August 27, 2009

G127: White Sox 9, Red Sox 5

White Sox - 044 100 000 - 9 14  0
Red Sox - 000 020 021 - 5 9 1
A comeback seemed possible all night, but the real excitement, as it turned out, began after NESN showed Nick Green warming up in the bullpen as the Red Sox came up in the bottom of the seventh.

Green ended up pitching the final two innings, walking three but allowing no hits and no runs. Twenty-two of his 35 pitches were balls. The Fenway crowd was completely behind him, cheering like crazy as he ended the eighth inning. Even as the Red Sox cut the lead to 9-4, Terry Francona stayed with Green (although it looked like Hideki Okajima would have pitched the ninth had the Sox scored a couple more runs).

Green hit 90 with his four-seam fastball and had a consistent release point. He may not have won the #3 starter spot in the playoffs with tonight's performance, but he's got to be part of the discussion. Dude was painting with easy cheese!

J.D. Drew and Alex Gonzalez hit back-to-back homers in the fifth; Drew hit a second dong to began the bottom of the ninth. A two-out rally in the eighth -- a Kevin Youkilis walk and doubles from David Ortiz and Jason Bay -- accounted for the other Boston runs.

After an easy first inning, Tazawa (4-10-9-1-2, 85) was hit hard for the rest of his time on the hill. He could not keep his fastballs down in the zone and his curve had no bite.

Jacoby Ellsbury sustained a mild left ankle sprain on a play at the plate in the fifth inning. He was replaced by Rocco Baldelli.
Example
John Danks (3.85, 122 ERA+) / Junichi Tazawa (3.57, 133 ERA+)

Tazawa has been allowing a lot of base traffic (26 hits, seven walks and two HBP in 17.2 innings), but has been able to houdini his way out of trouble. Opposing batters are hitting .091 (2-for-22) with runners in scoring position.

Here is an odd fact: In his last start, Tazawa "became the first Red Sox pitcher since 1988 to log six or more scoreless innings while allowing at least one hit in every frame". ... Also, on 1-0, 2-0 and 3-0 counts this season, opposing batters are 9-for-10 against Tazawa.

Billy Wagner will be in the pen tonight. He last pitched on Monday, so he should be available. [UPDATE: Wagner said this afternoon that he will throw a bullpen session before tonight's game. That may mean he's unavailable. Or not.]
Example
But first: Rangers/Yankees at 1 PM.

290 comments:

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A Conformer said...

Bay trying to call attention to the Jimmy Fund telethon there.

Unknown said...

I know Drew has said before that he'd be willing to pitch in a blowout, but something tells me that Theo and Tito view him as far too breakable to risk that.

s1c said...

Bay and Flo, say Tito this game ain't over yet.

9casey said...

I should note I hope this one lasts quite longer

Unknown said...

Time for a Kotch Rocket dong.

allan said...

Drew is a ROOGY at best.

efd said...

Ozzie wishing he had a crafty shortstop he could bring in

SoSock said...

Amy - I guess one of us will just have to be here all the time. ;>

A nice dinner with friends, and NO good news to come home to.
Boo.

But hark, a small smattering of light appears in yon GDGD window.
Nay, tis a large black Dominican light!

allan said...

i'm missing our nix unloading on their nix.

Rick (f/k/a westcoastsox) said...

Wow. I go away for a while, and Nick Green is pitching, and Amy seems to be in punch drunk love with him. What's going on? We putting Billy Wagner in at SS? And another Seabass Dong!

SoSock said...

Kotchrocket kills the rally

Unknown said...

"We putting Billy Wagner in at SS?"

Tito's willing to do some unusual things, but I think having a lefty play shortstop is near the bottom of the list.

allan said...

"green in the 9th, jeemer in the 10th"

Unknown said...

Though it would be fun to watch.

Amy said...

Five runs in the bottom of the 9th...doable, no?

A Conformer said...

Has Green been stretched out?

tim said...

Here now!

Nick green WHAT?!

Remy/Orsillo snort!

allan said...

that was a bullet to first!!!!!

nick said...

and RamRam is wondering why he was pulled for the backup shortstop. Aren't inaccurate throws one of Nick Greens biggest problems?
And I didn't watch a spot of it. been working on a computer in the other room.

and he fires a bullet to first. hmm...

SoSock said...

Damn, they are serious, aren't they?
He's staying out there.

Amy said...

Hi, Westcoastsox. Green is just very cute. What can I say?

allan said...

imagine if green was throwing to tek.

he'd be pedro!!!

A Conformer said...

Kotsay looks amused. And Farrell, too.

allan said...

remy: "nothing is making sense to me right now"

Amy said...

SoSock, we also had a nice dinner with friends. They gave us the first home cooked meal we have had since living in the motel.

Amy said...

Allan, that made me literally LOL.

tim said...

What is it with the past two thursdays....they feel like acid trips to me.

Last thurs in the dome, and now this....I get home to nick fucking green on the mound. Come on!

nick said...

I want to see Nick destroy Nix.

Iridescence said...

According to GDGD Nicky boy has 2 types of fastballs a slider and a cutter WTF?

allan said...

don: "he works quick"

jerry: "much to your delight"

... snorts all around

A Conformer said...

I wish we had Green in game 2 of the ALCS last year...

tim said...

I shouldn't say that, since I've never done LSD. But if I were to try it, I can imagine it would go something like these Thursdays.

Amy said...

Looks like Green's a one inning guy.

SoSock said...

These guys are pulling their hair out right now.
I've heard this so many times in the LL dugout - "Why aren't we crushing this guy!!??"

Of course the difference is these are ML hitters. Leave him in there a while and they will, but good.

allan said...

he has GOT to try a knuckleball

...

wtf can martinez say?

nick said...

"rushing his delivery a little bit" - radio.

that was not destroying.

tim said...

Throw strikes! Fuck. It's like this guy shouldn't even be a pitcher with how bad his accuracy is!

efd said...

I wonder what Victor's telling him. "Just throw strikes"?

SoSock said...

OK, enough's enough. Top of the order - get him out.

allan said...

crowd rises as one /

A Conformer said...

A K would be perfect.

tim said...

amica = dumb

allan said...

GREEN'S GOT TO HAVE THAT

Unknown said...

I'd love to see Green end the inning with a K

tim said...

now THATS defense!

Amy said...

Wow, can he pitch all the time?

s1c said...

Nick green has just became the 5th inning guy!!!

Time for some 9th inning magic!!!

SoSock said...

I'll be damned

Amy said...

Five runs and we will all be punch drunk in love with Nick Green.

Unknown said...

"It's like this guy shouldn't even be a pitcher with how bad his accuracy is!"

Still better than Javier Lopez

A Conformer said...

Will we see Green pitch again this season? I think there's a chance, for sure.

SoSock said...

Jar-Jar Jenks in

Iridescence said...

Anyone watching the White Sox feed? Hawk must be going nuts right now

nick said...

That's crowd assassin Tito. He played them. 2 innings!

I'm ready for a Day-After-Women's-Equality-Day Miracle!

Unknown said...

Nick Green now has more career innings at pitcher than at first base.

:)

tim said...

FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

allan said...

FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

s1c said...

only 5 more guys

Unknown said...

FIRE!!!!

allan said...

WTF is that on jar-jar's chin?

Amy said...

There's one!

A Conformer said...

Fucking Drew, stat padding. Can't do that with runners on base, huh?

allan said...

JD wants to pitch the 10th!!!!

tim said...

Fucking Pudgy McFlab is in there, we should be able to knock 4 more off chubbo.

SoSock said...

It's a start :0

nick said...

JD completely failed to clog the bases.

Unknown said...

It would be too fucking awesome if Green somehow got a win out of this

tim said...

Green > Jenks

A Conformer said...

Fuck, the White Sox are under 500 but still in contention. Why can't we get divisions like that?

laura k said...

I'm still on the phone, but watching on mute - haven't missed a pitch :)

SoSock said...

Damn - hooked

Amy said...

Two out rally time...

allan said...

gonna do it the hard way

SoSock said...

Alas - 1st pitch swing when down 4.

Not good

efd said...

MLB Network awarding the Chevy Player Of The Game to Danks... they're gonna be sorry they didn't give it to Green.

efd said...

or not.

Amy said...

Oh well, clean water tonight. But it sure was interesting.

allan said...

crap. well, green gave us something to talk about.

A Conformer said...

Motherfucker. Well there's a tiny patch of Green in the water, but it's almost entirely clean.

Unknown said...

Oh well, Green's first career win will have to wait for another night

SoSock said...

Agua limpia.

But still on track to gain our 1 game this week. That's all we need - 1 game a week.

Of course I wouldn't object to a larger gain :)

Iridescence said...

I think I like Green better as a pitcher than as an infielder actually :)

allan said...

green can totally dominate the jays. though he threw 35 pitches, may have to wait until saturday.

Unknown said...

I guess Green is our 20th inning option when we run out of regular relievers in an extra-inning game.

Rick (f/k/a westcoastsox) said...

Yeah, but can't wait to read the writeup. So we didn't lose any ground on the division and we still have a 1.5 lead over Texas, with them going to visit red-hot Minnesota and us getting the hopefully-cold Blue Jays. And we gave the WS confidence going into their NY series.

Iridescence said...

"And we gave the WS confidence going into their NY series."

They got shut down for 2 innings by a utility infielder. Not sure how much confidence they'll have actually.
:)

Rob said...

Clean water all around.

Goodnight.

Amy said...

Green definitely won my heart tonight.

SoSock said...

Texas = toast now.

Although they get the young guy Duensing tomorrow. The Twinkies have hot bats right now tho.

Yanks - Wht Sox is a toss-up - CC vs Buehrle. I'd give the edge to Buehrle. Probably just betting with my heart though.

SoSock said...

We, of course, will burn Richmond as if it were the Civil War all over again.

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