Red Sox - 000 010 200 - 3 6 0Jason Varitek hit two solo home runs -- the second on a long bomb deep into the upper deck in right-center -- and Josh Beckett (7-3-1-4-8, 111) turned in another fine performance.
Twins - 010 000 000 - 1 5 0
Jacoby Ellsbury went 0-for-3 and was hit by a pitch, ending his 22-game hitting streak. Lyndon popped to left in the first, grounded to second in the third, flew out to left in the fifth, and was hit on the wallet in the seventh. He was in the on-deck circle when Julio Lugo made the final out of the top of the ninth.
Beckett struck out the first four batters, then allowed a dong to Joe Crede and walked the next two Twins. A double play got him out of that inning and he allowed only a single and a walk over the next four frames. A one-out double and two-out walk in the seventh were also stranded.
The seventh inning featured the ejections of both managers and both catchers. Ron Gardenhire and Mike Redmond were tossed for arguing a play at the plate in which Jeff Bailey scored Boston's third run on Dustin Pedroia's line drive to right field. The replay seemed to show Redmond tag on Bailey's left arm a split-second before he touched the dish. Bailey may have also missed the plate with his hand; no replay that i saw gave clear evidence either way.
In the bottom of the inning, Beckett and Varitek were steamed at a non-strike call to Brendan Harris. The pitch was nothing special, off the outside corner, but Tek was given the heave-ho pretty quickly and Terry Francona soon followed. I'm not sure how or why things escalated so quickly. Post-game interviews may shed a little light.
The bullpen cleaned up handily. Hideki Okajima allowed a two-out single in the eighth. Jonathan Papelbon gave up a one-out single to Harris before getting Delmon Young to line out to right and striking out pinch-hitter Brian Buscher.
The Yankees are off today, so the Red Sox moved 0.5 GA in the East.
***
Josh Beckett (5.01, 97 ERA+) / Anthony Swarzak (0.00, 2nd career start)
Jason Bay is not in the lineup for the first time this season.
RHP Swarzak, 23, made his major league debut last Saturday against the Brewers. He threw seven shutout innings (7-5-0-2-3, 98). It was the first time in Twins history that a starting pitcher went seven scoreless innings in his debut. (Mike Fornieles pitched a nine-inning shutout on September 2, 1952, when the Twins were known as the Washington Senators.)Ellsbury, CF
Pedroia, 2B
Drew, RF
Youkilis, 1B
Lowell, 3B
Ortiz, DH
Varitek, C
Bailey, LF
Lugo, SS
BP 2009:
Swarzak has apparently gotten past the drug use that earned him a 50-game suspension in 2007, but his effectiveness didn't come with him. Unlike most Twins pitching prospects, he actually has impressive stuff, but he's also a fly-ball pitcher short of a strikeout pitch. Right now, he has a fastball and curve down pat, but might need a third pitch to make it as a starter in the bigs. His results at Triple-A were obviously greatly improved [1.80 ERA in 7 starts after 5.66 in 20 AA starts], but the low strikeout rate [26 in 45 IP] and still lower BABIP [.266] argue for some sample-size cynicism.The Star Tribune reported that the "drug of abuse" was marijuana.
230 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 230 of 230I didn't say he wasn't great. Just that he hasn't been quite as overpowering and lights out as in prior seasons. Perhaps he is just adjusting his style and pitches. It's not like he hasn't gotten good results; he has just made it more, shall we say, interesting?
201!
Thank you Dmitri's brother... I wonder what "da meat hook" is doing right now (I saw him playing for the Vermont Lake Monsters last September)...
Amy, I wasn't responding to you specifically.
"Today, Stark quotes a scout who says that Papelbon has perfectly good off-speed stuff but doesn't use it enough."
It seems like Papelbon often goes a week or so without using the splitter. I have no idea why. Throwing it just once ever 10-15 pitches or so seems to be enough to throw hitters off balance.
first place
dirty water!
Twinkies taste better in dirty water!
YES!! Finally some dirty water in Minnesota!
Nice save Pap. ..
Shorter aninterestingman:
"What Okajima has actually done does not matter. What is important is my inaccurate memory."
Now that was a good ballgame!
Terrific. My wife is half a game out of first....
I won't be here tomorrow night, so see you all over the weekend.
Nice to be able to split this series.
Tito on the Metrodome:
"I have a lot of respect for the Twins -- I always have -- because I love the way they play the game, I really do. [But] I think this place stinks. This ballpark stinks. Balls are hitting the [stinking] roof, the speakers -- it's awful. For me, I feel like we are in an office building and all of a sudden you walk downstairs and there is a game to be played. The Kingdome, it was kind of ugly, but it didn't feel like you were in an office building to me."
Never been to the Metrodome, but I find it very hard to imagine a worse place to play ball than the Kingdome.
Funny, as I was reading that quote from Francona, I thought, just like the Kingdome. That was the worst park I've ever been to - but I've never been to the Metrodome, was only in Minneapolis in the winter.
Even though he's had a couple of memorable bad streaks that have given the impression that he wasn't as great as in his first year, Okajima's been incredibly consistent.
Year ERA WHIP
2007 2.22 0.97
2008 2.61 1.16
2009 2.70 1.05
This year's stats don't include today's game.
Even his overall postseason (21IP) is 2.14 ERA, 0.86 WHIP.
Inherited runners is another issue. It seems to me that it was bad in 2007-8, but not this year.
How many times has Okajima even pitched in a game when the Red Sox were up by 6 runs?
Good thing nobody gave up on him after his first MLB pitch (HR to...KC catcher Buck, maybe?)
Some people just amaze me, How do you rip somone like Okajima....I know some don't like the fact that I am critical of people being critical...but we have the best bullpen in the league..find something else to be critical of....really , maybe the new hats or Pedroia's facial hair, or Tito's glasses.....something other than bullpen not now when they are rolling......ugh.....and p.s. don't hit us with how long you played the game or you'll forget more baseball than I will ever know...it's old and ignorant.save it for your buddies, they can tell you how full of shit you are, save us the time.....
Comment that noone will see -
I LOVE Beckett's response to "what did you say"
He said he used some "baseball terms" toward the umpire. When asked to elaborate he said "You can't write it, he won't hear it, so why elaborate"
I saw your comment! Classic JB.
I just rewatched the game..the strange about the Bailey play was the fact that LBJ never went to second......he was still standing there as Redmond argues and as far as I could see Redmond still had the ball.....
Oh yeah , that was Beckett being Beckett.....it's nice to see.....
Hosts, Do you have tickets this weekend?
Two home runs and an ejection? Sounds like someone is juicing to me!
Hosts, Do you have tickets this weekend?
I work Fri-Sat-Sun and L works Sat-Sun, so: No!
And we're blacked out at work, so it's radio only this weekend.
We are going to the game on August 18, though.
Francona examined after ejections
Red Sox skipper checked by EMTs for blood-pressure spike
That umpire got ripped apart this morning on Mike & Mike......
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