Fenway West - The Boston Red Sox Western Home: 4/12/09 - 4/19/09

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Man On A Mission

Kevin Youkilis might just be the next man to finish the season with a BA over .400 if he keeps on hitting the way he has started this season. Youk was 4 for 5, (just a triple away from the cycle), scoring twice and knocking in 4 of the Sox's 6 runs today in their 6-4 win over the Orioles at Fenway Park. His BA is sitting at a fat .467 right now.

Josh Beckett was having a good day tossing 4 shutout innings before he hiccupped in the 5th allowing 4 runs, 3 earned in that one inning. He came back to toss one more scoreless inning (and also got a spot on ESPN/Baseball Tonight's 'That's Filthy' segment) before the bullpen studs came in and shut the O's down for the remainder of the game. Okajima, Saito, and Papelbon combined allowed 2 hits and whiffed them 4 times.

Big Papi and Mike Lowell had two hits each, while Jason Varitek had one with an RBI. Beckett was allowed to pitch despite receiving a 6 game suspension while waiting for his appeal to be heard.

TOR won, while TBY and NYY both lost today.

SOX win 6-4 BOX SCORE

Holy Lopsided Score Batman!

The score from New York today: 22-4

No, not football. Yes, baseball. The 2009 New York Yankees have set a new franchise low record by allowing 14, yes that's 1-4, fourteen Cleveland Indians to make a round trip around the diamond in one inning at the brand spanking new Yankee Stadium. Former ace of the Lowlanders, Chien-Ming Wang was chased off to the showers in the 2nd inning after allowing 8 runs. Anthony Claggett (who?) came in and promptly allowed another 6 runs in that inning, and another 2 runs before he got the hook as well. The Indians would not relent until they had scored a total of 22 runs by the end of the game. The Indians belted 6 home runs in the game, including a grand tater by Asdrubal Cabrera. The Yanks should have sent in Nick Swisher instead of Claggett (who?)

Now I'm wondering where the Red Sox can get a few cans of that whoop-ass that Cleveland found.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming: BOS-5 BAL-0 heading into the 4th.

Tonight's Red Sox Lineup 4/18 vs. Baltimore

Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
David Ortiz, Dh
Kevin Youkilis, 1B
J.D. Drew, LF
Jason Bay, RF
Mike Lowell, 3B
Jason Varitek, C
Nick Green, SS

Josh Beckett, SP

Citi Field Fails at Beer Vending

Throughout the brand new Citi Field there are beer stands that say "Bottled Beer," yet each of these stands only sells cans of beer. I guess they don't expect Met fans to be smart enough to know the difference. See below:

Red Sox Rotation

Josh Beckett is set to go tonight and Lester will pitch on Sunday. With the injury to Dice-K, Justin Masterson will start on Monday and Wake will pitch on Tuesday.

John Smoltz is going to face live batters for the first time today, he is excited about the prospect:

"If this was the best it gets for me, that's good enough, very good enough. But I anticipate getting much better. I haven't faced hitters yet. I haven't had the adrenaline yet. I haven't had anything that prepares you for a game yet. [Batting practice] won't do it. Simulated games won't do it. Once I get in and face foreign hitters that aren't our guys, that will do it."

Friday, April 17, 2009

Red Sox Overcome Penny's Bad Start

Brad Penny did not make many new fans in his Fenway debut tonight. After loading the bases in the second, Penny gave up a grand slam to Nick Markakis leaving the Red Sox in a big hole. Boos could be heard through out Fenway as well as fans wondering why Tito was keeping him in. For his part, Penny thought he did well:

"It was a good pitch, and he went down and got it," Penny said. "I felt great. I haven't had that kind of stuff in a while. The walks killed me tonight."

Let's hope he doesn't have that kind of stuff any time soon. Perhaps Penny should look at the scoreboard or watch the replay of his hanging breaking ball that was tatooed for a grand slam before he starts saying he had good stuff.

Luckily the Sox offense came to life tonight. J.D. Drew had a home run and a triple and Pedroia broke out of his slump with 3 hits.

The Red Sox took the lead in the 6th and held on to win the game. The bullpen was spectacular; giving up just 5 hits and no runs in 7 innings.

The Good: J. D. Drew 2-2 with 3 RBI's and 3 runs scored.
The Bad: Big Papi 0-4...now batting .148
The Ugly: Brad Penny 3 innings ,6 hits, 5 walks, 8 earned runs.

Red Sox Win 10-8 BOX SCORE

Tough night for Penny

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Fenway West Spring Tour Day 3

Last night I went to the Met's-Padres game at Citi Field (a full ballpark review will be coming soon) Carlos Delgado hit a 440 bomb in the game but in typical Mets fasion they lost on a called third strike. After the game I got to see my old friend Jim Roberti play some music at the Bulls Head Tavern in NYC. I have two more games on tap today. I am about to head to the Bronx to watch the Yankees continue to lose in their new stadium. I will be seated in the bleachers ready to catch all of the home run balls hit off of Joba. Then I will drive up to Boston to see the Red Sox-Orioles, I'll be sitting in Loge Box 100 Row EE wearing an Ortiz jersey so stop by and say hello.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

A Day at the Park

I got to see my beloved Red Sox yesterday for the first time this season. Things as they are, I don't get to nearly as many games a year as I would like to. One time I got a late start and then the local rapid transit broke down for 45 minutes. By the time I got to Oakland Stadium, the Sox were on the short end of a lop-sided score. I was walking along the concourse and was wondering why people were leaving so soon. I wasn't that late.

Well, things were different this time. This was the first game I had ever been to when my favorite Sox pitcher was on the mound. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I got there early with my friend and bandmate Tom. (It was his birthday.) We soaked up the sun while waiting for Nick to show up with our tix.

Nick's new shirt

Never did I imagine I would be watching history nearly being made that day! Wake just kept serving up goose-egg after goose-egg after goose-egg! I missed Lowell's E, but thought to myself, "Well, he still has a no...STOP! Don't even think it!" Whew! That was a close one! I found myself wondering if he had issued any free passes. Um...nope. "Don't even think about it, Dave!" Said nothing, thought nothing. The 000's kept racking up. Then that hit came! SOAB!

#42 takes a mighty swing!

Well.... Wake was still spinning a gem, and on Jackie Robinson day, too. Unfortunately, when the Sox bats come alive while Wake is pitching, he has to sit, and that is not good for a knuckleballer, thus the H's, BB's, and R's in the final innings. Still a fantastic, memorable game. Let's hope that momentum continues tomorrow.

Wake showed the utmost in class during the post game interview when asked about his performance. Instead of talking about his masterpiece, he immediately shifted the focus onto Robinson before he said anything about the game.

Somehow, we were able to find a few minutes to drill a few shots of the Sawxheads that were in attendance in Section 209 yesterday. Nick, aka CaliGrown was there, as well as the Emperor of RSN-CA who was there raising awareness for The Jimmy Fund, (as does Rocky Rhodes on his X-C trip in the Rolling Green Monster), and also a few other Sawxhead friends of Nick's whose names escape me at the moment. Fenway West was in the house on his spring tour (4 games and a Dead show in 4 days), but alas, he was on the other side of the stadium.

CaliGrown- 2nd from left

Emporer of RSN-CA middle

Red Sox Sonoma- far right

Sunshine, beer, $1 dogs, peanuts, friends, and Wake nearly tossing a no-no! What more could a Sox fan ask for?!

What more, you say? Well, we left Oakland heading for San Francisco, when I spotted a commercial truck with an interesting company name. I wondered, "Does A-Rod have a new side business?"

A-Rod diversifies his portfolio?

SPRING TOUR GAME 2

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Wake Delivers

Once again I got to witness a Red Sox pitcher's no-hitter get broken up in the late innings. (at least it wasn't the last batter like it was with Schilling) The Red Sox needed Wake to eat up some innings and he delivered. He had a perfect game into the 5th before Lowell booted an easy play. Nick Green and Ellsbury made some spectacular plays in the field to keep the no-hitter going until the A's broke it up in the 8th.

The Red Sox offense came alive early with a two run homer by Mike Lowell. They broke it open in the 8th with 6 more runs off of the A's bullpen. Every starter except Pedroia had a hit.

Today's win is just what the Sox needed before returning home, after an off day tomorrow they will face Baltimore on Friday.

The Good: Wake
The Bad: Pedroia 0-5
The Ugly: The A's Bullpen

Red Sox Win 8-2 BOX SCORE

In other Sox news, Dice-K was put on the DL and Lowrie will not need surgery on the wrist.

Greetings From Oakland

I just watched Jon Lester throw a side session, he was missing the plate often. It's warm and sunny today with less wind.

Fenway West Spring Tour Day 1

I am headed to the Coliseum to turn around this slump for the Red Sox. Wake will be on the mound so it should be interesting. Look at this scenario:

The good news? The Sox have a scheduled day off on Thursday. Nonetheless, Francona today could be faced with the prospect of either, 1) leaving Wakefield on the mound longer than he wants to; 2) employing other members of his starting rotation as relievers; or, in a worst case scenario, 3) using positional players to safeguard against injury on his pitching staff.

Don't forget to enter the Wakefield 2000 strikeout contest, he is just 89 away, with the injury to Dice-K he should get the innings to do it this year. I'll be sitting in Section 128 and will post a few updates and pictures from the park .

Chicken Man Voodoo is Needed

Every time the Red Sox have needed some luck, like in '04 against the Yanks, or '07 against the Tribe, I made sure my brother had correctly placed a shrine on top of his TV that included a voodoo bag given to him by the Chicken Man in New Orleans. The Chicken Man died a year later and my brother lost the voodoo bag until he found it right before game 4 of the ALCS in 2004. Each time the bag brought special luck to the team. Last season he did not make the shrine and the Chicken Man took revenge by letting the Rays win game 7. In times like these we don't need to reach for the panic button, we just need to use a little Chicken Man voodoo to get out of the slump.

Dice-K Injured, Red Sox Blow it in 12

Dice-K left last night's game with "arm fatigue" but not before giving up 5 earned runs on 5 hits and two walks. Luckily for the Red Sox Justin Masterson was able to come in and shut down the A's offense. Masterson pitched 4 scoreless innings giving up just 2 hits and getting mostly ground ball outs. By the 5th inning the Red Sox had erased the deficit. MDC, Ramon Ramirez and Papelbon all did their part to keep the A's off of the board. The Red Sox had their chances late, especially in the 10th when Big Papi came to the plate with bases loaded. He had an 2-0 count and swung at the next pitch and hit a pop up to left to end the inning. Javier Lopez came in to pitch the 12 and walked the bases loaded with one out. He struck out Suzuki but then gave up the winning run on an infield single that Buck just beat out. The losing streak is at 3, the team is now 2-6 after this terrible loss.

The Good: Most of the pen, especially Masterson, Ramirez, and Papelbon
The Bad: Dice-K's 5 earned runs and injury, Big Papi 0-5
The Ugly: Lopez 3 walks in the bottom of the 12th

Red Sox Lose 6-5 in 12 innings BOX SCORE

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Tonight's Red Sox Lineup 4/14 vs. Oakland

Jacoby Ellsbury, CF

Dustin Pedroia, 2B

David Ortiz, DH

Kevin Youkilis, 1B

J.D. Drew, RF

Jason Bay, LF

Mike Lowell, 3B

Jason Varitek, C

Nick Green, SS

Dice-K, SP

Things to Kill Time Before the Late Start

For you folks on the East Coast sitting in misery while waiting for the late arrival of the Red Sox game, and for you West Coasters that actually have time for a few beers before the game, I give you some great reads to pass the time.

Doug Mirabelli is now a real estate agent... in Michigan!!...where houses are selling for like $5.

The old away uniforms are gone but you can relive the top 20 moments in them.

Justin Masterson is now blogging for Comcast Sportsnet

Is RemDawg's Empire Expanding or Collapsing?

The RemDawg is set to deliver The State of Red Sox Nation at his new restaurant: Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill in Terminal C of Logan Airport on Friday April 17 at noon. Remy will then take questions from fans and judge a singing contest of Take Me Out to the Ballgame with Wally.

You would think with an event like the one above that things are looking good for the RemDawg empire but if he keeps losing bets in the broadcast booth he may be in for a hard fall.

Josh Beckett Suspended for 6 Games

Josh Beckett has been suspended for 6 games by MLB for the incident in Anaheim with Abreu.

Boston pitcher Josh Beckett has been suspended for six games and fined by Major League Baseball, which determined he intentionally threw a pitch near the head of the Los Angeles Angels' Bobby Abreu last week.
Beckett also was cited for "aggressive actions" after the pitch that led to the benches clearing Sunday, according to Bob Watson, vice president for discipline in the commissioner's office.

Beckett wasn't even ejected in the game, another example of Yankee Bob f'ing things up.

Fenway West Spring Tour: 4 Baseball Games, 1 Dead Show, 4 Days

The Fenway West Spring Tour begins tomorrow at the Oakland Coliseum. I'll be at the Red Sox-A's game to start things off with a little day baseball. Then it's on to the Big Apple to take a look at the new ballparks. I'll be at the Met's game on Thursday night and give a full review of the brand new Citi Field. On Friday morning I head to the Bronx to check out the scene at the new Yankee Stadium. After a few innings I will head north to the Fens to see the Sox take on the Orioles. On Saturday it's a little break from baseball as I go to Worcester to see the Dead. Check back throughout the next few days for pictures an ballpark reviews

New Curse for Citi Field

Yesterday we saw Cubs fans trying to exorcise the billy goat curse by hanging a goat from the Harry Caray statue outside of Wrigley Field. Now a new curse may have been born when a cat ran around Citi Field during the Met's debut.

This story about a curse was written before the cat incident. The Mets lost the game due to an error.

Lester Gets Roughed Up Again

The Red Sox took an early lead in last night's game when Youk hit a home run in the second but Lester than gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the inning. Jack Cust and Nomar each had home runs off of Lester and the A's were able to get 10 hits off of him. The Red Sox bats did nothing to help the team catch up. Youk was the only Red Sox to have more than 1 hit and the bottom third of the order went hit-less. The team is now 2-5 on the season with not much to hang your hat on. Lester has struggled in both of his starts, Big Papi has turned into Little Papi, and the much improved bullpen is not looking very improved.

The Good: Youk 2-4 with a home run
The Bad: everyone else on the Sox that played in the game
The Ugly: Lester 10 hits 6 earned runs in 6 innings

Red Sox Lose 8-2 BOX SCORE

Monday, April 13, 2009

Tonight's Lineup vs. Oakland

Green is in there at short as Lowrie heads to the DL. Ellsbury gets a rest.

Rocco Baldelli CF

Dustin Pedroia 2B

David Ortiz DH

Kevin Youkilis 1B

J.D. Drew RF

Jason Bay LF

Mike Lowell 3B

Jason Varitek C

Nick Green SS

Jon Lester, SP

Lowrie to DL

The Red Sox have made a roster move by calling up Velazquez from Pawtucket according to the ProJo. We'll know soon if Green is in at short tonight. Lineups coming soon.

UPDATE: Lowrie is going on the 15-day DL with an injury to his left wrist.

Remy Blames Beckett

Jerry Remy blames Beckett for yesterday's ruckus. Listen below:

Hat Tip to Rafe Anderson at Sawxheads

It Could Be Worse for Red Sox Fans

Feeling a little down about the start of the Red Sox season? There is reason to be upset but it could be worse; you could be an A's fan. Look at how they are feeling right now:

No one's coming to the games! We had the worst attendance in the entire major leagues yesterday on a beautiful holiday Sunday, the first weekend of the year, and still the irrelevant Golden State Warriors outdraw the A's by the thousands. This place is going like a ghost town.
-And now a perfect storm of abuse is on its way, the Boston Red Sox faithful will fill the Coliseum and beat our boys in volume and base hits.
It's time to hit the panic button

Still, Sox fans aren't far behind:

Another Sad Day for Baseball

Legendary Phillies announcer Harry Kalas has died.

Baseball fans everywhere knew the voice of Kalas; he was one of the true giants of the game. Throughout baseball history there are a few announcers you can put in his catagory: Vin Scully and Mel Allen come to mind.

From Philly.com:

Harry Kalas, the Phillies' Hall of Fame announcer, died at 1:20 p.m. today, the Phillies announced.
Mr. Kalas collapsed in the press box at Nationals Stadium in Washington at about 12:30 p.m. and was rushed to George Washington University Medial Center.

The cause of the death was not announced. Today's game against the Nationals will be played, but the team will not visit the White House tomorrow.

Kalas, who turned 73 on March 26, has broadcast Phillies games since 1971. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002.

Phillies Announcer Rushed to Hospital

One of baseball's best announcers, Harry Kalas, was rushed to the hospital after being found unconscious in the broadcast booth.

Asked if Kalas was conscious when the EMT's arrived, Montgomery said, "I don't know. I think it's serious. Our thoughts and prayers are obviously with Harry and [his wife] Eileen and everybody else at this point. That's all I can tell you."

What The Hell is Going On in the Broadcast Booth

The series in Anaheim gave us Rex Hudler (aka Jeff Spicoli) filling in for the RemDawg and then we had this:

Red Sox Can't Afford to Lose Games Like That

The Red Sox lost another game to the Angels yesterday making them 2 and 4 on the season. The Sox had their ace on the mound and were given a break when Torri Hunter was ejected. The Red Sox offense had some early fireworks with homers by Youk and Drew but the Angels fought back with 3 runs in the third. Ian Browne of redsox.com summed up the pivitol moment of the game:

The bases were loaded with one out in the top of the eighth inning and the Red Sox were down by a run. Scot Shields had lost the strike zone, as evidenced by the three walks that put Lowell in the opportunity he was in. The count was 2-0. Lowell has been around long enough to know that Shields had no choice but to come in with a meaty fastball. So Lowell looked for it and got it just where he wanted -- belt high and over the middle of the plate. And he ... popped it up.

Oki then came in and gave up a long ball to Vlad. The Sox got one back in the 9th but it was not enough.

Papelbon was not available because of his extended outing on Saturday. With Beckett on the mound against a second tier pitcher, one of the Angels best players out of the game early, and an away crowd that had more Sox fans than Angels fans, the Red Sox had everything going for them. They need to win games like that to win the East. This was a very frustrating loss for the team in what has been a frustrating season so far.

The Good: Youk 2-4 with a homer and Green 2-3 (look out Lowrie)
The Bad: Oki gave up a costly homer
The Ugly: Lowell 0-4 2 K's 5 LOB

Red Sox Lose 5-4 BOX SCORE

Sunday, April 12, 2009

A WEEKEND IN ANAHEIM

First, let me say that I am truly amazed at your STUBHUB experience. I have used that website to buy nearly 100 tickets and have NEVER had a problem.

Second, after going to Friday and Saturday’s games in Anaheim, let me congratulate Red Sox Nation on another great showing. I would have loved to have been there today with my girl Cool J and her Owls, but my little guys had a date with Peter Cottontail.

OK, so I’ve been quiet so far about my boys wearing the Red Sox (sometimes) and their fearless leader Tito Francona.

So in today’s 5-4 loss to the Angels, can anyone tell me why you bring in Okajima to face Vlad? OK, so everyone’s favorite whipping boy (which I don’t understand) Delcarmen had a rough go of it in the 7th, but I have seen enough Angel’s games and enough of Vlad to know that if you do not have an overpowering fastball, he sits DEAD RED and waits for a fastball. I have all the respect in the world for Okajima, but what he doesn’t have is an overpowering fastball. Delcarmen should have come out to face just Vlad, this is a better match up.

Tito got away with one in the 6th when with Delcarmen warm and fresh, he left Beckett and his 95+ pitches in the face Rivera after walking Napoli. He looked gassed and with a runner on 3rd in a one run game and your pitcher around the 100 pitch mark on a warm SoCal day this early in the season, I make the switch. It worked, but I still think it was the wrong call.

Some quick observations:

- After a power surge the last two games, we have to hope that the hitting gets contagious, because if our 1-2-3 hitters don’t start producing, it could be a rough April.
- I though Penny looked good in his start on Saturday. Take away that first walk that might have been because of first start jitters and he looked just great. There weren’t too many balls hit very hard off of him. If he stays healthy, Wake could be looking for relief work when Smoltzy is ready unless Tito decides to go to a 6-man rotation.
- I’m still blaming the loss on Friday to the lack of a travel day to go across the country. Are you kidding me, who wrote that schedule? Monday, Wednesday and Thursday with Tuesday as the off day when you have a game 3 time zones away on Friday? Even if they had not had the rain out, it still would have been wrong. I guess we should be thankful that Thursday was a day game.

A few pictures included:

My boy Logan, with Papelbon’s warm-up ball from Saturday before he went in during the 8th inning
Cool J with the Papelbon ball after my L-Dog gave it to her out of the kindness of his heart, what a gesture.

GO SOX!

Today's Red Sox Lineup 4/12 vs. the Angels

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
5. J.D. Drew, RF
6, Jason Bay, LF
7. Mike Lowell, 3B
8. Jason Varitek, C
9. Nick Green, SS

Josh Beckett, SP

Where's the Ketchup?

A truckload of ketchup never made it to Fenway after a truck driver left his trailer behind at a truck stop because he was pissed off at the trucking company. Panic soon hit the Fens:

"On Monday I got an e-mail asking where the load was at, and that it was important," said Crosby Trucking Services manager Kevin Mitchell. "That's when I was told the ketchup was for the Red Sox home opener."

The driver was arrested and an emergency shipment of ketchup reached Fenway in time thanks to the rainout.

Nobody Puts Ketchup On A Hotdog

I May Be to Blame for Lowrie's Slump

Before the last practice prior to opening day, the Boston Globe's Tony Massarotti solicited questions to ask players via Twitter. It was at this time that I jinxed Lowrie by submitting this question to Mazz: "Ask Lowrie if he changed anything about his approach at the plate to have such a strong spring.

Mazz responded with this today: "You still want me to ask that question?"

The Bottom Line still believes in Jed...we hope he's right.

Pedroia Calls Hometown Paper to Apologize

Dustin Pedroia has called up his hometown paper, the Daily Democrat, to apologize for his comments about Woodland.

"I want everyone to know I love Woodland," he said on Saturday in a phone interview with The Democrat.
"I'm crushed by this because I love Woodland. Woodland has embraced me beyond expectations. Every time I go back there I see kids wearing my jersey. That's the ultimate.
"Obviously I'm extremely sorry about the whole thing and how it got mixed up. I want the people of Woodland to know I love them. They raised me."

Pedroia also said he wanted to build a mini Fenway Park for Woodland little leaguers. Hopefuly this will put an end to the rift between some of the citizens of Woodland and Pedroia and he can enjoy playing in front of some of Woodland residents in Oakland on Monday.

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