Plenty to like about this game -- Curt Schilling (7-5-2-1-5), David Ortiz (single, double, a long home run off the top of the right field foul pole, 2 runs, 3 RBI, ho-hum), Crisp (2 runs, excellent speed on the bases, and several nice catches in center), even Mike Lowell (home run). ... Good for Keith Foulke to pitch the 9th, up by five runs. He was hit pretty hard, but nailed it down.
2:08 PM -- Coco Crisp looks at ball one from Kevin Millwood ... here we go!
8:00 AM -- I'm up early, after working a 14-hour Sunday (11 AM to 1 AM -- after losing an hour's sleep the night before -- ugh.), driving to Buffalo to pick up Laura from the airport (she was in New York for her sister's 50th birthday celebration). There should be plenty of time to get back for the 2:00 start. Not sure if I'll be able to find a Sam Adams at my local LCBO, but I'll have something cold and alcoholic within reach, damn it, because it's a national holiday. I'll be wearing a Godpapi t-shirt, posting in the SoSH Game Thread via laptop and filling in the blank boxes in Scorecard #1. ... What do you do for Opening Day?
8 comments:
Well, I didn't take the day off but I defiantly left my desk to have a beer -- just in time to watch Ortiz's towering foul ball go fair. And frenetically sent e-mail updates to my brother.
Why Foulke in a non-save situation? The game's only really sobering time was the inning he pitched.
Poor Youk was the only starter without a hit.
Uh, Foulke, so...
How many times is he allowed to suck like that before he's yanked? Sure, it was only a run, but if Crisp doesn't save him a two-run double with 1 out, that shit starts to blow up. How about seven appearances where he looks like that? Can we try something else if he sucks like that seven times in the first month?
(PS Great game.)
Foulkster better have a short leash, I think that if he blows 2 saves in April you will see Papelbon quickly given the chance to start saving games. We will see, posted my thoughts on the game at plls.blogspot.
Jack,
Don't forget about newly-signed free agent Bill "Soup" Campbell on Opening Day 1977.
Blew the save and the game against Cleveland. If I recall, the next day's Herald back page said:
Wait 'Til Next Year
The one thing that's really sticking with me from yesterday's game is that Coco is FAST. He was absolutely flying around the bases and centerfield last night.
Jack, I agree that everything but Foulke was really clickin' yesterday. It was a great game to watch in that way, scripted just about the way I'd like any game to go...Crisp speed pays off on the bases and in center...Schilling has gas and good placement...Loretta's a real number two hitter...Ortiz does what he does...hey, Lowell hit a homer! (though hopefully that last will get less surprising as the season goes on)
I think it's just that I remember being so frustrated for so long last year with Foulke. I do not wish to make it to July with that big a question mark again. The fact that it was in Texas yesterday raised my blood pressure ten more points as I remembered last Independence Day.
I'll buy that he was working on placement and fastball yesterday (according to an interview?) and I'll suppose that he wouldn't pitch that way in a one-run game, but I'll still have narrowed eyes whenever he comes in for awhile. Hey, I really think Papelbon could take up the slack as closer if necessary. Insignificant sample size and all. His pitching against Toronto late last year and against the White Sox in the playoffs made me a believer in Papelbon as relief pitcher.
I gave him a chance! For MONTHS last year. Until I see that things have changed, I'll continue to worry, thanks.
I don't think it's anything approaching illogical to be worried about yesterday's outing. I'm not freaking out about it on its own; I'm worried about it as a possible continuation of the same thing I saw in his disastrous 2005. It's not one game; it's thirty of them.
Like I said, I can believe he was not pitching like he might have if the situation were different, so yesterday doesn't bother me much. But if he is doing badly by April's end or at the latest mid-May...well, I'm not interested in waiting around and hoping like I did last year.
Thanks for the report, YazTex. Feel free to keep filing them.
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