Beaneater

Ortiz must be thinking, "Hey, I'm supposed to be the one hitting the walk-off dongs, not just the little placeholder at first base." Seriously, though, I'm thrilled that we won the last two games, but when you're down one run in the ninth and Ortiz walks, as has happened the last two days, don't you put in a pinch runner? I mean, obviously it didn't matter in these cases since Ortiz can trot around the bases as well as anyone, but wouldn't you rather have Vazquez scoring from first on a double than Ortiz lumbering to third? All of this is rather nit-picky, though, eh? Nice work, Tek. And I'm sorry, Dotel, but we are absolutely your daddy. Foulke gets the win .

Holy freaking cow are you kidding me?

Millar gets another chance to be the 9th inning hero. If the Sox do come back, Foulke gets the win. That's just wrong, and it shows just how useful W-L records are for pitchers.

And it's still not over...

Wow, this place is deserted. Our starters rock. I'm pretty sure you all knew that by now, but I think it bears repeating. Clement - 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R. Nasty. Foulke - also nasty, but in a different way. Holy cow - I was just about to say that he made things really interesting but got the job done, and then he gives up a homer to give the A's the lead. That is totally ridiculous. 0.2 IP, 3 H, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 BB, 4 R. GRRRRRR!!!!

He loses the game with his glove and wins it with the bat. If this means Millar has finally started hitting, the pitchers of the AL are toast, at least for a while. Anyone rememer the tear he went on last year after the All-Star break? Nice win - studly pitching from all, including Embree .

6 IP for Arroyo and he's given up one stinking single. This guy is everyone's daddy.

Post #13 is a good summary. In other news, the entire AL East won today. The Orioles and Devil Rays even beat good teams (Twins and Chi-Sox, respectively). Not sure what that means, but it's a nice factoid.

Oh, and before I forget, it's notable that Oakland actually outscored us in the earned runs category. NINE unearned runs - that is truly pathetic (and props to the Sox' batters who took advantage of the extra outs).

Yeah, has anyone else noticed that Damon is doing pretty well right now?

Re: M's pitcher Putz. Oh, well, that makes it a lot better . Here's something that took place in the bottom of the 10th in the Yankees game. With a runner on first and no one out... R.Cano grounded into fielder's choice, left fielder C.Thomas to second baseman K.Ginter, R.Cano to first, T.Martinez out. [Copied from SI's website.] Can anyone tell me what happened here? How the heck does the LF throw someone out at second? Is Martinez really that slow? Did anyone see it?

Strangest thing to happen yet tonight - Embree just had a 1-2-3 inning! Clement: 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER. Daaaaaaang. Our pitchers are getting uppity recently. In other news, a guy named Putz is pitching for the M's. I know that it's stupid to make fun of somebody because of their name. I have a pretty silly last name myself, but as I recall I was born with it and it pretty much stuck. But you have to admit that the last name Putz is pretty bad.

This game is turning into a rather vicious beatdown. 7-0 after 4. (I'd prefer 7-0 after 8, though). In other news, the Mariners' DH is batting .188. That seems indicative of some rather serious problems, no?

To answer my own question, yes. Yes, it would.

I'll take the blame for the HR if I can also take credit for 8 IP, 3 H, 1 R . Daaaaaaang, that was awesome. Oh, and we won, too (thanks Papi!).

Dang! I knew it! I'm setting myself up to be the heel of the talksox world!

No-no through 6. Now we just need to start hitting a little ourselves.

No-hitter through 5, though I'm sure I'm not supposed to mention that. Feels pretty cool to quote myself, too.

Bronson looks pretty dang good through 3. Anybody know why Rent got started at SS and then yanked before his first at-bat? Did he get injured or something?

It feels strange to say, "Thank goodness we've got Arroyo back on the mound." But there it is. In other thoughts, wouldn't it be a beautiful thing if both the Yanks and the Rays were 11-18 after today? I'm not sure NYY fans could handle being tied for last.

Winning is nice. We're now in 2nd place in the East (percentage points ahead of Toronto). 2nd place is not where we want to be of course, but it's not terrible for now. With Schilling, Miller, and Wells back, we'll look pretty good. (Just don't take Arroyo out of the rotation, OK, Tito?) We'll look even better when our 3-4-5 batters aren't all hovering around .250. Yanks are 7.5 games out of first. Yes, it's early, and yes, they will probably shape up (or buy some talent). All that means is that we should gloat even more now, while we can.

Yanks just lost. I know, the standings tell me that I should have been rooting for the Yanks to beat Toronto, but I can't bring myself to do that. Were any of you rooting for NYY as you should logically have been? /crickets/ I didn't think so.

Why isn't Renteria batting 9th... ..or 10th?

2 singles, a walk, and three more singles to start off the 8th. Nice. I think Youk is making a bid for a starting position - 3 for 4, two singles and a double, 2 RBI.

OK, just did a little stat-diving. Bellhorn:1610 career AB's and 544 career K's = 33.8% K's in his career. Youk: 210 career AB's and 46 career K's = 21.9% K's in his career. Just for kicks I looked up Vazquez, too. He's got a career .342 slugging average, so I think that's all we need to say about him. (Youk's is .414; Bellhorn's is .410. Youk's OPS is .785. Bellhorn's is .763, so they're not all that different there.). Bellhorn has pop, but so does Youk. I'm sure all of you realize this, but I'll say it anyway. Bellhorn strikes out more than 1 out of every 3 AB's over his whole career. Just let that sink in. Youk doesn't have enough career AB's to make any sort of sweeping judgments, but that in itself is a good thing -- he can get better (his BB/K ratio shows that he's already pretty competent with the bat, and he can develop more power as he goes [hopefully without 'roids]). But Bellhorn is as good as he's ever going to get. As far as Youk at 2B goes, I think of him as being a little immobile for a 2B, no? But I guess it's worth a try. How is Youk defensively at 3B - I've never heard anything about that. If Youk can play a passable 3B and Mueller can play 2B, I think we've got a winning combo. That makes our infield seem a little bit more potent.