August 10, 2011

G116: Twins 5, Red Sox 2

Red Sox - 000 000 110 - 2  8  0
Twins   - 100 001 03x - 5 11  1
Terry Francona sent Jon Lester (at 106 pitches) back out to the mound for the eighth inning. The Red Sox had a short pen tonight: Jonathan Papelbon had pitched on each of the last three nights (a total of 37 pitches); Daniel Bard had worked three of the last four days (47 pitches); Matt Albers had thrown 30 pitches last night (and 14 on Sunday); and Franklin Morales had tossed 20 last night (and 12 on Sunday).

So while Alfredo Aceves was warming up, Lester kept going. Aceves had been up the previous inning when Lester gave up two singles and a walk, but wriggled out of trouble, leaving the bases loaded. That might have been a clue that he was tiring...

Lester began the eighth by issuing a full-count walk to Joe Mauer (who had walked and scored in the first and hit an RBI-double in the sixth). Michael Cuddyer grounded out, moving Mauer to second. Then Jim Thome (RBI single in the first) ripped a double to left-center, past Carl Crawford to the wall, and the Twins led 3-2. And Lester's night was finally done (7.1-8-4-5-4, 119).

Aceves came in and was utterly ineffective. He allowed a double (4-2), a four-pitch walk, a single, and another single (5-2). A runner was thrown out at the plate on the second single, so Aceves recorded an out. Only six of Aceves's 15 pitches were strikes (and three of those were the three hits). Andrew Miller took over and after handing out yet another four-pitch walk, he got the third out.

Minnesota, dead last in the AL in drawing walks (and 28th out of 30 MLB teams), had a whopping seven walks in this game.

Blackburn (6.2-6-1-2-4, 108) had allowed 20 runs in 12.1 innings over his previous three starts, but the Red Sox could do little with him. Boston rallied in the seventh (Marco Scutaro singled after a two-out walk and an infield error) and eighth (David Ortiz's 23rd home run), but went in order in the ninth, as Joe Nathan recorded his 255th career save for the Twins, becoming the team's all-time leader.

Mike Aviles singled, doubled, walked, and scored a run. Ortiz singled, homered, walked, and scored a run.
The Yankees beat the Angels 9-3, and are 1.5 GB Boston.
Example
Jon Lester / Nick Blackburn

Dustin Pedroia gets the night off. ... The Red Sox have won 14 of their last 20 games. ... Marco Scutaro has eight hits in his last 11 AB. ... When Jacoby Ellsbury hits his next home run, he will be the first Red Sox player with 20+ home runs and 20+ stolen bases in a season since Nomar Garciaparra in 1997.

MFY (2.5 GB): Angels/Yankees at 7 PM.

84 comments:

allan said...

Ellsbury, CF
Scutaro, SS
Gonzalez, 1B
Youkilis, 3B
Ortiz, DH
Crawford, LF
Saltalamacchia, C
Reddick, RF
Aviles, 2B

Span, CF
Revere, RF
Mauer, C
Cuddyer, 1B
Thome, DH
Valencia, 3B
Young, LF
Plouffe, 2B
Nishioka, SS

allan said...

BLOGGER IS BACK!

pitcher covers first on ellsbury and doesn't bother stepping on the bag for the out, goes for a tag instead - misses.

fy shaved his head

home ump barrett screwing lester also. if the foxtrax the twins broadcast is using can be trusted, ball 4 to mauer should have been strike 2.

WOW - Flo just got massively fucked. on strike 1 and strike 3 - both WAY outside

Kerri Strug threw out the first pitch - interviewed on Twins feed, is 33 now and seriously cute. what is she, 3 foot 7?

P4-3 DP -- fuck yeah!!!

LAA - 000 010
MFY - 300 211

tim said...

hahahaha great catch up post.

Alright craw, fuckin' blow this popsicle stand.

Jere said...

Blogger loves to do this crap during baseball games!

Pedroia looked shaved last night. Didn't actually see the head, but it looked like his beard ended by his ear and there was space above. Unless he had the Bartolo Colon cut.

Hey aren't the Yanks supposed to lose to guys they've never seen before? Their fans will quickly forget about this one next time they lose to a never-seen.

allan said...

Pedroia looked shaved last night.

....

tim said...

yeah, he had a shaved head last night, i saw it in the dugout at one point on the twinky broadcast.

tim said...

as part of tonights dinner, i steamed some spinach. so this game is practically guaranteed.

Jere said...

5-3 5-3 5-3

meunier said...

NICK BLACKBURN IS PITCHING A SHUTOUT

tim said...

is blackburn signing in the dead of night?

allan said...

all this game i've been waiting for this inning to arrive ... because we're gettin' some runs!

Dr. Jeff said...

Allan have you seen these alternate videos of the Last Waltz show on Wolfgang's Vault?

Jere said...

Remy not sure about his astronomy...

allan said...

my laptop is too slow to see that now -- what is that, other camera angles not used for the movie? there is a bootleg b&w film from the mixing board of the whole show (the lost waltz)...

Dr. Jeff said...

Yeah, that's the source. It is a fixed B&W camera from the mixing board, but it isn't a bootleg because it's on the Wolfgang's site which is from Bill Graham. Interesting to see the songs that didn't make the movie.

allan said...

i wonder if it is in better quality than the boot? (probably ...) i shall anxiously await someone grabbing them all, joining them, and uploading it somewhere!

allan said...

send him back to third, assholes.

Jere said...

Why are they not considering that that angle isn't directly along the fence? It hit that guy's finger, then went toward the field (or at least on a trajectory less toward the stands than it had been on), but hit the top of the side wall. That tells me there's at least a chance the guy's hand wasn't extended past the imaginary vertical line that comes up from the wall.

tim said...

feels like a rain delayed game thats in the 3rd inning because of the blogger outage...

allan said...

the bats are still in a delay.

Jere said...

must win to stay 2.5 up

allan said...

dreamboat dong, pls

allan said...

L calls Scutaro 2B.

Jere said...

One more hit here please. Must tell self to be satisfied with one here thanks to gift. Can't.

allan said...

1B is good.
But we need that 2nd run.
Circle the bases, Bert.

tim said...

interesting GDGD summary of that error.

LBJ reaches on missed catch error by 2B, assist to P Blackburn...

assist on the error?

tim said...

Jays now 13.5 back. Look out.

allan said...

hit off the p's glove, so if the play was made it would have been 1-4-3. so i guess the assist was finished by the time the error was made.

tim said...

we score in the 7th. one in the 8th, one in the 9th.

ez.

allan said...

walks him on the 2-3 count ....

Amy said...

RSVP. It's the 8th inning---time to score a slew of runs, please.

allan said...

It's Business Time.

Amy said...

OK, NOW! Thanks, Papi!

Patrick said...

DORTIZ!

Jere said...

oh baby

tim said...

TIED!!!!! GOOD TIMES!!!!!

allan said...

FLOOOOOOO

Jere said...

Arias Dong

allan said...

It's The Dawning of the Dong of Arias

meunier said...

Check my Flo

allan said...

i have had game on mute allnight, but L has twins feed on upstairs. last inning she said blyleven was saying "no way this game ends 2-1, i mean, these are the red sox. ellsbury has had 2 walkoffs, reddick had a walkoff, ortiz has been a beast ..." said he'd like it to end 2-1, but there was no way the sox would get thru 2 more innings without a run. he and his cohort were saying they would rather than lead was 4-1 or 8-1 ...

meunier said...

Laser Show

tim said...

pAbe said earlier, reddick 1 for his last 12.

the one was a big one though.

Jere said...

I'll take him one further and say it will not end 2-2

allan said...

we score in the 7th. one in the 8th, one in the 9th.

ez.


7th - check
8th - check
9th -

Kathryn said...

Just dropping by to say......Papi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Benjamin said...

we score in the 7th. one in the 8th, one in the 9th.

We're on pace.

Dr. Jeff said...

Surprised Lester is still in there.

Amy said...

Tim's scoring prediction is great....as long as the Twins don't score again.

Amy said...

As I said....

tim said...

so...2 in the 9th?

allan said...

thought tito would have a short leash with him too

tim said...

alfredo 'inning eater/potatohead'

allan said...

thome hates potatoes.

tim said...

So.... 3 in the 9th?

Amy said...

Try 3, Tim. ARGGGHH

allan said...

i do not understand tito's reasoning here, sending lester out at 106 to start the 8th, seemingly avoiding the pen - with a day off tomorrow.

allan said...

miller up ...

allan said...

from Business Time to Garbage Time ...

tim said...

jesus christ. STOP THE BLEEDING.

Amy said...

Oy vey

tim said...

score 15 in the 9th then let thome bop 599 and 600 in the bottom of the inning.

allan said...

umm, no rule says you gotta keep aceves in there, tito ...

tim said...

nice arm! still horse shit runs.

tim said...

new nickname: aceves 'run sieve'

Amy said...

Out!

Finally...

Can we get one more without giving up any more runs?

allan said...

Nice work from Aceves:

Double
Walk
Single
Single

tim said...

lineup turns over in the 9th so thats a good thing...

allan said...

miller may have to walk a couple before getting an out ...

tim said...

miller likely in to pitch the end of this inning plus the 9th-12th inclusive.

Amy said...

So the bullpen implodes tonight. Sigh.

allan said...

i don't know. we barely saw the bullpen. lester got tired/faltered, tito snoozed, and aceves imploded.

tim said...

YAY! 8th over!!!

tim said...

PA Tito has clearly NOT arrived to the scene yet.

Jere said...

3 in the 9th, 3 in the 10th

tim said...

i do not understand why bard didn't start the 8th.

allan said...

with a playoff spot all but assured, i fear we will be watching Regular Season Tito testing players in tough spots to see how they react. we would be best advised to keep cool during those times. however, that may be impossible...

Amy said...

OK, Aceves imploded....as the bullpen tonight.

But that was enough.

tim said...

so pitchers implode and offense explodes?

got it.

tim said...

LBK

tim said...

purified waters of lake minnetoka.

grumble grumble. off to seattle.

night.

Jere said...

1.5

Amy said...

Clean water.

Guess we can't win EVERY game.

Though I sure wish we could.

allan said...

bah.