June 26, 2011

G77: Red Sox 4, Pirates 2

Red Sox - 000 101 200 - 4  6  2
Pirates - 000 110 000 - 2  5  4
The Red Sox snapped a four-game losing streak and avoided a sweep in Pittsburgh, thanks to several errors by the Pirates and another good outing from Andrew Miller (6-5-2-1-2-4, 109), who pitched out of a huge jam in the fifth.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia got the Sox on the board when he led off the fourth with a double, took third on Josh Reddick's fly ball to center and scored when Andrew McCutchen's throw sailed way over the bag and was tipped into the stands by third baseman Chase d'Arnaud, who was scrambling back into foul territory and made a valiant attempt to catch the errant sphere.

Boston tied the game in the sixth without the benefit of a hit. James McDonald (6-5-2-0-2-5, 101) walked Kevin Youkilis on four pitches. Darnell McDonald bunted back to McDonald (they are cousins, by the way); the NL McDonald tried to get the lead runner and threw the ball into left field. Yook raced to third and later scored on Reddick's sac fly to left. (Sox McDonald went into the game for J.D. Drew in the second inning. Drew had bunted a ball off his face in batting practice and the area around his left eye was clearly bruised. He struck out looking in the first and played only one inning in the field, before being taken out.)

In the seventh, the Red Sox scored two more runs, again without getting a base hit. Tim Wood began the inning in relief of J. McDonald and walked Marco Scutaro on four pitches; he was then pulled. Daniel Moskos walked David Ortiz (the pitch before ball 4 was crushed high and deep, but just to the foul side of the RF pole) and committed an error on Jacoby Ellsbury's bunt. Chris Resop was the next man out of the pen and he allowed an RBI groundout to Pedroia, an intentional walk to Adrian Gonzalez (two singles, two BBI), and a sacrifice fly to Youkilis.

Note: And because Scutaro scored Boston's third run, Wood (who is not my cousin, by the way (and neither is Brandon Wood) is credited with the loss, even though Moskos moved Scutaro to third, and Resop let him - and other inherited runner - score. That makes zero sense.

Miller wriggled out of a potential big mess in the fifth. He issued an eight-pitch walk to J. McDonald, and gave up singled to Garrett Jones and d'Arneaud to load the bases. McCutchen's hard grounder skipped by Yook and a run scored, giving the Pirates a 2-1 lead. Jones was initially waived around third, then suddenly not, but that stop sign was too late and he could not get back to the bag before Youkilis tagged him out. Miller then bore down and struck out Neil Walker on three pitches and got Matt Diaz to fly harmlessly to right.

Jonathan Papelbon walked the first batter of the ninth, but retired the next three men: a seven-pitch strikeout of Eric Fryer, and lazy fly balls to right and center.

The Yankees beat the Rockies 6-4.
Example
Andrew Miller / James McDonald

The Red Sox have lost four in a row (and five of their last seven) and are in second place for the first time since June 5. They have scored a total of 10 runs in those four losses.

Dustin Pedroia: "We started the season 2-10 and we've been kicking ass ever since. I don't think anybody's going to go home and jump out of their hotel room because we lost four in a row."

Bobby Jenks (left back tightness) made a rehab appearance for Portland (AA) last night, pitching one inning and allowing one hit. ... Josh Beckett threw 50 pitches off a mound and said he felt "pretty good". ... Daniel Bard made only his third appearance since June 10 last night. He has not allowed a run in his last 12 innings, dating back to May 27. He has allowed one of eight inherited runners to score in that span, however.

AL East: Rockies/Yankees and Rays/Astros at 2 PM.

84 comments:

allan said...

Ellsbury, CF
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Youkilis, 3B
Drew, RF
Saltalamacchia, C
Reddick, LF
Scutaro, SS
Miller, P

allan said...

"bill of the cap high" on the first out!

allan said...

In the first couple of innings, Remy's voice is always so loud and direct and like a drill sgt. As the game goes on, he finally starts talking like a human being. Why is that?

Maxwell Horse said...

The Pirates are employing an interesting strategy for today's game. To prevent Pedroia from going to 3rd on the errant throw, the Pirate's second baseman decided to go with the not-often-used "try to forcibly hump the runner" technique.

allan said...

EB WHEELS!!!!!!!!!

Jere said...

I think Youk stepped on Miller's foot.

Maxwell Horse said...

Must the injured-player car look so ridiculous? The player has already suffered enough indignity as it is, but they have to wheel him off in a clown car to boot. Maybe they should put one of those pinwheels on the back for more festivity; attach some of those girlie-bike streamers to the steering wheel.

allan said...

I thought it was a tractor-type vehicle.

At least it wasn't the old Red Sox bullpen car! Or the Toyota (?) that the Yankees used to bring relievers from the bullpen to the mound.

Jere said...

Datsun I think

Maxwell Horse said...

I guess there really isn't a car design that wouldn't look ridiculous in that situation. Any small car looks silly, but especially more so when it's tooling around on a baseball diamond with thousands of people watching.

allan said...

trying to google a pic of the sox modified golf cart (it looked like a big baseball with sox cap on it) from an old game - coming up empty.

i do see pics of a yankee pin-striped toyota, but maybe they had different ones in different years.

Jere said...

Me with the Red Sox bullpen car in 1989.

Jere said...

This page says the Yanks' bullpen car started as Datsun and switched to Toyota.

Tom DePlonty said...

O'B just mentioned that Darnell and the Pirates pitcher are first cousins.

allan said...

drew out, mcdonald in right.

remy mwentions seeing a swollen area around one of drew's eyes.

allan said...

now they have a clip, which i did not really see.

Jere said...

Drew's gotta stop boxing between innings. (That's pretty much what it looked like, when above your eye's swollen to the point where you have to close it.)

Jere said...

What a crazy pair!

Jere said...

There's your Reddick drop. Allan "Called it" in a way.

allan said...

yeah, that wasn't as bad as yesterday's basket catch bs, but ...

Kathryn said...

I like him but he is a lazy fielder. He catches the ball that way every time.

allan said...

Now I'm curious how he will catch the next few. I'm thinking they will be textbook (or they should be).

allan said...

also a tad surprised remy did not bring up manny.

Kathryn said...

Especially with him kicking the ball around.

allan said...

WOW - that's a throw -- and the tip-in!!!!

Jere said...

that is perfect, exactly what we needed

allan said...

FY: "that's three fucking times"

Kathryn said...

"That's fucking three times"

allan said...

Quote discrepancy!
(I think K has it right.)

Jere said...

Miller! The only reason you weren't drilling that pitcher was so you wouldn't give a free base to the pitcher!

Kathryn said...

Don't walk the pitcher to begin the inning.

allan said...

COL - 010
MFY - 000

FKR - 301
HOU - 12

allan said...

great bunt - and slight hesitation by yook

Kathryn said...

That rookie is getting on my nerves.

Zenslinger said...

Miller = Dice-K redux?

Nice play by Youk to preserve hope here. These losses sure have been frustrating.

Kathryn said...

Yay. A scrotum fly.

Zenslinger said...

Nicasio is perfect after four vs the Yanks.

Zenslinger said...

Still...6 IP, 1 ER.

allan said...

shit - come ON

Kathryn said...

How are these so close????

Jere said...

I like how he throws anyway ("maybe I can get TWO errors on this play!")

allan said...

loaded - and they are unlikely to buzz pedroia again, with the warnings. (why were they doing it?)

allan said...

more errors than runs scored...

allan said...

i need a grand slam just to hear his post-game quotes!

allan said...

they looked reeeeeeally close at 1B.

Kathryn said...

I thought so too.

allan said...

IN!

Kathryn said...

Never touched him with the glove?

allan said...

bad bit for remy:

went over the plate
left foot

jeez.

Jere said...

Remy not talking about how he never got the tag on him because he was in a mystery world where Papi missed home.

Kathryn said...

Yep, never touched him with the glove.

Jere said...

So we get no analysis of the play, just on what he THOUGHT happened. Even after he discovered he was wrong.

allan said...

i thought when they showed the pedroia replay, remy would say something - or they would show another angle. but no -- no one cares. whatever.

allan said...

nesn has been off so much this inning i half-expect them to show a dugout shot of jeter.

allan said...

still no hits this inning!!!

Jere said...

"but no -- no one cares. whatever."

There was a similar one earlier, too--close play at first where they only showed zoomed-out, normal-speed replays and didn't talk about it. I think it was when the Pirate reached on his sac bunt.

Jere said...

Colorado regains lead.

allan said...

yeah, you're right.

they do that at least once or twice a game. i have no idea what makes them decide to really examine a close play and at other times ignore it like the guy was out by 30 feet. and this was in a big rally inning, seems important. i don't get it.

Zenslinger said...

McDonald needs to reacquaint himself with the fucking lumber if he's going to start games.

allan said...

COL - 010 021
MFY - 000 03

FKR - 301 10
HOU - 122 20

Kathryn said...

Agreed about McDonald, but he didn't start this game.

Tom DePlonty said...

McDonald - I can't count the number of times the call on his at-bats lately end with the words "hit hard, but..."

allan said...

mcdonald - .190 slugging coming into this game.

allan said...

here is something else nesn-related that has annoyed me - and i would assume jere has blogged about it (but i haven't seen it so maybe not).

it is a commercial (for what, I don't know) that starts with bard pitching and the voiceover says his fastball has been clocked at 98 miles an hour -- and it's said with such extreme wonder and amazement that such a thing could exist.

bard has been clocked at 100 many times, in different parks (and maybe/probably 101). so why is 98 so "magical"?

Jere said...

Ha! I've absolutely noticed that and was completely baffled as to why they don't just say 100. Have not blogged about it though.

Jere said...

Waited on it a la Scutaro

Zenslinger said...

Nice job by Bard.

allan said...

Proposed ad for NESN:

"David Ortiz has had clutch hits against some of the Red Sox's most bitter rivals, like Tampa Bay ..."

Jere said...

It's like how I'll occasionally hear someone say the Red Sox came from 3-1 down against NY in 2004. True, but....

Zenslinger said...

EB IBB -- get used to it.

allan said...

darn'aud!

Jere said...

Don "has a little bobble." You mean slip?

Jere said...

that's where a slide into first actually does something.

allan said...

mcdonald = actual MLB batting
as
mcdonald's = actual food

allan said...

re don:

if you are describing a game, you are talking for 3+ hours, so you are going to slip up a few times. but it should be easy (and essential) that on a replay, you correct yourself, if necessary.

allan said...

i'm not in the mood, bot.

Kathryn said...

We'll be in Philly on Tuesday night. I may sneak in a few posts from our SRO area.

Jere said...

Needed this one

Zenslinger said...

Aah. Well done.

Kathryn said...

Yay, dirty!!!

allan said...

Win.

And Wood, the guy who walked Scutaro on 4 pitches and was immediately pulled, gets the loss ... because of Moskos's walk to Ortiz and Moskos's throwing error on Ellsbury's bunt. Stupid rule.

Jere said...

This is crazy--even Eck not mentioning what really happened on play at plate with Ortiz. More about how "the foot got in." And HE said left foot too! The story was: Ball beats Papi but catcher can't sweep tag around in time. But all they talk about is whether the foot got the plate or not! Just because Remy didn't see it the first time!

allan said...

COL - 010 021 000 - 4 7 1
MFY - 000 031 11x - 6 7 2

Sox still 0.5 GB.

allan said...

FKR - 301 102 043 - 14 19 1
HOU - 122 200 120 - 10 14 0

Top 3 in Rays order (Damon, Zobrist, Longoria) went 11 for 17, with 10 runs scored, and 6 RBI.

5 of those RBI were from Longoria, who singled, doubled, and homered twice. His box score line: 6 3 4 5.

MFY 45-31 ---
BOS 45-32 0.5
FKR 44-34 2.0