Youk Of The Nation

I was unaware until today that Youk is working for the Cubs as a scouting and player development consultant. That's cool.

Now a part of me is hoping he stops hitting so well.

After a sweep in which they scored at least 13 runs in all four games and hit 8 home runs, some people might expect a dialing down of the offense in a series against a slightly better team. I do not. Win.

I'm not sure what you were going for there, but it didn't work.

Little Papi

You should PM YZ directly rather than wait for him to see your post.

I'm not sure I'm okay with how cavalierly you are dismissing my Gamethread Mojo. It prevented the sweep at the hands of the Yankees, you should recall, and it also resulted in a complete game near-shutout.

I hate them because they keep winning.

Get ready for a sweep! I'd love to see another double-digit score, but really, just win.

I guess the Red Sox saw that they were leading in runs scored but last in HRs in the AL and said "we should do something about that". The last three days they have been knocking it out of the park all over the place. I just watched the video of that Hanley bomb, I'm pretty sure it punched a hole in the ozone layer.

Unfortunately most of the teams that are poor in attendance are also teams with a long history in MLB. Their fans, cities, and MLB itself would probably not take kindly to even the rumors of a move. Cleveland was mentioned, and Oakland and the White Sox are also near the bottom in attendance so far this season, as they were last season I believe. The A's haven't moved in decades and the White Sox have been in the same city for over a century. I just don't see either of them moving. So it comes back to Tampa Bay. Frankly, I'm astonished that they haven't moved. There have to be a half-dozen better places for an MLB team in the USA or Canada. Montreal, Las Vegas, maybe even one of the places that have an NFL or NBA team but no MLB team? They could even stay in the South. New Orleans, Nashville, Memphis. What about a Carolina team? The Panthers and Hurricanes do okay, I'm sure their fans would love an MLB team to root for.

Well, as I hoped, the Sox snapped their four-year May 9th losing streak. Now all that's left is to sweep these guys right out of Fenway Park. Win!

Thanks! As for the final two runs, Hembree gave up two doubles and a single in between the three outs.

More runs than we could ever Axford!

I miss him on the radio with Castiglione. Oddly, the new guy sometimes sounds exactly like him. Unfortunately, he is not like him at all. This guy has no emotion in his voice, he announces popouts and grand slams and everything in between in the same monotone most of us would use to read aloud a grocery list.

If he changes his mind about retiring, he has to do it publicly and soon. It would be hard even for a Red Sox fan to defend the douchiness of accepting a season's worth of farewell tour tributes and gifts and then turning around and saying "nah, I'm gonna play another year".

Ortiz really has a knack for driving the dagger in deeper. Man I love this guy, I am going to miss the hell out of him.

Well, I guess someone was listening.

WWJBJD? Kick ass, that's what.

Despite all of the 2004 magic, for me, the image that will always pop into my mind when someone says "David Ortiz" is Torii Hunter's legs pointing straight up and that Boston police officer throwing his hands up in celebration. I will also immediately recall Dave O'Brien on WEEI screaming "DAVID ORTIZ! DAVID ORTIZ! DAVID ORTIZ!" at the top of his lungs like a f***ing maniac.

I think both Florida teams should be moved. Attendance is awful for the Marlins. The only thing they have to argue against it is a new stadium, but what good is a new stadium with 40 thousand empty seats?

Yeah but three of those four years were basically giant losing streaks themselves, so it's not surprising.

So, just out of curiosity, since I was determined to start this Gamethread on my birthday, I looked up May 9th on BaseballReference.com, going back to my first year of watching it in 2002. 2002: Sox beat the A's 5-1 2003: Sox lose to the Twins 5-0 2004: Sox lose to the Royals 8-4 2005: Sox beat the A's 13-5 2006: Sox beat the Yankees 14-3 2007: Sox beat the Blue Jays 9-3 2008: Sox lose to the Twins 7-6 2009: Sox lose to the Rays 14-5 2010: Sox beat the Yankees 9-3 2011: Sox beat the Twins 2-1 2012: Sox lose to the Royals 4-3 2013: Sox lose to the Twins 5-3 2014: Sox lose to the Rangers 8-0 2015: Sox lose to the Jays 7-1 A lot of interesting stuff here, to me anyways. In the last 14 seasons they've beaten the A's twice already. They've beaten the Yankees twice. They've played the Twins four times on my birthday, way more than any other team, and only beaten them once. They're only 6-8 in those 14 seasons. And most interestingly to me, in 14 consecutive seasons my birthday has not fallen on an off day.

Let's hope good Clay shows up tonight.

According to MLB.com, tonight's starter for the Sox is still TBD. Doesn't matter, though. They're going to win. Win.