5.01.08 v. Jays

Summary In a Nutshell:

A.J. Burnett. Tim Wakefield. We should've seen it coming.

Player of the Game:

Burnett. .487 WPA on his own. 

Comment of the Game:

Wow. When did we become the Twins? -MerryGoByeBye

5.02.08 v. Rays

Summary In a Nutshell:

Edwin Jackson = inconsistent. We should've seen it coming.

Player of the Game:

WPA says Buch (.221). I say: SwordBat-fighting midgets.

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Comment of the Game:

I'm on Gameday. How irate should I be about the throwing error by Lugo? -nuthinboutnuthin

5.03.08

Summary In a Nutshell:

James Shields. Josh Beckett. Revenge. We should have seen it coming.

Player of the Game:

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Comment of the Game:

On the plus side...I am forced to admit that Lugo is looking sharp at the plate. WTF? -nuthinboutnuthin

via www.fangraphs.com

Summary:

All right. It wasn't really wasted. But when your up-again, down-again young LHSP puts together his best start in the history of ever, it'd be nice for him to get a W to go along with it. Instead, Paps (who started off the 9th as well as ever, then needed a bit of DP help to avoid damage from a 2-out 2B off the bat of Scott Rolen.) got the win by throwing one scoreless inning in relief.

The offense is still woeful. Only Youks had a positive WPA out of the Sox hitters last night, and losing JD Drew for however long that might be certainly won't help matters. It's a chore watching Coco leadoff, btw, even if it's not as difficult to watch him at the plate in general thusfar in the season. 

Lester, however, went toe-to-toe with CG artist Roy Halladay and emerged the victor no decisioner. Lester was uncommonly efficient, still allowing 4 walks in his 8 innings, but seemed to buckle down after each walk, and was certainly aided by inducing a number of ground ball outs. He also struck out 6, and finished his 8 innings with less than 100 pitches (97). Like Buch, we'll just have to see if some of this carries over to his next couple starts before making any kind of long-term judgments.

Player of the Game: Vernon Wells

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Comment of the Game:

At this point, I'll take a 1-0 win as long as it's the home team winning. -DJDP23's

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Summary:

Gabbard v. Buchholz

In the battle of former semi-prospect and current uber-prospect, injury won. Gabbard was unable to go beyond the second inning due to injury, and Dustin Nippert took over. Fortunately for the Sox, and not so much for the Rangers. The offense was led by DP (2-5, 2B, 2 RsBI), Julio Lugo (not kidding, 4-4, 2B, SB, 2 R, RBI, BB) and Tacoby (2-4, 2 SB, BB, 2 R). Buch was shaky early, but settled down well, striking out 6 in 6 while allowing 7 baserunners. The Sox bullpen (Aardsma, J-Lo, and MDC) was not terrific.

All I do really well is not walk people Jered Weaver v. Beckett Pauley

You know what? I'm not upset that David Pauley was, shall we say, not good yesterday. Part of it is the great team win that resulted, but a bigger part is that it was a fairly unfair situation. He didn't know what he was doing, then was told at 2 he would not be pitching, then was told at 4 that he would be pitching. Thankfully, the 'pen was mostly able to keep the Rangers from scoring (with the only blip being a solo HR off the bat of Casey Kotchman). Kudos, in particular, to Paps who lit up the radar gun on the way to an 11-pitch, 2 K, 1-2-3 9th inning. Offensively, this game belonged to DP. There was much moaning in the thread about a baserunning gaffe, but he made up for it by going 4-5 on the day, with 3 2B and a SB!. Tacoby also helped "a little" by hitting his 2nd and 3rd HRs of the season, and getting the bunt single that led to him scoring the winning run. The Sox managed 16 hits in total, with 7 (4 2B, 3 HR) going for extra bases. 

Players of the Gamez:

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Clay's 6 shutout innings were just what we (and he) needed on Monday. DP just absolutely rocked the house on Tuesday, narrowly edging out Tacoby.

Commentz of the Gamez:

Don't worry. The Rangers just misplayed Lugo's double play ball for a single up the middle. - ecoli

It's not Lugo. It's an alien using his body. There, I said it. - merrygobyebye

via www.fangraphs.com

Summary:

Jennings v. Lester

Woohoo and whatnot. Jon Lester threw 6 innings. I threw a little party for him last night, on behalf of that. Good work by the 'pen as well, with J-Lo, MDC, Timlin and Paps combining for three scoreless innings after Lester left. Hitting-wise, Dustin, Papi, and especially "Being" threw down the other night. Manny just keeps on hitting for us in big moments, answering the question we all wondered about just what might've happened 2003-2006 if Papi didn't come through every single time.

Millwood v. Wake

First of all, Wake was ridiculously efficient. Averaging about 2.7 pitches per inning, several innings were over before the infielders and outfielders were actually through warming up. The Rangers were jumping on pitches, exhibiting no patience, and actually were fairly successful doing so. They were able to get their 7 hits in bunches, and combined with two of those hits being HRs, scored 5 off of Wake by the 6th inning. If you caught the game thread, you know a lot of us were pretty despondent. In retrospect, I suppose I'm not sure why. I think it's that the runs scored off of HRs, which always seem like more than they really are. Nevertheless.

...so what happened? 2 runs in the 7th, run-scoring singles by Papi and Drew brought us to within 3. We entered the 8th inning, and the magic really began. All with 2 outs: Tacoby 1B, Jed Lowrie 2B (5-3), Papi 1B (5-4), DP PH 2B (5-5), Youks IBB, Drew BB, Casey BB (5-6). Kevin Cash, who made the first out of the inning, also made the third, and Paps came on for the save, though it wasn't the most relaxed save he's ever given us.

Players of the Gamez:

Jennings v. Lester

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Who else, really?

Millwood v. Wake

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Thank you, Yahoo! Images. This way I don't have to choose. Also, good job Jed Lowrie.

Comment-mania:

GIDP - Now Papi is trying to make Lugo look good. There’s a lot of love going on in this team. :) - MerryGoByeBye

There's no element of surprise. I'm just watching our inexorable march towards yet another amazing win.Tedious is hardly the word. - britsoxfan (Proper context: We were still down 5-2, and there were 2 outs in the 8th inning with only one runner on.)