August 28, 2006

G131: Athletics 9, Red Sox 0

1:08 AM -- And so to bed.

***

Damn. Ortiz out of the starting lienup. Cora (ss) bumped from 9th to 2nd, Pedroia in at 2B and batting 9th. Loretta is batting third and DHing. [shaking head]

***

Kason Gabbard (3.38) / Esteban Loaiza (5.12), 10 PM

In his last start, Loaiza threw a four-hit, complete game shutout against Toronto. He is 3-0, 1.76, in his last five starts, with 27 strikeouts and three walks. ... David Ortiz is 12-for-28 (.429) against Loaiza, with three doubles, six walks and a .529 OBP.

With Beckett and Schilling following Gabbard, I hope Francona doesn't decide to punt this game away around about the 6th inning.

Lineups:
Crisp, CF      Kendall, C
Loretta, 2B Kielty, LF
Ortiz, DH Bradley, RF
Youkilis, LF Thomas, DH
Lowell, 3B Payton, CF
Hinske, RF Chavez, 3B
Lopez, C Swisher, 1B
CPena, 1B Scutaro, SS
Cora, SS Ellis, 2B
Coming In: Boston has lost nine of their last 11 games, 11 of their last 14 games and 16 of their last 22. They are 8-18 in August, the most losses by the team in any month since June 2000 (9-18). And they have hit .188 (36-for-191) the first six games of this road trip, 6-for-34 (.176) with runners in scoring position. ... With 32 games left, the Red Sox trail the Yankees by 6.5 games in the East and the Twins by 5.5 in the wild card.

And now for the good news:

...

...

Umm, I couldn't find any.

10 comments:

9casey said...

Red Sox fans ........paying the postage?

Jonah Falcon said...

I can't remember the last time I saw a catcher bat lead-off....(?)

Jason Kendall's led off for the last decade or so.

Anonymous said...

30 days ago we led the MFY by 3.5 games, with the trade deadline having loomed but 48 hours away.

Who would have thought that 30 days later the season has been lost, and that the Sept. 1 call-up date would give the Sox the ability to begin evaluating players for next season vs. providing depth for the ALDS push?
Ortiz heading to the sidelines is but a final, unfortunate footnote the epitaph of the 2006 Red Sox:

- Epstein trading Arroyo in the belief that we had pitching to spare (e.g., Clement, Wells).
- The boy wonder, Beckett, whose contributions have evoked more boy than wonder.
- Take Clement - please - and take Seanez (gone) and Tavarez with him.
- Epstein standing pat with his hand of "untradeables" at the 7/31 deadline, only to see other GMs double down for the final stretch.
- Wake, Tek, and Nixon, Lester, and now Ortiz subsequently leading a parade to the DL, while Manny and his hammy continue their nightly ride on the pine pony.
- Unlike the guy in NY, Torre, Francona has not shown the ability to lead his team through similar bouts of injury and adversity. Can you imagine the NYY mailing it in after being swept in 5 like BOS has? NFW. Torre wouldn't allow it.
- Javy Lopez, who continued to prove his mettle as a Sox killer -after joining the team.

This season can't end soon enough, and there will be changes a plenty in the off season. Chief among them may be Epstein, whose rose has long since lost its bloom. As the Boston Globe reported on Monday, he still hasn't signed his contract.....

Kyle said...

Yaz-Tek: Your full of it! Why make a deal to trade away Coco and some prospects or Lester and more prospects for a rental player and likely still be in the same situation we are today?

Makes no sense. I'm glad they didn't make a deal. We just didn't have the pitching this. Guys couldn't stay healthy and the young guys were exactly that young and inexperienced. Afraid to throw strikes.

As fans, we want to win and we get angry when they don't make trades and we don't always have an eye for the future.

The Manny/Papi combo isn't going anywhere and will be just as productive for 2-3 more yrs. WMP should develop further and that's a solid 3-4-5 punch.

Jere said...

9-0, the perfect final score to this essentially forfeited game.

Yaz-Tex, you make several good points, but I'm not buying that BS about Torre. If Torre was the manager of the Red Sox right now, he wouldn't just wave his magic wand and say "I won't allow every single pitcher to shit the bed and I'll have none of these injuries!" Although if I were Tito, I'd actually consider buying some sort of magic wand right now. Ain't any dumber than acid wash. And by acid wash I mean "using any of the pitcherrs we have in any situation."

And if the wand doesn't work for anything else, maybe he could at least make himself disappear.

Peter N said...

Ha ha. My feelings are concentrated on Papi being OK. Nothing more, nothing less.

Jonah Falcon said...

You're making the assumption this was a good team before the trade deadline.

Right now, the Red Sox record vs. teams not named the Orioles or from the NL is 42-57.

Sal Magundi said...

Don't blame Tito this is all Epstein's doing. Teh guy is just cheap. He reminds me of Kennedy in the Bay of Pigs--letting poor Tito get massacred.

allan said...

Don't blame Tito this is all Epstein's doing.

Yeah, stoopid Theo.

Injuring Varitek's knee, hitting that line drive off Wells's knee (and Clement's head last year), clobbering Wakefield in the back, driving the car that rear-ended Lester, speeding up Ortiz's heart, snapping Crisp's finger, making Manny's hamstring and knee more susceptible to injury, hammering Wily Mo's wrist, mind-controlling Beckett and Timlin to suck, and doing whatever he did to make Foulke, Nixon, Gonzalez, and everyone else I'm forgetting not be able to play.

Damn that Theo!

laura k said...

This was a VERY good team before all the injuries hit; the record proved it.

You prove Redsock's point here.