August 9, 2009

G110: Yankees 5, Red Sox 2

Red Sox - 000 000 020 - 2  9  0
Yankees - 000 000 14x - 5 10 0
Victor Martinez's two-run home run to deep left off Phil Coke ended Boston's scoreless inning streak at 31. It was the longest stretch of futility since September 1-5, 1974, when the Red Sox went 34 innings without a run.

With a sudden 2-1 lead, Lester (7-5-1-0-7, 107) should have started the eighth. I'm assuming Terry Francona had no plans to have Lester pitch the entire inning and wanted his first reliever out of the pen to start with a clean slate and no runners on base.

And so Lester sat on the bench while Daniel Bard and Hideki Ojakima gave the game away. After Bard retired Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira hit back-to-back home runs. Alex Rodriguez walked, Jorge Posada doubled, and Nick Swisher hit a two-run single.

The Red Sox mounted a rally (of sorts) in the ninth against Mariano Rivera. J.D. Drew singled to right (he was 3-for-4) and after Mike Lowell flied to right and Jason Varitek struck out, pinch-hitter David Ortiz walked. Jacoby Ellsbury was the potential tying run, but he grounded weakly to first to end the game and the series.

The first four-game sweep of the Red Sox in the Bronx since August 16-19, 1985.

Boston is now 6.5 GB in the East and tied for the Wild Card.

There are 52 games left to play.
Example
Lineup:
1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. Victor Martinez, 1B
4. Kevin Youkilis, 3B
5. Jason Bay, LF
6. J.D. Drew, RF
7. Mike Lowell, DH
8. Jason Varitek, C
9. Nick Green, SS
And because we cannot let a day go by without a roster move: the Red Sox have called up RHP Fernando Cabrera (1.69, 20-for-20 in save opp.) from Pawtucket and sent Enrique Gonzalez back down. Cabrera's major league stats -- 2004-08 with the Spiders and Orioles -- are here.
Example
Jon Lester (3.79, 124 ERA+) / Andy Pettitte (4.35, 102 ERA+)

The Red Sox turn to Lester to avoid a four-game sweep and to snap a five-game losing streak. A victory tonight would move Boston back to 4.5 GB the Yankees in the East.

Lester has allowed more than three earned runs in only two of his last 14 starts -- a 2.42 ERA since May 21). He has faced the Yankees twice this season: April 24 in Boston (6-7-2-3-7, Sox 5-4) and May 4 at New York (7-6-2-3-10, Sox 6-4).

mlb.com:
Thanks in large part to some newfound control of his cut fastball, Pettitte was able to hold the Blue Jays to just one run in 6.2 innings last time out. Struggling with his control at times, Pettitte nonetheless struck out six batters, using the cutter to work ahead in counts.
Pettitte started in Fenway on April 26 (6-6-4(3ER)-4-6) a game the Red Sox won 4-1.
Example
Wankers Of The Day: Daily News writers Bill Madden, who announces "the worm has officially turned" and the Yankees are threatening to turn the AL East into "a cakewalk", and John Harper, who claims that the rivalry now has a "more familiar Yankee dominance" and Brian Cashman has "outmaneuver[ed]" Theo Epstein this year.

3-8 now passes for "dominance" in Yankees Universe?

670 comments:

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Iridescence said...

"Beckett and Lester in this series: 15 innings, 1 run, and it's looking like 2 losses."

Yeah and Clay was good yesterday too...

9casey said...

Kevin said...
Is it even worth hoping for a blown save?




nah, your right , fuck it...

Patrick said...

sack up red sox, clap-clap-clap-clap-clap

A Conformer said...

Beckett and Lester in this series: 15 innings, 1 run, and it's looking like 2 losses.

And don't forget Lester's game against the FKR, too. Having great starting pitching in 5 games out of six and losing all six of them is just... the lowest you can go.

Amy said...

Is there any explanation for why our team suddenly stinks?

mattymatty said...

I could be wrong but I think this feels worse than losing game 7 to Tampa last year.

Unknown said...

Leadoff hit, that's a start

mattymatty said...

JD!

That's one hit... Keep it going!

9casey said...

mattymatty said...
I could be wrong but I think this feels worse than losing game 7 to Tampa last year.




you are......we still play tommorrow

allan said...

light the (on) fire

Amy said...

This feels about as bad as I have felt in almost six years.

Patrick said...

We lost game seven to actually good pitching. We've been losing to mediocre pitching with incredible pitching of our own.

Just stupid.

allan said...

we got 51 games after today. and it can't get much worse.

Iridescence said...

"I could be wrong but I think this feels worse than losing game 7 to Tampa last year."

It is always worse against the MFY. Oh god how I hate them right now. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to hate a team more than I hated them before but they've proven me wrong.

allan said...

why the fuck can't we hit some run-scoring pop-ups?

mattymatty said...

Another fucking line drive right at someone.

Unknown said...

Tek hitting for himself

Fuck you Tito

mattymatty said...

Why is Tek batting? Isn't Ortiz in the dugout?

Amy said...

So Tek is hitting for Tek. Guess Tito has given up.

allan said...

tek = tito's white flag tonight

tim said...

Attn: Tito

Fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you.

A Conformer said...

Rivera not getting the Rivera strike zone.

Unknown said...

Nice to see an umpire finally enforce the strike zone when Rivera's on the mound

Patrick said...

Tek has good numbers vs. fruit bat...

at least this is what I think Tito is thinking.

allan said...

don't just do something, tek, stand there

A Conformer said...

Tek is hitting because Green is on deck...

allan said...

b2b hr ties it

mattymatty said...

"Tek has good numbers vs. fruit bat..."

I haven't looked it up, but I think Ortiz has a hit or two off him too.

Iridescence said...

can't blame Tito for this. He can't make them hit or the relievers pitch better.

Unknown said...

Fuck you Tek
Fuck you Tito

Amy said...

As expected.

A Conformer said...

TeK. But of course.

mattymatty said...

shit... that was predictable.

tim said...

What a fucking surprise.

Try not to have an aneurysm, Miller. You fucking cunt.

mattymatty said...

I know Green sucks, but didn't he have two hits today?

Ooo.. and Ortiz misses what looked like a very hittable pitch there.

mattymatty said...

Now all Drew has to do is steal ten more bases consecutively and we'll be tied!

tim said...

I would've much rather seen Ortiz PH for K-Tek than Green.

Iridescence said...

"I know Green sucks, but didn't he have two hits today?"


Even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut.

Unknown said...

I've heard that Buchholz is fast, is there any possibility he could be used as a pinch runner if Papi gets on?

mattymatty said...

that looked a little low, but no surprise it was called a strike

mattymatty said...

BALL 4! Walk's as good as a hit.

Patrick said...

LBJ!!!! DO IT FOR LAURA! SHOW US ALL YOUR DONG!

allan said...

Lyndon = Tying Run!

Hit a cheapo HR, pls.

Amy said...

Tying run at the plate. LBJ, make me cry for joy.

Iridescence said...

inside-the-park-dong please LBJ

Unknown said...

Alright, if we're going to start this, let's actually tie it

mattymatty said...

LBJ!!!! DO IT FOR LAURA! SHOW US ALL YOUR DONG!

thanks for the laugh Patrick. Much appreciated.

Anonymous said...

*crosses fingers and prays for Red Sox mojo*

Unknown said...

...

So, which way to the Tobin?

Amy said...

Not to be.

Water is beyond clean. Sterile. Just like our team.

Anonymous said...

...goddammit.

This is feeling more and more like "not our year".

mattymatty said...

i'm searching for something not-very-valuable to throw against the wall...

SoSock said...

shit - that was a good pitch to hit.
that wasn't.
Sparkling clean water in the toilet

tim said...

Well, this is about as low as we can go.

Beat Detroit.

allan said...

I have walked out of the Old Toilet after series like this. It is not fun.

SoSock said...

Oh well, we still have an 8-4 margin in the series, but that doesn't help in the standings.
On a brighter note (and ANYTHING would be brighter), Neo-soul turned out to be pretty damn good music last night.

Amy said...

Well, thanks for sharing the pain, everyone.

mattymatty said...

Fuck. Nothing more to say... 'night all.

Iridescence said...

maybe this bunch can still pull it together and get the wild card somehow. The division is pretty much gone. 6 damn games lost to the motherfuckers in the standings in one week.Unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

I know it's not the only problem, but I wonder if this series will teach Tito to stop pulling his starters when they're rolling because of pitch counts.

I've always believes that the circa-100 pitch count that he adheres to is stupid.

Unknown said...

Tied for the WC now

tim said...

As much as I would've loved to see Lester stay in there, I think Tito's set in his ways and we won't be seeing any sort of changes in that respect.

I really hope this 4 game sweep is a nice hard boot in the ass of every player, manager, coach and translator on this team. Because it sure as shit is to me.

laura k said...

We're still making the playoffs. It's ridiculous to think otherwise.

It's August 9. There's still plenty of baseball to play.

I will be here for all of it. You?

Iridescence said...

"It's August 9. There's still plenty of baseball to play.

I will be here for all of it. You?"

I will be here. I really think this team is a lot better than they've played this week (except for the starting pitchers not named Smoltz and Penny who have been very good).

Maybe everyone is pressing to hard and trying to be the hero too much. I really find team-wide slumps like this hard to understand and obviously frustrating but this team is capable of playing very well. Hopefully they will show that again soon.

nixon33 said...

This is pretty grim at the moment. Lets shave a couple of games and wait til we get that shower of shit team back to Fenway in late August and see what we can do. They still have west coast trips to make, and have a tougher schedule down the stretch than we do, but if we keep playing like shit, then...

We need to start a 2004 like winning streak

I HATE TEIXEIRA WHAT A FUCKING PROPER CUNT

Rob said...

Everything's in flux right now. This is a between-time for the Red Sox. The guys are banged up, got a lot of injuries, but also we have things to look forward to. I'll be very excited to watch Tazawa pitch and maybe, just maybe we'll see Dice-K back and being a good Dice-K, at least good enough to help us win. Paul Byrd is coming along, although I wouldn't like to hang my hopes on Paul Byrd.

This time of the year is all about survival. All we want to do is just GET IN to the playoffs. Somehow, some way. Once that happens, anything can happen. You have to get in, but getting in isn't IT. Then you have to play your best baseball, and I think the Red Sox can play their best baseball when it counts.

Catlady Blue said...

While the "dominance" quote is kind of dumb, I would heartily agree that Cashman has out manuevered Epstein this year. For one, he didn't sign John Smoltz.

allan said...

For one, he didn't sign John Smoltz.

You can't be serious. Smoltz did not pan out, but where does he rank on the list of the Red Sox's hopes/disappointments this season? 12th? 15th? ... And let's remember the shitty starts this year by Wang, Hughes and Mitre.

Any advantage Cashman has is because of the cash, man. And recently, it is the nearly $1,000,000,000 in about one year's time. That's one billion dollars.

The myth of Cashman's baseball acumen is perhaps even stronger than the supreme glory of Varitek's intangibles behind the plate.

9casey said...

redsock said...


The myth of Cashman's baseball acumen





I don't believe there is a myth , he gets killed here on the east coast, and has yet to win anything..The jury is still out here, there are still games to play...And the Red Sox had every oppurtunity to sign any of the same guys they did , they are not hurtin for cash, they just have limits..

tim said...

Good post, ish. Sounds about right. Get in, then we'll do our damage. They've got a pretty big lead in the east right about now. Let's see where we're at come Sep 1 though...

Speaking of the lead - have the comparisons to the 5 game sweep in 2006 come out from the mediots yet? You know, the one that totally blew us from contention and was the "greatest choke in sports history"?

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