

[dowling25]

Why is it that the Sox usually struggle on the west coast. I understand the pitching match up was against us in this one, but c'mon. Especially Manny....he's obviously pressured to get that 500th homer.

 

Hopefully better performance by Beckett tomorrow.

[BoSox21]

lol, a 19 post game thread

[Jayhawk Bill]

lol' date=' a 19 post game thread[/quote']

 

Hmmm...this is post #22.

 

Tim Wakefield threw 20 pitches other than knuckleballs last night by my count, 12 fastballs and eight curveballs. (I'm just checking the velocity log, and he had 12 pitches around 75 mph, 8 around 58 mph, and the rest around 67 mph.) That's a lot of "other" pitches for Wakefield, suggesting that either atmospheric conditions were bad for the knuckleball or that he was too tired to throw it correctly.

 

I'm going to take a short vacation from Talksox to recharge my mojo--week-long win streaks including a no-hitter are tough for a guy older than Mike Timlin.

 

I'll be back.

[yeszir]

Damn these 10 pm games