VA Sox Fan

From the Globe: Game time: 8:40 p.m. TV/Radio: NESN/WEEI. State of the Sox: The losses in the first two games of the series have dropped the Red Sox 2.5 games behind the Yankees, who are idle today. This is the third game of a six-game road trip. The team leaves for San Francisco after the game. Stop the skid: The Sox have not lost three straight since May 15-17 against the Tigers and Yankees. Another roll of the Dice: This will be the first start for Matsuzaka since he went on the disabled list without an injury. Matsuzaka felt stiff warming up on June 12 and was immediately put on the DL retroactive to June 8. Turns out he was fine and has been throwing since. Matsuzaka has been solid in his last four starts. going 3-1 with a 1.98 ERA. He will be facing the Rockies for the first time since Game 3 of the 2007 World Series at Coors Field. He allowed two runs on three hits over 5.2 innings in that game and contributed a two-run single in the third inning. Familiar foe: Hammel is 0-2 with a 5.50 ERA in eight career appearances against the Red Sox while pitching for the Rays from 2006-08. Here's how the Sox have fared against him: Scutaro 1-2 Pedroia 1-2 Ortiz 5-8 Youkilis 1-6 Martinez 0-4 Beltre 1-6 Cameron 2-7 McDonald 1-3 Good control: Sox pitchers have one walk in their last 22.1 innings. Good sticks, too: Sox pitchers have had 14 plate appearances in five interleague road games. They are 3 for 10 with four sacrifices. So half the time they have done something positive. That's pretty good for AL pitchers. Williams, Yaz, Rice and Nava: The rookie with the great backstory is 13 of 34 since he arrived with eight extra-base hits and 10 RBI in 10 games. He also has scored six runs. The Sox are 7-3 in the Nava Era. Double their pleasure: The Sox have at least one double in the last 12 games with a total of 34 over those dozen games. Through games played Wednesday, they have 178 doubles, 23 more than any other team. Plenty of production: The Sox lead the majors in runs scored (397) and OPS (.819). They're on a pace to score 881 runs, which would be nine more than last season. Jason Bay, by the way, hit two homers off CC Sabathia on May 23. He has hit one since and has four on the season. Red Sox with four or more home runs include Marco Scutaro, Darnell McDonald and Bill Hall. Hot hurlers: Ramon Ramirez has allowed one run in his last 6.2 innings and struck out six. ... Manny Delcarmen has thrown 5.1 scoreless innings in his last six appearances and struck out seven. Looking to connect: David Ortiz is hitless in his last 11 at-bats with five strikeouts. That's it from me today. Nick Cafardo is in Denver with the team and will have your updates the rest of the way. I'm headed to San Francisco tonight. Enjoy the game. ..........................

RED SOX (43-30) Marco Scutaro-SS Daniel Nava-LF Dustin Pedroia-2B David Ortiz-1B Adrian Beltre-3B Jason Varitek-C Mike Cameron-CF Josh Reddick-RF Daisuke Matsuzaka RHP (5-2, 4.59) Pitch well Dice-K, dazzle...uhhh....suprise us in a good way!

yeszir mojo will enable the Sox to avoid the sweep!!

My vote is for yeszir to start tonight's GT. Your mojo did not fail. The fact that you couldn't make 5 minutes available to do the GT on Saturday because of some lame reason was ....FAIL. :thumbsup:

The timetable on Beckett is lengthy Posted by Peter Abraham, Globe Staff June 24, 2010 12:45 PM Here's the big-name player the Red Sox are going to add to the roster right around the trade deadline: A righthanded pitcher named Josh Beckett. The Sox laid out the schedule for Beckett yesterday. He's going to throw a simulated game on Saturday and then face hitters on Thursday, July 1. That's a day off, so perhaps the Sox will import some hitters from the minors. From there, Beckett would start his five-day routine in the minors. Terry Francona said he would need at least three rehab starts, maybe four. So the rehab games would be July 6, July 11 and July 16. That would put him ready to join the Sox on or about July 21 or July 26 depending on whether he needs three or four outings in the minors. Barring some sort of change to that schedule, Beckett will have gone 63-68 days between major league starts. That's nearly 10 weeks, which seems like an awfully long time for a muscular problem in the back. The Sox and Beckett insist he had no structural damage. But you do have to wonder if there was something else going on. Very few teams are completely forthright when it comes to injuries. Regardless, if Beckett comes back healthy and is able to pitch like the player who command a $68 million extension in April, the Sox will have made a significant addition at the start of the pennant race. As for Jacoby Ellsbury, today marks two weeks since he left the team in Cleveland to be examined in Los Angeles. He remains at the Athletes' Performance center in Arizona and is scheduled to be evaluated at the end of this week. There are no indication when he will rejoin the team. But it seems unlikely it will be any time before the All-Star break given that he last played a baseball game on May 24 — exactly one month ago.

Rays won today NYY off today

For those who don't remember, db's son aka "Wonder Boy" was one of the babies that played Aaron on Lost. Kinda cool.

Hey! Long time no see. How's wonder boy etc?

For openers, what about the closer? Posted by Peter Abraham, Globe Staff June 24, 2010 09:45 AM Jason Giambi stuck that hanging splitter in the upper deck last night and 90 seconds later, the first e-mail arrived. "How long are they going to wait before making Bard the closer?" Jonathan Papelbon has blown exactly two saves since last July 30, so such panic is a little unwarranted. But those two were dramatic ones. Papelbon gave up two home runs against the Yankees on May 17 and two more last night. He has allowed six homers this season, one more than his previous high for an entire season. Papelbon allowed 21 home runs in his first 284 appearances in the majors. He has allowed five in he last 13. Papelbon also is averaging 7.5 strikeouts per nine innings, the lowest rate in his career since he averaged 9.0 as rookie in 2005. His four losses this year match the most he has ever had over an entire season. All bad signs. Come the winter, Theo Epstein probably will give serious consideration to the idea of trading him. But now is not the time to make a switch or make a trade. Daniel Bard hasn't even thrown 90 innings in the majors yet. He has a 5.59 ERA in 12 appearances against the Yankees, is prone to homers himself (9 over 87.1 innings) and when called up to be the closer in Cleveland earlier this month, had all sorts of issues. Papelbon has earned the right to try and get himself straight — at least through this season — and Bard deserves the right to further develop himself as a pitcher before being tossed in the fire. Beyond that, if Bard becomes the man for the 9th inning, who is throwing the 8th inning? Nobody on this staff as presently constituted. Bard looks every bit the kind of pitcher who can be a great closer ... but in 2011. For now, don't let one bad inning get you too riled up. What do you think? Is Papelbon still the man you want closing?

:lol: LMAO!! :lol: A minor error IMO. A rarity in your (or is you're? case. The nerve of the scholar. You could never disappoint me bro!

No crap genius. No one is Mo.

Glad I was asleep and missed Paps crappy crap. Let's avoid the sweep this evening please!

You know how it goes. Calling folks Nazi's is popular amongst some...... Nothing worse than referring to oneself in the 3rd person, so I just blow it off. What evs....zzzzzzzzzzz. Lackey was fine until the BOMB. Need our bats to kick in. Nice play Reddick!

I had a bad feeling last night when Victah grounded out w/ the bases loaded. Hoping our bats wake up tonight. Quit being so damn negative before the damn game even starts!

ROCKIES (37-33) Jonathan Herrera 2B Todd Helton 1B Carlos Gonzalez CF Brad Hawpe RF Seth Smith LF Miguel Olivo C Ian Stewart 3B Clint Barmes SS Ubaldo Jimenez RHP (13-1, 1.15).

More from the Globe: State of the Sox: The Red Sox have won six of their last seven games and start the day 1.5 games behind the Yankees, who are at Arizona tonight. Facing the best: There's a term for the kind of season the 26-year-old Jimenez is having: Insane. In 101.1 inings, he has allowed only 65 hits (three of them home runs) with 36 walks and 88 strikeouts. Lefties are hitting .206 against him and righthanders .117. With runners in scoring position, Jimenez is allowing a .147 batting average. The Sox have faced Jimenez once, in Game 2 of the 2007 World Series. He went 4.2 innings that day, allowing two runs on three hits and five walks. Counting that game, here is how the Red Sox hitters have fared against Jimenez: Cameron 1-8 Beltre 1-4 Lowell 1-2 Drew 1-2 Ortiz 0-2 Pedroia 0-2 Youkilis 0-2 McDonald 0-2 Varitek 0-2 Maybe there's a chance: Jimenez skipped the game yesterday because he wasn't feeling well. And his "worst" start of the season came against an American League East team, Toronto, on June 11 (6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 6 K). Jimenez also has a career ERA of 3.79 against the AL, compared to 3.32 against the NL. Unless this guy is 1968 Bob Gibson all over again, he's bound to mix in a stinker at some point. Maybe the Sox will be the team that gets to him. Lucky Lackey: The righthander has won eight games in spite of a 4.53 ERA and a 1.58 WHIP. He has been better of late, posting a 3.62 ERA in his last five starts. Lackey faced the Rockies once, in 2008, and allowed three earned runs over eight innings. Other stuff: Adrian Beltre (.398/.442/.706 at Coors Field in 242 career plate appearances) has hit safely in 11 straight games after going 2 for 3 last night. ... Not only does Mike Lowell rarely play, hes 5 of his last 40 when he does going back to May 4. ... Daniel Nava has reached base safely in all nine games he has played.

RED SOX (43-29) Marco Scutaro-SS Dustin Pedroia-2B Victor Martinez-C David Ortiz-1B Adrian Beltre-3B Daniel Nava-LF Josh Reddick-RF Darnell McDonald-CF John Lackey-P Lackey RHP (8-3, 4.53). My short lived mojo failed last night. I'll stick to posting the line ups for a while. WIN.

USA!!!!!

:thumbsup:

News and notes from Coors Field Posted by Nick Cafardo, Globe Staff June 22, 2010 04:41 PM We'll find out in a bit but Josh Reddick is in the lineup in rightfield, which can only mean J.D. Drew (hamstring) isn't quite ready. Don't know what the corresponding move is yet. The Sox also have to make room for Daisuke Matsuzaka for Thursday's start. Recently added reliever Robert Manuel may be involved in a roster move over the next couple of days. With no DH, Big Papi sits tonight against righthander Jhoulys Chacin. The Daniel Nava-MIke Cameron-Josh Reddick alignment is the 21st different outfield the Sox have used.

Game time: 8:40 p.m. TV/Radio: NESN/WEEI. State of the Sox: The Red Sox have won six straight, their longest streak of the season. They last won seven in a row from Sept. 8-16, 2009. The Sox and the Rays are a half-game behind the Yankees in the American League East. Back to Coors: The Sox are in Denver for the first time since the 2007 World Series when they finished off a four-game sweep of the Rockies. The latest on Lester: The lefty is facing the Rockies for the first time in the regular season. But he did get the win in Game 4 of the Series in 07, throwing 5.2 scoreless innings. This season, Lester is 8-0 with a 2.01 ERA in his last 11 starts. On the road again: After their 8-1 homestand, the Sox will not play 22 of the next 31 games on the road. Hot hitters: Pedroia (20 of 40) and Beltre (15 of 40) are riding 10-game hitting streaks. The each have driven in eight runs in those 10 games. Beltre has hit safely in 15 of the last 16 games at 22 of 65. ... Nava has reached base safely in all eight games he has played in. The Sox have won seven of those games. That's how you spell relief: The bullpen has allowed three earned runs over 27 innings in the last nine games. The Runnin' Red Sox: The Sox have stolen eight bases in the last five games.

RED SOX (43-28) SS Marco Scutaro 2B Dustin Pedroia C Victor Martinez 1B Kevin Youkilis 3B Adrian Beltre LF Daniel Nava CF Mike Cameron RF Josh Reddick P Jon Lester Pitching: LHP Jon Lester (8-2, 3.13).

Sounds like you had a nice Father's Day. A Sox win is always a good thing!