April 28, 2009

G20: Spiders 9, Red Sox 8

Red Sox - 142 000 100 - 8 14  3
Spiders - 124 000 101 - 9 13 0
Bill James would not approve. Tie game, bottom of the 9th. Who should you put on the mound? Your closer or the worst pitcher on the team?

Sadly, Terry Francona chose Option B. And the Red Sox's 11-game winning streak is now history. I can only assume that he hoped to squeak through the 9th (the 8-9-1 hitters were up), maybe get a run or two with FY-Flo-Yook-Drew in the 10th and go to Jonathan Papelbon to nail it down. The only problem with that strategy is you have to not allow a run in the 9th!

Javier Lopez gave up a single to Mark DeRosa (who had homered in the 7th to tie the game at 8-8) to start the final inning. Ben Francisco bunted the runner to second and Grady Sizemore struck out. Lopez went to a full count on Asdrubal Cabrera, who whacked a grounder to the right side.

Kevin Youkilis half-dived to his right, snared it, turned and lobbed an easy, underhanded toss to Lopez. The pitcher and the ball were at the bag in plenty of time, and Lopez's foot was on the base, but he looked down anyway, and the ball clanked off his glove and rolled into foul territory.

Lopez then fell down and Youkilis raced after the baseball, but it was too late. DeRosa was crossing the plate.

How'm I doin'?

Lopez: From a LOOGY to a LWCGAOIHGDMFLDOI.

The Red Sox failed to score in the top of the ninth, with runners at the corners and one out. Nick Green was overmatched on three fastballs and Jacoby Ellsbury lined the ball right to Cabrera at second.

Toronto beat the Royals 8-1, so we are back in 2nd place. The Yankees broke a scoreless tie in Detroit with 10 runs in the seventh and beat the Tigers 11-0.

***

Brad Penny (7.80, 65 ERA+) / Anthony Reyes (4.76, 102 ERA+)

The first place Red Sox (13-6) -- by a slim .017 over the Blue Jays (14-7), but atop the East nonetheless -- continue their series in Cleveland.

Julio Lugo may get his first start of the season tonight. I somewhat fear Tito putting Lugo at leadoff, but I'm now confident that (a) Lugo will be eased into the lineup/regular playing time and (b) Ellsbury's hitting and overall play have improved enough to dispell Francona of that idea.

Only three Red Sox players have ever faced Reyes -- and one of them is Penny! J.D. Drew is 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and Jason Bay is 3-for-6 with a walk.

Of the five Spiders to have seen Penny previously, three are pitchers. Mark DeRosa is 8-for-27 and Tony Graffanino is 1-for-6 (but 0-for-his-last-5). (Graffanino has a -11 OPS+ in 24 plate appearances this year!)

***

Note: The Yankees' run differential is worse than that of the hapless Nationals, owners of the worst record in baseball:
            W   L    PCT    RS    RA    DIFF
Yankees 9 10 .474 102 126 - 24
Nationals 4 14 .222 85 107 - 22
New York's Phil "The Franchise" Hughes makes his 2009 debut (6.62 ERA in 2008) in Detroit at 7 PM. ... Jays in Kansas City.

610 comments:

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Benjamin said...

Fucking Lopez

A Conformer said...

All right, I'm gonna hit the sack. Good night everybody. Except you, Lopez. You should stay up and think about what you did.

Anonymous said...

Let's see how Gabbard does as a 1 inning pitcher/LOOGY, all the other Patucket lefty's ERA's are too high to mention.

andy said...

I however like fire.

nixon33 said...

Fucking Lugopez. Two fucking assholes.

Lugo is my new OcOc.

laura k said...

Right when he fucked up that play, my computer froze. Lopez probably did that too.

Lopez is this year's Gagne. Now Tito has to use him just to prove that he sucks and must go.

nixon33 said...

I remember last year, in the last series vs the sox at the toilet, lopez got out of a bases loaded jam. Thats pretty much the only time I've ever liked him.

allan said...

SoSH:


HAHAHA LOPEZ!!!

awesome

Are you fucking kidding me????

DIE YOU FUCKING CUNT

Well, that's awful. Awful.

Finding new ways.

HAHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHA

Lopez finds a new way to blow a game

Well, that was pretty funny.

Lopez found a way to lose the game.

are you KIDDING ME??????

Are you FUCKING kidding me?!?!?!?!

there are no words
DFA him now.
lopez, penny and lugo can die.

are u fucking kidding me lopez??

no fuckin' way.

Wow Lopez brought the level of suck to a new level right there.

Perfect ending.

FML

I'm seriously laughing my ass off.

Um. Wow. truly pathetic beyond my wildest Javier Lopez nightmares.

A Useless Sack of Shit.

Lugo and Lopez.
Two of the biggest losers in MLB.

Why the fuck is it so goddamn hard to catch the ball?

You have to laugh at that, really.

fucking jackass

Take him out back and shoot him

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Send him away please

Wow.

I swear to BABIP when I saw the groundball hit to Youkilis I thought "Too bad he needs Lopez's help, he'll find a way to fuck this up."

heng brothers said...

I'll just leave these here.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-VCD2X119zs/RtY039SYHVI/AAAAAAAAAHc/K5FMj3VIKc0/s1600/tc-tito.jpg

http://bp3.blogger.com/_-VCD2X119zs/Rk-3BADaTsI/AAAAAAAAADA/kC1d4Vxl5Qw/s1600-h/Poster2.jpg

--Dan

Patrick said...

I'm about ready for Bard!

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