June 27, 2008

G82: Red Sox 6, Astros 1

Red Sox - 003 000 102 - 6 12  0
Astros - 000 000 010 - 1 4 0
(Updated with some stuff.)

J.D. Drew gave the Sox an early lead with a three-run dong and Matsuzaka rebounded nicely (5-2-0-3-4, 87). The Red Sox became the first team to get to 50 games this year.

Dustin Pedroia had his 11th three-hit game of the season; he also walked and scored two runs. Kevin Youkilis collected four hits and Mike Lowell drove in two runs.

Craig Hansen pitched a perfect sixth (K, 5-3, F9) and Manny Delcarmen threw a perfect seventh (F9, 6-3, K). Hideki Ojakima retired the first two batters in the eighth (F8, F7), but then allowed a solo home run and a single. Jonathan Papelbon came on and got the last four outs (K, 5-3, F9, 6-3).

Tampa Bay beat Pittsburgh 10-5, so the Sox remain .5 GA. The Yankees split a home-and-home doubleheader with the Mets, getting routed in the Bronx 15-6 and blanking the Stems in Queens 9-0. In the second game, new Yankee starter Sidney Ponson allowed four hits and four walks in the first three inings, but somehow kept the Mets off the board. The MFY are now 6 GB.

Also: mlbtv was sputtering on our connection last night -- plus it was the FSN feed -- so we listened to the radio broadcast. Not bad, though I did notice that all of the various sponsorships and contests in the early innings prevented Castig from giving an updated count on the batter at various times. In the later innings, they were able to concentrate on baseball.

O'Brien is a good play-by-play man -- he says what he needs to say, with a nice amount of creativity and humour; he's way better than Castig -- but there was one thing that irked me. When Coco Crisp batted in the top of the fourth, after Castig said that "Hernandez is up to 73 pitches already", O'Brien noted, "Almost from the get-go, he's been falling behind everybody."

I looked at my scorecard and saw that Hernandez had been ahead of five of the first six Boston batters and had fallen behind only seven of 18. Hernandez -- making his first big league start since September 29, 2006 -- was throwing a lot of pitches (19-16-25-21-18 in his five innings), but 39% was not "everybody".

***

Daisuke Matsuzaka (3.46, 124 ERA+) / Runelvys Hernandez (6.48, 73 ERA+)

In Port aux Choix with a strong connection, beer in the fridge, and a 9:30 PM local start time. Perfect!

Dice's ERA jumped by nearly a full run (0.93) after his dreadful outing (1-6-7-3-1, 48) against the Cardinals last Saturday. SoSH asked: Did he come back from the DL too soon?

12 comments:

allan said...

1. Crisp, CF
2. Pedroia, 2B
3. Drew, RF
4. Ramirez, LF
5. Lowell, 3B
6. Youkilis, 1B
7. Varitek, C
8. Lugo, SS
9. Matsuzaka, P

1. Bourn, CF
2. Newhan, 2B
3. Tejada, SS
4. Berkman, 1B
5. Lee, LF
6. Blum, 3B
7. Pence, RF
8. Quintero, C
9. Hernandez, P

Zenslinger said...

Dice-K...kind of agonizing over whether to "put him in" for my fantasy team.

Mets are thrashing the Yanks 15-5 now. Delgado: 9 RBI (slam, 2R-2B, 3R-HR).

allan said...

NYM: 102 035 04 - 15 14 3
NYY: 103 010 00 - 5 10 0

box

Benjamin said...

So is this a game thread, then?

Benjamin said...

The new GDGD graphics make Drew look like a black guy, which is cool, but I'm pretty sure he isn't one.

allan said...

So is this a game thread, then?

No, but J.D. Drew is ON FIRE!!!!

Hansen does his job, too!

Rob said...

So is Pedroia!

Who is the better 1/2 combination? Jacoby Ellsbury/Dustin Pedroia? or Jose Reyes/Luis Castillo?

9casey said...

ish said...
So is Pedroia!

Who is the better 1/2 combination? Jacoby Ellsbury/Dustin Pedroia? or Jose Reyes/Luis Castillo?


Thats a wierd question . I'm not sure those combos are the best in the league......not so much the leadoff hitters but the 2 second baseman Castillo is not very good and Pedroia is great for our team , but there are great second baseman all around the league now, it seems like it is the new shortstop....Kinsler, Uggla ,and Utley are all having great seasons.. And Castillo is barely a top 10 2nd baseman in the national league.......And stat wise the best 1 and 2 might just be Damon and Jeter...

Rob said...

Lots of daylight up there, eh? Last glimpse of light close to midnight on a clear evening.

What's the latest you've seen light in the sky?

Benjamin said...

Youk's 4-hit performance is apparently his first.

laura k said...

What's the latest you've seen light in the sky?

I have no idea, but if we have a clear night in Gros Morne (as if), I'll look. I want a clear night to see stars - something I don't get living in a big population centre - but it's generally cloudy here.

Rob said...

.I want a clear night to see stars - something I don't get living in a big population centre - but it's generally cloudy here.

I can see some stars here, but we get a ton of light pollution around here. I'll be going to northern Maine for this week where there will not be nearly as much. Looking forward to seeing a lot of stars.