Quick Wrap - Another Loss To Tampa
by Matthew Kory on Sep 18, 2011 6:47 PM EDT
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A couple quick facts for you:
- The Red Sox have a two game lead over the Rays in the Wild Card race. This is better than the reverse.
- There are ten games left in the season for both teams. For good or ill that is not many.
- The Rays have four in New York, three at home vs. Toronto, and three at home versus New York. The Red Sox have four at home versus Baltimore, three in New York, and three in Baltimore. The Rays have a few more at home, but face a more challenging schedule.
I present the above for perspective. Nothing is guaranteed either way.
As for the game... well, it was more of the same that we've seen from this team since the calendar kicked over to September. Lousy starting pitching, not quite enough hitting, and some ill-timed mistakes.
A few game notes:
- Tim Wakefield, Scott Atchison, Andrew Miller, Matt Albers, and Trevor Miller aren't exactly the pitchers you want to see on the mound in an important game. You could have attended a game in Fort Myers and seen a similar group of pitchers.
- Red Sox with runners in scoring position: 2-11. That makes the Red Sox 7-40 for the series (.175).
- As someone said on twitter (sorry, can't find who), Mike Aviles giveth, and Mike Aviles taketh away. Aviles made a couple throwing errors at third base, one of which led directly to a run. And yet Aviles made up for it with a double and a three run homer.
- In the eighth inning with Carl Crawford on second base Terry Francona inexplicably allowed Darnell McDonald to face a right handed pitcher when he had Josh Reddick sitting on the bench. As I said on twitter, McDonald has a .371 OPS against right handers this season. If that's too small a sample for you, he has a .595 OPS against righties in his career. We don't have to look anything up to know Reddick is a much better choice. OK, fine, I looked it up. Reddick has an .814 OPS. (I know OPS isn't the best measure of offensive output, but in this case it's an acceptable shorthand.)
- Red Sox catchers in the series: 0-13 with 2 walks. Almost all of that was Jarrod Saltalamacchia who had no hits in twelve at-bats with one walk.
I could keep going but I'd rather not. The Red Sox have played bad baseball this entire month. The virtue of playing incredible baseball for three months prior is that despite that they have a two game lead in the Wild Card. Lead or not, a huge collapse is imminent unless they start to play better baseball. As Darnell McDonald told Brian MacPherson, ""It doesn't matter if we’re two behind or two games up. We've got to play good baseball." Ain't that the truth.
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Darnell McDonald talking about good baseball
Is like Torquemada talking about the Geneva Convention.
by Sologub on Sep 18, 2011 8:02 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs
Darnell McDonald's
line of .278/.357/.458 in the second half
is much better than Reddick’s .254/.306/.403
or Carl Crawfords .267/.309/.417
so shhh
it’s kind of depressing to realize that Darnell McDonald might well be our second best outfielder, isn’t it?
Hey! Awesome! More perspective!!
I can’t get enough about hearing about how the Rays schedule is tougher than ours, so all’s right with the world.
We could be playing the Sisters of Mercy Charity Softball Team to finish out the season, and I would feel the least bit good about our chances.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
OK, how's this
OHMYGODTHESKYISFALLINGTHESKYISFALLINGWE’REALLGONNADIEWE’REALLGONNADIE?!?!?!?
Better?
Writer at Over The Monster. Follow me on Twitter! It'll be super awesome fun! @mattymatty2000
by Matthew Kory on Sep 18, 2011 8:12 PM EDT up reply actions
You mean realism?
A bit better, yeah.
We haven’t won two games in a row since Aug. 27. If we are gonna make the playoffs, we are probably gonna need to win two in a row.
If we are gonna go on in the playoffs, we are definitely gonna need to win back to back games.
Show me we can we games in a row.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
by Bloggy on Sep 18, 2011 9:04 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
If the train were leaving right now
We’d be on it.
"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.
Oh, come on.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
by Bloggy on Sep 18, 2011 9:07 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
*Sigh*
I hate that I agree with DMac. Better baseball has to be played. Period. As I said in the Game Thread, tomorrow’s double header will tell us a lot about this team. I hope it’s good news.
"It's baseball...when you rake that's what happens" -Dustin Pedroia
by Fenway302 on Sep 18, 2011 8:33 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
I think the worst thing that could happen
would be a one game playoff. I hope like crazy that does not happen, I’d just as soon miss the playoffs all together than have to watch this team go to TB and get their asses kicked again.
OTM's biggest Clutch Carl fan.
I honestly haven't seen anything like this since '78
It’s almost getting to be comical (almost). I keep looking at these guys we have in our starting rotation and it almost makes me feel like we don’t deserve to be in the post season. And minus the injury to Clay this is the rotation that we said would get us to the WS? Really? This team is psyching itself out right now. And had it not been for some very generous strike three calls for Beckett on Friday night we would have gotten swept.
This September is more than just a slump. It really is a collapse (even if we are still in first place for the WC). None of this should even be being talked about right now. And I can’t blame it on injuries. It’s not like half of our lineup is on the DL (like last year). It looks to me that with the exception of a few starters it’s simply a lack of talent.
I know that I’m hardly the most positive ’’poster’’ out here, but I’m really curious to know what some of you think is the problem. I don’t see any other team in the playoff hunt in either league having the problems that we’ve been having. The front office spent a lot of money for this team and it doesn’t look they will be getting a return on their investment this year.
i don't care anything for you since you only show up when things are bad
but yes you are correct-injuries are not a valid excuse this season.
OTM's biggest Clutch Carl fan.
Half the pitchers are injured though
Funny that our downturn started when Beckett and Bedard went down. The bad pitching, the pitching we’ve gotten because of injuries consistently has been getting us behind in games, starting out in a hole will kill any morale a team has and immediately puts us in a low probability situation. Come from behind victories do not grow in trees.
"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.
And those are the situations where Lackey and Lester need to step up,
and they haven’t done so.
This is not the rotation we said would get us to the World Series
The rotation in the preseason we said would do that included Clay, a 2010 or better version of John Lackey (because most thought he was sure to improve on, or at least maintain a sub-4.50 ERA) and a passable Dice-K at the fifth spot with Wake and possibly Aceves making spot starts. Then we were supposed to be able to rely on Wheeler & Jenks as 7th inning guys, Bard in the 8th inning and Paps in the 9th with Albers fitting in there somewhere with a lefty like Rich Hill or someone else that would only need to be a LOOGY.
You can’t blame everything on injuries, because this team has pissed away games they should have won despite all of that. However, to pretend the injuries to our pitching staff didn’t happen and that this current pitching staff is what we thought would get us to the playoffs is about as incorrect as you can get.
Crawford’s terrible season has hurt. Inconsistent production from the rest of the line-up as hurt. Fundamental fielding lapses have hurt. All of those are (mostly) not injury related. But this past month everytime I turn on a game it seems like we are down three or four runs within the first few innings.
by The Name is Dalton on Sep 19, 2011 9:08 AM EDT up reply actions
And Yes this September has been an epic collapse
And if they miss the playoffs, I believe it will be mentioned years from now. “Hopefully the won’t collapse like they did in 2011” will be something I’m sure will be said 5-10 years from now.
If I’m not mistaken this is one of the biggest Wild Card leads at Sept 1st that will have been blown, if not the biggest. I don’t have the time to look up that stat, but I could have sworn I heard that mentioned recently.
by The Name is Dalton on Sep 19, 2011 9:13 AM EDT up reply actions
Cheer up folks
I’m not trolling, but I hope the Rays sweep the Yankees and make this division interesting. Wouldn’t it be funny if the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs? It’s still possible. The Rays are no joke. -Tiger Fan
Because they have excellent pitching
And pitching wins in the playoffs, as San Francisco proved last year.
by The Name is Dalton on Sep 19, 2011 9:14 AM EDT up reply actions
If the Yanks lose the next 5 games
and you guys sweep the Orioles.
Then you’ll be tied for 1st with the Yanks and the Rays will be 2 games back.
If the Yanks lose the next five games?
Really?
Writer at Over The Monster. Follow me on Twitter! It'll be super awesome fun! @mattymatty2000
by Matthew Kory on Sep 18, 2011 9:35 PM EDT up reply actions
You guys will make the playoffs. I would be really surprised (although admittedly not disappointed, lol) if you didn’t make it. Once you’re in the playoffs, anything can happen. You have 2 legit aces, and your offense is bound to wake up eventually. You’ll be fine.
The Savior has come, and he is glorious. #63
We have three ace-caliber pitchers and a #2
getting all four of them healthy at the same time has been an issue though.
I'm a 7 WAR player in bed.
by TheLoneDavid on Sep 19, 2011 3:13 AM EDT up reply actions
If you're gonna call out Salty for being hitless in the series you really ought to call out Gonzo
Gonzalez went 0-for-12 in the four games after only having one hit last week at Tampa Bay. Add his three hits vs. Toronto and he only has four hits total in his last 28 at-bats (9 games).
Gonzo who?
Good point. Gonzo has disappeared offensively against the Rays. I knew he was slumping but those numbers are not encouraging. I hope he’s not hurt as has been suggested. We really need him down the stretch.
Just F@CKING win....play hard always!
by Fenway302 on Sep 19, 2011 1:19 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
You're right, but
at a certain point why keep going down the list? The team has been bad. Their pitching has been really bad, their hitting sorta bad and generally ill-timed. But yes, Gonzalez, whether due to injury or slump or aliens taking up residence in his toes, has done nothing at the plate recently.
Writer at Over The Monster. Follow me on Twitter! It'll be super awesome fun! @mattymatty2000
by Matthew Kory on Sep 19, 2011 3:46 AM EDT up reply actions
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