Jacoby Ellsbury followed with a two-run homer into the Boston bullpen (he also singled, stole a base and tripled, but, with a chance for the cycle, was left in the on-deck circle in the eighth). Julio Lugo and Dustin Pedroia both doubled and the Red Sox led 4-0.
Toronto answered in the top of the fifth. Aaron Hill singled and, with one out, John McDonald walked. After Vernon Wells fouled out, Matt Stairs cracked a three-run home run to right and the lead was down to 4-3.
Frank Thomas singled to start the Blue Jays sixth, but he was the last Toronto base runner of the night. (He was erased on a double play.) Kevin Youkilis's solo shot to dead center in the eighth was a little insurance.
Beckett was at 84 pitches through five innings -- and it was questionable as to whether Jeemer and Bot were available tonight. But Beckett got the Jays on 13 pitches in the sixth (97), 10 in the seventh (107), and 10 in the eighth (117). Papelbon pitched the ninth -- retiring the Jays in order on nine pitches (F9, 4-3, K looking).
Both starters faced more than 30 batters and threw more 117 pitches (I don't think the Sox have been involved in such a game this year):
IP H R ER BB K BF PITIn the Bronx, a seven-run seventh helped the Yankees beat Seattle 12-3. Boston stays 7 GA in the East, while in the wild card, New York is 2 GA of Seattle and 3.5 GA of Detroit.
Beckett 8 5 3 3 2 7 30 117 W 17-6
Halladay 8 9 5 5 2 7 35 126 L 14-7
***
Roy Halladay (3.87, 120 ERA+) / Josh Beckett (3.29, 138 ERA+)
Dr. Doubles versus Doc: 7-for-16, 3 HR, 9 RBI, .353/.389/.882/1.271.
That's the best slugging percentage and OPS of any Red Sox batter against Halladay. Ortiz is 21-for-69, 5 HR, .304/.342/.609/.951. ... Here are the Blue Jays stats against Beckett.
Also at 7 PM: Mariners at Yankees (7 GB).
237 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 237 of 237Bot warming up. I dont know if i like this...
Not gonna see the cycle today...
Meh. Too bad for Ellsbury, but good wood for Youk!
I'd rather see Beckett back out there with Bot warming just in case. But here's Bot.
time to start snuffin'
Bot 7 pitches sunday and 16 last night. Should be no problem for the Bot.
Nice job JD. 1 out.
Speed in the outfield. yeah boy.
Redsock, what about Clemens? He had two 20 K games with the Sox, or are we just not mentioning him?
That's who Billy is. Billy and Kerry Wood, only ones.
2 outs and 5 pitches. one more.
NICE!!!! GG SOX!!
Nice! And our magic number goes down to 17.
And the Bot snuffs them out.
LBJ was the star tonight though.
YES!
Ahhh, Billy! I missed that there!! Sorry, I should have figured you wouldn't forget those.
Woot!
Papel-boner!
Not to be overly picky, but I wish Snuffer would be a little cooler and celebrate less outwardly after a save. It speaks so much louder when you say very little.
Well, off to catch the last of Eureka. See ya later guys.
Good game!
11-1 MFY (maybe they will get 25).
still 7 GA.
BTW. Redsock, check your PM box again.
Unmuted Buffyvision just as Buffy got in one final (I'm sure) whine about Coco's "coulda been a double play." Fuck you, Buffy. Great job by the boyz. And L-girl, you really did not want to see LBJ in the bottom of the 9th. Dispel those thoughts!
Not to be overly picky, but I wish Snuffer would be a little cooler and celebrate less outwardly after a save. It speaks so much louder when you say very little.
At least he's not as bad as K-Rod, L
well i was wrng that wasnt an interesting top of the 9th at all since they brought in pap.
god i love the red sox.
K-Rod
JtC is a bit over the top as well.
... stepping out to drink wine in the backyard with the missus. will approve stuff soon.
... but everyone seems to have gone away!
Roy Halladay, in his last start, has either pitched a complete game or 9 innings in games that went extra innings:
8.14 vs. LAA: 9 IP CG in 4-1 Win
8.19 vs. BAL: 9 IP, TOR won 3-2 in 10
8.24 at LAA: 8 IP CG, 3-0 loss
8.29 at OAK: 9 IP, OAK won 5-4 in 11
9.4 at BOS: 8 IP CG, 5-3 loss
And of course I meant his last five starts.
Mad typing skillz.
Nice win. The only bad part was that Omnipotent Q didn't win the Papi contest. He's a Sox fan in NYC.
My most exciting live game: 9/17/04, Sox at Yanks. Manny's catch over the wall in left. Yanks lead going to ninth, we rally to win, capped by Damon's two-out single, with Mo mouthing "catch the ball!" at Lofton in center. Honorable mention goes to the Lowe no-hitter, but that was exciting in a different way, since it was a blowout. Other hon. ment.: The Sox-Yanks game where Nixon homered off Fatty in the ninth, 5/28/2000, sitting up in left field upper deck, which was dressed mainly in red and wielding Dominican flags. But really only the ninth inning was exciting in that one.
Mo mouthing "catch the ball!" at Lofton in center
It turns out that Fruitbat isn't always calm and collected out there.
Man, that was a great game!!!
That was certainly one of my favorites, as well. That and, of course, the game with the big fight between 'Tek and A-Rod. Not for the fight, per se, but for the home run at the end against fruitbat himself from the Pro.
Can I ask a Papelbon question here, as a complete non-really-baseball-getting person?
I read that he's got 33 saves for 35 opportunities. This seems like an extremely good statistic. Is this bound for the record books? Or do decent savers for really good teams achieve this kind of record as a matter of course?
Hi M@! I think the answer is "it's way too early to tell". He's too young.
Papelbon is definitely not your standard-issue decent closer. He's way better than that - so far. If he kept pitching at this clip, he'd walk into the HoF on the first ballot. But we should wait another 10 years before we talk about that.
Also, save opportunities are a very specific thing, and kind of a stupid statistic.
That's my take, anyway.
M@: Hi! I see Laura has responded to your Q first.
The save is a fairly dumb stat -- many people in the game are over-obsessed with them -- and the conditions under which a pitcher can get one are pretty wide. Merely looking at a pitcher's save total tells you nothing about how easy or hard the saves were to get.
But 33/35 is excellent -- and as Laura said, he's one of the best right now, though this is only his second full season.
Wikipedia's entry on "closers" is pretty good in explaining how the save has come to be what it is. My feelings about relief pitchers are similar to those of Bill James -- a revolutionary baseball analyist/writer who now happens to work for the Red Sox.
do decent savers for really good teams achieve this kind of record as a matter of course
A good closer for a bad team can still rack up a high number of saves (and a good save %), if he is used only in those situations in which his team is winning and he can get a save.
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