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September 24, 2011

G157: Yankees 9, Red Sox 1 

Red Sox - 000 000 100 - 1  9  0
Yankees - 062 001 00x - 9  9  0
It took only two pitches for the Yankees to increase their lead from 1-0 to 6-0.

Russell Martin's bloop single to left glanced off Carl Crawford's glove for two runs, as he tried to make a diving catch. Then Derek Jeter hit a first-pitch, opposite-field, three-run homer.

Amid the underachievers and out-of-their-leaguers that Boston has been sending to the hill this month (Lackey, Weiland, Miller, Wakefield, Bedard), Lester was supposed to have been someone we could depend on.

Instead, his last three outings have been horrific: 13.2 innings, 21 hits, 16 runs, 8 walks, 10 strikeouts, 10.54 ERA.
Example
Jon Lester / Freddy Garcia

Terry Francona asked for input on today's lineup from his coaches and a few players, and made some changes:
Ellsbury, CF
Crawford, LF
Pedroia, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Gonzalez, 1B
Aviles, 3B
Scutaro, SS
Reddick, RF
Saltalamacchia, C
Tito:
We didn't swing the bat very well last night. Spoke to Demarlo and some of the players [including Pedroia] ... I asked for their opinions. ... When I got let go in Philadelphia I told myself that if I ever got another chance I'd be true to myself. Whether people agree with me or not, that's the way I feel bout it and that's important for me.
Theo Epstein:
We had a rough April and we played close to .700 ball for four months and now we're having a real rough September. ... I don't think there's a sense of doom of inevitability at all because this isn't inevitable. If we score more runs than the other team tonight, we'll win. If we do it the next night, we'll win two in a row and we're back. ... Everyone gets knocked on their ass sooner or later. It's what happens afterwards that matters. ... I will say this. Win a game or two in a row here, I do think this team could feel unburdened a little bit and get dangerous in a hurry. It starts with winning one game.
Meanwhile, the Daily News is making a fool of itself:
Photobucket
AL Wild Card
Red Sox  88  68  ---  Magic#
Rays     86  71  2.5     4
Angels   85  72  3.5     3
Remaining Games
Red Sox  - 3 at MFY, 3 at BAL
Rays     - 2 vs TOR, 3 vs MFY
Angels   - 2 vs OAK, 3 vs TEX
Cool Standings has the up-to-date wild card chances: Red Sox (95.2%), Rays (3.7%), Angels (1.1%).

Game thread.

Blue Jays/Rays at 7 PM and Athletics/Angels at 9 PM.
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3 comments:

  1. JereSeptember 24, 2011 at 9:00 AM

    I believe our magic number over the Angels is actually 2 since we hold the tie-breaker over them.

    However, if all 3 teams end up in a tie they wouldn't be eliminated yet. Therefore it's listed as 3. So in other words, if the Rays team plane crashes right now and they're declared out of the race, our magic number over the Angels would drop to 2. But right now it's "2 (unless all 3 teams end up tied)".

    Rays have tiebreaker over us so that magic number is a true 4.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PatrickSeptember 24, 2011 at 10:43 AM

    Can we talk a little about this?

    It's just really bothering me. Did Cashman also trick National's GM Mike Rizzo into spending a crazy amount on Jayson Werth? Because if he did, that's what actually drove up the price on Crawford, and not a dinner date.

    ReplyDelete
  3. allanSeptember 24, 2011 at 11:21 AM

    I think Crawford told the Herald this spring that neither he nor his agent ever heard a single peep from the Yankees that they were serious about making an offer. So I think Cashman is largely full of shit here.

    Anyway, neither Cashman nor Theo are going to get faked out and commit $140,000,000 based on a report of one dinner.

    Both teams are way smarter than that - and they have their spies. Remember how freaked out Crawford was when the Sox told him that had been spying on him?

    ReplyDelete