October 20, 2007

ALCS 6: Red Sox 12, Spiders 2

Spiders - 010 000 100 -  2  6  2
Red Sox - 406 000 02x - 12 13 0

Did you know that J.D. Drew is on fire? No? ... Where the hell you been? ... You better start taking notes.

Everything went down as smoothly as the pre-game shot of Jack Daniels. Boston leads the series 3-3. Tomorrow night's winner gets to host the Rockies in WS 1 next Wednesday.

The Red Sox loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the first inning (singles from Peewee and Yook and a walk to Flo). Manny struck out swinging and Lowell flied to shallow right. Another squander? ... Drew said "Eff that" and belted a 3-1 pitch to deep center that landed near the camera platform for a grand slam! 4-0!!!And that mega-dong was all the run support Schilling and the bullpen would need. Drew finished the night 3-for-5, with two run scored and five RBI.


But the Sox' hitters, being the polite and generous men we love, scored six more times in the third. Eleven men came to the plate; Lugo bopped a two-run double into the left field corner and Ellsbury, Drew and Youkilis all had RBI singles.


Aaron Laffey pitched 4.2 innings out of the Spiders' pen (Carmona (2-6-7-4-2, 63) did not last very long) and, according to Joe Buck, kept the score respectable. :>)

Eric Wedge called on Joe Borowski for the ninth. The closer (aka Duh Gas Can) threw 22 pitches to eight Boston batters and allowed three hits, two walks and two runs. ... Shame we won't see him tomorrow.

Schilling was fantastic (7-6-2-0-5, 90), although Buck and McCarver sought to portray him as teetering on the edge of falling apart for most of the night. I can't imagine many viewers were buying their lies.

Javier Lopez needed eight pitches for a perfect eighth and Eric Gagne set down the Spiders on nine pitches in the ninth.

Everyone will be available in Game 7 tomorrow night.

***

Lineup:
Pedroia, 2B
Youkilis, 1B
Ortiz, DH
Ramirez, LF
Lowell, 3B
Drew, RF
Varitek, C
Ellsbury, CF
Lugo, SS
***

Dustin Pedroia is glad to be back at Fenway:
Yeah, it's good. We don't have to play with those stupid towels. Stuff waving around. I'm tired of that. It's good to be back here. I'd like to see some Rem Dawg signs or whatever they call them. I'm excited, man.
Pro Watch: Bill "I Give Mariano Rivera The Night Sweats" Mueller will throw out the first pitch!

Curt Schilling, on tonight:
What [2004 ALCS Game 6] does for me ... I went out against a Yankees lineup in '04 that was as good an offense as I've ever faced, and I was basically pitching on a broken foot with a lot less stuff than I have now and I gave up one run over seven innings. There's no excuse for me not to be able to go out tonight with what I have now and, if I can execute perfectly, I can pitch as good, if not better. ...

I'm scared to death to not do well tonight, but I'm also very cognizant of the fact that that fear is something that has always driven me and always pushed me. ... I don't think there's too much pressure or too little. It's just reality. We put ourselves in this position, and I helped put us in this position.
Eric Wedge, on Fausto Carmona:
He has such a great arm and such great movement on his pitches. You know, sometimes when he does try to be a little bit too fine, the ball is going to run off the plate a little bit. What he needs to do is be aggressive with these guys, stay on the plate, run it off when he needs to, but be able to work it both ways.
Pitching coach Carl Willis:
In going back and reviewing the video of the game, there were pitches that Fausto made hitters swing at throughout the course of the season. But I think, again, the Red Sox being a very disciplined and obviously veteran lineup of professional hitters, they laid off of a lot of pitches that other clubs at times swing at. But I would say that early in counts, he was a bit fine, and he needs to trust that sink on the plate.
Carmona:
Yeah, I was trying to be a little fine. ... I've got to make sure I'm not going to leave any pitch down the middle of the plate. I was thinking just a little too much.
David Ortiz believes the media deliberately twisted Manny Ramirez's comments to create a story where one did not exist:
Everybody knows what Manny means, but people like to flip things around and that's why he is the way he is. ... He doesn't talk, and that's the reason why. People always try to misunderstand the reason why. People always try to misunderstand what the guy says.
Anyone else think the picture on the front page of this morning's Globe looks a little too much like a grave site?

Dan Tobin, Bugs & Cranks:
Three in a row? It's all the Red Sox know how to do.
Soxaholix:
Fercrissakes, let the real Indian get out there against the Wahoos.
Benari at Away Team:
Um, Mark? Your name is Shapiro. SHA-PEER-O. I know it, you know it, our Rabbi knows it.
***

Fausto Carmona / Curt Schilling

Facing post-season elimination, the Red Sox did what they usually do -- win. They are 22-11 (.667) all-time in such games.

The golden right arm of Josh Beckett and the reemergence of the bats (or the beginning thereof) forced the Spiders to pack their bags for a weekend in Boston.

It's time for Schilling to add a third legendary October performance to his Red Sox resume.
One.

One game. One win. That's all.

Not two.

One.

Tonight.

631 comments:

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allan said...

the Floodgates of Ass-mauling?

Okay!

laura k said...

wheeee!!! what a fun night. now we have to get through 12 hours of work tomorrow and come back and do it again.

good night everyone

allan said...

Now we pound the ex-MFY Westbrook and tell the Rockies to get their rusty asses to Boston!

Colin said...

everyone better be back for the finale.

I'm not sure. I hope I will but I might be having dinner watching the Sox with my dad again, but I'm playing it by ear.

laura k said...

yeah, the lord is an amazing fan

Amy said...

SoSock, I take it you no longer do that? We just couldn't take the crowds and all the hawking and noise at the Big E.

brendotroy said...

I'm so glad that I found this blog

Correction: I've read the blog for a while, but never noticed the game live commenting ... so glad I did!

allan said...

Once again the Sox surprise me in beautiful ways.

They are not done.

Though a comeback from 1-3 should not be surprising -- this is what we do.

Amy said...

I will be here from the first pitch tomorrow night. No socializing, just pure focused baseball. GAME SEVEN! We are going to be Number 11 in coming back from a 3-1 deficit!

laura k said...

the 3-1 deficit doesn't exist anymore, the series is tied, but we're ahead!!

what a great night.

did i mention this was a great night?

Ron said...

Watching NESN post game - they show the replay of Drew's Grand-Salami.

His celebration, a mild fist pump between 1st and 2nd, a bunch of high-fives coming into the dugout.

Nice.

brendotroy said...

brendotroy, welcome, glad you found us! we'd better see you tomorrow night!!

I hope so - just gotta get more High Life! Thanks everyone!

Amy said...

Well, I think I will scroll through the game thread to relive the game. Too excited to go to sleep, but have a good night of sleep to you all, and be ready to celebrate tomorrow night because our team is going to the WORLD SERIES!

SoSock said...

Amy
So true about the hawking. We hated that, it's so not us, but the money was OK and we got a lot of exposure. Our main income was from people who tried our products and reordered on-line, and you reached a lot of new people there.
I always preferred the small true craft shows.
We don't do it any more - my wife's health forced us to sell the business 2 years ago. I really miss it, but if we were still doing it I would probably be at some fall festival right now instead of here with you guys. So, always a silver lining, eh?

tim said...

LOVE THAT DIRTY WATER
BAH BAH BAH
OHHHH C'EST FIN 1-2-3 9TH!

fucking eh guys. see you tomorrow

laura k said...

un deux trois

c'est fin!

i forgot about our newest nickname :)

Colin said...

Now we pound the ex-MFY Westbrook and tell the Rockies to get their rusty asses to Boston!

Speaking of which, I hope the Sox have a good strategy against him because last time he gave us some grief barring the Tek HR.

Just remember this line: "Don't let us win tonight." - Kevin Millar (on Game 4 2004 ACLS)

SoSock said...

Night All.
Rolling the Dice tomorrow!

s1c said...

Eric Wedge complaining about the strike zone in the first.

Give me a fragging break you fragging loser!!!

laura k said...

Why do you think we're doing shots of Jack Daniels before the game???

Ofer said...

OOOOH Yeah... it has been a great, great night, huh? The only bad thing is that I couldn't really share it with anybody. At first I had a hostile environment over at the bar, with something like 30-40 Spiders fans in the house, but by the 8th inning it was just me and two very desolate couples. And I liked it just fine.
I'm almost wishing for a nailbiting win tomorrow- this blowouts have their charm, but there's so much more excitement in winning a tight one.

Anyway, great night, everybody! And I'll see see you tomorrow, at least before the game- I'll have to go watch some misery over at the bar again.

Colin said...

HA! Schilling drops the s-bomb on NESN. Way to pull a Beckett!

Ron said...

I think a big part of Westbrook's performance in Game 3 was shell-shock from the 13-6 loss in 11 in Game 2. It seemed to take the offense awhile to recover.

Not so tomorrow.

allan said...

s-bomb

details?

s1c said...

When asked about ON FIRE, Curt said "he got the shit beat out of him in the dugout!"

Colin said...

Well they asked Schilling about JD Drew in the season, and he said: "Well he got the shit beat out of him." *room chuckles*

Just something once again I'd expect from Becks but it's always fun seeing someone else carry the torch.

Rob said...

When asked about ON FIRE, Curt said "he got the shit beat out of him in the dugout!"

I've got that on tape!

Colin said...

Well ish I certainly hope Red Sox Chick or another Sox blog or even YouTube has that one too for all of us to enjoy.

s1c said...

I've got that on tape!

I hope you've got the home run call on tape also!!!

Colin said...

No doubt redsox.com has that on 400K video.

nick said...

Hey all...
going through the thread in reverse order. Just wanna mention a couple of other "things" from Springfield -- Dr. Seuss and Taj Mahal.

I was at work last night and managed to duck over to the diner down the way for almost all of the key moments by some form of coincidence. Saw Manny, the Dr., and Drew in the first. Saw mad run scoring in the top of the 3rd and bye-bye carmona, came back and saw the ball-magnet Youk...then I had to work a while, dashed home, and saw the crazy 8s and a 1-2-3 9th from the pitching drew.

I am stoked for tonight. rock.

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