Royals - 000 000 000 - 0 1 0
Red Sox - 000 010 00x - 1 6 0
IP H R ER BB K PIT ERA
Lester 8 1 0 0 4 4 100 2.38
Papelbon 1 0 0 0 0 1 8 0.55An absolute gem from Jon Lester, who was able to keep his pitch count down (15-16-8 20-9-13 11-8). Kansas City's only hit came on a ground ball up the middle by Teahen with one out in the second inning. Alex Gonzalez tried to glove it -- and I thought he might -- but it was just out his reach, bouncing into center field. Nothing else was even close to being a hit.With one out in the home fifth, Jason Varitek doubled high off the left field wall. One out later, Gonzalez singled to center for the RBI.
In New York: According to several SoSHers, tonight's YES worship of new Yankee starter Sidney Ponson is already in high gear. Michael Kay said that Mariners starter Joel Piniero did a "nice job", but Ponson was "incredible". Let's take a look:
IP H R ER BB K
Piniero "nice" 6 7 2 2 1 5
Ponson "incredible" 6.2 5 4 4 3 5***
Brandon Duckworth (5.40) / Jon Lester (2.89), 7 PM
It takes A-Gon to break through the logjam!
ReplyDeleteLester: little wild but not requiring an act of God to escape innings so far.
For the Yankees what Ponson did was probably incredible given what their team has seen so far from starting pitching this year.
ReplyDeleteexcellent stuff. one of those games where you get way more excited than if we crush a team 20-0 (although awesome, that would be;))
ReplyDeleteshutting down a team, even if it's KC, is so...satisfying ;D
i didn't know it had been since 2001 (!) that red sox pitching had produced a one-hitter. dayum. pretty cool :)
and i love lester. and it's not just cause of what he has done so far. i felt it right away with him; he has poise, presence, and a 'fuck'd if i care' cool feeling about him on the mound. he never seems fazed.
it's why we don't dump on beckett for being the 'way-back' machine that the boston globe would like to paint him out as. we like him cause he is 'beckett'. he is...well. the man ;)
lol. i copped out there.
I'M TIRED((
Yanks got to extra innings on a BAD CALL in the ninth. Posada was out at first, no question about it. Just got lucky. Grrr.
ReplyDeletePonson also received a standing O for his performance. That's right, Varitek gets one for catching more games than any other Sox player IN HISTORY, while Yankee fans give 'em out for four runs in six and two-thirds.
ReplyDeleteIt's not madness. Without Pap as a closer, we risk losing EVERY game. But I'm with you on the Yankee/ump-fueled nausea.
ReplyDeletehaha yankee fans gave ponson a standing O? how silly.
ReplyDeleteit's like how yankee hitters will get a curtain call for like every home run or big hit they get, as if it's this impossible thing that doesn't happen everyday in baseball. or how they play the theme for 'the natural' at ameriquest field whenever a texas ranger goes deep [i think they still do that. if they don't, they used to].
it's weak. embarrassing really. those things should be saved for extraordinary, special circumstances, but they overdo it everytime.
Converting a closer to a starter is not an instantaneous process. This year, with all the talk of switching roles, I've been led to believe it's a matter of different training, different type of endurance, what have you.
ReplyDeleteAnd there is some agreement that being a closer is a mental state as much as anything else. Just because he's that good at being a closer doesn't mean he'd be a 13-2 1.89 ERA starter. Maybe he wouldn't do as well in that role.
When someone's doing a job as well as he is, you leave him in there. Next season, maybe a change, but -- the way he's pitching now, he's not just an effective closer. Not just a good closer. He's maintained a .5 ERA over more than half the season.
He'd almost certainly be at least a decent starter, might be a great one, but if we were to take a chance on converting him, it would take time, we'd lose our closer, and if it was all a big mistake and we wanted him to go back to closing, it'd be late September by the time he'd get back there effectively.
Understand you have your mind made up on this one, Jack, but I don't see it as madness.