Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia Bring Red Sox Back to Beat Yankees on Opening Night
by Randy Booth on Apr 5, 2010 12:30 AM EDT
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That's a helluva way to start the 2010 season.
After falling down 5-1 in the fourth inning, the Red Sox clawed their way back to pull of the 9-7 victory over the Yankees on Opening Night.
The Sox were aided by big clutch hits from Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia. Josh Beckett, on the other hand, struggled in his start and couldn't make it past the fifth inning.
(Click through the jump to read more)
Check out that graph.
Players of the Game:
Dustin Pedroia (2 for 4, 2 R, 3 RBI, HR, BB, K, .392 WPA) and Kevin Youkilis (3 for 4, 3 R, 2 RBI, .465 WPA)
You can't really choose one over the other, even if WPA wants to give Youkilis the edge. Both were vital to the victory and really lifted this lineup up after it came out sluggish out of the gate. Youkilis, however, should be minus .100 WPA for still sporting the goatee. That's a fail.
On the starter (Josh Beckett):
Beckett: 4.2 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO, 2 HR
Beckett was not the ace the Red Sox expected tonight. The velocity on his fastball was solid at 95 mph consistently, but the Yankees just ate it up all night. His curveball rarely hit the strikezone, too. To add more pain to this equation, Beckett was squeezed quite often when it came to strikezone judgment. Combine all these factors and it wasn't looking good for the Sox.
The most alarming thing about Beckett's start was his inability to get swinging strikes. How many did he have? One. That's it. He had one strikeout as well. What does this say about Beckett? His stuff really wasn't that good, in the end. The Yankees teeing off on his fastball is the other good indication.
Game notes:
- All the new guys in the lineup produced. Adrian Beltre (2 RBI), Mike Cameron (2 for 3, BB) and Marco Scutaro (2 for 3, BB) each contributed really good first outings in Boston.
- Speaking of the new guys, their defense shined as well. Cameron had a lot of great reads in center, Scutaro had a few great stabs at short and Beltre just made everything look very, very easy at third base. He didn't have many opportunities at the corner, but when he did, it was like poetry in motion.
- Scott Schoeneweis may not be horrible after all (1 IP, 1 K). He was the first out of the 'pen to relieve Beckett and his stuff looked good. Maybe he won't be the first to get cut this season. That very well could be...
- Ramon S. Ramirez. His stuff just looked weak and he got lit up a little bit. If RamRam is going to stick in the bullpen, he's got to act like it's April 2009 -- not August 2009.
- Pedro Martinez is still the man.
- Steven Tyler needs to be barred from Fenway Park.
- Neil Diamond needed to tune up his voice for "Sweet Caroline."
- Pedro Martinez is still the man.
- Jacoby Ellsbury looked OK in left field. He didn't get the best reads on the ball and he misplayed a wall off the wall, but that's all right. It's game No. 1 and we'll give him a pass.
- More on Cameron: watching him in center field has already proven to be bliss. He doesn't get bit by balls off the bat. He just sort of glides to the ball and he's all of a sudden there. You could never tell that this guy is 37.
- Victor Martinez has a beautiful approach at the plate. He may not get a hit every single time to the plate (1 for 5 tonight), but he makes the pitcher work every at bat. His swing is so smooth and he's a lot of fun to watch.
- The Dustin Pedroia-to-Marco Scutaro double play combination was in effect tonight and it's going to be a fun one to watch tonight.
- Daniel Bard makes me nervous because he was a little wild tonight. He got a case of the BBs toward the end of 2009 and we saw his numbers slip. He needs to just rely on his stuff and throw it down the middle and see how he can handle pitchers that way.
- David Ortiz went 0 for 3 with a walk. He had a few good opportunities to make a difference and didn't come through. It's OK, Papi. There are guys to back you up.
- Yes, this did actually happen. I am convinced he is the only reason the Red Sox won this game.
Everyone go to bed now (if you're on the East Coast). Don't worry, the game actually happened and you can rest easy. Remember: we have 161 more to go!
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Double awesome.
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Is there a way to have Ellsbury in the field...
…but someone else in his place in the line-up?
DFA Beckett
by South Coast Ghost on Apr 5, 2010 12:39 AM EDT reply actions
he looked
just as uncomfortable in left as he did in center. Mistimed jump. Frozen on a liner than ended up handcuffing him. Boy did Cameron look like a breath of fresh air in CF. I really wanted to punch Ells last night. I mean Park comes in throwing nothing but crap and he Ks Ells on 3 pitches. That guy will just never learn…
Great game though!
well the monster is weird, and he hasn't been there in quite a while
hopefully he’ll re-learn fast. He looked good there in 2008.
Man that kid
I can only hope my son becomes that cool. Damn he was funny
"I think about baseball when I wake up in the morning. I think about it all day. And I dream about it at night. The only time I don't think about it is when I'm playing it."
Carl "Yaz" Yastrzemski
I assure you, that kid will not be called “cool” come high school.
"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
Haha! That's cruel
I thought it gave the crowd and a few Sox players a good laugh. Dice-K and Bucholz were especially enjoying it.
"Hating the New York Yankees is as American as apple pie, unwed mothers and cheating on your income tax." -- Mike Royko
by sox-inda-south on Apr 5, 2010 9:51 AM EDT up reply actions
Click the link in this entry
(Yes, this did actually happen. I am convinced he is the only reason the Red Sox won this game.) see above
red sox r back
i love the way the yankees fan write this win off
by RED SOX are #1 in my heart on Apr 5, 2010 12:45 AM EDT reply actions
You'd think they'd learn to deal with Fenway by this point
But no, they lose here and it’s all “Joke of a park” this and “That would’ve been an out in any other park” that.
DFA Beckett
by South Coast Ghost on Apr 5, 2010 1:02 AM EDT up reply actions
i called out a yankee fan about fenway home runs with his right field
and he just laughed and said “yeah that’s the biggest joke in baseball, but fenway’s left isn’t a lot better”
There's a reason for our LF
There’s no reason for their RF. It’s ok though, if NYY isn’t happy they can just steal a few more hundred million dollars from their taxpayers.
Building Fenway from the ground up - Virtual Fenway
Only concern
That’s one of the worst outings Josh Beckett’s ever had. Good news is we won
I'll put you through hell, but at the end of it all we'll be champions.
He's had a few stinkers
He just did not have it today.
DFA Beckett
by South Coast Ghost on Apr 5, 2010 12:55 AM EDT up reply actions
Mostly Joe West's fault.
Take a look at the PitchFX. He was absolutely terrible behind the plate. Took away the bottom part of the zone and both starters had to elevate their pitches. Shockingly it turned into a 9-7 game once that happened. Sabathia would have been hit just as hard if not for Angel Hernandez pulling his ass out of the fire twice with bad calls at 1B.
The new Sox players looked great – both in the field and at the plate. Cameron and Beltre both seem to have trouble with breaking stuff low and away – similar to Bay in that respect. Youk and Pedroia looked awesome – but they always hammer LHPs. Conversely, Ortiz and Ellsbury looked lost against the tough lefties (Sabathia and Marte) and ended up with bad days b/c of it. Ortiz worked the count great and then missed a few fastballs – but he had to stay back because he can’t pick up breaking balls from CC. Ells had some of the same problem.
CC Sabathia looked the fattest I’ve ever seen him! He has a gigantic gut. Sloppy gut. He looks terrible and he ran out of gas very suddenly. I could be convinced this is the biggest news to take out of this night. Again, if it wasn’t for some bad calls he would have been hit hard earlier. Beckett’s average FB velocity: 93.82mph (2009: 94.1). Sabathia’s: 93.13 (2004: 94.1). Sabathia did not look sharp to me at all, except for a couple neat innings.
Beckett looked amped up and was overthrowing. He didn’t have a consistent release point, had no feel for his curve and wasn’t hitting his spots at all or commanding his pitches. He still only gives up a couple runs if Joe West didn’t screw him. Sabathia, too.
Bullpen Banter
www.bullpenbanter.com
twitter: @alskor
by alskor on Apr 5, 2010 1:02 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Re: Ortiz
Agreed. He has to catch up to those fastballs. There was a 3-1 fastball that he should have rocked and he could not get to it. He’ll be okay this year, but my hopes are not too high.
"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
i really think
if he wasn’t with the yankees, sabathia would be sone of my favorite players. He just seems like a great guy and a great player, but yes, judging by body type and performance, I don’t think he’s going to last half as long as his contract will.
West was horrible
but Beckett was way off. The ball left his hand just fine, but he was really easy to predict and did not really throw the 2 seamer.
As much as our pen outplayed theirs (Joba really sucks-all of this talk about returning him to the 8th inning is moot-he simply is not the same pitcher he was. In 2007 he would have innings where his slowest fastball was 96. Last night he barely could break 93), I really worry about ours. RamRam just is not a good pitcher, Oki looks less and less effective as the years pass, and I don’t ever want to see MDC out there.
The Yankee booth team (I live in NY) is so so dumb. Here are some of their pearls:
a)Cano is better defensively than Pedroia and is the best in the AL East (hmm he is close to the worse).
b)VMart is a very bad weak link on defense (he is not good, but who plays catcher for the Yankees? Mister Jorge, “I can’t catch” Pussada).
c)The same tired shit about the Sox offense. Hey, I would rather NOT have Bay and have a bottom of the order with Cameron and Scutaro instead of Tek and Lugo/Green/Gonzalez…
d)They were not really sure if the call on Cameron’s DP was the wrong one. Hmmm, unbiased!
Phew
I saw the bit about Cano’s defense out of context and thought that was how you felt. The guy is a low-range hack who’s just going to get worse as he ages. He’s lucky the Yanks haven’t given a damn about middle infield defense in decades.
USG
Cano is not even average
while Pedroia is elite. I said in the live topic yesterday cano is such a butcher. He looked horrible, basically zero range to short stop side.
by German Red Sox Fan on Apr 5, 2010 9:36 AM EDT up reply actions
Wow.
Cano can’t even touch Pedroia defensively. What a joke that is. Pedroia is easily twice the 2B defensively Cano is – and that’s even assuming Cano doesn’t have his lapses. Pedroia is one of the best 2B I’ve ever seen.
VMart… might be a bad link on defense. IMO tis is why he was not already signed to an extension. Its a legit question. His gamecalling… suspect.
Bullpen Banter
www.bullpenbanter.com
twitter: @alskor
"His gamecalling… suspect."
On what do you base that?
A number of calls I watched. Calling for what I would deem the wrong pitch and wrong location in the wrong counts.
Its always been an issue with VMart. Didn’t help that Beckett couldn’t put it where he wanted anyway… but I wasn’t a big fan of VMart’s game calling last night.
Bullpen Banter
www.bullpenbanter.com
twitter: @alskor
"always been an issue with VMart"
in your personal opinion? Okay. We can just disagree. I see no basis for such.
Always an issue?
Didn’t he catch Cliff Lee AND CC when they won the Cy Young?
Why buy the cow, when you get the sex for free?
by return2greatness on Apr 6, 2010 6:25 PM EDT up reply actions
Without Angel Hernandez's help CC was just as bad.
Bullpen Banter
www.bullpenbanter.com
twitter: @alskor
+1
Why buy the cow, when you get the sex for free?
by return2greatness on Apr 6, 2010 6:25 PM EDT up reply actions
I generally agree with this take on Beckett
He did get squeezed by West (who was inconsistent all through the game both ways) but then made things worse by overthrowing, which killed his curveball. I’m sure he was amped up. The fact that Beckett’s velocity was good makes me not too worried. He’ll make a few mechanical corrections and be fine over the long haul.
Bard also had a moment where he started overthrowing and ended up walking a batter before getting calmed down by VMart and Farrell and finishing out his turn nicely.
Of all our Pitchers, Ramirez is the only one that just looked awful with no positive signs I could take away. Remember how good he looked to start last year? Sigh … seems like an eternity.
I thought Oki looked very good, though not aggressive enough until his last few pitches. His pitches had really nice movement. His only ‘mistake’ was not trusting his stuff on one batter and thus the walk. But when he did trust, his movement was really good and he got weak swings (hence 3 ground outs). I think Oki could be in for a very solid year.
Conversely, Parke, Marte and Joba all looked awful for the Yankees. They look like they have far more middle relief questions than we do at this point. And I agree, CC did not look like he was in game shape yet.
That was awesome.
I think I’m gonna love Cameron and Beltre. Beltre makes everything look so easy.
"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
ican't describe how excited i am for those two
i felt so surprisingly comfortable when a ball got hit to the left.
except for those wall balls that Ells didn't play well, unfortunately
I have to think that Ells will get more comfortable once he has a few more games in the box but if he at least fields those cleanly, that’s a couple of bases that are prevented and could have made a huge difference in Beckett’s outing.
But yeah, anything on the ground now goes right into the black-hole of the sox infield defense.
All I could think on the last play of the game was
“Wow… Mike Lowell wouldn’t have been within a mile of that ball…”
Bullpen Banter
www.bullpenbanter.com
twitter: @alskor
Scutaro wouldn't have been able to gun down the runner
Building Fenway from the ground up - Virtual Fenway
maybe, maybe not
he would have been charging toward first on the throw if he did have to make that play, which would tend to increase his chances.
But I agree in the sense that I wouldn’t have counted it as a certainty. That’s why I used the word ‘probably’. I like Beltre making those plays much better.
Beltre didn't just make the play...
he made it look super easy and routine. He was there before the camera got there. Look where he fields it on a replay. He wasn’t in for a bunt – he just got a great read and covered a ton of ground. Then he made a great throw. Phenomenal defender.
Bullpen Banter
www.bullpenbanter.com
twitter: @alskor
Beltre across the middle (was that in front of the 2B bag when he picked it up?) was perfect to end the game.
It said everything about why this team is going to be good this year.
"Youkilis, however, should be minus .100 WPA for still sporting the goatee. That's a fail."
Seriously? The goatee’s awesome. Youk is made of pure awesome. Come on.
Perhaps today IS a good day to die.
- Klingon proverb
Nah
He needs a nice, Tom Selleck-esque ’stache
DFA Beckett
by South Coast Ghost on Apr 5, 2010 1:20 AM EDT up reply actions
I'd be okay with that, as long as he has some kind of epic facial hair
It’s almost as crucial to my fandom as is the fact that he’s really good at baseball.
Perhaps today IS a good day to die.
- Klingon proverb
by Thomas Wachtel on Apr 5, 2010 1:22 AM EDT up reply actions
The goatee.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
I have a five-tool player in my pants.
ACTUALLY, advanced metrics show that that wasn't "premature".
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
Exactly.
Perhaps today IS a good day to die.
- Klingon proverb
by Thomas Wachtel on Apr 5, 2010 1:47 AM EDT up reply actions
It fails because the Pornstache would have given us Bard in a Youk-Fu.
And that, my friends, is worth the creepiness and general skeeviness that would be Youk with the pornstache.
Beard of truth!
"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.
It is BECKETT'S beard that needs to be trimmed.
Gawd is that one ugly beard.
Youk’s face works with any facial hair – it just makes him look meaner.
But Becketts’? It looks like some Amish farmer’s starter beard …
One thing I gotta say
is when Schoeneweis came in, I was thinking "how is Tito giving up the first game of the season when it’s 5-1 in the 5th? And Shoeneweis surprised me. I might even say that he looked the best of all the Sox pitchers out there (which is not a huge compliment, because all of Beckett, Ramirez, Okajima, Bard, Papelbon had their own issues.
This, if a team can continue like that for a full year, they’ve won whatever they want.
Paps looked reasonably sharp to me.
Admittedly, this may be the benefit of lowered expectations. But he threw strikes (including one right down the middle but slightly outside that was inexplicably called for a ball) and mixed in his 2-seamer. Not a bad way to start.
I thought Oki looked good too.
It wasn’t his fault he came in with men on second and third with no outs!
Yes he gave up one hit, and a walk, but his movement on his pitches was really good and thus the three groundouts. If he comes into that inning to start it, no runs score.
And I thought Bard looked good except for the one batter he walked – he was clearly overthrowing. I saw it in his motion and called it in the chat log – he then got a visit from Farrell and promptly retired the next guy.
I forgot to note what MPH Paps was hitting on the gun. Anybody have that?
So other than Beckett’s getting squeezed and not being sharp on the corners – which I’m not worried about, it really was only RamRam that I think looked bad for the first game out.
Paps was around his usual
USG
by Ben Buchanan on Apr 5, 2010 12:21 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
That kid is hilarious and will probably take the place of the rally song during MFY games
I love the bottom third of our order. Haven’t been able to say that in years.
The Red Sox offense isn't an issue,- until its an issue.
It is weird isn't it?
Did you notice how Cameron and Scoot never seemed at all lost? Didn’t know 8-9 guys could do that!
USG
+1
Love. LUV not having an automatic out in those spots (I’m talking about YOU Jason Varitek, Julio Lugo and Jeff Green …).
Cameron and Scut may not be candidates for the batting title, but both command respect from any pitcher because both are legitimate hitters with the ability to get on base and hurt you if you make a mistake.
It is so much better to have 9 guys who ALL can do some damage instead of just 3-4 guys who do ALL the damage.
+1
How can the even casual Sox fan not see that Cameron + Scutaro >>>>>>>> Tek + Green/etc. Both in the batters box and in the field
nice job
I couldnt stay up for the end, nice comeback..what a way to start the season. I always have a hard time getting back into the pace of baseball after watching hockey for the last 5 months
good game guys
fenway i think is the toughest ballpark to win at u grind at bats and took adv of our middlie reifeif a game is never over at fenway
okay i have cerebral palsy arthris and chronic fatigue as well i have a great life and loveing folks some days are better than other days i got a make-a-wish in 2001 and saw my favorite team the broncos it was the trip of a lifetime i wish everyone couild have gotten to enjoy that with me i know some of u hate the broncos and that okay but i bleed organ and bule for my mnr fans but i bleed orange and blue denver will rise again resident broncos fan for every blog resident broncos for stampede bule thanks shvd98z24
yeah
but we had a 5-4 lead at the time u middlie reifeif was good scott s bard and pap did the job both teams have a lot to work on at this time
okay i have cerebral palsy arthris and chronic fatigue as well i have a great life and loveing folks some days are better than other days i got a make-a-wish in 2001 and saw my favorite team the broncos it was the trip of a lifetime i wish everyone couild have gotten to enjoy that with me i know some of u hate the broncos and that okay but i bleed organ and bule for my mnr fans but i bleed orange and blue denver will rise again resident broncos fan for every blog resident broncos for stampede bule thanks shvd98z24
your biggest worry
shouild be other teams stealing bases off tex and v-mart
okay i have cerebral palsy arthris and chronic fatigue as well i have a great life and loveing folks some days are better than other days i got a make-a-wish in 2001 and saw my favorite team the broncos it was the trip of a lifetime i wish everyone couild have gotten to enjoy that with me i know some of u hate the broncos and that okay but i bleed organ and bule for my mnr fans but i bleed orange and blue denver will rise again resident broncos fan for every blog resident broncos for stampede bule thanks shvd98z24
that's not really a worry.
over a long season that does not matter too much.
+1
Throwing out runners is a waaay overrated aspect of catcher defense. Highly visible event, of course, so understandable that folks put too much stock in it.
What’s more important are things that actually happen more often like preventing passed balls/wild pitches, communicating with the pitchers, fielding pop-ups and dribblers, etc.
also, another thing which is important is not throwing to second
when Brett Gardner is already halfway home.
Doh.
But I’m sure he won’t be doing that again.
Valentine broke down the play last night on Baseball Tonight.
The Sox basically got caught by surprise on that one because of the way they were set for fielding depth.
Beltre was setup well off the line because of how they wanted to field the batter. If he’s not, then the throw actually would have gone to him behind Gardner. VMart got caught with a half throw because he looked first to 3rd but Beltre wasn’t there (if anything as Scut reacted to Jeter, Beltre shifted to his left) but VMart’s boyd & arm was already in a throwing motion so he ‘completed’ it with the lob to Scut in front of second. Ugly. But you can see in the replay that VMart did indeed (properly) look to 3rd as he got up in his throwing motion.
If they recognize the possibility of the double steal, Beltre is supposed to go to his bag behind the runner at third.
So there were two mistakes, one by Beltre (not covering) and one by VMart (letting go of the ball).
I disagree on one point
I think in that situation, with two outs and runners on the corners, you give that base to Jeter. The throw isn’t worth the risk, especially for someone with a track record like Martinez’. The throw should have not happened, the ball should have stayed at the plate. The runner at third couldn’t advance that way. I think Beltre’s positioning was wise in that he was positioned to prioritize preventing a hit rather than keeping the runner on.
yeah
u are right but TB ANA and SEA run a lot
okay i have cerebral palsy arthris and chronic fatigue as well i have a great life and loveing folks some days are better than other days i got a make-a-wish in 2001 and saw my favorite team the broncos it was the trip of a lifetime i wish everyone couild have gotten to enjoy that with me i know some of u hate the broncos and that okay but i bleed organ and bule for my mnr fans but i bleed orange and blue denver will rise again resident broncos fan for every blog resident broncos for stampede bule thanks shvd98z24
This game remind us what we all know
- Ells and Papi need to get better… or go to the bench/trade.
- Our bullpen is not reliable some good games.. some bad.
- Our starters are good!! but they are not consistent… could pitch just 3 innings or a no hitter.
- We need to keep injuries away.
by BringLugo-back!!! on Apr 5, 2010 6:20 PM EDT reply actions
Damn, man, jumping to some big conclusions.
-Ortiz struggles against lefties now. We knew that coming in. The question is if he can still hit righties. Ellsbury has little excuse for how bad he looked…but it’s just one game.
-Agreed on our bullpen. I like Bard and Papelbon. We’ll see about Atchison and Oki. Ramirez and Delcarmen went from being two of the best in the league (results wise, at least) to two of the worst.
-Disagree here entirely. Beckett is a little inconsistent (less than this game might suggest), but Lester has been very reliable. Don’t know enough to comment on Lackey, but Buchholz was like a better Wakefield last year in that he was great in every game but a few explosions. I’ll take the 75-80% good starts. Nobody does much better than that.
USG
there are some people it's not worth disagreeing with
and this guy is named “BringLugo-back!!!” so go ahead if you want ::shrug::
sarcastic name of course!!! (didnt you have second thaughts when lugo began to hit for the cards?? )
ok im getting conclusions on a single game… but i made my point …
- Ortiz & Ellsbury… need to improve and play like we expect.
- Ramram, MDC, Sweiss… need to they surprise us.
- Bucholz, DeiseK and Wake need to win about 50%.
by BringLugo-back!!! on Apr 6, 2010 12:09 AM EDT reply actions
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