Beaneater

Dave Roberts has gigantic cojones.

No, Yeszir, if they win they salvage a tiny, microscopic bit of dignity. And incidentally they keep their tiny, microscopic chances alive. But either one would be sufficient reason to win.

What kind of odds do think Vegas would have given me on this proposition: The Red Sox' best starter in the ALCS will be Derek Lowe. Well, it's a bit subjective so maybe they wouldn't have gone for it, but...

Well, at least one hopelessly biased person agrees with me!

I should have said that 2 runs were attributable to that bad call. Sheffield should have been K'd for the second out, then (assuming that all else remains equal) Matsui pops out for out #3 and Williams does not hit the 2-run double. Makes no difference in the final analysis though, except that psychologically it would have been different to go into the 9th down 1 instead of 3.

Call me crazy, but I'm not that depressed by this. This whole game was disastrous from the get-go -- Mussina was incandescent, Schilling was clearly not all there, eveything that could have gone wrong did through 6 1/2, and we still got within one swing of tying the game in the 8th and the 9th. (Indeed, in the 8th we got within about 5 feet of tying the game.) They slapped us around like the proverbial red-headed stepchild and we still crawled back in it. I know, I know, this is the Red Sox we're talking about. They're capable of repeated meltdowns, as 85 years of history tell us. But seriously, is everything going to break the Yankees' way for this whole series? What I saw tonight shows me that in order to beat us, the Yankees need 1) an insane pitching performance and 2) a titanic Red Sox collapse (a la Schilling). That is not going to happen every game. Afterthought: Did anyone else notice that the strike zone was smaller when the Yankees were batting? Sheffield got 4-5 strikes at least twice, and there were some questionable strikes called against the Sox (questionable enough that even the Fox crew questioned them). I realize that I am hopelessly biased, so I'm calling on some of you hopelessly biased people to confirm or disprove my idea. Not that I'm saying that we would have won with a better strike zone -- only 1 run that I recall was directly attributable to a bad call (Sheffield should have been punched out in the 8th, perfect pitch from Timlin that was somehow not called a strike, and he later came around to score). But it sure made me want to throw things at the TV (since the actual umpire was not within throwing range).

It's official. Whether we win this game or not, we have shown that we can spot the Yankees an 8-0 lead through 6.2 and still play them tough. This has totally deflated the momentum that the Yanks would have gotten from the arse-whooping that this game looked like early. Should be a fun series.

And another random note: Golden Sombrero for Bellhorn. Yet he drew two walks and scored (twice?). Question: Why do people pitch around Bellhorn when it's so painfully clear that he's likely to strike out if you throw strikes? Again, I know, I know, it takes two to walk and Bellhorn deserves credit for his patience. But the fact remains that you don't get a BB unless the pitcher throws at least 4 balls out of the strike zone. There are some weird dynamics here. Let's assume Bellhorn has a great eye. That must mean that he's useless hitting for contact, since he essentially doesn't swing at balls but often misses strikes. Is he just stuck on swing-for-the-fences mode? Strange. On the whole, though, I'll take 3 K's with 2 runs scored every game.

Whoah. That was intense. I have to say that I feel mostly relief -- I was tight after that 7th inning. Excellent finish by Manny Ortez there (or was it David Ramiriz?). What I really want to know is if anyone measured Glaus's job earlier in the game. That was the longest HR I have ever, ever seen. Someone in the Boston suburbs probably got a window smashed. And, to state the obvious, Arroyo dominated the Angels in a way that would have been embarrassing to see if I were an Anaheim fan. As it was, it was a thing of utmost beauty. OK, one mistake to Glaus, true -- but he made the Angels look baaaad inning after inning. It's obvious that all the teams that are left are very very good (they're in the postseason for a reason) -- but does any other team really want to face Schilling, Martinez, and Arroyo? I know, I know, no team really wants to face Santana and Radke, either, or Oswalt and Clemens. But this Red Sox team is a buzzsaw right now. The Angels found that out last time they were in Fenway, and they found it out again tonight. One rotation I'm not afraid of is the Yankees. But we'll just see how the chips fall. Outstanding work in Round 1, boys.

No one is here with me to exult in the fact that Cabrera just broke this game open. So I'll do the exulting for all of us. ......... There. :thumbsup:

Thank you, Tito. I knew the threat of my wrathful unkind words would persuade your dulled intellect. Nice work in the 8th, Sox pen.

Nice work, Petey. 3 runs and no extra-base hits through 7. Excellent. You're set up for the W. Now hit the showers. Personal message for Tito: if we see Petey come out of the dugout for the 8th, I will personally hunt you down and... say unkind words to you. OK, I won't really even do that. But seriously, we've seen enough of Petey in the 8th inning to know that it's a bad idea to try to squeeze even one more measly K out of that arm. Get Timlin in. That's an order.

Yep. We're at best 2 back with 4 to go after today. That's pretty much game-set-match. So... Go A's and/or Angels!

I don't know if you're trying not to jinx the team or something, Yeszir, but I can't agree with your assessment. After today, we could very realistically be 1 game out (or am I botching this elementary level math -- stranger things have happened). 1 game out with 4 to go, we're hot and they're hemorrhaging pitchers. Do I think we're going to win the East? Mmmmm... on balance... if I were a betting man... no, I guess not. But at this point it's not just pipe dreams to think that we might. Oh, and to make sure that I'm on topic -- go Sox! Pedro will settle down and pitch well -- not dominating but good enough to win.

Quite a lot of excellent relief there. D-Rays got, what, one baserunner in 6 innings?

Um... yes, it does appear that way. I'll tell you honestly that at one point I vaguely suspected Ortiz of using, uh, biochemical supplements. He did get bigger pretty fast. Now the truth is known. Look at those (relatively) skinny arms. And that gut. The answer is not BALCO, it's Busch. If this man can be one of the top 5 in the AL MVP race... well, it sure gives a guy hope, doesn't it?

Ladies and gentlemen, this man is a professional athlete.

I'm with you. Then again, it looks like the Sox bullpen is trying to blow another W for Schilling.

Anyone else notice that Roberts can hit? That's a very pleasant surprise.

Mmmm... Nice Belly.

I think the Sox are trying to break the record for most consecutive games with at least 1 inning with the bases loaded and 0 or 1 out without scoring. I know, I know, it doesn't happen every game, but it seems to happen frequently enough that I notice it. :shrug: I guess the solution is... ummm... uhhhh.... Pinch hit Pokey when the bases are loaded? He could hardly do worse.

It's at 5? Excellent, Smithers.

Nice work.

Mmmmm... a little overstatement there, yeszir, but this doesn't bode well. Oh well, looks like we need _another_ 9th inning comeback.

CrespoBlows -- Dang, as soon as I posted that, I knew that I had sunk down to that "I'm an interesting person" tone, where I drop a couple of little hints and hope that someone will think I'm cool enough to ask me a couple of questions. Sorry about that. It's ugly behavior :thumbdown: . To answer the question, I live in West Africa most of the time where I work as a missionary/linguist with a people group called the Aja -- about 700,000 people living in the countries of Togo and Benin. Now I'm in the States for a while, going back to school. So that's why I mentioned Africa and Greek (I'm studying Greek now since it's the original language of the New Testament). Anyway, now it's your turn to post something like, "Tonight's win reminds me of when I was orbiting the earth in the space shuttle, performing emergency kidney surgery on a fellow astronaut, and using my spare mental energy to calculate the world's highest prime number." Then we'll be even .