Game Story: Sox offense not offensive enough.
by Allen Chace on Aug 5, 2009 12:52 AM EDT
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13 innings. I could've been doing a lot of things aside from following most of a 13 inning game that we ended up losing.
But enough about me. This one is about the guys who really stunk up the joint. We had only three players reach base more than once, with Victor Martinez, DP, and Youks accomplishing this most difficult of feats. This game had it all though. Varitek hitting for himself late in the game, a misuse (in my opinion) of Mike Lowell, and Paps throwing a 1-2-3 inning...and nothing else.
For their part, Jon Lester and Matt Garza tried to make it about their pitcher's duel. Garza went 7 while allowing only two solo home runs (one to Youks and one to DP), while Lester went 6 plus, allowing one run and striking out 10. But, alas, starting pitching was not the story. It was the bullpen. 6 scoreless innings from the Rays' assortment of RPs and a not-so-scoreless effort from ours.
Recent superman Daniel Bard was brought back to Earth, Hideki Okajima was eh, MDC suffered a rare bout of effectiveness, and Ramon Ramirez was clearly working from the Daisuke Matsuzaka playbook. In an absolutely stunning move, Jonathan Papelbon came into the 11th and did not walk the leadoff man. Saito was his usual effectively wild self in retiring the Rays' in the 12th, and his usual ineffectively wild self (along with questionable decision-making on the part of Tito) in taking the loss in the 13th on an Evan Longoria the Devil himself HR.
In short, this is a painful painful loss, not mitigated by the fact that all of our RPs were used and Brad Penny takes the mound tomorrow. Can't imagine Saito or Ramon being available. Probably not Bard either.
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Because I'm not going to give 75bandwagon the satisfaction:
Francona said that walking Longoria and Zobrist would have left Saito facing Joe Dillon with the bases loaded. That sceanrio introduced the possibility of a game-ending walk, something the Red Sox did not want to risk given some of Saito’s issues this season.
I’m not sure I agree with Tito here – a mistake to Longoria creates the hell that was his walk-off jack. Give Saito the chance to regain his form as a control pitcher and get Dillon to ground out.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
The satisfaction remains
It was a bad idea to pitch to Longoria. Or Zobrist. You take the risk of the walk over the risk of Longoria.
Damn...
Yeah this one hurt. A lot. Something about the Rays and whenever we lose to them makes me want to punch infants. I mean I really get sour and rude. You just don’t give a guy like Longoria a HR cuz with him that only leads him to hope he’s gonna have a good day. Shoulda left Lester in a little longer and allowed all the other RP’s pitch before Pap. Why can’t they just go back to being doormats? Let’s hope we walk outta there with a respectable split…
Tampa's been a very well run organization for the past two years...
And the previous GM managed not to F up the early draft picks that the got every year. They were going to be very good eventually, and the new management did a great job of putting together a solid team last year, and it’s carried over to this year.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
We’re not evenly matched teams so we shouldn’t be struggling against the Rays. Our overall pitching is better than theirs so games like this should fall in our favor. Not last night. I would like to see a little more passion from our guys when playing them though. The Rays seem to literally put everything they have into our games and you can tell with how emotional they are.
They do have us beat in offense.
It’s not even close. They really should be a lot better than their record indicates.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
Not what we needed with no off day in sight and Brad Penny on the hill tonight. Saito is the new Timlin. Francona has to walk Longoria in that situation. Every team has another team they just do not play well against and TB is that team for the Sox. Hopefully Price will be wild tonight.
Sox need another lefty in the pen, not named Lopez
Sox need a utility guy prefer one with speed
Sign Matt Holliday in 2010
Dice-K will return, and he will be very good.
yeah this could be ugly
going into the NYY series. We might have no bullpen at that point, especially because we can’t call up a pitcher. price should be wild, but im not concerned about their bullpen, im concerned about ours. brad penny STILL has not pitched out of the sixth inning.
Why am I more scared of the Rays than I am of the apocalypse?
Nice sig.
I’d think they’re going to tell Penny that’s he going at least 7 innings tonight, and leave it up to him and Tek to decide how they want to stretch him out.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
I'm not sure walking Longoria (.893 OPS) was the right move
Especially with Ben Zobrist (.973 OPS) hitting behind him. Do you want load the bases with Saito pitching? Remember, Longoria struck out 4 times last night. It’s not as if he is Barry Bonds. Longoria can be pitched to.
The Sox lost because they didn’t capitalize on their opportunities (opportunity?). Dusty hit into a DP with the bases loaded. The Sox also lost because their pen couldn’t hold a 2-run lead.
This game also highlights the Sox’ roster problems. Right now, the Sox are carrying a roster spot for late-inning defense at 1B (Kotchman). They also have 5 OFs (Reddick), because Bay is unable to play but isn’t injured enough to go on the DL. The Masterson trade for VMart and the acquisition of Kotchman has left the team short in the pen. I think the Sox will call up a pitcher as soon as Bay is able to play.
I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.
by Drugs Delaney on Aug 5, 2009 9:13 AM EDT up reply actions
Yes, you walk Longoria
You let Zobrist beat you or you walk in a run to beat you if you load em up. You do not let Longoria beat you.
Sox need another lefty in the pen, not named Lopez
Sox need a utility guy prefer one with speed
Sign Matt Holliday in 2010
Dice-K will return, and he will be very good.
Why?
Evan Longoria produces an out 64% of the time. You would walk him and pitch to Ben Zobrist? who this year has only produced outs 59% of the time? Intentional walks are just so fucking lame.
"Ninety percent [of my salary] I'll spend on good times, women, and Irish whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste."
-Tug McGraw
The walk off walk is less demoralizing than the walk off HR
Sox need another lefty in the pen, not named Lopez
Sox need a utility guy prefer one with speed
Sign Matt Holliday in 2010
Dice-K will return, and he will be very good.
We pay these guys to get the F over stuff.
Baseball’s a game of failure – everyone has to get over stuff eventually.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
This one really hurt
What a fucking shit start to maybe the most difficult week of the whole regular season. We just cant beat those rays.
I’m the biggest DP fan but you cant hack on a 1-0 count into a double play (not sure it was a strike), 1 run there would have been the game for us.
Pitching overall was obviously good yesterday, also it hurt to see that Bard is a human after all.
by German Red Sox Fan on Aug 5, 2009 8:27 AM EDT reply actions
Great effort by Lester for naught
…feel bad for him; he deserved better.
Then again, the starters who went hitless last night are no surprise: we’ve seen it all year:
Ortiz – .225 BA
Varitek – .229
Green – .238
Drew – .248
BA is not the best stat
I agree that Green shouldn’t be playing regularly. However, the other players listed have to play.
Drew is your best all around OF. He has the 4th highest OPS on the team and he is hitting .387 AVG/.406 OBP/.548 SLG (.955 OPS) in the last 9 games, despite the 0 for 5 last night.
Tek has to play the bulk of the time behind the plate. VMart is an awful defensive catcher, who has to learn the Sox staff. The Sox best offensive team has VMart C, Youk 1B, and Lowell 3B. But that’s also the Sox’ worst defensive line-up. Poor defense has cost the Sox just as many games as poor offense this year.
As for Ortiz, he has been great since June 1st: .264 AVG/.342 OBP/.556 SLG (.898 OPS), with 14 HR (one every 12.71 AB).
I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.
by Drugs Delaney on Aug 5, 2009 9:24 AM EDT up reply actions
Re: Ortiz
I wouldn’t call that great. It’s good. Great would be the kind of numbers he put up until two years ago.
Re: Ortiz
OK, maybe great isn’t the right word. But an .898 OPS is very good, as is Papi’s HR rate. From 2004-2006, Papi had an OPS of 1.011 and a HR every 12.26 AB. He’ll never be that good again. However, since June 1st, he has been very good.
I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.
by Drugs Delaney on Aug 5, 2009 11:40 AM EDT up reply actions
Unfortunately
they start the season in April and the Sox played 50 games before June 1…..and they all counted! Overall, Oritz has had a poor year and needs to get back on the juice.
by ccthemovieman on Aug 5, 2009 11:44 AM EDT up reply actions
That's just about the dumbest response I ever read here
Yeah, the season starts in April. So you want to bench a guy who had a crappy first two months of the season based on those first two months even though he’s been one of our best hitters over the last two months?
Do us all a favor and get yourself hired as the GM of the Cardinals so we can trade you a bucket of balls for Pujols.
Exactly
I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.
by Drugs Delaney on Aug 5, 2009 12:36 PM EDT up reply actions
Pujols
Broke out of his slump last night in quite dramatic fashion.
by Gnick on Aug 5, 2009 1:44 PM EDT up reply actions
Sure.
Because we should weigh results from 3-4 months ago the same
as recent results when predicting Papi's performance for the rest of the season.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
dude, enough with weird-ass font.
"Ninety percent [of my salary] I'll spend on good times, women, and Irish whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste."
-Tug McGraw
Yeah, I am using it a bit too much.
Sarcasm has to be used sparingly, I guess.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
Let's split the difference and call it "very good"
The BA isn’t great, but the other numbers are about as good as you could hope for.
"You know you're having a bad day when the fifth inning rolls around and they drag the warning track." - Mike Flanagan, Baltimore Orioles pitcher, 1992.
Great game
I it stinks that the Red Sox lost, but it was still a very good game. It’s probably better off that Longoria ended the game, because I don’t know what Saito would be able to bring to a 14th inning – and I don’t want to see Buccholz pitching in extras (he was warming up).
Pedroia couldn’t get it done, but the Sox got out of 2 bases loaded, none out jams. So I think this is a loss they can move one from and use to win more games.
I'm not surprised
The Rays have a good offense, and Garza owns the Red Sox. We were lucky that Lester shut them down, otherwise the game would’ve been 8-2 or something. It was very disappointing they couldn’t score against the Rays pen, which is nowhere near as good as last year’s.
Drugs hit the nail on the head here. We’re facing a real roster crunch, and whatever else you think of the trade, moving Masterson for Martinez creates a shortage in the pen. This is especially problematic when many members of the pen were overworked in the beginnging of the season.
"It's just a tiny little nick, but it hurts when I get champagne in there."
- Jason Bay, on getting spiked scoring the winning run in ALDS Game Four.
*beginning
I went to a public college, so me no spell good.
"It's just a tiny little nick, but it hurts when I get champagne in there."
- Jason Bay, on getting spiked scoring the winning run in ALDS Game Four.
Game Story:
CURSE YOU MATT GARZA! That is all.
"You know you're having a bad day when the fifth inning rolls around and they drag the warning track." - Mike Flanagan, Baltimore Orioles pitcher, 1992.
Does it concern anyone else...
that we haven’t won a series against a team with a pulse since arguably mid-June? (Yeah I know our record and the amount of baseball left to be played, but August looks like it’s going to be ROUGH)
That's a little misleading
Since mid-June the Sox have only had two series v. AL contenders. You’re right, though, August will be tough.
I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.
by Drugs Delaney on Aug 5, 2009 12:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah...
I realized I should have worded it differently after I hit “Post.” I guess my real concern is our lack of dominance and series wins over the bottom-feeders we’ve been playing in that same time frame to at least give us a little cushion for August and prove our potential playoff worth.
Hopefully, the Sox will step up their game
"You know you're having a bad day when the fifth inning rolls around and they drag the warning track." - Mike Flanagan, Baltimore Orioles pitcher, 1992.
Great way...
To start off the toughest part of the schedule. It only gets worse after this going into the Bronx, come home for Detroilet, and then head to Texas who owned the Sox last time and is our biggest threat to the wild card.
by sonicdeathmonkey on Aug 5, 2009 12:10 PM EDT reply actions
I am not watching a Sox v Rays game again
until the sox win a series @ the Trop.
2-12
since beginning of last year. i am worried that they’re gonna make the playoffs and we’ll play them. i have to think that we’d beat them though, especially if we have home field advantage.i mean last year we went seven without a healthy beckett and lowell, and without V-mart and half the bullpen we have now. still, i hope they are watching TV in October, I’ll take the Yankees any day.
Why am I more scared of the Rays than I am of the apocalypse?
We were 2-2 in the playoffs at the Trop last year
They beat us because we were 1-2 at Fenway.
I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.
by Drugs Delaney on Aug 5, 2009 3:51 PM EDT up reply actions
Get a SS who is NOT Green!! AND Has a Bat!!
The best way to get another bat in the Lineup at this point is to get a SS who can hit for at least a respectable avg. Lowrie might cut it some day but Green never will.
Theo shoulda gone hard after Asdrubal Cabrera (.302 Avg.) while chasing V. Martinez or maybe even Marco Scutaro (.296 Avg.) while he had the Toronto GM on the Horn!! Cabrera could have easily been part of the Vmart trade and filled a glaring and weak area of our offense now, and in the post season, if we even get there!! Get a SS Theo!!
You do know that AVG isn't everything, right?
Lowrie’s a great bat for a SS, and he just needs a little more time to re-adjust to Major League pitching after being out for 2+ months.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
I surely Hope you're right!
I would just think by now, Theo, Tito & Co. would have seen and more properly addressed our year long weakness at SS. I like Lowrie vm. I would just hate to see our post season go by the boards because of how weak we have been all year at SS. Asdrubal Cabrera would have been a great addition in the Vmart trade and provided us with much needed depth in the infield as he can play multiple positions. Let’s hope Lowrie comes around and soon!!
Hint:
The “reply” button is how everyone else does the nifty comments that are indented under the original.
Agreed, but I’m not sure Cabrera could have been had cheaply.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
Sorry & Thanks for the "hint"
Am new here! but long time Red Sox fan. Just wanna see them succeed and go all the way this year!! Last nights game, along with a few other earlier games this season have been too agonizing to watch. I’ll try and do better regarding the “reply” button. Go Sox!!
No problem.
If you want to learn how to use this blog and it’s connected sister blogs, click the second link in my sig.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
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