Bright spots from an ugly game:
David Ortiz hit HR #53 in the first inning. If he can go deep tomorrow night (with me in attendance!), he'll set a new record for most road homers in a season. Right now, he's tied with Babe Ruth with 32 (1927).
Mike Lowell doubled twice, Kevin Youkilis singled and tripled, and Alex Gonzalez and Wily Mo Pena both singled and doubled. ... Kason Gabbard pitched 2.2 hitless innings, walking two Jays who eventually scored.
Which brings us to the ugliness.
Snyder faced nine batters in the third, and left after that inning trailing 4-2. Gabbard took over and retired eight of nine hitters -- with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Toronto led 4-3. Then the next 14 Blue Jays batters unloaded:
Gabbard in 6th: walk, walk
Delcarmen in 6th: 2-run triple, rbi-single, rbi-double, groundout
DiNardo in 7th: walk, double, 2-run single, popout, single
Burns in 7th: rbi-double, rbi-sac fly, rbi-double
With the Yankees' loss to Tampa, Boston is 10.5 GB and Toronto is 11.
***
Kyle Snyder (6.28) / Gustavo Chacin (4.87), 1 PM
9 comments:
I don't want to finish in 3rd.
Really, really don't.
L-girl--where is the faith? Wake will show you in person why the Sox missed him the most. After that, Jays have 6 on the road vs. playoff-bound DET and NY. Our beat-up warriors have 5 vs. the woeful Rays and O's in front of the adoring folks at Fenway. What can possibly go wrong?
What can possibly go wrong?
Ha!
wily mo is just a flailing, soggy log out there in the outfield. can't we have two dh's? D;
WMP and the outfield is like oil and water. They don't mix! Keep Trot...a full year of defense ala WMP will be disaster. Preventable disaster.
I am glad people brought up the WMP thing. I said it from day one: We got Robbed 'ere. Say that fast. Are we still gonna be talking about WMP's potential in '07? '08? '09?
If we'd given up nothing to get him, okay, fine, nice project, though still not the answer. But we gave up a pitcher who's thrown more innings than anyone we have, has an ERA that's lower than anyone we have. Adjust it one run for AL/NL, okay, Schilling beats him by .30, but he's still better than any other starter we've got even with that factored in. He's thrown more complete games than our entire staff. More strikeouts than anyone we've got. Lower WHIP than any of the 25 pitchers we've used this year, save papelbon. Etc, etc.
Wily Mo is still my binkie. He turns 25 in Jan. and from all reports needed 400 to 500 PA's this season to further his development. He'll be lucky to get 300. He's spent scant time in the minors and for all the hitting advice he's no doubt received over the years, I sometimes wonder whether he's ever been coached in outfield play. Do the Sox even have anyone working with OF'ers during the season? Anyway, yes, unless WMP gets some more work, we may be still talking about his potential a year from now but in the end I think he's worth it. My only worry is that he might be one of those 'injury prone' guys and there's no remedy for that.
As for Arroyo, I recall how AL teams were on to him, stacking their lineups with any LH hitter because his curve would just roll into them. No compliment to his average fastball. So he shines for awhile in a new league where he faces 7 real hitters instead of 9. Just about everything went wrong with Sox pitching this season, it's easy to say "Bronson woulda been better." I think he would have been average, which this season would have looked good. Is that the standard? But I think that with some regular play, decent coaching and injury luck, in a few years we'll be singing the WMP praises.
it's easy to say "Bronson woulda been better."
It wasn't easy to say it at the time of the trade. But I did. Only in future tense instead of past tense.
You know, making fun of Bronson isn't gonna make him less of a CY YOUNG AWARD CANDIDATE.
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