Huge Trouble at Short

Alex Gonzalez may have a hairline fracture in his right hand from getting beaned last night.  Tito explained the injury:

"Gonzie got a flor-scan, flor-scope, whatever they call that thing in there," he said. "It was actually a little bit inconclusive. That doesn't mean that -- I think they just feel a little more comfortable if they get some x-rays tomorrow morning. Paulie said it could be as little as a blood vessel. But it doesn't seem like a real good time to not -- we weren't going to play him tomorrow night anyway, so we'll get him checked a little bit further."

Green is still out with the leg injury, Lowire is not 100% and Woodward is away from the team for the birth of his kid.  If Gonzalez can't go the Red Sox get worse defensively.  They may have to go with Chris Woodward in the playoffs, he is only batting .215 with an OPS of .520 in 33 games this season.

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Yankees Beware

These are not the same Sox that you knocked around starting in game #9 of the season. After getting your collectives asses kicked 8 times in a row, you finally rise up and show some life like it was a pro wrestling smackdown. These Sox however, have won 9 of their last 10 games.

These Sox knocked the birds of Baltimore out of their nests for the 15th time in 17 contests between the 2 clubs this season. Jon Lester was good tonight, but not overpowering, and garnered his 14th win and team leading 22nd quality start, as the Sox beat the Orioles 11-5 at Fenway South. He allowed 10 hits in 6 innings, yet with all those hits, including 2 home runs, he kept the damage to 3 runs allowed. He did not issue any free passes.

Wagner, Saito, and Ramirez pitched 3 scoreless innings, allowing only 1 baserunner. Unfortunately, sandwiched in there was Manny Delcarmen's tough outing. He served up a phat meatball sandwich: 2 walks, 2 home runs, 0 outs. After a lights out April in which he tossed 13 scoreless innings, his ERA has been steadily rising ever since. I love a good home-town-boy-makes-good story, so I certainly hope he can correct his miscues before October. I'd hate to see him go. The Sox will certainly need the April MDC in about 2 & 1/2 weeks. Barring a '78esque implosion, the Sox will be squaring off against the Angels in the ALDS. They technically have not been eliminated from the AL East crown, but they are 7 games ahead of the reeling Rangers, the magic number down to 9 for the wild card slot. Let's not dismiss the fact that the Sox are 9 and 1 in their last 10 games, and have reduced the Yankees lead from 9 games to 6, but only 5 in the loss column. Yankees! You'd better not look over your shoulder lest you trip and fall! It still could happen, yaknow. Just sayin'....

OK, let's get back to tonight's game. Every starter had at least 1 hit, Pedroia and Ortiz 2 hits each, and Drew and Lowell 3 hits each, including a home run by Drew. Rookie Josh "Glenda" Reddick hit his 2nd home run of the season.

Alex Gonzalez made a 'Web Gem' worthy stab and turned a great 6-4-3 double play! I'm tellin' ya- sign this guy for the next 3 years!

Sox Win 11-5 BOX SCORE

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Red Sox Win! Red Sox Win! Red Sox Win!

You're once, twice, three times...
No, that one won't work.

Three times a charm?
Naah, been done before.

Three's company?
No, not that one, either.

I'm wrackin' the ol' noggin tryin' to come up with some snappy title to this post about the Red Sox coming back 3 (three) times tonight, but not having much luck, so I'm going to type away and see if any lightbulbs flash on along the way.

Paul Byrd was adequate tonight. (I promise no aviary humor tonight.) He went 5+ innings allowing only 3 runs to score by the Angels. Well, there is the matter of the 9 hits he allowed, but as the final score would indicate, it's not how many hits you make, it's how many runs you score. Despite holding the Halos to 3 runs, he left the game on the short end of 3-0 deficit. Not to worry as the Sox scored 5 times in the bottom of the 6th (comeback #1) After Byrd handed over the ball to the bullpen, Saito came in and pitched 1 inning and allowed another run in. Next up was Ramirez who had nothin', nada, zippo, zilch tonight as he allowed 3 more Angels around the diamond while registering only 1 out. So now the Sox are down 7-5. (Around about that time the Bums from da Bronx tallied a comeback of their own, as they were down 2-4 and came back to beat Toronto 5-4.) The Sox scored twice in the 8th for comeback #2, tying the game, but not for long, as the Angels put another run up in the top of the 9th. (Are you following all this?) Down by 1 run in the bottom of the 9th, Ortiz draws a 2 out walk. Joey Gathright enters to run for Papi. J.D. Drew singles. Reddick had pinch hit earlier for 'Tek and scored one of the 8th inning runs, so now enter Dusty Brown at catcher. Enter Jed Lowrie to pinch hit for Brown before he even had a chance to step up to the plate. Lowrie singles. Nick Green coaxed a walk to load the bases. Next up, A-Gonz who singled to drive in Drew and win the game.

Earlier I said it's not how many hits, but how many runs that counts (Baseball 101.) The Sox had 13 of 'em tonight, but the Halos had 17. Thankfully, the Sox pitchers scattered them just barely enough to offset that lopsided statistic.

Now, about this shortstop dilemma. I commented on an earlier post about the possibility of a long term future for Alex Gonzalez in a Sox uni. The usually light hitting (yet vacuum like sweeping of just about any ball hit in between 2nd and 3rd bases) Gonzalez was hitting at a fugly .210 clip when he arrived for his 2nd tour of duty in Boston. He has lifted his batting average by a full 25 points in the past month. Since August 16th, he has 29 hits in 93 at-bats for a nice .312 average. He's only 32 years old. Both Lowell and Jeter are 35 years old, and are doing just fine, thank you very much. Theo would do well to lock him up for the next 3 years.

Despite winning 7 in a row, the Sox remain 6.5 games behind the Yanks, but only 5 behind in the loss column. Texas has lost 4 in a row, distancing themselves from the Red Sox in the Wild Card race by 6.5 games.

Sox Win 9-8 BOX SCORE

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A-Gonz

Alex Gonzalez is a veritable vacuum cleaner at short stop, that we all now, but much has been made of his slight average and power. Watching him hit and reading his line in the box scores wasn’t making sense of what I had been reading about him, so I did a little research and found out that being in a Sox uni really agrees with him while standing at the dish.

According to last night’s box score his BA is .221 at the end of the game. A little bit of digging reveals that his BA at Cincinnati this year was a pitiful .210, but since arriving at Boston his BA has risen to .221, a nice increase in only 13 games with the Sox. His 2009 statistics in Boston are looking good right now. Since his arrival in Boston, he is 13/47 for a .277 BA, (that’s an average of 1 hit per game so far, they should all be so lucky), 2 doubles, 3 home runs, .511 slugging, and a .787 OPS.

He’s only 32 yo, so as long as he continues to scoop up everything in sight (0 errors so far with Boston, and only 6 in 126 games with the Reds), and he continues to hit at .277 or better, he seems to be a good fit for that shortstop sinkhole that Theo has not been able to fill.

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Wake's back! Papi, two!

Tim Wakefield pitched a great game tonight, his first since July 8th, but unfortunately did not get the win. Wake went 7 strong innings, allowing 6 hits and 1 run, walking 1 and striking 3 White Sox out. This was the first time Martinez had ever caught a knuckleballer in a game. He had caught a couple of Wake’s bullpen sessions under the supervision of Gary Tuck, the bullpen coach. There were no wild pitches in tonight’s game, and while Martinez did have an error, it was on a throw, not a passed ball.

Wake allowed a run in the 1st, but David ‘Big Papi’ Ortiz homered in the bottom of the 2nd to even things up. Alex Gonzalez, of slight power and average, hit his 5th HR of the season to give the Sox the go ahead run in the 5th. He went 2/3 for the night, raising his average to .219. Ramon Ramirez gave up a HR in the top of the 8th for only his 3rd BS of the season. Enter Big Papi in the bottom of the 9th as we hark back to 2004 and the days of seemingly endless Big Papi walk-off HR’s and other greatest hits. He launched his 2nd HR of the night around the Pesky Pole, giving him 22 HR’s and 77 RBI’s so far in the 2009 campaign.

Sox Win 3-2 BOX SCORE

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
White Sox	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	7	0
Red Sox	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	3	7	1

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Tonight's Red Sox Lineup 8/15 vs the Rangers

Here is tonight's lineup vs. the Rangers. Game time is 8:05pm.


Ellsbury- CF
Pedroia- 2B
Martinez 1B
Bay- LF
Lowell- 3B
Ortiz- DH
Varitek- C
Anderson- RF
Gonzalez- SS
Penny- SP

This lineup is thanks to Amalie Benjamin on Twitter. It's the first time we are going to see Alex Gonzalez back in a Boston uni over at short stop. I'll admit, I'm excited.

And Anderson? I first thought it was Lars Anderson. I knew he played first base, but thought he might play outfield as well. As it turns out, it is Brian Anderson. I don't know too much about Brian, but I am sure gonna find out. Josh Reddick was optioned back to Pawtucket when Brian joined the club.

Anyone heard any info about when Rocco Baldelli might be healthy and returning from the DL? Anyone? Bueller?

Let's go Red Sox!

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Welcome Back Alex Gonzalez

Alex Gonzalez is once again a member of the Boston Red Sox. A waiver trade was made with the Cincinnati Reds to send Gonzalez to Boston. Gonzalez will be a defensive improvement at short but won't add much to the offense. The Reds received Kris Negron from the Red Sox.

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