Patterson's 2-RBI double lifts Sox after bullpen blows Lackey's no-hit bid
by wolf9309 on Jul 23, 2010 8:30 AM EDT
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This was an exciting night. It contained everything from joy and excitement to overwhelming despair.
Lackey was flat out great for the first 8 innings- allowing one unearned run which came after he walked Milton Bradley who stole second and eventually scored on a passed ball. It wasn't until 2 outs in the 8th inning that Lackey finally allowed a hit, to offensive black hole Josh Bard. Still, he left the game with a 6-1 lead, and all there was left to do was some basic 1-inning cleanup. The offense had been great against Ryan Rowland-Smith, though quieted down against the Mariners' weak bullpen.
Enter Sox pitching hero, Manny Delcarmen. First he gave up a single to Chone Figgins followed by a 2-run blast to Franklin Gutierrez. It ended up being a long inning, involving Delcarmen and Papelbon both being fairly awful, and combining with atrocious errors on the parts of Scutaro and Hall to allow 5 run over the inning, so into extra innings we went.
Bard came and pitched a perfect 10th, though the offense again, couldn't manage anything against the Mariners. To the chagrin of this Sox far, Okajima came in for the 11th, but somehow had a 1-2-3 inning. Again, nothing from the Sox offense. In the 12th, Okajima stayed in and it got nasty. A couple of hits and an intentional walk later, the bases were loaded with just one out. Okajima needed a bit of luck and some good pitching to avoid losing the game in an embarrassing fashion, and he got just that, getting to quick easy popups.
Finally, something clicked for the Sox. In the bottom of the 13th, Youkilis singled, Cameron singled, and Sox offensive superstar Eric Patterson (who had pinch hit for Hall earlier) got the 2 run double to make it 8-6. Ramirez came in and somehow pitched a perfect bottom of the 13th, giving the Sox a much-needed grueling win over the last-place Mariners.
This was not a pretty game. It featured bad fielding and terrible work from the bullpen. Still, at last it was what we really expected to see from Lackey- who couldn't get the win despite his no-hit bid- and that in itself was uplifting.
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Man, am I glad I went to bed before the bullpen implosion.
In fact, I think part of me went to bed so I could miss the bullpen implosion.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
The most reassuring part of this for me was
that the pitch he threw most frequently for strikes was his curveball, which he’s been somewhat struggling to find the zone with. Still fewer swinging strikes than I would like, but on a good day, that curveball he has doesn’t look like it’s going to be in the zone until the last second and he gets a lot of called strikes on it. Looking at Brooks Baseball, it looks like the zone was pretty good throughout the night as well, so it’s not like he was being gifted the outside of the plate.
Judging by the lack of expletives...
…it has to be Lackey. Or Bard.
Wait 'til next/this year?
"Laser show. So relax."
by nuthinboutnuthin on Jul 23, 2010 11:56 AM EDT up reply actions
Well - to be fair
Oki and Ram-Ram also both pitched better than we probably expected.
And Papelbon was (a) dropped into an ugly situation given to him by MDC and (b) totally let down by his defense. Man did he look pissed off sitting in the dugout afterward (and i can’t blame him).
So – expletives would have narrowed it down pretty clearly to MDC, but without them, it could be any of the others.
I wouldn't say Oki pitched well
That 12th inning there I almost turned it off.
Agreed about Papelbon. He would’ve been fine if the defense didn’t butcher that inning.
well, Oki's 1-2-3 11th was certainly very good
and if our offense was not pathetic in extra innings, he should not have had to go back out for the 12th.
The only reason Tito sent him back out was because he HAD to. Running out of arms.
In the 12th, the 2 hits and a BB were scary, and I was ready to throw stuff at our brand-new TV, but I’ll give him points for pitching his way out of it.
haha yeah sorry, Lackey
I was focusing on the good and forgetting for the moment that anyone else had pitched in the game.
hell, if not for MDC and the errors
there should have been no more than 2-3 pitchers in the game. Instead, we ended up sending 6 guys to the mound.
Not the way you want to start a series.
You especially don’t want to start a series with Papelbon and Oki both throwing 30 pitches.
ESPECIALLY not when
you have a pitcher coming off the DL pitching today who almost certainly won’t get more than 100 pitches in today, and you still have another 6 games to play before there’s a day off. We’ll all be praying for Lester to manage a complete game in his start.
blown saves
When your closer has 5 blown saves and an E.R.A. of 3.15, and you have three of your four setup men with E.R.A.’s of 4.72 (Rodriguez), 5.05 (Delcarmen) and 5.34 (Okijima) (5.34), you are in trouble.. Ya think?
Only Daniel Bard’s 1.75 looks good, but even he has four blown saves.
Just for fun, I looked up our AL competitors for Team Blown Saves. They are:
Tampa Bay Rays – 8
Chicago WhiteSox – 8
Minnesota Twins – 10
Los Angeles Angels – 10
N.Y. Yankees – 11
Texas Rangers – 12
Boston Red Sox – 14
The really sad thing is – those Sox listed above – those are the HEALTHY guys on the team!
Yea man that Rodriguez guy really stinks!
Its almost like he never even shows up to the ballpark! Oh wait….he doesnt, cuz, the Sox don’t have a rodriguez……
haha…I’m guessing you meant Ram Ram.
by RockEmSoxEm on Jul 23, 2010 10:37 AM EDT up reply actions
I was surprised the Sox won
I couldn’t believe what I was watching in the 9th inning yesterday when I tuned into the game after getting home from Yankee Stadium
"Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next." -George Michael Steinbrenner III
too bad I cant remember this from banging my head repetitivly when I saw Delcarmen come in :P
That place was for diehard sports fans. I only follow my team when they're in the playoffs" - Homer Simpson
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by bestbostonsports on Jul 23, 2010 10:49 AM EDT reply actions
I know we're on the west coast and all but..
is taking atleast 3 of the 4 in this series duable? I mean we need to go atleast 3-1 to keep pace.
Sodomize Intolerance
by sonicdeathmonkey on Jul 23, 2010 11:10 AM EDT reply actions
Beckett, Lester, Dice K
Yea, its definitely do-able…it all rides on pitching, IMO.
Here’s to a strong return for Beckett.
by RockEmSoxEm on Jul 23, 2010 11:13 AM EDT up reply actions
It all rides on Beckett for you guys
Felix vs. Matsuzaka… that’s rough.
Lester will probably be fine.
Vargas is a good pitcher though so tonight’s game should be interesting
"Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next." -George Michael Steinbrenner III
by Chris McKeown on Jul 23, 2010 11:53 AM EDT up reply actions
Felix pitched night before last
So he will not be pitching against Dice-k.
Our string of facing (and actually being successful against) top aces will skip Felix this time.
Thank gawd, because I don’t think we would be able to do the same with our current lineup as we’ve managed against the other top pitchers we’ve faced this year.
Ohhhh I thought I saw he was pitching on the 25th
Well, 3 of 4 should be no problem. Although, a 6 run lead in the 8th shouldn’t have been, either. lol
"Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next." -George Michael Steinbrenner III
by Chris McKeown on Jul 23, 2010 1:48 PM EDT up reply actions
It's ok
The Yankees blew a 10-4 lead to the Indians back in May at home. I was there, and it was PAINFUL.
"Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next." -George Michael Steinbrenner III
by Chris McKeown on Jul 24, 2010 1:12 AM EDT up reply actions
"This was not a pretty game."
Sadly – it almost WAS a pretty game.
Lackey was flirting with a freaking no-hitter!
That’s what is most frustrating about how it all blew up in the 9th – it totally washed away what was a great pitching performance by someone we need to give us great pitching.
Lackey is really getting hit with the HLQSs lately. (A Hard Luck Quality Start is a quality start that you don’t get the W for – either because your offense doesn’t score enough runs or your bullpen/defense blow it late for you.)
this is what I've noticed about Lackey
when he pitches well, we usually win, but he doesn’t get the win
When he pitches OK to pretty bad, the offense picks him up and he gets a win
When he pitches terribly he’ll get a loss.
serendipity
Well, it just reaffirms that W-L is a lousy pitcher’s stat.
The important thing is that, aside from the Toronto game, Lackey has gotten onto a pretty good stretch over these last 10 games. He’s usually getting us deep into games. ’Lots of quality starts that at least give the team a chance to win.
Unfortunately, our half-minor-league lineup is struggling to score runs or to prevent runs on a consistent basis. And our mid-relief is just awful.
I know everyone here loves to bang on Patterson and hate on the guy...
But he’s come up with some absolute MONSTER hits in clutch situations.
see THAT's what I'm saying
we should still get rid of him, but we should quietly applaud him when we get rid of him instead of saying “get the hell out of here!!!”
I think the only reason he came up big
is because I was ragging on him hard all night.
If that’s what it takes – I volunteer to continue to pound on that karma button.
Patterson still sucks at the plate and will probably never get another big hit in my lifetime.
And I note that Mr. Nava, upon getting sent back down to the Minors, promptly went 2 of 3 with a HR and 2 walks….
He belongs with the Red Sox. Patterson doesn’t.
At the beginning of this year,
I kept talking about how Varitek was useless and done. And I swear to god, every at bat which I did that, he hit a home run. I should bring that back once he’s healthy.
OT: I have a new job
And it’s 5 minutes from Fenway. Great Success!
Building Fenway from the ground up - Virtual Fenway
Uh oh...
This “job” wouldn’t involve Josh Beckett and an unfortunate … shall we say … “accident?”
Just making sure…
Wait 'til next/this year?
"Laser show. So relax."
by nuthinboutnuthin on Jul 23, 2010 5:13 PM EDT up reply actions
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