Curt Schilling looked much better, although he seemed to tire in the middle innings (he began the fifth at 70 pitches), losing both velocity and control, and leaving his split-finger fastball up in the strike zone. His line: 6.1-9-4-3-4.
It had no bearing on the eventual score, but the White Sox were nice enough to bunt themselves out of a potentially huge rally in the fifth. Geoff Blum singled and scored on Juan Uribe's double, giving Chicago a 2-0 lead. Then, in a move that was praised to the skies by ESPN's Dave O'Brien and Rick Sutcliffe, Ozzie Guillen called for two bunts. The last one -- a suicide squeeze -- brought in Uribe, making the score 3-0. So Chicago traded this scenario:
2-0 lead, man on 2nd, 0 outs, top of the order upfor this one:
3-0 lead, no one on, two outs, #3 hitter up.That is stupid baseball. Especially in the top of the fifth inning, against the Red Sox at Fenway.
Naturally, ESPN loved it. "Ozzie created a run," cooed Sutcliffe. ... We've been talking about moronic announcers in some of the comments (these guys do a great job of pointing out the silliness that passes for baseball analysis) -- and while you could write a book about Sutcliffe's gaffes and inanities for every game he calls, I'll include just one from this game.
In the seventh inning, Uribe singled and was then thrown out trying to steal second base. The play was very close, and ESPN showed replays from about five different angles. Part of the discussion in the booth went like this (not verbatim, but damn close):
Sutcliffe: Nope, Uribe was safe.Yeesh. And these guys said they'll be at Friday's Sox-Yankees game. Rut roh. ... Alright, one more: In the Red Sox ninth, Sutcliffe praised Kevin Millar for fouling off "a lot of pitches" to get the one he hit for a double. The at-bat went: foul, swing/miss, foul, ball, double.
O'Brien: I gotta believe he's out.
Sutcliffe: I agree with you.
[Another replay is shown.]
Sutcliffe: Yup, Uribe was right, he was safe.
Sorry, Rick, but unless you are talking about functioning brain cells in your head, two is not a lot. However, you did manage to get through a non-Yankee game with mentioning Derek Jeter only twice -- yet, strangely, not when the right field ball boy leapt into the stands -- so that was an improvement.
The East lead is three games, and the Yankees, who had Monday off, lead the wild card by 1.5 over both Cleveland and Oakland. ... The Sox now host the Angels for three games. Wakefield / Lackey at 7:00.
OK, so we're greedy. Get one championship after 8 decades, you want another. But it's not gonna happen without Schilling and Foulke.
ReplyDeleteCongrats Curt on passing Cy Young on the all-time KO list, but "Mr. Splitty" is still MIA. KF is coming around, but if I recall correctly, you need to be ahead in the 9th inning in order to use your closer.
I don't know about you, but don't you get kinda tired of people covering for pitchers by saying, "outside of the inning he gave up 6 runs, he pitched well....".
more at: www.go-bostonredsox.blogspot.com
Well, what really burned me was both announcers saying this was the "Schilling of old" or the "same Schilling as we saw last October". Give me a break. He was decent in the early innings and looked much better than any other time this year, but he was not dominant. He has not returned fully to form. Those ESPN guys are bad.
ReplyDeleteI thought Schilling looked like last year's Schilling on a bad day, and that's a huge improvement. Foulke also looked better than he had in '05...had he once, before yesterday, retired all the batters he faced? I'll take progress from these two over the win any time. Chad 2, however, has yet to impress.
ReplyDeleteBut Sutcliffe is the worst color man ever. I hate his unctious voice, I hate his stupidity, I hate his pretensions to expertise, and most of all, I hate how he makes every team that's playing the Red Sox sound like the second coming of the '27 Yankees. Guillen's a genius, how about this young pitcher, what a story this second-string catcher is, boy is Rowland under-rated, that bullpen is locked in, what a great player Konerko is...ARGHH!
KIll Sutcliffe, shoot him now, drag him out of the booth and bury him alive with rats! He's a curse on the national pastime! Honestly, the sound of his voice makes my skin crawl.
Let's talk about the fact that since about two weeks into the season the Red Sox, not the ChiSox, have been the best team in the league. There's just got to be someone better than this hack. Why not Remy? Why not Kruk? Hell, I'll take silly old Hawk over Sutcliffe...at least he had one great year for the home team and has Nehru jackets in his closet.
Don't you think you have been remiss in not pointing out that after the Yankees picked up Bellhorn his first hit as a Yankee is a home run?
ReplyDeleteI'm not remiss in pointing out that Bellhorn is 1/9 with two walks and two strikeouts in his stint with the Yankees...which sounds about right.
ReplyDeleteDon't you think you have been remiss in not pointing out that after the Yankees picked up Bellhorn his first hit as a Yankee is a home run?
ReplyDeleteI think you're remiss for posting snide Yankee-related comments without using your name.
What do you think, the pinstripes made him do it?