G104: Red Sox 9, Cleveland 8

All you can do is laugh.

Cora singles, Yook walks, and with one out, Ortiz swings at an 2-0 pitch and hits it to deep center. ... Three-run home run. ... Red Sox win 9-8.

He cannot possibly be human.


***

Paul Byrd (4.71) / David Wells (8.64), 7 PM

Sizemore, CF     Youkilis, 1B
Michaels, LF     Loretta, 2B
Hafner, DH       Ortiz, DH
Martinez, 1B     Ramirez, LF
Blake, RF        Lowell, 3B
Peralta, SS      Varitek, C
Luna, 2B         Crisp, CF
Shoppach, C      Pena, RF
Marte, 3B        Cora, SS

Jermaine Van Buren was sent down to make room for Wells, who returns for his first start since May 26. Terry Francona: "Our medical people think he'll be fine, or we wouldn't do this. ... But I'm going to hold my breath every time he fields a bunt. ... His arm is in great shape. If he gets up to 95 to 100 pitches, that's probably the max."

Byrd has a 2.87 ERA in his 11 starts since May 21, but his last time out, he gave up seven runs on 10 hits in 3.1 to Detroit.

BTW: I guess the trade dealine is the top priority in the media at the moment, so that's why we read nothing about Trot Nixon jogging to first base on his 3-6-3 DP to end the first inning last night and nothing about his misplaying Adam Kennedy's single into a triple in the corner the following inning. Yeah, that must be it. ... Let the Wily Mo Era begin.

The Price Of Milk

Not necessarily verbatim notes from two SoSHers listening to Theo's 5 PM press conference:

No deal done. ... Asked for young players, they are part of long term plan, no deal worth it. ... Came close on a lot of things ... We have a long term plan. As much as we desperately wanted to do something to help our big league team it would have been a mistake to jeaopardize that plan to marginally improve our chances this year ... Still a possibility to do a waiver deal.

It'll hurt to be without Trot, but we have WMP. ... maybe looking at 3 weeks, but that's rough. Starting pitchers returning will make things easier for us, we should be better as they come back. ...

We were most aggressive for starters. Very few changed hands. We tried to get very creative about getting teams to think about giving up pitchers they weren't interested in giving up ... came pretty close to high-caliber starting pitchers but in the end didn't find one worthwile for us.

Sounds a lot like what Theo said exactly one year ago today:

I think it was the ultimate sellers' market and if you're a buyer and you're in the ultimate sellers' market, it's hard to make a fair deal. It's hard to make a deal that doesn't hurt you more than helps you.

I kind of liken it to if you need a carton of milk and put five bucks in your pocket and go to the store to get some milk, and all of a sudden milk is 100 bucks, you may walk out of that store without some milk. That's what we did.

Nixon on DL

Trot Nixon was put on the disabled list with "a grade two biceps strain".

Michael Silverman, Herald:

We just got out of a meeting with Terry Francona and he told us that according to GM Theo Epstein, "nothing has happened and he doesn't foresee anything happening." That was from a phone call they had just before 4 o’clock, so there is a small chance something could have happened but it appears the Red Sox will settle with what they have.

For the final two months of the season, the Yankees picked up Abreu, Lidle and Wilson for Chacon. ... I'm very glad the Sox didn't panic and give up any young talent, but assuming there are no late announcements -- and fully understanding that New York needed pitching and got only Lidle -- I'm feeling a bit annoyed at the moment.

Deadline Drama III

Monday, 4:00 PM -- Kip Wells traded to Texas (Edes says Sox "ultimately passed because of [his] shaky medical history). ... WEEI says Loretta, Lowell, Crisp and Pena in the lineup tonight.

Shawn Chacon traded to the Pirates for Craig Wilson. Jesus.

Lugo traded to Dodgers.

Will Carroll, BP:

The Sox are also looking for cheap outfield help as a backup in case tests on Trot Nixon come up with a poor result. There are several names in play, including Craig Wilson, Geoff Jenkins, and Moises Alou. The question here will be price and fit. The Sox, even if Nixon is out for the year, could go with Gabe Kapler and Wily Mo Pena if the price is too high on an acquisition.

SoSHer says ESPN's Keith Law:

on Outside the Lines is claiming that Coco has fallen out of favor with the Red Sox. He claimed Coco's defense isn't as advertised, and that Coco has created problems in the clubhouse. WTF? Nobody's even whispered about him being a clubhouse problem, and everyone knew Coco has a Damonesque arm. Where do they come up with this crap?

Anyone else see that?

Monday, 3:00 PM -- From SoSH:

Three baseball sources [including Olney] say that Pirates RHP Kip Wells is on the verge of being traded to Boston, and that the two sides are ironing out details to get it done. A deal could be done at any minute, a baseball source says.

Wells (for Abe Alvarez, apparently) would be the #5 and Snyder would move to the pen (which would seem to be the best place for him). Theo better have landed him for free, though.

Monday, 2:50 PM -- Sean McAdam: "At some point today, the Sox were in contact with the agent for Julio Lugo, trying to hammer out an extention before completing a trade for him."

This would be tampering without approval from both the Devil Rays and the Commissioner's office, which would likely mean a deal is in place. So ... ???

Monday, 2:40 PM -- Updates from the Globe:

Gordon Edes:

I was told by a Pittsburgh source this afternoon that the Red Sox were talking to the Pirates about starting pitcher Kip Wells. Wells 1-5 with a 6.69 ERA in seven starts for the Pirates this season. In July, however, he has a much lower 3.16 ERA in four starts.

Edes also says that after the Red Sox said no to Atlanta about Lester, "that was it. No counterproposals, no further conversation." The Sox "might still be involved" with Alfonso Soriano and have talked to San Diego about reliever Scott Linebrink and starter Chris Young.

Nick Cafardo:

The Red Sox have been in the running for virtually every big name out there ... But the Sox are only hearing names like Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Craig Hansen, Manny DelCarmen, Dustin Pedroia and they're not liking those sounds. There's still a possibility the Sox could make a quick deal for the Phillies' Jon Lieber.

Monday, 2:00 PM -- Two hours to go!

Buster Olney (1:17 PM):

Boston and Atlanta have talked about sending Andruw Jones to Boston for Coco Crisp, Craig Hansen and a prospect. Atlanta asked for Jon Lester, but the Red Sox said no.

From SoSHer DJnVa (1:44 PM):

Olney on with Dan Patrick: Since Abreu trade Sox have moved from looking for a "good" player to looking for a "great" player. ... Sox are very aggressive today. ... Thinks there will be a lot of trades announced at deadline.

Jones is under contract for next year at $13.5 and he'd look damn good at #5 after God and Manny (and in center). Hansen is clearly the most "tradeable" of the young arms and if Papelbon stays in the pen, Hansen is way more valuable to another team than as a setup man here. I don't see why the Sox and Atlanta can't agree on some other pitcher to fill out the deal.

Monday, 1:30 PM -- From the papers:

Nick Cafardo, Globe (11:15 AM):

A source close to Clemens said today that Clemens would not ask to be traded even though his frustration level is through the roof following another rough day for the Astros, who blew a 5-1 lead and lost to the Diamondbacks 7-6 yesterday. ... The source indicated that Clemens, who has a no trade clause in his contract, would not veto a trade to the Red Sox or Yankees.

Sean McAdam, ProJo:

Friends of the Rocket insist he's sorry that he chose the Astros over the Red Sox. ... Clemens would love to be dealt to the Red Sox, but doesn't want to antagonize his hometown by asking for a trade. Similarly, owner Drayon McLane, having won the furious bidding war for Clemens two months ago, doesn't want to alienate Astros fans by dealing Clemens.

Gordon Edes, Globe:

[A]ccording to a major league executive who said he spoke directly with one of the three teams involved, the Red Sox are working on a three-way deal with Tampa Bay and San Diego in which they would end up with Devil Rays infielder Julio Lugo and Padres setup man Scott Linebrink, with Lowell going to the Padres. The Devil Rays presumably would end up with prospects from one or both clubs. ... Another major league executive confirmed the Padres' willingness to trade Linebrink, and it is well known that San Diego has been seeking a third baseman.

Michael Silverman, Herald:

The juiciest rumors: The Red Sox are attempting to strike a three-way deal with the Rockies and Padres, with third baseman Mike Lowell shipped out of town and first baseman Ryan Shealy arriving here from Colorado. The Sox also would presumably obtain a more-than-reputable starter. ... David Pauley also was mentioned as part of the Red Sox' package.

Cafardo, Globe:

According to major league sources the Sox were working on a three-way deal with Tampa Bay and San Diego.

Padres special assignment scout Ted Simmons was still in town checking out the Sox, but Boston has indicated it won't move Kevin Youkilis. Sources were indicating the deal, if consummated, would have the Sox getting Devil Rays shortstop Julio Lugo and Padres righty setup man Scott Linebrink, with Mike Lowell heading to San Diego and Tampa Bay receiving prospects from Boston.

Other news:

Curt Schilling: The Yankees "make a huge deal, they win a game, I pitch like crap, we lose a game, and everybody is at the extremes."

Trot Nixon will undergo an MRI today after aggravating a strained right biceps injury in the third inning last night. ... Matt Clement was moved to the 60-day DL to make room for Bryan Corey, who should be with the team on Wednesday.

Keith Foulke strained his lower back and won't pitch for about a week. PawSox pitching coach Mike Griffin: "He had some stiffness so he didn't want to try it. He did some long toss but got up on the mound and just felt tight." ... Foulke: "I'm not pitching. You can call it whatever you want. ... I don't want to talk about it, really."

Manny Delcarmen is probably unavailable for a few days because of an irritation on his right thumb. It's been bothering him for about a week, and as it turns out, he's allowed five runs in 2.1 innings over his last three appearances. ... MDC:

My four-seamer right now I can't throw it away on the corner, everything keeps running in. When I want to throw my curveball the way I want it, that's when I really feel it. I'd rather say something now than have it get worse and become a big issue later. My velocity's [the same], but I can't really control where I want the ball to go now.

Monday, 12:30 PM -- Jayson Stark, ESPN:

The Red Sox rolled their shopping cart through Soriano-ville on Sunday, just for the fun of seeing what happened. Well, the odds are: Not much will. Since the Red Sox are not a team interested in unloading its supply of young, electric arms, they don't seem like a good match with the Nationals.

Christina Kahrl, Baseball Prospectus, on the Abreu trade:

Master strokes rarely fix two problems simultaneously, but whether you want to consider this a case of Brian Cashman making a simply outstanding deal, or the Phillies dumping salary to the one team that is consistently willing to absorb more, or some combination thereof, this quite simply fixes the Yankees in a way that single trades rarely achieve. ...

The Yankees probably just added four wins in the final 60 games, with Lidle probably being every bit as responsible for that as Abreu. That's not just an upgrade, that's a massive difference, and a reflection on what's being replaced. This doesn't simply help the Yankees keep up with the competition, they now have a much better shot at winning not merely the wild card, but their own division, and they can better withstand an injury in either their rotation or lineup than before.

Monday, 11:50 AM -- Rob Bradford on WEEI reports: Atlanta offered Andruw Jones to the Red Sox for Jon Lester, Coco Crisp, and Craig Hansen last night. It was turned down, but "was a lot closer than you'd expect."

What? It would be better for Theo to turn off his cell phone and go to sleep for four hours than make a deal like this.

Deadline Drama II

Monday, 12:45 AM There was talk during tonight's game about a possible straight Loretta-for-Lugo deal. I'd do that, but that doesn't help our pitching staff.

For what it's worth, there was also this SoSH post at 10:44 PM: "A fellow Sosher embedded at Fenway just called and told me the Loretta for Lugo deal is done. Loretta was seen leaving Fenway earlier." ... Two follow-up posts after the game: "loretta was in the clubhouse after the game laughing off the rumor according to cbs" and "Per CBS-4 (Sports Final), Loretta was in the dugout during the game".

Jayson Stark says the Red Sox have inquired about Giants starter Jason Schmidt, along with the Mets, Rangers and maybe the White Sox. Stark says the Giants are warning teams that Schmidt will be "expensive" -- either two top-tier young players or one player like that and a young starting pitcher who could replace Schmidt.

Sunday, 5:40 PM -- Will Carroll reports that the Cardinals are about to acquire second baseman Ron Belliard, so that likely removes St. Louis from any Loretta discussion.

Sunday, 4:22 PM -- It's official: the Yankees have picked up Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle from the Phillies for shortstop C.J. Henry, lefty Matt Smith, catcher Jesus Sanchez and righty Carlos Monasterios.

Only Henry (the Yankees' first-round draft pick in 2005, batting .237 in 76 games Charleston (A)) and Smith (who did not allow a run in 12 appearances in New York and has a 2.08 ERA in 24 games for Columbus (AAA)) are worth talking about.

So, in exchange for little more than money (Abreu: $13 this year, $13 in 2007 and a $13 option in 2008 (which they actually may not be obligated to pick up)), the Yankees got a decent right fielder and an upgrade over dreck like Ponson in the #5 starter spot.

But does it really help them? Lidle's NL ERA has hovered around 5.00 all year, and when he was with the Blue Jays in 2003, he posted a 5.75 ERA in 31 starts. Abreu has some speed, but in June and July, he has slugged .404 and .313, respectively. I'm not convinced. Lidle is not the answer to their need for pitching.

The Red Sox acquired Bryan Corey, a right-handed reliever who was DFA'd by the Rangers a few days ago in exchange for AA RHP Louis Mendoza. Corey has pitched in the big leagues in 1998 (Arizona, 4 innings), 2002 (Dodgers, 1 inning) and 2006 (2.60 ERA and 15 hits and 8 walks in 17.1 innings).

Theo is just clearing his throat. ... Right, Theo?

G103: Angels 10, Red Sox 4

Although he had a fastball that hit 94-96 on ESPN's gun, Curt Schilling had a very rough beginning. He was unable to spot the fastball at all, usually leaving it up in the zone.

The Angels teed off on him: the first 15 batters collected nine hits (two singles, three doubles, one triple and three home runs). Thanks to some truly stupid base-running and questionable fielding decisions when the Red Sox were batting, Los Angeles led by only 6-1 after three innings.

Schilling settled down after that, allowing only an infield single to the next eight Angels. Through five innings, he had thrown 87 pitches.

In the bottom of the fifth, Boston finally started to hit Lackey's breaking stuff. Alex Gonzalez singled, Kevin Youkilis flied out to right-center, Alex Cora doubled, David Ortiz doubled (6-3), Manny Ramirez lined out to center and Wily Mo Pena doubled (6-4). (Pena had replaced Trot Nixon, who suffered an "upper right arm strain" on an awkward swing in the third. I was seriously Truped on WMP's double. He hit it towards the end of the bat which shattered, but it had more height than distance and banged off the Wall.

Jason Varitek walked on four pitches and the go-ahead run came at the plate. On an inside 0-2 pitch, Lackey appeared to hit Mike Lowell on the arm. But home plate umpire Kerwin Danley said no, Lowell and Tito complained, before Lowell struck out on the next pitch, ending the inning.

At that point, trailing only 6-4 with four innings to go, Terry Francona pulled Schilling. (Was he hurt? Tired? It seemed like a quick hook.) So Tito decided to bring in ... Jermaine Van Buren, who had pitched only once since being recalled way back on July 18. One game in 12 days. Bad choice, Tito.

Now I'm no fan of the Gruesome Twosome, but Rudy Seanez has been pitching better lately, albeit with huge leads. And if you are going to go with either Seanez or Julian Tavarez -- and that still seemed fine, considering who went yesterday, Delcarmen's possible unavailability and Wells going tomorrow -- it's best to do at the start of an inning.

So in comes JVB, who promptly gives up three singles, a walk and a loud line drive out to center (Coco made a diving catch in right-center and had a double play at first, but made a wild throw and the runner got back). One run is in and the bases are loaded. Tavarez comes in and, naturally, allows all three inherited runners to score. 10-4.

P.S. Tavarez started the seventh and retired the Angels in order on 12 pitches. Seanez turned in a perfect eighth and, although he allowed two singles, a scoreless ninth.

P.P.S. Has Vlad's moon shot come down yet?

***

John Lackey (2.89) / Curt Schilling (3.60), 8 PM

Terry Francona says it's simply a coincidence that Mark Loretta gets the night off on the day before the trade deadline.

Figgins, CF     Youkilis, 1B
Izturis, 3B     Cora, 2B
Cabrera, SS     Ortiz, DH
Guerrero, RF    Ramirez, LF
Anderson, LF    Nixon, RF
Rivera, DH      Varitek, C
Kendrick, 1B    Lowell, 3B
Napoli, C       Crisp, CF
Kennedy, 2B     Gonzalez, SS

Lackey has gone 4-1, 1.69, with 44 strikeouts and nine walks in July. However, the Angels are 0-8 against the Red Sox when he pitches.

The Red Sox are 17-5 this year when Schilling starts. He is 8-0, 2.71 ERA at Fenway. ... In addition to having a season-high 14-game hitting streak, Manny Ramirez is 8-for-15 (.533) with four home runs and 10 RBIs against Lackey.

Sunday Papers

Nick Cafardo, Globe: The Sox disputed a report that Coco Crisp is being shopped. According to one National League general manager, the Sox have been "burning up the phone lines. I don't think there's a team trying any harder than Boston to make a deal over the last 24 hours." The Padres had scouts at Fenway yesterday -- SD was told that neither Mike Lowell nor Kevin Youkilis are available in a trade for Scott Linebrink. (... but for someone else?)

Francona says Manny Delcarmen has a sore thumb that makes it difficult to throw his curve. Tito: "I think giving him a day or two is just what he needs." ... Matt Clement threw off a mound for the first time in nearly a month and will have another side session on Monday. Tito: "He threw about 60 to 75 percent. Again, no twinges, no apprehension."... Angels centerfielder Chone Figgins had 11 putouts, all in the first six innings, yesterday. The major league record is 12.

Jonathan Papelbon says that in the early months of this season, he "was just trying to get my feet wet and get command of the zone. Now that I've got my grasp, I can throw a slider a little bit more, give them another pitch to look for." ... So look for him to start pitching a bit better.

Gordon Edes has more from the preliminary 2007 schedule: All three Yankees series at Fenway Park are scheduled for weekends: April 20-22, June 1-3, and September 14-16. The New York series are April 27-29, August 3-5 and August 28-30 (mid-week). ... Boston opens the season with a two-city trip to Minneapolis and Seattle. ... The home opener is scheduled for April 10 against the Devil Rays. ... They will make four West Coast trips, three before the All-Star break. ... The Sox will not finish the regular season against an East opponent, ending the season against the Athletics and Twins.

The Globe asked three general managers, one special assignment scout, and one manager to "list the teams they wouldn't want to face in the playoffs in each league, in order of toughness. All five ranked the Twins as the toughest AL team. The Red Sox got most of the second-place votes, followed by the Tigers, Angels and White Sox. In the NL: Cardinals, Mets, Giants, Reds, Padres.

Julian Tavarez: "It kinda sucks. We're in first place and they boo me. They say 'You suck.' During batting practice. Out in the street. I heard it was tough to play here. I didn't believe it until I got here. ... [The fans] got all the right to boo me. I'd boo me too."

On July 30, 1991, before an afternoon game against the Rangers, Red Sox pitcher Jeff Gray suddenly "became light-headed, his speech slurred, and he realized he couldn't move his right arm, his pitching arm. His right side paralyzed, Gray slumped to the floor. He was just 28 years old." ... The Herald talks with Gray about his recovery.

Deadline Drama

Sunday, 1:25 PM -- Julio Lugo leading off for Tampa against the Yankees this afternoon. ... Bobby Abreu has been pulled from Philadelphia's lineup. ... Dustin Pedroia is batting third for Pawtucket this afternoon, and Keith Foulke was stratched from his appearance (no reason yet).

Sunday, 12:35 PM -- Will Carroll writes that the Red Sox

are also closing in on a deal for Julio Lugo, according to sources with other teams. The holdup there is getting an answer on whether Lugo would move to 2B. The backup option for the Red Sox is Dustin Pedroia, not Ron Belliard.

Lugo (hitting .312/.378/.505 right now) played 47 games at second for Houston in 2000-01 and eight games for Tampa in 2004. This would also keep Lugo out of Toronto, but how much should two or three months of free agent Lugo cost (assuming the Sox don't sign him)? ... Is Mark Loretta (.304/.355/.378) going back to San Diego (or St. Louis)?

Sunday, 11:30 AM -- Ken Rosenthal:

The Bobby Abreu trade is likely to happen Sunday, and the Phillies are expected to send the right fielder to the Yankees -— even though the Red Sox are still in the mix ...

The Yankees would get Abreu and right-hander Cory Lidle in their proposed deal, while the Red Sox are negotiating only for Abreu. However, the Sox are working on several other fronts, and their primary motivation apparently is to muddle matters for the Yankees, according to a source close to the talks.

Another reason why the Red Sox are looking for a reliever? From the Herald:

Right-hander Manny Delcarmen is battling inflammation in the capsule near the bottom joint of his right thumb, an injury that began bothering him a week ago. It's causing pain when he throws his breaking ball and is causing all his pitches to cut in toward right-handed batters. His velocity remains unchanged, he said.

Delcarmen, who is taking anti-inflammatory medication, will see a hand specialist today at Fenway Park.

Sunday, 2:00 AM -- Jayson Stark:

[I]t sure looks as if Abreu is moving his act to the Bronx sometime in the next day and a half. And all indications Saturday night were that pitcher Cory Lidle is going to ride that Metroliner along with him ... for a package of three or four of the Yankees' best prospects not named Phillip Hughes or Jose Tabata.

and of Boston's offer of Coco Crisp for Mark Buehrle:

What it indicates to us is just how adventurous the Red Sox could be between now and Monday if the right deal or deals erupt around them. They're not trading any of their marquee young pitching (Jon Lester, Manny Delcarmen or Craig Hansen). So their ticket to a big, outside-the-box blockbuster is clearly to deal from their big-league position-player surplus. That means any of their outfielders except Manny Ramirez, and any of their infielders except Kevin Youkilis. ...

An official of one team that has been brainstorming with the Red Sox says that chain reaction is "logical" and "obvious" -- but also says they're not as far along on those alleged three-team and four-team companion deals as has been advertised. All we know for sure is that they've spent a lot of time this week talking with the Padres, Indians, A's and Rangers -- and those teams have been networking with several other clubs. ... Sunday, says one AL GM, "should be the big day."

Buster Olney (on Sportscenter and BBTN) said the Sox might be trying to get in on a multi-team deal that would bring them Padres reliever Scott Linebrink (game log.

Saturday, 7:40 PM -- Will Carroll offers an update:

The Cubs may be one of the teams involved in the already complex machinations of Kevin Towers and Theo Epstein, though there's no solid evidence that the two are working on the same deal. ...

Greg Maddux is mentioned just before that sentence, but it doesn't sound like he was being linked to any Red Sox rumours.

A SoSHer posts that Buster Olney was on ESPNews saying the Yankees are talking to the Pirates about Roberto Hernandez. Also "a lot of smoke coming from Boston" with several possible three- and four-team deals.

And Bobby Abreu -- mentioned in connection with the Yankees -- is not in the Phillies' starting lineup tonight.

Saturday, 4:20 PM -- More Olney. After mentioning the same stuff about Crisp, the White Sox and Loretta, he writes: "I wish I knew all the details of what the Red Sox are planning, all the tentacles, because the bits and pieces are fascinating."

Saturday, 3:20 PM -- Gordon Edes, Globe: "The Sox this week offered center fielder Coco Crisp to the White Sox for left-handed All-Star Mark Buehrle, perhaps hoping that Buehrle's recent struggles might persuade White Sox GM Kenny Williams to move him. But the White Sox turned the deal down."

Saturday, 2:30 PM -- Will Carroll, Baseball Prospectus (my emphasis):

Everyone's still watching the Red Sox, an organization that's plugged most of their former leaks. Whispers of Coco Crisp and Mark Loretta being shopped are coming from other organizations. The chattering masses (myself included) are trying to connect the dots here without much luck so far. Some of this -- but not all -- is smart use of misdirection. We'll know soon, I'm told. One of my best sources says the first of the Red Sox deals will happen this afternoon.

Saturday, 1:30 PM -- Late last night on Baseball Tonight: Buster Olney said the Red Sox offered Coco Crisp to Chicago for "pitching" and were turned down. Also "offering around" Mark Loretta; perhaps Dustin Pedroia is ready to take over 2B. ... SoSHers wonder if the White Sox pitcher is Brandon McCarthy.

Ken Rosenthal reports that the Cardinals are interested in Loretta, but he ties it to the Sox getting Julio Lugo.

G102: Red Sox 7, Angels 6 (11)

A wonderful day.

First, the Fox game offers us not Tim McCarver, but Jerry Remy! ... Roughly four hours later, after the ups and downs of falling behind 6-3 and rallying with an three-run eighth, David Ortiz adds another walk-off hit to his legendary collection with an opposite field single in the 11th inning (box). Tiz finished the day 4-for-5 with 4 RBI, giving him 99 for the season.

(And don't forget Manny Ramirez's perfect throw home in the top of the 11th, nailing Mike Napoli trying to score from second base. Mike Lowell: "I've always said he throws the straightest ball of any left fielder I've ever played with. He's on the money. He didn't panic, he took his time, he fired it to home and he threw a strike. I think he's very underrated in that sense.")

In New York, Tampa routed the Yankees 19-6, scoring in all but the first and ninth innings. The Red Sox lead the East by 1.5 -- and Toronto is 6 GB.

***

Jered Weaver (1.15) / Josh Beckett (4.77), 1:20 PM

Beckett has won his last two outings, allowing only three runs over 14 innings. He has pitched at least six innings in seven of his last eight starts.

Jered Weaver, 23 years old and the 12th overall pick in the 2004 draft, will try to become the first pitcher to win his first eight starts since Dodger rookie Fernando Valenzuela in 1981. Boo Ferriss of the 1945 Red Sox also won his first eight starts. (The American League record is nine wins, set by the Yankees' Whitey Ford in 1950. Hooks Wiltse of the 1904 New York Giants holds the major league record with 12.)

From the Globe:

Weaver has lasted at least six innings in each of his starts but has never worked more than seven. He has five pitches in his repertoire -- a 90-96 mile-per-hour four-seam fastball, an 87-90 mile-per-hour two-seamer, a slider that hits around 84, a decent curveball, and a changeup.

Much like Red Sox starter Josh Beckett, Weaver has quickly become known for showing emotion on the mound, fist pumping and yelling after big outs during the game. ...

Weaver admits that he's been nervous in all of his starts: "It still hasn't kicked in that I'm [in the majors] ... but I'm getting used to it."

Coco Mentioned In Trade Talks

Michael Silverman reports that "a major league source yesterday said the Red Sox had recently made a concrete offer that included [Coco] Crisp to another team for a starter."

Keith Foulke threw 12 pitches, 10 for strikes, in his one perfect inning against the Vermont Lake Monsters last night. Foulke also threw a few curveballs, a pitch he estimated he hadn't used in seven years. "It's something I'm going to start trying to help keep hitters off my hard stuff. We'll see how it works."

Matt Clement is playing catch up to 100 feet. Terry Francona said it's "probably the best he's thrown yet as far as feeling good, and strength. He's probably a couple of days from" a side session.

Foulke: One Perfect Inning

Keith Foulke started for Lowell on Friday night, pitching one perfect inning and keeping the ball in the infield:

Vermont Top 1st
Jonathan Martinez pops out to third.
Jeremy Goldschmeding pops out to second.
Justin Maxwell strikes out swinging.

The box score doesn't include pitches thrown, so we'll have to wait for the morning papers for more info. ... Lowell won the game 7-5; Josh Papelbon picked up his 6th save.

G101: Angels 8, Red Sox 3

With a 2-1 lead, Jon Lester fell apart in the seventh -- and Tito let him stay on the hill long enough to let the first five Angels reach base: single, single, FC, single, double.

Manny Delcarmen and Javier Lopez couldn't shut the door -- Anaheim scored six times on seven hits -- and suddenly, it was garbage time (Sexy Lips and the White Flag) for the final two innings.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Sox raises our hopes slightly by loading the bases -- Alex Gonzalez double, Kevin Youkilis infield single, Mark Loretta walk -- but David Ortiz, who did not deliver with runners at second and third and two outs in the seventh, couldn't do it here either. During his at-bat, a wild pitch scored a run, but then Ortiz struck out to end the game.

Lester was tagged with the first loss of his career, but it's worth pointing out that this was his first start in which he did not walk a batter.

In New York, Chien-Ming Wang threw a complete game, two-hit shutout. The 6-0 win over Tampa puts the Yankees only one-half game behind the Red Sox. ... Not good.

***

Kelvim Escobar (3.88) / Jon Lester (3.04), 7 PM

Lester, unbeaten in his first nine starts, is 3-0 with a 2.22 ERA in five games at Fenway.

Escobar came off the disabled list (elbow inflammation) last Saturday for his first start since July 6. He threw 98 pitches in seven innings, allowing three runs and five hits in the first inning, but only four hits and no runs over the next six frames.

Weather Report: As of 4 PM, there was a chance of scattered thunderstorms and high winds into early evening.

Terry Francona said that David Wells will start against Cleveland on Monday, followed by Kyle Snyder and Lester.

Is Wily Mo Sox Biggest Trading Chip?

Jayson Stark's Stark Market:

The Red Sox might lead the league in phone calls this week. But for all the indications that they're trying to do something creative, clubs that have spoken with them say they're not close to anything on any front. Still, they're hunting for a starting pitcher who would allow them to stop counting on Tim Wakefield and David Wells to return to perfect health. And from all accounts, it's the hulking Wily Mo who is most out there for somebody to scarf up.

We've heard the same rumblings that Buster Olney has, about the Sox trying to cook up all sorts of complicated multi-team deals. So we've chased down rumors about Dontrelle Willis, Jake Peavy, Jake Westbrook, Chris Young, Miguel Cabrera, Miguel Batista and all sorts of other fun, but even more far-fetched, names. But they all seem to be nothing more than items you can file under the umbrella of typical pre-deadline brainstorming. We've also heard surprising names off their own roster that are said by various clubs to be available. But we sense no appetite on their part to deal those names -- not unless they're faced with an offer too juicy to turn down.

So check that list of seven available starting pitchers a couple of notches up on this list [Cory Lidle, Livan Hernandez, Rodrigo Lopez, Jon Lieber, Tony Armas Jr., Mark Redman, Ramon Ortiz]. Then look at the photo of the guy pictured with this item and practice waving goodbye -- because, in the words of one front-office man who has spoken with the Red Sox, "I'd be very surprised if Wily Mo Pena is on their team come Monday night."

Earlier this week, Pena acknowledged the rumours, but hopes he stays in Boston:

For the first time, I feel like this is home. ... I want to stay. I like it here. I like the city, the people. The fans love baseball. They get crazy. In that field [Fenway], I love seeing all the people every night. I love the big crowd. I feel good and comfortable here.

Other AL East rumors: The Blue Jays want Julio Lugo but are unwilling to give Tampa two top pitching prospects. ... Similarly, the Yankees would like Bobby Abreu, but will not trade pitching prospect Philip Hughes. ... At Over The Monster, "SweSox" comments on "reports that the sox are talking about a massive three-team deal for dontrelle ... it might be, and in fact seems likely to be, bullshit. if it's not though, i'll throw a happy-fit that lasts a full week."

And speaking of 5th starters, Jason Johnson allowed only two hits in seven shutout innings last night for Pawtucket. In his last two starts (14 innings), Johnson has allowed one run and six hits.

It looks like we'll be seeing Andy Marte on Monday.

Crazy Stuff, Large and Creative

Yesterday, in his ESPN Insider blog, Buster Olney wrote:

Heard from two talent evaluators yesterday that Boston is very active in trying to come up with a large and creative deal, involving more than two teams. Smart thinking, one of them said, if it all works. Crazy stuff you wouldn't normally think of, said another. An executive with an AL team reports that he's heard that a scout was rushed off his area coverage to go scout Boston minor leaguers. ... Red Sox executives are mum; execs from other teams say they are very active.

Red Sox scouts have been in Philadelphia, watching Cory Lidle and Jon Lieber. Lidle won his game yesterday, allowing two runs on four hits over eight inning, striking out eight.

Olney also commented on Lidle:

Right now, Lidle may be the most tradeable commodity on the market because he isn't tied to money long-term, nobody is confusing him for a star, and yet everybody respects his grittiness and knows he can handle pressure. A guess-timate: He winds up with the Texas Rangers.

Nick Cafardo (Globe) quotes one AL executive: "The price for what we'd like to do is absolutely ridiculous right now. I think we're going right up to Saturday and Sunday before things start to pop when the sellers come down a bit."

The Importance Of The Back Of The Rotation -- SoSHer OttoC crunches some numbers and talks about "the dearth of [starting] pitching and the suggestion that teams might not need to set their sights so high in filling the 3-5 slots".

The Angels are in town. Tonight's starter Jon Lester wants to keep his pitch counts down. ... Javier Lopez was recalled from Pawtucket. ... RedSox.com feature on Manny Delcarmen.

Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post:

A beautiful gift fell from the sky this spring and landed at the feet of the Boston Red Sox. It was so radiant, they didn't know what to do with it at first. So precious, they have come to treat it with exceptional care. So powerful, the mind races at what the future could hold. For now, however, it is simply a gift that should be shared with and enjoyed by the world. All behold, Jonathan Papelbon.

Foulke and Wells Back on Monday?

Keith Foulke could be back in the Red Sox pen early next week -- or he could be seriously considering retirement.

Foulke will pitch for Lowell (A) Friday night and for Pawtucket (AAA) Sunday. If that goes well, the team might activate him (and David Wells?) on Monday.

If not, Foulke says: "I don't know what to do. ... It's not worth my time. It's not worth anybody's time." (Since the 2004 World Series, Foulke has allowed 88 hits and 22 walks in 77.2 innings.)

Jeff Horrigan writes that Foulke has "reworked his delivery during the past few weeks in hopes of relieving stress from the elbow. He has lengthened his stride and moved his arm farther away from his head at the start of the throwing motion."

(For their game against Vermont tomorrow night, the Lowell Spinners will rename themselves the "Mike Lowell Spinners" -- complete with new uniforms.)

Kason Gabbard is back in Pawtucket. The team will make a corresponding move tomorrow, though that pitcher (lefty Phil Seibel?) will likely be up for only the weekend. ... Boston has expressed some interest in RHP Jon Lieber, but the Phillies want either Jon Lester or Craig Hansen.

David Ortiz's 34 homers through 100 games are a club record (Jimmie Foxx had 32 in 100 games in 1932). ... In his 12-game hitting streak, Manny Ramirez is batting .500 (20-for-40).

The unofficial 2007 schedule has the Red Sox making four trips to the West Coast. Interleague play will bring the team to Arizona (for the first time) and Los Angeles (and maybe San Diego).

History Lesson

Columnist Lenny Megliola tells Roger Clemens to come back to Boston, where he'd get better run support -- and pitch in a pennant race.

The fans will be ecstatic. They are, after all, a forgiving lot. They even cheer Bill Buckner now.

Note to Lenny: Fans at Fenway were giving Buckner standing ovations back in 1987.

G100: Athletics 5, Red Sox 1

Dan Haren shut down the Sox bats (7-4-1-1-4, 107) -- retiring 14 straight Boston batters at one point (and 18 of 19) -- and Frank Thomas hit two long home runs, driving in four of Oakland's five runs.

Kyle Snyder allowed 10 hits in six innings, but seven of those hits (and all five A's runs) came in the fourth and fifth. He made the same pitch to Thomas twice -- fastball belt high -- and got hurt both times.

Snyder also threw more fastballs in his second and third times through the order, which caused some problems. During his Seattle start last Friday, it was mentioned that there is too much of a speed difference between his changeup and fastball and batters can look for the heat and still be able to adjust to the change. He needs his curveball, which splits the difference in velocity, to be successful. In all of his starts, Snyder has pitched very well for the first three or four innings. He may be better suited for the pen.

The Sox scored their run in the seventh on a Manny double and Crisp single. (How many diving/sliding catches did the A's make in this series? A ridiculous amount. I lost count.)

***

Kyle Snyder (7.02) / Dan Haren (4.02), 3:35 PM

In his last start, Snyder threw five innings against Seattle, allowing two unearned runs. He lost his only start against the A's this season, allowing five runs and eight hits over 4.2 innings on July 16.

In five innings against the Red Sox on July 15, Haren allowed five runs and nine hits. Haren is 0-4, 5.36 in his last seven starts and is pitching on four days rest.

Tonight: Yankees (2.5 GB) (Wright) at Rangers (Rheinecker); Blue Jays (5.5 GB) Burnett) at Mariners (Moyer).

P/PA Box Score

Here is a box score of pitches seen per plate appearance from last night, total plate appearances and times on base:

                              PIT PA OB
Youkilis  5  4  7  2  10  2  - 30  6  4
Loretta   3  1  1  4   2  1  - 12  6  3
Ortiz     8  4  4  1   6     - 23  5  1
  Pena                    4  -  4  1  1
Ramirez   2  5  6  1   6     - 20  5  3
  Kapler                  6  -  6  1  1
Nixon     7  3  5  3   4  1  - 23  6  4
Varitek   6  6  2  4   2  1  - 21  6  2
Lowell    2  1  3  6   2  1  - 15  6  3
Crisp     7  4  3  1   1  5  - 21  6  3
Gonzalez  3  2  2  5   6     - 18  5  1

I did not count reaching on a fielder's choice as reaching base.

G99: Red Sox 13, Athletics 5

Cold sweats to laughter in roughly 15 minutes.

Bottom of the 7th: Manny Delcarmen, in relief of Curt Schilling (6-6-4-1-3, 105) has allowed three straight singles with no one out. Boston's lead, once 6-1 (thanks in part to back-to-back home runs from Manny Ramirez and Trot Nixon), is now 6-5. The A's have men on first and second. Al Nipper visits MDC. 12:38 am. ... Milton Bradley flies out to Manny in left-center. Frank Thomas strikes out on a full-count, 79 mph curveball on the outside corner. Nick Swisher, after turing away from an outside curve for strike two, swings and misses an 95 mph fastball. Inning over.

Top of the 8th: Justin Duchscherer gets Kevin Youkilis on a hot shot to third base. Then the floodgates open: Mark Loretta singles to right-center. David Ortiz singles to left. Ramirez walks to load the bases. Duchscherer is pulled and is ejected for arguing some close pitches to Manny. Brad Halsey comes in and he walks Nixon on four pitches to give Boston a 7-5 lead. Jason Varitek clears the bases with a double to the left-center gap (10-5). 12:54 am. ... Mike Lowell singles. Coco Crisp (3-for-6) singles to right and scores Varitek (11-5). Alex Gonzalez reaches on a fielder's choice that scores Lowell (12-5). Youkilis singles, but Loretta finally makes the third out.

Julian Tavarez pitched the 8th inning. He allowed a single and walk with one out, but got a 5-4-3 double play. Rudy Seanez pitched a perfect 9th on only seven pitches, all strikes. He clearly is at his best with an eight-run lead.

New York beat Texas 7-4 and Toronto whipped seattle 12-3, so the East stays the same: Yankees 2.5 GB, Blue Jays 5.5 GB.

***

Curt Schilling (3.50) / Jason Windsor (1.80), 10 PM

Schilling has pitched at least seven innings in four of his past five starts and has gone at least six innings in each of his last 12 starts. On July 15, he shut out the A's on two hits over seven innings at Fenway Park.

Windsor made his first major league start on July 17, allowing five hits and three walks to the Orioles in five innings. He gave up three runs, but only one was earned.

Sox Pop Zito; Wells Making Progress

After Barry Zito had retired seven of the first eight Red Sox, the Boston bats erupted.

The next 15 batters collected three singles, two doubles, three home runs, one walk, and one HBP, and scored seven runs. It was enough to give Josh Beckett (6-5-3-2-4, 95) his 13th win of the year. ... Good thing, too, since after that outburst, only one of Boston's last 16 batters reached base.

In the third, Alex Gonzalez homered with one out. Singles by Kevin Youkilis and Mark Loretta preceded a three-run home run from Manny Ramirez. Doubles from Mike Lowell and Coco Crisp and a sac fly from Youkilis brought in two fourth-inning runs. David Ortiz hit a line drive home run (his 34th of the year) to start the fifth.

It was the 41st time Ramirez and Ortiz have homered in the same game and the 11th time this season, one shy of the team record they set in 2004. Ortiz has hit 11 home runs in July (team record: 13, by Jimmie Foxx, 1939 and Clyde Vollmer 1951). Tiz also has a good shot at breaking the Sox's single-season record of 50 HR (Foxx, 1938).

Beckett and Curt Schilling will stay on their regular schedule and pitch this weekend in Anaheim. Jon Lester will start the series on Friday, meaning that Kason Gabbard's spot will be skipped with the off-day Thursday.

Schilling is adamant -- he's retiring at the end of next season:

I won't revisit the decision. Ending it next year has nothing to do with baseball. It has nothing to do with on the field. It centers around my family, missing the stuff I'm missing. ... Throwing BP to my 11-year old son [Gehrig] is the highlight of my life now. He's so into baseball. We're having so much fun. I'm looking forward to being at home, being a dad.

It's hard not to be encouraged by all the positive news about David Wells (the team has been so impressed, they may not have him make a minor league rehab start). Yesterday, he threw a simulated game of five innings. But seeing video clips of him -- it looks like he's gained another 20 pounds. He's huge. That can't be good for his knee.

Keith Foulke threw two innings of a simulated game -- about 30 pitches -- and said he was satisfied with the quality of his pitches and their velocity. ... Peter Gammons was sent home from a rehab center yesterday.

Gordon Edes presents some career splits for Manny Ramirez:

           AVG   OBP   SLG
Pre-ASG   .314  .409  .598
Post-ASG  .314  .411  .601
Home      .313  .413  .608
Road      .314  .407  .591

Throughout his years in Cleveland and Boston, he has been the very definition of consistent.

G98: Red Sox 7, Athletics 3

The happy recap.

***

Josh Beckett (4.78) / Barry Zito (3.20), 10 PM

A Julian Tavarez-for-Ray King deal with Colorado is likely dead because the Rockies don't want to pay Tavarez's $3.1 million salary for 2007. Imagine that.

Trot Nixon is slugging .186 in July. Slugging. All 11 of his hits this month have been singles. His last extra-base hit came on June 27 (63 AB ago) and his last home run was on June 9 (121 AB). Terry Francona isn't worried: "He's putting the ball in play and hitting the ball to left field. I think it works."

Why has Gabe Kapler started over Wily Mo Pena in three of the four games the Red Sox recently played against left-handers? I'm pretty sure Theo Epstein did not think he was trading Arroyo for a 5th outfielder? Only in very extreme circumstances should Kapler ever start instead of Pena. Is this more of Francona's love for playing "his guys"?

Edes: "Besides being 1-for-16 lifetime against Mike Timlin before he hit his walkoff homer, Richie Sexson began the day as the worst two-strike hitter in the American League, batting .105 (19-for-181). On a 1-and-2 count, the count when he connected off Timlin, he was 4-for-46 (.087), with 27 Ks."

Sigh. Another day, another game.

Elsewhere: The Yankees (2.5 GB) are in Texas while the Blue Jays (4.5 GB) visit Seattle.

G97: Mariners 9, Red Sox 8

@#&^*

***

Jon Lester (2.38) / Jarrod Washburn (4.41), 4 PM

Lester, who grew up in Tacoma, says his ninth major league start will be "nerve-racking".

Jon's father: "My wife [Kathy] watches on MLB's gamecasts. I won't watch. I get too nervous. I sit out in the garage and drink a Coke. She'll come in and give me updates. But I can't watch."

Bob Christofferson, the head groundskeeper at Safeco, was a former grade-school coach of Lester: "I'm probably as nervous as his mom and dad when I watch him pitch. ... He can have a good start, as long as the Mariners win."

Rick Barnhart, Lester's baseball coach at Bellarmine Preparatory School in Tacoma: "He was always a level above everyone else. As a freshman, he went right to the varsity. As a starter, he was the MVP as a ninth grader. ... His senior year, there must have been 25-to-30 scouts at every game and practice. I swear [the scouts] went to the bathroom with him."

Lester: "Going through the draft, I wanted to be a Mariner. I came up here for a pre-draft workout. I think they were interested. I just don't think they were interested in the round that I wanted to be picked in and they had other plans for that pick. It's a business and they had to do what they had to do."

Todd Claus, Portland Sea Dogs (AA) manager: "It would have been very tempting to give away Papelbon and Lester in trades for now-needs, but Theo keeps the big picture. He's not willing to mortgage the farm for a quick fix. ... I've always maintained from the first day I saw him he's one of the best prospects in the minor leagues I've ever seen. I've always believed he'd be a front end of the rotation starter. I just didn't know he'd have this kind of success this soon."

The Seattle Times has a good feature on Lester.

Lester's eight starts:

Date Opp  Score  Dec   IP  H  R ER BB  K
0610 Tex  L 7-4   —   4.1  5  3  3  4  4
0616 Atl  W 4-1   W   6.0  5  1  1  3  5
0621 Was  W 9-3   W   6.0  3  1  1  2 10
0627 NYM  W 9-4   W   5.0  4  2  2  5  5
0702 Fla  W 4-3   —   5.0  7  2  2  3  3
0707 CWS  W 7-2   W   6.0  6  2  2  3  3
0713 Oak  L 5-4   —   5.0  5  1  1  5  3
0718 KC   W 1-0   W   8.0  1  0  0  4  4
                 5-0 45.1 36 12 12 29 37 2.38

If the Manny-for-Slappy trade had gone through, Lester would be the property of the Rangers right now.

Fireworks In Toronto

All nine Blue Jays scored a run before the Yankees recorded eight outs.

The eight-run Toronto third:

Yankees leading 3-2.
Catalanotto singles to right.
Wells flies out to left.
Glaus homers to left center, Jays 4-3.
Overbay singles to center.
Zaun walks.
Wilson replaces Ponson.
Hinske homers to right, 7-2.
Hill singles to center.
McDonald singles to right.
Johnson homers to left, 10-2.
Catalanotto grounds out pitcher to first.
Wells doubles to right.
Glaus walks.
Overbay called out on strikes.

I'm loving the Sidney Ponson Era, but it will likely be short-lived.

e.e. gammings

Random Notes

Rumors are swirling that Mike Hampton has a tattoo of a cotton ball on his ear.

How crazy is the media contingent following Brent Clevlen? He and Ramon Santiago went out to visit some factories, and when they came out of one, there were three TV crews from Biloxi waiting for him, ready to ask him about the about the rumor that he has started a collection of tater tots.

One thing the Red Sox don't have to worry about is Rudy Seanez being tolerant, as he is so every day.

Nick Swisher, who has always been considered somewhat dogmatic, had a dream one night that he was locked inside some phone booths being chased by a giant artichoke, and when he woke up he found he had a cut lung, which will keep him out two weeks, and the Athletics think they will get by if Jeremy Brown, a favorite of Ken Macha, steps up.

Isn't it ironic that Like This by Leftfield was playing on the Mariners public address system, just as Bill Bavasi, who is as clear-headed as they come, was talking to Mike Hargrove about Ichiro Suzuki, who showed up at spring training looking like a puma, totally contrasting Mike Morse, whose religious conversion was impressive, which makes one wonder if in thier disgust and disappointment they were discussing the widely rumored deal with the Mets for Anderson Hernandez?

The last report (a little more than a week ago) I read on Peter Gammons was that he had left the hospital and was in rehab, walking fine and not expected to have any long-term affects. One quote: "I have to write."

Gammons was a huge inspiration to me as a teenager, both in becoming a Red Sox/baseball fan and a writer, and I hope Old Hickory is healthy and back doing what he loves very soon.

Sunday Quotes & Cool Linescores

Mike Lowell says he was told by Terry Francona that the trade rumours involving him and Jake Peavy were bogus. Lowell said he'd made that trade.

I love the trade deadline. I don't know if it's coming up through the Yankee system where once you became a prospect you were linked to every single trade to mankind. I was linked to trades in '03 and last year. It was like a downgrade from all the trades I was involved with in the minor leagues. I was traded like 50 times.

Jason Varitek believes in Kyle Snyder:

I think he can help us. I just like his demeanor and what he has to offer. He gives you a lot of options. ... He opened my eyes with his first start. I was hoping he was going to make another start and then we went another route. Nothing against the person we went with [Jason Johnson] but [Snyder] has done a very good job for us.

Kason Gabbard:

You have a lot of thoughts in the back of your head. They really didn't tell me much [before Friday]. I don't think it's hit me yet. It still hasn't hit me, even though the game's over. I don't know. It's just different being up here.

Jon Lester:

He held his face very well. You couldn't tell that he was nervous or out of synch. He held his composure very well, threw the ball excellent, kept us in the ballgame.

Curt Schilling predicts that if Theo Epstein makes a deal for a pitcher, it will probably be for a fourth- or fifth-type starter rather than a front-line pitcher:

I know he's got a bunch of things going. But [to get a] front-line [pitcher] you'd have to give up players who contribute right now. I think if he does anything, it will be for a 4-5 guy. ... Everybody's made a big deal of [Boston's] No. 5 guy. I don't think we have any more of a situation or a problem than anybody else does. As we're comprised now, if nothing happens, this team can win the World Series.

The Red Sox have used 24 pitchers so far this season, including nine rookies. The club record (set three times, most recently in 2005), is 26. ... As of Friday, Manny Delcarmen's ERA in save situations is 0.79, 4.34 in non-save situations. Kevin Youkilis is batting .364 against LHP with runners in scoring position; the rest of the team is batting a collective .191.

From last night: Wow.

Bal - 300  0 00  900 - 12 22 0
TB  - 000  0103  00x - 13 17 0

It was only the fourth game in major league history in which each team posted an inning of nine-or-more runs. The last time: June 3, 1933, at Yankee Stadium, when the Philadelphia Athletics scored 11 runs in the third and the Yankees came back with 10 in the fifth and won 17-11.

I also wanted to post this minor league linescore from July 20 (26 innings!):

Oneonta  000 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 05 - 6 20 2
Brooklyn 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 00 - 1 14 5

From the Globe's notebook: "Francona said he wanted to try and stay away from using Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen yesterday, Delcarmen having pitched in back-to-back games, including 1.1 innings here Friday, and Hansen having thrown 30 pitches in a 1.2 inning stint Friday." ... [bangs head on desk]

Francona And Flexibility

Terry Francona has made some strange bullpen decisions in the two Seattle games.

On Friday, Boston led the Mariners 8-2 after five innings. For the final four innings, Francona used Craig Hansen, Manny Delcarmen and Mike Timlin -- the #2, #3 and #4 arms in the pen. Seattle scored twice off Hansen in the seventh, but the Red Sox still won easily, 9-4.

With the game tied 2-2 on Saturday, Kason Gabbard allowed two singles with one out in the bottom of the sixth. At this crucial part of the game, who did Tito call on? Julian Tavarez, one of the worst pitchers on the team. Tavarez allowed one of the inherited runners to score (which wasn't really his fault) and then was left in to surrender two walks, two singles, and two runs in the seventh. Rudy Seanez (the other bullpen liability) pitched a scoreless eighth, and Seattle won the game 5-2.

(The first single in that inning should have been an out, but first base umpire Larry Poncino blew the call, claiming that David Ortiz's foot had come off the bag as he stretched for Mike Lowell's throw. If that call gets made correctly, Seattle has two outs and no one on. (Poncino blew another call at first in the next half-inning, calling Alex Gonzalez out even though Richie Sexson's foot came off the bag.))

So Francona used his best arms when he was up by six runs and then relied on his worst pitchers in a tie game? Needless to say, this is completely backwards. (Some fans might call this Tito 101, but I'll just say it's not unprecedented for the Boston manager.)

If I had to guess, I'd say that Francona looked at the pitching matchups for this series, knew that Gabbard was making his debut opposite King Felix Hernandez this afternoon and figured he should make damn sure the Friday game was in the bag. He'd go with his strengths on Friday, maybe have the dregs follow Gabbard, and then have the big boys ready again to back up Lester on Sunday.

It's not the worst way to look at things, but it shouldn't be carved in stone, and once the Red Sox grabbed an 8-0 lead on Friday, Francona should have altered his plans. He should have been flexible enough to know that he didn't have to use his best arms (or at least not three of them) in the near-blowout.

So when the time came today to stop the Mariners' rally in its tracks, Tito couldn't go to the guys he would normally rely on in a high-leverage spot. On Friday, Hansen had thrown 30 pitches and Delcarmen had thrown 32. Their unavailability -- which was completely Francona's fault -- possibly cost the Red Sox the game.

"Sexy Lips"

Jonathan Papelbon was wearing a Fox microphone for today's game. In one bullpen conversation, Julian Tavarez was telling Paps his two racehorses look like him "because they have sexy lips".

Tavarez also referred to the Mariners home ballpark as "Psycho Field".

G96: Mariners 5, Red Sox 2

Kason Gabbard (ML Debut) / Felix Hernandez (4.89), 4 PM

With Portland, Gabbard was leading the Eastern League with nine victories and had a .192 opponents batting average. He was promoted to Pawtucket on June 27 and was 1-3 in five starts. In his last PawSox start (Tuesday), he was limited to 69 pitches.

Gabbard was a 29th round pick in 2000. In AAA, he was very tough on LHB (.584 OPS) but RHB hit him pretty good (.842). His total AA OPS against was .554 OPS. ... He is the 11th pitcher to start a game for the Red Sox this season, and the ninth rookie to pitch for the club.

Jon Lester pitched with Gabbard at Portland last year: "He's got a good curve and changeup. He doesn't throw real hard, but because he locates his other pitches, it makes his fastball seem better." ... (More from: RedSox.com, Globe, Herald, Courant)

From a SoSH discussion:

The Boomer, noting the breathing room the Sox have on the Yankees right now:

Pitching tryouts for minor leaguers is a good thing for the organization. It sends a message that merit is rewarded and is great for minor league morale.

Carroll Hardy:

I absolutely concur. Moreover, it allows prospects to learn first hand what it takes to get big league hitters out with enough consistency to be successful at the MLB level. When he is 9-2 and dominating AA, it is very difficult to convince a young man how much work remains to be done, and how far away he is. ...

What remains to do is instructional: teaching and demanding execution, execution, execution. Learning to use -- and repeat with consistency -- one's entire arsenal, at varying speeds, and at all four corners of the strike zone. If you don't do it at AA, it's not a big deal. If you don't do it in the big leagues, you get beat.

MLB says Wily Mo Pena will get a start, with Ortiz at first and Manny DHing. I believe Lowell is back today, so Yook gets a rest.

I saw that MLB.TV costs only $50 for the rest of the year (2+ months), so I ordered it before last night's game. Since I don't like Joe and Jerry and the other team's radio guys are often simply ignorant of what's going on with the Red Sox, this seems like a really good deal. I hope to get NESN most of the time, but if not, I'll still have the picture and can watch without sound.

Gabbard Gabbard Hey!

Countdown To The Deadline

According to Gordon Edes, Kason Gabbard didn't travel with the Red Sox to Seattle on Thursday night because "Theo Epstein was working on a deal to land another starting pitcher."

However, with 10 days before the non-waiver trading deadline, Sean McAdam says the Red Sox are not close to making a deal for pitching. They do not care for Odalis Perez (LA), Kyle Lohse (Twins) or Livan Hernandez (Nats) and Barry Zito (A's) and Dontrelle Willis (Marlins) are most likely off the block.

David Wells threw 50 pitches in the bullpen last night and is scheduled to throw five simulated innings Monday afternoon in Oakland. Optimistically, he could return in early August. ... Keith Foulke also threw yesterday and will pitch a simulated inning or two Monday after Wells. ... Don't expect to see Matt Clement before September.

Manny Delcarmen's nickname for Mike Timlin? "Mad Tarantula". MDC: "It's bullpen stuff. That's all I can say."

Julian Tavarez on Fenway fans: "I won't say they're the best, but they show up every night. The one thing I don't like is they boo you when you're in first place. They don't know how tough that is, to be booed in your hometown, when you're not able to do your job."

What If -- The Play-by-Play

Diamond Mind president Tom Tippett discusses the whole project.

Reality:

Yankees 8th:
Johnson pops out to shortstop.
Jeter doubles to right.
Williams singles to center, Jeter scores, Red Sox lead 5-3.

What If -- Embree comes in two batters earlier than he did in Reality:

Matsui grounds out, shortstop to first.
Posada walks, Williams to second.
Giambi strikes out.

Red Sox 9th (against Rivera?):
Mueller grounds out, second to first.
Varitek strikes out.
Damon grounds out, shortstop to first.

Yankees 9th:
Timlin relieves Embree.
Sierra (pinch-hitting for Wilson) lines out to first.
Garcia walks on four pitches.
Soriano strikes out.
Johnson walks.
Jeter grounds out, third to first.

Red Sox win 5-3 and win the pennant.

I got the info from the SoSH thread. But there's at least one error: Williams could not have gone to second on Posada's walk because he was already on first when Matsui grounded out. So either that was a force play, and Matsui advanced to second on the walk, or Williams got to second on the grounder and remained there after the walk.

And Jeter, with two men on and two outs in the last of the ninth, is the potential pennant-winning run. And he makes the last out of the Yankees' season. Yay.

Posted at SoSH (from the Revealed segment afterwards, I guess):

In 82 of 100 simulations with Pedro taken out, Sox win.
In 15 of 20 simulations with Pedro left in, Sox win.

And some quotes from the discussion:

Tudor Fever:

According to the Maple Street Annual, the average likelihood of a home team winning when down by 3 at the bottom of the 8th is 9.1%. Down by 2 with one out and a man on first, the average likelihood is 18.5%. This lends a lot of credibility to the 82 of 100 win rate in the simulations. It also shows that Grady's decision to leave Pedro in to start the 8th may have already doubled the Yankees winning chances by the time he left Pedro in to face Matsui.

smastroyin:

what I don't understand about the game is that now, 2 years later, people outside of a select few on this site are actually talking about Nixon's non-play on Jeter's double.

Mistakes of the mind are much harder to forgive than mistakes of the body, IMO, and therefore Grady does deserve all of the heat he gets. But when people talk about Trot Nixon, defensive whiz, they must completely forget about this play that most RF aged 14 or over would have made ...

Smiling Joe Hesketh:

Grady's brain cramp rightfully outshines the Nixon screwup. Through the first 6 innings, Pedro gave up only 3 hits. In the 7th alone, he gave up 3 hits, a good indication he was getting tired. In the 8th, he was allowed to give up FOUR MORE HITS before finally being pulled out of the game. ... I'm getting pissed off again.

PedroKsBambino:

I agree Nixon's play was bad. But one thing that reduces attention to it (in addition to the 'dirt dog' stuff) is that the initial camera angles made it tough to figure out how playable the ball really was.

Grady's mistake was so blatantly obvious to people watching that the fielding equivalent from a recognition level for fans would be dropping a pop-up...and then throwing the ball into the stands after dropping it. The CF stands, that is. That's a tough standard to meet.

First Half Video

4:30 of highlights from TV38.

The play where Lowell throws a runner out while sitting on the infield dirt must have happened on the weekend, because I don't recall it. Wow. ... If TV38 wanted to show so many fist pumps, they should have made the video twice as long, so we could see more actual highlights, not the reactions to the highlights.

G95: Red Sox 9, Mariners 4

Synder pitched four strong innings and made it through the fifth fairly unscathed. He had a leg cramp while warming up for the sixth. Hansen, Delcarmen and Timlin finished up.

Boston whacked five home runs off Moyer (Ortiz, Gonzalez, Varitek, Youkilis and Ramirez); indeed, Moyer allowed six hits in 4.1 innings: 5 HR and one double.

Toronto battered Jaret Wright for four runs in the first inning and beat New York 7-3. ... The Red Sox led the Yankees by 3.5 games. The Jays are still 5.5 back.

***

Kyle Snyder (10.03) / Jamie Moyer (3.75), 10 PM

It's the first West Coast trip of the year: three games each in Seattle and Oakland.

The Yankees (Wright) continue their series tonight in Toronto (Burnett).

Numbers

Craig Hansen (56), Manny Delcarmen (57), Jonathan Papelbon (58) and Jon Lester (62) are young pitchers with high uniform numbers.

Only Papelbon plans on keeping his longterm. "I'm not superstitious, but No. 58 has been very good to me and I don't see any reason to change now." Papelbon wore 19 in high school, 19 and 41 in college, and 50 in the minors.

Lester is "comfortable" with 62, but would like 31. That belongs to bench coach Brad Mills, who would rather have 2, which was worn by Willie Harris. After the trading deadline, a switch might be made.

Delcarmen wore 17 in high school and has the number tattooed on his right biceps, but Dave Wallace has it now. ... Hansen's favorite number, which he wore in high school and college, is 34. There's no chance of that one becoming available anytime soon.

A list of every player who has worn the four numbers:

56
Zach Crouch          1988
Scott Taylor         1992-93
Jeff Pierce          1995
Alex Delgado         1996
Darren Bragg         1996-98
Tim Harikkala        1999
Steve Lomasney       1999
Israel Alcantara     2000-01
Chris Haney          2002
Jimmy Anderson       2004
Craig Hansen         2005-06
  
57
Nate Minchey         1993-94
Brian Bark           1995
Ken Grundt           1996
Rudy Pemberton       1996
Ron Mahay            1997-98
Juan Pena            1999
Rod Beck             1999
Calvin Pickering     2001
Luis Aguayo          2002 (Coach)
Jason Sheill         2003
Joe Nelson           2004
Scott Cassidy        2005
Manny Delcarmen      2005-06
  
58
Jeff McNeely         1993
Nate Minchey         1996
Bill Moloney         1997-2000 (Coach)
Hector Carrasco      2000
Nelson Norman        2001 (Coach)
Luis Aguayo          2002 (Coach)
Bryant Nelson        2002
Hector Almonte       2003
Sandy Martinez       2004
Jonathan Papelbon    2005-06
  
62
Marino Santana       1999
Sun-Woo Kim          2001
Jon Lester           2006

The lowest number that has never been worn is 64.

According to the Red Sox Team Store, Papelbon's 58 is the most popular uniform shirt. He is followed by David Ortiz (34), Coco Crisp (10), Kevin Youkilis (20), Manny Ramirez (24), Jason Varitek (33) and Curt Schilling (38).

Wakefield's Rib

The Red Sox have very little idea how Tim Wakefield suffered a stress fracture in one of his ribs. Terry Francona:

He thought he slept wrong originally, and he may have. When it turned into this, it's hard to tell. He could have done it sneezing. He doesn't remember one incident. ... He's actually been pitching with pain for a month to six weeks. The bone scan shows there's significant healing now, which is good. ... There's a chance we could have him back with us - best-case scenario - in three weeks. I think four weeks is probably more realistic.

And predictably, the questions are shouted throughout the Nation and sports radio: Is Wake is faking his injury? Why did all this talk of a bad back come out of the blue? Why does Wakefield need four weeks of vacation? ... Is that Tim McCarver quipping that the hardest thing for Tim to do is remember which side to sleep on? It's not? Oh, right, Wake's white, so the media doesn't spew shit about his physical ailments. Carry on.

It's only the second time in his 13-year career that Wakefield has gone on the DL (April 23-May 6, 1997, elbow inflammation). ... On Tuesday, Jason Varitek (in his 9th full season in Boston) set a Red Sox record by catching his 991st game, passing Carlton Fisk.

Making up the May 14 rainout yesterday meant the Rangers had a very busy Thursday. After playing Wednesday night in Toronto, they left their hotel at 8 AM and took off for Boston at 9:30. They arrived at Logan around 11:00 and drove to the park. After losing the 2 PM game, they headed back to the airport and flew to Chicago. If there was ever a time for greenies ...

The four times in team history the Sox have won back-to-back 1-0 games:

August 17-18, 1907  at Browns
June 22-23, 1916    vs Yankees and A's at Fenway
August 26-27, 1990  at Blue Jays
July 18-19, 2006    vs Royals at Fenway

More on the 1-0 wins: From Mark Teahan's second-inning single on Tuesday to Angel Berroa's double leading off the third on Wednesday, Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon and Josh Beckett recorded 29 outs without allowing a hit. ... Lester became the first Red Sox rookie to start a one-hitter since 1967, when Billy Rohr pitched 8.2 no-hit innings at Yankee Stadium on April 14, 1967, before allowing a single to Elston Howard. ... And Lester is the Sox's first rookie left-handed starter to win his first five decisions (righty rookie Aaron Sele won his first six decisions in 1993).

G94: Red Sox 6, Rangers 4

L and I met 21 years ago today (?!?!?). Last year, we spent the day at Fenway. Today, we took a ferry from downtown Toronto out to Centre Island and walked around. Quite a nice afternoon.

Also out on the Toronto Islands is Hanlan's Point, where Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run (and only minor league home run) on September 5, 1914. We didn't get over to see the plaque, though.

Back home, the VCR was taping and when we returned, we treated it like a night game -- 8 PM start. Schilling was shaky at times, but turned in seven strong innings; MDC and Timlin finished it off. And the bats awoke, with 12 hits and 6 runs. Loretta, Youkilis, Ramirez and Cora all reached base three times, and Pena chipped in with a two-run double in the third, taking back the lead for good.

At the Skydome, Vernon Wells homered in the bottom of the 11th inning off Mariano Rivera to lift the Blue Jays to a 5-4 win over the Yankees. ... New York fell to 2.5 GB, Toronto remains 5.5 GB.

Off to Seattle ...

***

John Rheinecker (4.82) / Curt Schilling (3.42), 2 PM

Last consecutive 1-0 wins for the Red Sox at Fenway: June 22-23, 1916.

Babe Ruth beat the Yankees in the first game and Ernie Shore defeated the Athletics in the second. Ruth pitched a three-hit complete game, walking one and striking out two. He allowed singles in the second, sixth and ninth innings. The game took 1:18 and was watched by 3,889 fans.

Interesting note: The day before Ruth's start, Rube Foster threw a no-hitter, beating New York 2-0. So after Shore's gem, Boston pitchers had thrown 31 straight scoreless innings (the streak ended at 34).

Wakefield: Out For 3+ Weeks?

Globe:

The Red Sox will have to make do without pitcher Tim Wakefield for at least three weeks, after extensive tests revealed he has a stress fracture in his rib cage, a source with direct knowledge of the injury confirmed. ...

Barring a trade, the Sox plan to promote lefthander Kason Gabbard from Triple A Pawtucket. Gabbard, a 29th-round draft pick out of Indian River Community College in Florida in 2000, was something of a sleeper in the Sox' system, going 9-2 at Double A Portland before his promotion to Pawtucket last month. The lefthander is expected to start Saturday in Seattle.

The Downside Of Winning The World Series

A very small downside, but still ...

Tonight, NESN is running a show called "What If ...". They will be replaying, with Diamond Mind's computer simulations, what might have happened had Pedro been removed from Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS a little bit earlier than he actually was.

NESN has been carpetbombing us with commercials for this show during Sox games, giving me the "opportunity" to see a certain moron way more than I ever expected once he left town. Now that the bitterness of the World Series drought is over, NESN and the Red Sox have shown much more interest in the history of the team, but you know damn well that if 2004 had not happened, revisiting this particular wound in such detail would never have seen the light of day.

NESN is being pretty tight-lipped about the actual process, but I believe the rest of the game was simulated 100 times to get the most probable outcome. I'm intrigued by the idea of computer simulations, but I'm not sure this one is being done correctly.

When exactly do the simulations start? From the commercials, it appears it's after the mound visit when Pedro was not removed. Yet NESN's website says: "We're replaying the game, pulling Pedro with one down in the 8th ...", which makes it sound like he gets pulled after the first batter popped up (although there was also only one out at the time of the mound visit).

Using the mound visit would be a huge error. No intelligent person thinks Pedro should have been in the game at that point. The proper point would be at the beginning of the eighth inning. At the time I was okay with Pedro starting the eighth, yet from everything I've read about conversations in the dugout, he was done after seven. "Pulling him" with one out and no one on (or even after the first hit) would be the next logical point.

Is anyone going to watch this?

Beckett Signs Extension Through 2009

Josh Beckett, who was arbitration-eligible at the end of this season, has signed a three-year contract extension, at a guaranteed $30 million.

Gordon Edes has the numbers:

Signing bonus - $2 million
2007 - $6 million
2008 - $9.5 million
2009 - $10.5 million
2010 - $12 million club option

The 2010 option is automatic if Beckett makes 28 starts in 2009 or makes a total of 56 starts in 2008 and 2009. There is also a $2 million buyout clause on the option.

At the end of 2010, Beckett will be only 30 years old.

G93: Red Sox 1, Royals 0

The bats are still very quiet -- Manny hit his 25th home run in the fourth inning for the game's only run -- but the pitching remains impressive.

Royals  - 000 000 000 - 0  4  0
Red Sox - 000 100 00x - 1  7  0
  
         IP  H  R ER BB  K  PIT   ERA
Beckett   8  4  0  0  0  7  110  4.78
Papelbon  1  0  0  0  1  1   21  0.54

Beckett had a much better fastball today and, after the first time through the lineup, began mixing in his breaking pitches. Did having Mirabelli behind the plate change his game plan at all?

Beckett pitched out of two jams. In the third, KC had a man on third and one out. Joey Gathright struck out (one of his three whiffs) and David DeJesus lined out to center to end that threat. And after getting two outs in the sixth (also Gathright and DeJesus), the Royals loaded the bases on a HBP and two singles. But Emil Brown flied out to Coco Crisp in right-center. Crisp, who almost ran into Trot Nixon last night, nearly collided with Gabe Kapler on that play.

Manny also made a nice tumbling catch on a sinking line drive to end the Royals fifth. ... Mark Loretta singled twice. ... David Ortiz laid down a perfect bunt in the first inning; the ball nearly rolled to a complete stop on the third base side of the infield.

The last time Boston won two consecutive 1-0 games? August 25 and 26, 1990, in Toronto. In the first game, Roger Clemens (9-5-0-2-6) beat David Wells (8-5-1-1-1) and Dwight Evans homered; in the second, Greg Harris (7.2-2-0-2-8) defeated Todd Stottlemyre (8-4-1-2-4).

Afternoon final from New York: Mariners 3, Yankees 2. ... The East lead is 1.5.

***

Mark Redman (5.38) / Josh Beckett (5.12), 1 PM

G92: Red Sox 1, Royals 0

One of the best games of the year.

Royals  - 000 000 000 - 0  1  0
Red Sox - 000 010 00x - 1  6  0
  
         IP  H  R ER BB  K  PIT   ERA
Lester    8  1  0  0  4  4  100  2.38
Papelbon  1  0  0  0  0  1    8  0.55

An absolute gem from Jon Lester, who was able to keep his pitch count down (15-16-8 20-9-13 11-8). Kansas City's only hit came on a ground ball up the middle by Teahen with one out in the second inning. Alex Gonzalez tried to glove it -- and I thought he might -- but it was just out his reach, bouncing into center field. Nothing else was even close to being a hit.

With one out in the home fifth, Jason Varitek doubled high off the left field wall. One out later, Gonzalez singled to center for the RBI.

In New York: According to several SoSHers, tonight's YES worship of new Yankee starter Sidney Ponson is already in high gear. Michael Kay said that Mariners starter Joel Piniero did a "nice job", but Ponson was "incredible". Let's take a look:

                   IP   H  R ER BB  K 
Piniero "nice"      6   7  2  2  1  5
Ponson "incredible" 6.2 5  4  4  3  5

***

Brandon Duckworth (5.40) / Jon Lester (2.89), 7 PM

Bulletin Board

Big Papi's Power Hitting Clinics will be held at Extra Innings in West Bridgewater, MA, on July 27 & 28.

The July 27 clinic is for ages 7-12 and will be held from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. The July 28 session is for ages 13-17 and is from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Both clinics will be followed by a pizza party and a Q&A session hosted by David Ortiz. The event flyer says these clinics "will be taught by certified instructors who will be joined by David and some of his major league friends". Check out the website.

Do you want two free Fenway bleacher seats for the August 3 game against Cleveland? Sox1fan is having a contest.

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Charity Golf Tournament is also running an online auction. One of the items is a pair of tickets next to the Red Sox dugout for a 2007 game.

Pena In Boston -- AFT: Harris DFA'd

Wily Mo Pena was activated from the disabled list and Jermaine Van Buren was recalled from Pawtucket. Both are available tonight. Javier Lopez was optioned to the Bucket and Willie Harris was designated for assignment.

G91: Red Sox 5, Royals 4

I would like to think that the seventh-inning stretch of tonight's game was the low point of the 2006 season.

Tim Wakefield had exited after four innings with a "strained upper back", the lowly Royals had gotten every conceivable break on batted balls, using bloops, squibs and bleeders (along with some walks and two HBP) to take a 4-0 lead.

On the other side of the scoresheet, the Red Sox either looked like Little Leaguers at the plate (Lowell's strikeout in the second and myriad other swings by just about everyone else) or hit anything hard right at an opposing fielder (Nixon's hard grounder to first in the 2nd, his line drive at Hudson to end the 4th, and his long drive to deep center in the 7th; Ortiz's line drive to second which ended the 6th when Loretta was doubled off first).

Elsewhere, Toronto had scored nine times in the 4th inning against Texas and the Yankees led Seattle 4-2 and were poised to move into first place in the East.

So ...

In the Red Sox 7th, Manny Ramirez led off with a hard single off the Wall. Nixon's drive was caught against the wall in center, but Lowell and Coco Crisp each singled and Boston had scored a run. Luke Hudson was relieved by Joel Peralta.

Doug Mirabelli took a 3-1 pitch outside, which should have loaded the bases for the Sox. But home plate umpire Jim Joyce called it a strike and Mirabelli, who had taken about three steps towards first base, had to come back. Peralta's 3-2 pitch was a fastball and the SWHB drilled it into the Monster Seats in left-center for a game-tying home run. Thanks, ump!

Belli: "I was starting to walk to first base thinking it was ball four. I took a second to regroup and in that situation you're trying to get a pitch, get a strike. Coming from 3-1 and now I'm 3-2, I had no idea what he's going to throw there at that time. I just sold out on the fastball and was fortunate."

Two singles from Loretta and David Ortiz to start the 8th inning put runners at first and third and Ramirez's sacrifice fly to left scored pinch-runner Willie Harris with the go-ahead run. (Also: Ortiz stole second when Nixon struck out. On the replay we saw that Flo had nearly stopped halfway to the bag, then turned it on again and still beat the high throw. Manny and Kevin Youkilis were going nuts in the dugout, pointing, waving and laughing. Standing at second base, Ortiz tried to hide his giggles.)

The bullpen had to work overtime tonight and the combined line of Delcarmen, Hansen, Timlin and the Papelbot was solid: 5-3-1-0-2.

Perfect example of the worthless strike zone judgment of MLB umpires: Delcarmen's 0-2 pitch to Matt Stairs in the 5th: at the belt, right over the heart of the plate. Ball 1. (Too high, I guess.) Next pitch, again at the belt, but a little bit outside, could have caught the corner. Ball 2. ... So while Bud Selig blathers about the sanctity of the All-Star Game, his umpires can't be bothered to (a) know what the fucking rule book strike zone is and (b) enforce it.

***

late rally > no rally

***

Luke Hudson (5.79) / Tim Wakefield (4.05), 7 PM

In Hudson's first start of the year, on July 7 against Toronto, he pitched five innings, allowing one run and two hits.

G90: Athletics 8, Red Sox 1

A pathetic showing, dropping three of four to Oakland at home.

Snyder pitched well for four innings. Then he loaded the bases and walked in a run before getting two clutch strikeouts. He was one out away from escaping a huge jam down only 1-0, he couldn't do it. Two singles brought in three more runs and Rudy Seanez allowed one more (19 of his 33 first batters this year have reached base).

Alex Gonzalez popped a solo home run for Boston's only run. Manny Ramirez singled and walked twice, but also made a stupid base-running mistake, trying to go from first to third on Trot Nixon's single in the fifth. Although there were two outs -- Manny's gaffe ended the inning -- it was one of the few chances the Sox had to cut into the A's lead.

Both the Yankees and Blue Jays won this afternoon, so the East looks like this:

Boston    54  36  --
New York  53  36   ½
Toronto   51  40  3½

The Royals are next -- and nothing but a sweep will do.

***

Joe Blanton (4.95) / Kyle Snyder (10.29), 2 PM

In his lone Red Sox start, on June 19, Snyder gave up three runs and four hits while striking out six over five innings against Washington. ... In his only start against the Red Sox -- on September 15, 2005 -- Blanton allowed two runs and six hits in six innings.

Why Josh Beckett Might Not Be As Bad As You (And I) Think

There is no sugar-coating it. Josh Beckett has pitched poorly this season.

(And yet, various media people look only at his 11-5 record and say he's been a plus -- Sports Illustrated's John Donovan believes Beckett has "delivered" and is part of "what went right" for Boston in the first half of this season.) People who did not get their "Understanding Stats" degree from Joe Morgan University know better.

But has Beckett been as putrid as many Red Sox fans believe?

The 26-year-old right-hander has made 19 starts this season:

 IP    H   R  ER  BB  K  ERA  AVG  OBP  SLG
114.1 108 70  65  40 95 5.12 .260 .333 .508

Of the 27 home runs he's allowed, only 14 have been solo shots. He has allowed eight two-run HRs, four three-run HRs, and one grand slam. ... That .508 opponents' slugging percentage? Mike Lowell is slugging .518 this year. Kevin Youkilis (.458) and Trot Nixon (.447) are far below that.

Despite those ugly numbers, Beckett has turned in 11 "quality starts" in those 19 outings, third behind Curt Schilling (15) and Tim Wakefield (12). (Of course, what is defined as a "quality start" -- at least six innings and allowing 3 or fewer earned runs -- can be equal to a 4.50 ERA.)

But let's focus on Beckett's worst games:

              IP   H  R ER BB  K HR
0427 at Cle  3.2   6  9  8  5  6  3
0530 at Tor  4.2  10  7  7  1  7  4
0605 at NYY  1.1   8  8  7  2  1  2
0714  v Oak  4.1   8  7  7  4  3  1
            14.0  32 31 29 12 17 10 18.64 ERA

The Toronto and Yankees games were in consecutive outings, as well as being against our main divisional rivals, perhaps furthering the perception of Beckett's suckiness. ... I'm not saying these games do not (or should not) count in looking at his performance, but check out his season stats without those four starts:

 IP     H   R  ER  BB   K   ERA  HR
100.1  76  39  36  28  78  3.23  17

Beckett's record in those 15 starts? 11-1. And that 3.23 ERA would be 6th best in the American League. He'd be discussed as a Cy Young Award candidate by the national media.

Beckett has pitched poorly -- and everything I've said about his over-reliance on his fastball and apparent stubbornness in actually trying to pitch remains true -- but he's stunk up the joint in far fewer games than we think.

G89: Red Sox 7, Athletics 0

Curt Schilling rights the ship (7-2-0-1-9, 102), with help from David Ortiz (HR #32, triple #1 and RBI #88-89-90), Manny Ramirez (3-for-5), and Mike Lowell (two doubles).

The Yankees beat the White Sox 14-3 and Toronto edged Seattle 7-6 in 14, so Boston's lead in the East stays the same -- 1.5 over New York and 4.5 over the Blue Jays.

Then-Ranger A-Rod Courted Ortiz

Did I miss this or was it not reported in the Boston media?

Ortiz pondered Rangers
By Kat O'Brien, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
July 12, 2006

This might pain Rangers fans, but designated hitter David Ortiz considered coming to Texas before signing with Boston in the 2002-03 off-season.

Ortiz was released by the Minnesota Twins on Dec. 16, 2002. ... Ortiz's good friend, then-Rangers shortstop Alex Rodriguez, spoke to Rangers owner Tom Hicks to try to persuade him to go after Ortiz.

"[Hicks] called me," Ortiz said. "He wanted me to go and play in Texas. I didn't get the offer I wanted at the time." Ortiz said he would have been interested in playing in Texas because his primary goal was "to go to a place where I could play every day."

But Ortiz, then 27, also thought he had earned a pay raise from the $950,000 he had earned in 2002, but, he said, "They offered me the same salary from the year before." ...

More than a month after being released, Ortiz signed a one-year, $1.25 million deal with the Red Sox."

A Strange Definition Of "Hero"

Sean McClelland, Dayton Daily News:

Listening to the talk this week about Boston's Manny Ramirez refusing to show up for the All-Star Game, I was reminded of my long-ago youth.

I concluded that Rick Manning, the only player I ever tried to emulate, never would have pulled such a stunt. ... In my young eyes, the hustling Manning could do no wrong. ...

I know this about Manning: If selected by the fans to start an All-Star Game, he would be there, no questions asked.

The kids today who look up to Ramirez can't say the same about their favorite player, and that's sad.

It is pretty well-known that in 1977, while recovering from an injury, Manning was screwing Dennis Eckersley’s wife while the Indians were on the road.

G88: Athletics 15, Red Sox 3

@#*&%

So much for not having Papelbon pitch a second inning last night, so he could be fresh tonight.

Jerry Trupiano in the third inning: "Throwing two straight curveballs to Frank Thomas is like going into a lion cage ... with a stick, and trying to annoy the lion." ... And again, in the middle of the fourth: "The A's broke three bats that inning, but they scored two times." They broke some bats -- who cares?


***

Mid-5th: Josh Beckett continues to think he can blow AL hitters away solely with his fastball. He gets pounded and then goes out five days later and refuses to change his approach (media reports have said he scorns the type of prep work Curt Schilling does). So the light-hitting A's lineup battered him tonight (4.2-8-7-4-3, 94), raising his ERA to 5.12. ... Barry Zito is not having much trouble, and he leads 7-0 after five.

***

Barry Zito (3.29) / Josh Beckett (4.75), 7 PM

Beckett has a 2.54 ERA in seven Fenway starts this year. The A's are dead last in MLB in both batting average (.244) and slugging percentage (.389 (the only team under .400)). However, they are in the middle of the pack in home runs -- and 9th in the AL -- so Beckett should still be careful.

In his last outing, Zito held the Angels to three runs over eight innings, but John Lackey tossed a one-hitter. ... In his six losses this year, the A's have scored a total of three runs. ... David Ortiz is batting .421 (8-for-19) against Zito.

In their last two games, the Red Sox have played 30 innings in 10:42.

Doing The Opposite

Joe Sheehan, Baseball Prospectus:

Tuesday, Bud Selig spoke to reporters, and during that exchange, he expressed the idea that a rule should be established that would prohibit pitchers selected to the All-Star team from pitching on the Sunday prior to the game.

The staggering ridiculousness of that idea -- let's impact the championship season for the sake of an exhibition game in which 45 players will appear and Matt Holliday will be among the leaders in playing time -- strains my vocabulary, my imagination and my patience. It is, however, wholly consistent with Selig's apparent view that baseball isn't a terribly interesting game, and desperately needs bells and whistles to keep the attention of the public. ...

Selig, who I'll blame individually for a process that certainly involves more people than him, doesn't believe that the greatness of major-league baseball is in the day-to-day of a six-month regular season. Virtually every decision he's made over the course of his comissionership has detracted from that element, that thing that really does make baseball great, in an effort to garner short-term attention with parlor tricks. ...

Sheehan closes with a short discussion of what I'm always ranting about -- the constant blaring noise and commercials and instructions to cheer and general annoyance that every ballpark has (some way more than others).

The people running MLB have so little belief in the magic of their sport that they are obsessed with dressing it up to get anyone to pay attention. I am convinced that if every park cut out all the non-baseball crap from the scoreboard and PA system, no more than five people per park would complain. (I once thought it would be a good idea to try to get every ballpark to be quiet for one night -- just the game and only the game. Call it: "Silent Night".)

Is someone going to stay home and not spend $$ for tickets because there is no dot race? Will families go to the movies instead of the ball park because the scoreboard doesn't tell them when to clap? Will couples stay away from the game because they now have the ability to speak to each other at a normal volume between innings? I say no.

Craig Breslow Up; Lester = Houdini

Lefthander Craig Breslow was called up from Pawtucket. To make room, Lenny DiNardo was transferred to the 60-day disabled list. Breslow:

Surprised, excited, anxious all at the same. ... I grew up in a family of Mets fans. But with that came a deeply rooted hatred for the Yankees. I guess that crosses over.

In 37.1 innings, Jon Lester has allowed 63 baserunners (35 hits, 25 walks and 3 HBP). He has pitched only six 1-2-3 innings. Yet his ERA is only 2.89. Opposing teams have scored more than one run in an inning off Lester only once -- when Texas got two in the first inning of Lester's debut.

Art Martone on the Red Sox wasted scoring chances last night: "Number of Red Sox baserunners: 20. Number of Red Sox home runs: 2. Number of times the Red Sox were retired in order by Oakland pitching: 1. ... Number of Red Sox runs: 4." Boston was also 2-for-12 with runners on second and/or third, leaving a total of 15 men on base.

Huston Street on Jonathan Papelbon:

I don't really think I can [relate to his success]. The year that he's having is second to none. I think that what he's been able to do on the mound, regardless of whether it's his first year or his 10th, is just absolutely amazing. ... He's in Boston. It's not like he's in some small market. He's playing for the Red Sox. They're expected to win every single year. That's what makes what he's able to do even more special.

Jeff Horrigan checks in with Lowell Spinners closer Joshua Papelbon:

It's unbelievable. Every time I come into a game, it's a standing ovation and everyone chanting, 'Papelbon,' and everyone wanting autographs. I knew it was going to be somewhat like this because of my brother but not this intense. I don't think there's ever been this much hoopla for a 48th-rounder.

In 7.1 innings over six appearances, Papelbon has struck out nine, walked one and allowed zero runs. ... More minors.

John Tomase on Craig Hansen:

In Hansen's first inning of work (or less if he enters mid-inning), he has averaged over a strikeout an inning while posting an ERA of 1.74. When starting a second inning, which he has done four times, his ERA shoots to 16.88. Stat-heads speak of sample size, and four outings isn't exactly large. But at the very least, Hansen's second-inning struggles suggest an early trend.

I'm not so sure about this. In Pawtucket, Hansen was starting and pitching three or four innings each time out. He wasn't a one-inning-only type of guy.

Francona talks about the progress of several injured pitchers: David Wells has been throwing long and his right knee isn't getting worse. Tito: "We're close enough where we can start thinking about a side day ... Maybe even within the week. We'll see." ... Matt Clement did not do any throwing over the break, focusing instead on his strength program. ... Tim Wakefield says his back feels "good, not great". ... Lenny DiNardo is scheduled to start today for Pawtucket. ... Francona says Keith Foulke "has been throwing with good arm speed, good zip on the ball".

From the Globe's Extra Bases blog:

Every sportswriter's worst nightmare is being on deadline and having his or her laptop fail. Sometimes it's due to circumstances out of your control. A foul ball off the bat of Bobby Kielty struck the laptop of Springfield Republican sportswriter Ron Chimelis, who was sitting in the front row of the press box, damaging the screen and the machine.

He was still able to file his game story.

G87: Athletics 5, Red Sox 4 (11)

Scattered notes (mostly on the jaw-dropping idiocy of ESPN2's Gary Thorne and Buck Martinez):

ESPN2 begins its broadcast with a solid five minutes of Manny bashing. Thorne and Martinez both agree that yes, Manny's knee has been an issue for the Red Sox all season, his knee has been bothering him, sure, etc., etc., etc., but "bottom line: we all know he could have gone" to the All-Star Game.

Martinez pronounces Papi's name wrong all night long: David OR-tiz. (like gettin' arrested by the PO-lease.)

Ramirez's first AB in the first inning -- he gets a nice hand, as always, but ESPN2 can't let it pass. Thorne: "They like Manny being Manny." ... Martinez: "Well, they've gotten used to it." ... The explanation that follows is that Sox fans didn't like Manny until a few years ago, but now that the Sox have been winning, they like him now. ... Remember: This is how other media and casual baseball fans get their Sox information.

Jon Lester is like Houdini at getting out of jams, but he's still throwing too many pitches. His count over five innings: 26-23-17 21-16 = 103.

Sometime around the third inning, Thorne admits that he now thinks players who DH should be considered for MVP. He talks about Ortiz's home runs and RBI and game-winning hits and says "He's just playing by the rules." ... I guess it was against the rules last year.

ESPN2 talks about Mike Lowell having a bad 2005 and Theo Epstein seeing a player he could get on the cheap. Theo supposedly said: "You can play defense. I believe in you." ... However, Lowell was a throw-in on the Beckett deal, the player we had to take to get the deal done. And as it turns out, Theo didn't even make that trade. It occurred during the time he was not with the club. So Thorne gets every aspect of the story wrong.

Martinez: "Manny has a game plan and he never deviates from it." So Ramirez never makes any adjustments at the plate? He just stubbornly sticks with his pre-conceived plan. Oooookay, Buck.

In the 6th inning, Buck explains: "We get the impression that Manny just gets in the box and is a free swinger." What do you mean "we", idiot? Manny has never been that type of player. And I thought you said earlier that Ramirez has a plan when he comes to the plate. So if that was true, he wouldn't be a free swinger then, would he?

In a game filled with praise for Jason Varitek's catching ability (any good pitch Lester made was described as "That's all Varitek right there."), Buck praises Tek's "ability to put the ball in play" after he singles in the 3rd inning. Jeez. If Varitek can't put the ball in play, he should be serving beers in the concourse.

Martinez: "The Sox have left 11 men on base this game." ... Thorne: "Obviously, the Red Sox are not used to that happening." Um, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Thorne claims that the Boston papers don't write "Manny being Manny" anymore, they just write "MBM".

Ramirez makes a nice over-the-shoulder catch at the wall in left-center for the first out of the ninth. Martinez: "He made that look pretty easy, didn't he?" ... Thorne: "His knee didn't look to be a problem there." ... Afterwards, they try to take the high road, saying how Manny took a great route to the ball and he's a bit underrated in the field. Too late, assholes.

After Willie Harris gets picked off in the bottom of the ninth, Thorne channels Tim McCarver: "Boston had the Big Dig; that didn't proof to be very successful. Harris had the big lead; that didn't proof to be very successful."

Finally: Why didn't Papelbon come out for the 11th? He had thrown 18 pitches in the tenth. Why go to the shitty arms right away? Julian Being Julian. Another gut punch of a loss.

Feel free to remind ESPN that their announcers are ignorant and offensive.



***

Esteban Loaiza (6.43) / Jon Lester (3.06), 7 PM

Both New York and Toronto are off tonight.

Comments On The First Half

We knew Kevin Youkilis could hit (.297/.407/.467) and get on base (he now leads all leadoff men with a .404 OBP) -- which made Terry Francona's insistence on playing a chronically unproductive Millar last year so maddening -- but what has surprised me most has been his glove work. In his first year at first base, Yook has fit right in with the air-tight infield defense. He has also walked 55 times against 68 strikeouts.

Alex Gonzalez's work at shortstop has been nothing short of sensational, and he has provided a bit of punch at the bottom of the order. In late May, he was batting below .200, but he's up to .284/.327/.407.

I had no idea what to expect from Mike Lowell this year. In 2005, he was 147th among 148 qualifying players in OPS and we were forced to take him in the Beckett deal. Lowell has rebounded, hitting .307/.359/.516 and tied for the major league lead with 31 doubles. He's only the 4th Sock since 1960 to hit 30 doubles before the ASB. He is also looking cool, calm and collected at third base.

Trot Nixon has stayed healthy in his free agent year and is hitting as well as ever (.311/.415/.455). His power is down, but he's getting on base more often than at any time in his career.

David Ortiz's .609 slugging percentage is the higher than in any of his other Boston seasons. His batting numbers: .278/.388/.609. Ortiz leads the majors with 31 HR and 87 RBI, putting him on pace to set new Red Sox single-season records in both categories. In 160 games since last year's All-Star break, Ortiz has 57 HR and 160 RBI.

Like Ted Williams before him, Manny Ramirez works his ass off, produces like a motherfucker, and gets dumped on in the media. After a slow start, he's raking at .306/.434/.615 -- the 4th-best OPS (1.094) in the majors. With 24 homers and 65 RBI at the break, Ian Browne of redsox.com tabs Manny for a monster second half and the league's MVP.

Mark Loretta had a solid first half -- .305/.353/.385 -- nothing fancy and nothing horrible. His slugging percentage is low because 85 of his 107 hits have been singles. I'd like to see him dropped in the order (7th?) and have Youkilis and Nixon at the top of the order against right-handers.

When he returns, Wily Mo Pena (.321/.370/.482, 112 AB) will see some time at first base. He also did a decent job in center field in Crisp's absence. Alex Cora (.300/.402/.350) has filled in at second and short and done a terrific job. Since May 22, Cora's hitting .352.

What's wrong with Jason Varitek (.232/.316/.386)? Injury, slump, age? He's been consistently bad all season. How bad? Alex Gonzalez is batting 52 points higher -- and slugging 21 points higher. Francona must ignore the "C" and move Tek's nerf bat way down to 8th in the lineup.

Doug Mirabelli is the current holder of The Ringo Starr Luckiest Man on Earth Award. At .175/.257/.317 since returning to Boston, the Stud Who Hits Bombs may not bat his weight this year. Still, if Varitek continues to slump, he could/should get some starts against lefties even on Wakefield's off-days. Oh, Wakefield's ERA before Mirabelli returned? 3.90. Since his arrival? 4.10.

Coco Crisp got off to a great start in April before getting hurt, and has struggled since coming back to the lineup (41-for-157, .261). When Crisp starts hitting, his ideal spot in the lineup would be #5 or #6.

Ortiz and Manny are #3 and #4 in the AL in Runs Created. Manny is #3 in RC/27 (the number of runs a lineup of nine Mannys would score per 27 outs) -- trailing only Travis Hafner (10.91) and Jim Thome (9.83).

           RC  RC/27
Ortiz     74.1  8.00
Ramirez   73.9  9.28
Youkilis  63.7  7.29
Lowell    53.8  6.18
Nixon     50.7  7.03
Loretta   47.5  5.01
Gonzalez  32.0  4.58
Varitek   29.3  3.76
Crisp     23.7  4.57
Pena      20.4  6.80
Cora      15.5  5.59

In the spring, Curt Schilling (3.60 ERA, 1.09 WHIP) wondered if he'd be able to once again pitch at his customary high level. Outside of a five-start bump (6.53 ERA) after that 133-pitch outing in Cleveland, Schilling has established himself as the ace of the staff.

Josh Beckett (4.75, 1.24) is Exhibit A of why W-L records tell you very little about a pitcher's actual performance. He's 11-4, but few of us have been pleased with his work. I haven't seen a lot of his starts, but he still seems intent on trying to blow his fastball by everybody and has shied away from his curve. Varitek gets praise for his handling of the pitching staff; it's high time for him to slap some sense into Beckett.

Paltry run support (up until recently) has depressed Tim Wakefield's W/L record, but he's turned in yet another underrated performance (4.05, 1.24). Bothered by a bad back, Wakefield has still pitched 12 quality starts in 18 outings, second on the staff to Schilling's 14.

Rookie Jon Lester (3.06, 1.55) has looked quite good. While he has dug himself some holes (too many walks), he has also shown a lot of poise and determination in getting out of his jams. Like all the Red Sox young arms, including relievers Manny Delcarmen (3.52, 1.35) and Craig Hansen (4.63, 1.29), he seems to have adapted to the cauldron of Boston exceptionally well.

What can you say about Matt Clement (6.61, 1.76)? He's been hurt, but it sure seems like his problems are also mental. I have no idea what we'll get from Clement in the second half.

Jonathan Papelbon (0.59, 0.72) began the year in the bullpen and was expected to move into the fifth starter spot when needed. Instead, he took over as closer after the third game of the season -- where he has excelled. He has allowed only three runs in 46 innings. His ERA+ is 803!!! I still want him in the starting rotation in 2007.

In his last six outings covering seven innings, Delcarmen has 10 strikeouts and zero walks, a huge improvement. As they improve, and gain Tito's trust, MDC and Hansen are getting more high-leverage innings. Those were innings that had been going to Rudy Seanez (4.86, 1.62) and Julian Tavarez (4.56, 1.42), who despite their sterling performances in Sunday's 19-inning loss, have been putrid.

Thanks to Papelbot and Mike Timlin (2.59, 1.31), the Red Sox bullpen ERA is sixth in the AL.

Cool Standings

Every day, Cool Standings runs one million simulations of the rest of the season and posts the results.

Here are each East team's current record, runs scored and runs allowed, expected regular season wins and losses, and the percentages of those 1,000,000 seasons each team won either the division or wild card.

           W  L GB    RS  RA EXPW EXPL  DIV  WC
Boston    53 33  -   486 413 98.1 63.9 81.8  4.2
New York  50 36  3   479 406 91.9 70.1 16.0 10.7
Toronto   49 39  5   472 432 86.7 75.3  2.2  1.9
Baltimore 41 49 14   436 501 71.7 90.3  0.0  0.0
Tampa Bay 39 50 15.5 383 457 68.9 93.1  0.0  0.0

The Red Sox have the most home games remaining of any AL team: 44 of 75.

Manny Ramirez - Reality vs Perception

Bruce Allen at Boston Sports Media Watch has an excellent analysis of the media's role in the public perception of Manny Ramirez. Don't miss it.

Allen adds a brief follow-up today, wherein he notes that as he gathered specific examples of anti-Manny bias in the various local rags, "there were just way too many to include, and many were just incidental little shots here and there by various writers".

Here is a prime example of a "little shot" in today's Herald, by Steve Buckley:

Somehow, the Red Sox are winning games for 2006 while building a strong team for 2007 and beyond. Think about it. Though the marquee attractions are Curt Schilling, David Ortiz and poor, achy Manny Ramirez, a bunch of kids are muscling their way into the clubhouse and demanding big-league service time.

There is it, completely unrelated to any point being made, utterly unnecessary, 100% gratuitous. And once your eyes are open to this kind of thing, you see it everywhere -- and you rarely see it for any other Red Sox player.

I hope to write more about this tomorrow.

P.S.: It seems like the Home Run Derby attracts as much excitement as the All-Star Game itself. So when I read that David Ortiz says he's likely finished with the Derby -- "I don't think I'm going to do it anymore. I'm no good at it. I've tried three times - how many times do I have to try, 10? I'm no good." -- I find myself wondering when the hatchet job on Big Papi will start. Doesn't he understand his obligation to the fans? He's a disgrace to the game. Etc. etc. blah blah etc.

Manny: Torn Meniscus?

Will Carroll, Baseball Prospectus, writes that Manny Ramirez

is taking a disproportionate amount of heat for missing the game, even getting openly questioned on [Saturday]'s Fox telecast. Tim McCarver said the worst thing about his knee injury was "remembering which leg to limp with." It's easy to say that Ramirez is faking an injury, but almost as easy to actually check on the injury. Ramirez is suffering from a small tear in the medial meniscus of his right knee. It's an injury he can play with, but one that can "grind," a bone-on-bone situation that is unpredictable and painful. ...

Gordon Edes -- while stating that "Carroll has a solid reputation in the industry for his reports on player injuries" -- notes:

Industry sources, both with direct knowledge of Ramirez's condition, had conflicting reactions [to the report.] ...

One source, although not offering direct confirmation of Carroll's report, acknowledged some degree of accuracy. Another source, however, said neither the Red Sox medical staff nor an outside entity have administered an MRI to Ramirez and have not indicated they intend to do so. Without an MRI, the source said, the Sox would only be guessing there is a tear.

Edes spoke with Jeffrey Dugas, an orthopedic surgeon in Alabama and associate of noted orthopedist James Andrews, who said that an MRI is the "gold-standard test" for determining a meniscus tear. Dugas:

But even if an MRI showed a tear, unless it clearly and significantly keeps a player from performing, there's no reason to do anything with it. If he can play his position, hit, run on it, he can continue to play. An MRI is such a sensitive test, sometimes you can overread it.

Bud Selig either didn't know about the report or didn't care. He said it was "beyond my comprehension" why Manny would not make the trip to Pittsburgh, adding

The only thing I want to say in all fairness is that he's the only player we had that problem with this year. Everybody else has been terrific. Tommy Glavine does the right thing. He comes anyway. Of course he can't pitch, but he comes anyway. And Reyes is also here and he can't (play). But he's here. ... I need a vacation too, but ...

More later...

ASG77: American 3, National 2

The World Series will open in Boston!

The AL, down by a run since the third inning, was down to its last out against Trevor Hoffman in the top of the ninth. Paul Konerko singled to left (a hit only because the NL 3B was guarding the line), Troy Glaus bopped a ground rule double to left, and Michael Young, on an 0-2 pitch, tripled to the gap in right center. The junior circuit took a 3-2 lead.

And Mariano Rivera got the save, despite letting the potential tying run reach second with two outs. ... The American League won its 9th straight All-Star Game (though the NL did get its first lead since 2003) -- completed in a swift 2:33.

***

Lineups for the 77th All-Star Game:

AL               NL
Suzuki     RF    Soriano   LF
Jeter      SS    Beltran   CF
Ortiz      1B    Pujols    1B
ARodriguez 3B    Bay       RF
Guerrero   LF    Renteria  SS
IRodriguez  C    Wright    3B
Wells      CF    Utley     2B
Loretta    2B    Lo Duca    C
Rogers      P    Penny      P

Ken Rosenthal Explains Why He's Picking David Ortiz To Win The Home Run Derby Tonight (as heard on Rogers Sports Net)

"He's the hottest man alive."

Pedro On VHS

Do you have, or do you know someone who has, any Pedro Martinez starts on VHS or DVD?

Send me an email if you have any information (especially of games earlier in his Red Sox career).

G86: White Sox 6, Red Sox 5 (19)

Bos - 100 200 000 020 000 000 0 - 5 11 0
Chi - 000 101 001 020 000 000 1 - 6 18 0

Damn.

Props to Julian Tavarez for an amazing pitching performance (4-1-0-1-2, 49), shutting down the White Sox in the 13th-16th innings. That's more unlikely than Harvey Haddix's 12 perfect innings back in 1959.

After that, asking for three shutout innings from Rudy Seanez, who hadn't pitched since June 30, was too much. He gave us 2.1 -- which is about 2.1 more than I expected -- but then four straight singles ended the 6:19 marathon.

Boo: Jason Varitek and Trot Nixon went a combined 0-for-17. But none of the other batters did much for the last 15 innings (except for Loretta in the 11th), either.

Time for a rest.

***

Curt Schilling (3.63) / Jose Contreras (3.31), 2 PM

While Contreras has had 17 consecutive winning decisions and is 9-0 this season, his lifetime ERA against Boston is 11.67. But Schilling notes: "He's not even remotely what he was in New York. I think a lot of that is confidence, the way he pitches, his mound presence is better and it's showing."

From The Press Notes:

David Ortiz is the second Red Sox player to hit 8 HR over 8 consecutive games (George Scott (the one and only Boomer to wear red socks), June 14-22, 1977). Flo is on pace for 59 HR and 164 RBI. Since last year's All-Star break, Ortiz has hit 57 HR and driven in 159 runs, both tops in MLB.

The last time the Sox faced a pitcher with a 9-0 record? June 27, 1978, Ron Guidry, Yankees. New York won 6-4 in 14 innings (Guidry got a ND). ... The last time the Sox pinned a loss on a pitcher with a 9-0 record? July 9, 1960 (exactly 47 years ago today), Jim Coates, Yankees. Boston won 6-5.

Rudy Seanez has not pitched since June 30 (yay!). Among Red Sox relievers he has the lowest percentage of first batters retired (14-of-30, 47%). Jonathan Papelbon is at 79% (31-of-39), Mike Timlin is at 76% (25-of-33), and Craig Hansen is 100% (10-for-10).

Schilling makes his 400th career start today.

One Final Hard-To-Believe Fact From Pedro's Historic 2000 Season

If he had made one more start and allowed 47 earned runs without recording a single out, he still would have had the lowest ERA in the American League.

Herald's Buckley Slams Ramirez For Thinking Of His Health, Teammates And Fans

Manny can't win.

Steve Buckley's column in today's Herald is headlined: "All-Star Shame: Ramirez, Sox make mockery of 'Classic'"

Buckley writes that this isn't

a case of a player pulling up lame a few days before The Big Game ... No, this was something carefully orchestrated over a period of weeks ... Seems as though they started working the phones to keep Manny out of the All-Star Game during spring training, doesn't it?

The Red Sox kept talking about Manny's knee, Manny's knee, Manny's knee, Manny's knee, to the point that I expected Jerry Lewis to appear as the host of a telethon to raise funds for life-saving surgery for the ailing left fielder. ...

The Sox are going to get away with this because their millions of fans will believe the bit about getting poor Manny healthy for the stretch run. ...

Is he hurt a little? Sure. But it's July. Everybody has aches and pains.

Sorry, something's not right with this.

First of all, Steve, you are not sorry. What's the point of beginning your final sentence with an apology for everything that came before it? If you were actually sorry for what you were writing, you'd have hit the delete key and typed up something else for your readers.

But really, what can you say? Is it not common knowledge that Manny Ramirez has had problems with his hamstrings and knees for many years? Or is it Buckley's contention that Ramirez has been scheming to duck out of the 2006 All-Star Game since 1998?

With interleague play and the Extra Innings cable package, fans all across the country (and world) can see every single team play on an almost nightly basis. This isn't 1957, when fans in some cities could never see the stars of the other league in action.

And imagine if Manny did grab his bat and head off to Pittsburgh, got hurt, and ended up missing six weeks? (Everyone -- even the members of Boston sporting press -- agrees that if not for Manny hitting behind David Ortiz, Papi would get far fewer hittable pitches than he now sees.) So what would Buckley's angle be in that case?

Manny clearly doesn't care about his team's chances in the pennant race. No, he had to go to Pittsburgh for a meaningless exhibition game ("this time it counts"? please), rather than think that his teammates just might welcome his potent bat against the Yankees in August and September. So when Big Papi racks up those BBIs instead of bashing walk-off home runs, just remember where the blame lies. At the feet of selfish Manny Ramirez.

If anyone still wonders why Manny doesn't waste his time chatting with most of the local media, just keep this column (and the approximately 23,856 previous potshots he's taken since coming to Boston) in mind.

It must be very difficult for a columnist to grind out copy day after day after day. I understand that. But in this case, turning in a blank sheet of paper would have been the wise choice for Buckley. The Herald could have run a list Ramirez's Hall of Fame stats in its place.

G85: Red Sox 9, White Sox 6

Red Sox   - 000 321 210 - 9 16 0
White Sox - 010 220 010 - 6 13 0

That one pretty much qualifies as an instant classic. Whew!

Lopez and Hansen pitching out of the bases loaded, no outs mess in the seventh (with the Sox up 8-5) was huge. The pen was put in that no-room-for-error spot because of Tito Being Tito, bringing a cooked Beckett out for the seventh and leaving him out there while he walked the #9 hitter Cintron on four pitches, gave up a single to Podsednik and issued a five-pitch walk to Iguchi.

Criticizing Francona in that instance is first-guessing. Leaving the starter in too long and also giving the bullpen no wiggle room is his MO. He has his reasons, apparently, and he's likely going to cost the Sox some more games this season, but I can't see him ever really changing his patterns.

Beckett got credit for his 11th win, but he pitched like absolute poop. He gave up three more home runs, seemingly unwilling to let his teammates enjoy a lead for more than five minutes. Scoreless in the 2nd, Dye goes deep. The Red Sox score three in the 4th to lead 3-1, Beckett gives it back in the bottom half (another Dye dinger to tie the game). Boston goes up 5-3 in the 5th, Beckett surrenders a 2-run bomb to Thome. Despite Beckett throwing only 85 pitches in six innings, it was obviously time to go to the pen.

In the 7th, Lopez struck out Thome on a 1-2 slider away. Then Hansen retired Konerko on a fly to right and Dye on a liner to shortstop. Hansen got into some trouble in the 8th on a trio of squibs and bleeders, but Papelbon came in and slammed the door.

David Ortiz has 31 home runs and 86 RBI -- the highest totals for a Red Sox player in nearly 50 years.

Question for those Fox watchers: Exactly how long did Buck and McMoron go on about Manny not playing in the All-Star Game? I got the impression from the SoSH game thread they would have been less indignant if Ramirez had killed and eaten Buck's dog.

***

Josh Beckett (4.59) / Freddy Garcia (4.72), 1:20 PM

Lackey Allows Double, Retires Next 27

Angels starter John Lackey allowed a leadoff double to Oakland's Mark Kotsay, then retired the next 27 batters.

The last pitcher to allow a leadoff hit and then retire 27 straight? Jerry Reuss of the Dodgers against the Reds on June 11, 1982. Reuss's catcher that night: Current Angels manager Mike Scioscia.

Old friend Orlando Cabrera's streak of reaching base safely by hit, walk or HBP ended at 63 games. According to SABR researcher Herm Krabbenhoft, Cabrera's streak is the fifth longest since 1941.

G84: Red Sox 7, White Sox 2

It seemed like Jon Lester stayed out of trouble a little more than in his last couple of starts (6-6-2-3-3, 95). Two walks got him into a first inning mess and he allowed three singles to start the third, but in both cases, he was touched for only one run, each courtesy of a sac fly.

With the Good Sox up 5-2, Manny Delcarmen was given the 7th inning -- and allowed only an infield hit. He's looking better and better. Mike Timlin pitched a perfect 8th and Julian Tavarez took care of the ninth (once the Sox had opened it up with solo home runs from Lowell and Crisp).

David Ortiz lined his 30th home run of the season in the first inning, becoming the first Sock to have 30 before the break. In the Dept. of WTF, Alex Gonzalez went 4-for-4!

So nice to see Tampa, fresh off battling us for four games, roll over for Jaret Wright and the Yankees (who won 1-0). Kansas City pummeled Toronto, pushing the Jays 6 GB.

Media: I half-listened to the White Sox radio guys for the first five innings. They were not as bad as the Hawk and his sidekick (who could be?), but they sounded utterly bored and they both announced almost everything in a slightly annoyed monotone. (I may have to break down and listen to Joe and Jerry on Saturday, however. Ugh.) I was able to watch the last two innings on ESPN, where Steve Stone was actually pretty decent.

***

Jon Lester (3.08 (2.45 on road)) / Mark Buerhle (3.86), 8 PM

In his last start, on Sunday at Wrigley Field, Buehrle allowed 10 earned runs and 13 hits in five innings.

Some Sox against Buerhle:

Manny Ramirez: 8-for-14 (.444), one double, three homers, eight RBIs and six walks. ... David Ortiz: 13-for-37 (.351), one home run and five RBIs. ... Jason Varitek: 9-for-20 (.450), two home runs and four RBIs. ... Coco Crisp: 10-for-26 (.385), two home runs and five RBIs.

Rolling With Ortiz

What I like best about this story is that it is exactly (and I mean exactly) the type of tale you'd read about Babe Ruth!

Big Papi Is Money -- Again
All-Star slugger goes deep twice as Boston avoids sweep
By Ian Browne / MLB.com

After yet another monster night, David Ortiz, fresh out of the shower, looked to the chair next to him and saw a stack of $20 bills.

"Is that my money?" Ortiz, a little confused, asked multiple times.

Coco Crisp finally came over and solved the mystery, grabbing the stack of bills and putting them in his wallet. Ortiz then busted out laughing and told reporters, "You know how I knew that wasn't my money?"

He then opened a container filled with $100 bills and bellowed out, "This is how I roll!"

Last night, Devil Rays rookie starter James Shields got Ortiz twice on changeups (a popup and a line out). So on his third AB, Tiz thought he'd see a changeup: "He should know I'm making adjustments. ... He fell in love with the same pitch." Ortiz hammered it to left for an opposite-field homer.

Ortiz now has 29 home runs. Since 1960, no Red Sox player has reached the All-Star break with 30 homers (Carl Yastrzemski hit 29 in the first half 1969). With 82 RBIs, Ortiz is close to Manny Ramirez's 2001 mark (again, since 1960) of 84. ... Ramirez and Ortiz have homered in the same game 39 times (Jim Rice and Dwight Evans hold the team record with 56).

Terry Francona believes in Jason Johnson: "I know he can get outs. Anybody who throws 90 mph with some sink can. But the consistency has to be better." So he's still in the rotation? "The only thing I can say is he's [starting] until he's not."

Tim Wakefield is thrilled to have an extra two days of rest before his next start: "The next six days will be a blessing for me ... I don't know what's causing it [sore back] but physically it's not allowing me to finish my pitches when I need to. ... It's in a different spot now. Before, it was in my lower back. Now, it's in between my scapula and my spine."

Matt Clement will not throw at all until next Thursday, at the earliest.

G83: Red Sox 12, Devil Rays 5

Manny Ramirez hits a 2-run bomb in the first, Doug Mirabelli (solo) and David Ortiz (two-run) both go deep in the fifth, then Ortiz bops a grand slam to cap a six-run in the ninth. (In the #9 spot, Alex Gonzalez singled, doubled and tripled.)

The Red Sox had a 5-1 lead in the fifth, watched Tampa close it to 6-5 in the seventh, then pulled away by sending 11 men to the plate in the ninth.

The Yankees also won, 10-4, in Cleveland, so Boston's lead stays at 3 GA.

***

Tim Wakefield (3.90) / James Shields (4.39), 7:15 PM

Pep Talk

Bob Ryan gives us a pep talk:

I suppose you want to know what's going on. Baseball's going on. The Big 162. The ebb and the flow. ... You guys are supposed to be seasoned fans. That's what I keep hearing. ...

I promise you they'll all be looking back at these three nights at some future date and laugh. ... [R]ight now the oppressor is baseball. But don't worry. There are 80 games left. ... They'll be just fine.

We know all this, of course, but it's maddening just the same. However, I also recall writing back on August 7, 2004 that "this summer hasn't been a whole lot of fun ... even the victories have left me pissed off" and asking is this "The Most Frustrating Red Sox Season Ever"?

Not only did Matt Clement have to leave his Gulf Coast start on Tuesday with biceps soreness (while warming up for the second inning), but he was also hit on the foot by a line drive. Clement threw only 17 pitches and his fastball was clocked at 86-87 mph.

What would a day be without at least one local scribe taking a pot shot at Manny Ramirez? Today, it's the Herald's Jeff Horrigan, commenting on the Sox wanting Ramirez to skip the All-Star Game: "The 10-time All-Star, who was selected to start in fan voting for the eighth straight year, didn't have to conjure up his trusty, ill-grandmother excuse to get out this time around."

Weak. Why do I get the feeling that when Ramirez is elected to the Hall of Fame, Horrigan's lead will oh-so-cleverly [sic] ask if Manny will attend (or will his chronically ailing grandma need his assistance)? Give it a rest, Jeff. No one except some assorted mouthbreathers find this amusing anymore.

And Bud Selig says he hasn't heard from anyone about Manny's possible absence: "I only know what I've read. All I can tell you is that I'm old-fashioned. I would hope that everybody who's voted in and selected comes and that's the way it's supposed to be."

Wild card, interleague play, rampant expansion? Yeah, you're old-fashioned, Bud.

Sean McAdam on Jason Johnson: "As if Johnson's performance wasn't bad enough, there was evidence that he was tipping his pitches out of the stretch. The Sox encouraged him to return to his full delivery to mask the problem, but that led to an embarrassment of another sort." ... McAdam also noted: "Don't be surprised if the Devil Rays run wild on Jason Johnson tonight. According to a scout, Johnson is perhaps the slowest pitcher to the plate in the American League, clocked between 1.8-1.9 seconds."

Wily Mo Pena homered and singled last night; he's now hitting .375 (6-for-16) in four games with Pawtucket.

G99: Red Sox 13, Athletics 5

Cold sweats to laughter in roughly 15 minutes.

Bottom of the 7th: Manny Delcarmen, in relief of Curt Schilling (6-6-4-1-3, 105) has allowed three straight singles with no one out. Boston's lead, once 6-1 (thanks in part to back-to-back home runs from Manny Ramirez and Trot Nixon), is now 6-5. The A's have men on first and second. Al Nipper visits MDC. 12:38 am. ... Milton Bradley flies out to Manny in left-center. Frank Thomas strikes out on a full-count, 79 mph curveball on the outside corner. Nick Swisher, after turing away from an outside curve for strike two, swings and misses an 95 mph fastball. Inning over.

Top of the 8th: Justin Duchscherer gets Kevin Youkilis on a hot shot to third base. Then the floodgates open: Mark Loretta singles to right-center. David Ortiz singles to left. Ramirez walks to load the bases. Duchscherer is pulled and is ejected for arguing some close pitches to Manny. Brad Halsey comes in and he walks Nixon on four pitches to give Boston a 7-5 lead. Jason Varitek clears the bases with a double to the left-center gap (10-5). 12:54 am. ... Mike Lowell singles. Coco Crisp (3-for-6) singles to right and scores Varitek (11-5). Alex Gonzalez reaches on a fielder's choice that scores Lowell (12-5). Youkilis singles, but Loretta finally makes the third out.

Julian Tavarez pitched the 8th inning. He allowed a single and walk with one out, but got a 5-4-3 double play. Rudy Seanez pitched a perfect 9th on only seven pitches, all strikes. He clearly is at his best with an eight-run lead.

New York beat Texas 7-4 and Toronto whipped seattle 12-3, so the East stays the same: Yankees 2.5 GB, Blue Jays 5.5 GB.

***

Curt Schilling (3.50) / Jason Windsor (1.80), 10 PM

Schilling has pitched at least seven innings in four of his past five starts and has gone at least six innings in each of his last 12 starts. On July 15, he shut out the A's on two hits over seven innings at Fenway Park.

Windsor made his first major league start on July 17, allowing five hits and three walks to the Orioles in five innings. He gave up three runs, but only one was earned.

G82: Devil Rays 5, Red Sox 2

"Inexcusable" -- as Jerry Remy called Carl Crawford's straight (and easy) steal of home plate in the 4th inning. The Red Sox have dropped three straight games to the Devil Rays for the first time in seven years (July 6-7-8, 1999).

It is time to pull the plug on the Jason Johnson Era. He has nothing (4-7-5-4-4-3, 85). He allowed no less than three baserunners in each of the first three innings. After Jason Varitek tied the game at 1-1 with a solo shot in the second, Tampa roared back with three runs, putting the Sox in a hole that (for some reason) they could not crawl out of.

Tim Corcoran? Chad Harville? Jon Switzer? Brian Meadows?

You're kidding, right? Jesus Christ. A first place team doesn't get shut down by those arms. Yet, we remain in first, three games up.

Good news (and heretofore believed to be physically impossible): Julian Tavarez pitched three shutout innings.

***

Jason Johnson (6.22) / Tim Corcoran (1.17), 7:15 PM

Giving Runs Back II

Following up my previous post, I checked out box scores for all 81 games this year, looking for instances of Red Sox starters allowing runs immediately after Boston had scored. I counted only instances in which the Sox (or the opposing team) scored to either trail by one run, tie the game or take a lead. (In other words, if the Sox took a 4-0 lead and the starter then allowed one (or even two) runs in the next half-inning, I didn't count it.)

It seemed like Curt Schilling had allowed the opposition to score in close games quite a bit this year. But with so many things -- especially individual moments in baseball games watched over the course of several months -- what we think happened doesn't always match reality.

In this case, however, it does. Schilling has given back a run or more in the above instances in 10 of his 18 starts, including five outings in a row (April 25-May 16) and in seven of eight starts at the beginning of the season (April 8-May 16).

No other Red Sox starter has done it more than four times. (There isn't a lot of context to this, however; I have no idea how this compares with any of Schilling's other seasons or the careers of the other Boston starters. I had a question and went off to answer it.)

These are the games (T & B are top and bottom of innings):

April 8 at Baltimore: Sox take 2-0 lead in T6, Orioles get solo HR in B6. Sox win 2-1.

April 14 vs Seattle: Sox score 2 in B4, leadoff double in T5 scores. Sox win 2-1.

April 25 at Cleveland: Sox score 2 in T2, Cleveland ties game with 2 in B2 (and 2 more in B3). Sox win 8-6.

April 30 at Tampa: Sox score 1 in T4 (cutting TB lead to 2-1), Rays get 1 in B4. Sox lose 5-4.

May 5 vs Baltimore: Sox take 2-1 lead in B4, Orioles get 2 in T5 to lead 3-2. (Note: Ortiz hits 3-run double in B6, Schilling allows nothing in T7.) Sox win 6-3.

May 16 at Baltimore: Sox lead 6-1 after T6, Orioles get 4 in B6. Sox win 6-5.

May 27 vs Tampa: Sox get 1 in B1, Rays get 2 in T2. Sox win 6-4.

June 8 at NYY: Sox get 1 in T1, Yanks get 1 in B1 (and 1 more in B2). Sox win 9-3.

June 13 at Minnesota: Varitek solo HR in T7; Cuddyer solo HR in B8. Sox lose 5-2 in 12.

July 4 at Tampa: See below.

Other instances: Clement (4 times; April 13, April 23, May 19, May 24)), Lester (3; June 10, June 27, July 2)), Beckett (3; April 21, May 30, June 5)), Wakefield (1; June 26), Synder (1; June 19), Pauley (1; May 31) and DiNardo (1; April 17).

Schilling's record is 10-2, and 13 of his 18 starts have been "quality starts" (including the first two on the above list), tops on the club. The Sox are 14-4 in his starts, so this hasn't been a problem in the actual outcomes of games.

But it's frustrating as hell.

Giving Runs Back; FSN Mediots

Has Curt Schilling had the bad habit this season of allowing runs in the inning after the Red Sox score (often tying the game or taking the lead)? I don't know if that is accurate -- I'll have to check linescores -- but it seems that way. It certainly was true yesterday.

3rd inning: Julio Lugo hits a two-run home run, breaking a 0-0 tie.

4th inning: Gabe Kapler homers in the top half (Rays 2-1), Schilling allows a one-out home run to Jonny Gomes (3-1).

6th inning: Kapler singles in a run (3-2), Schilling pitches a 1-2-3 inning.

7th inning: David Ortiz homers to tie the game (3-3), Ty Wigginton crushes Schilling's first pitch for a solo homer that unties the game (4-3).

Then, of course, the roof fell in in the 8th inning, as Tampa scored five times off Mike Timlin.

FSN's morons were especially morony: In the 3rd, two batters after Lugo's blast, Schilling hit Rocco Baldelli on the left elbow. Joe Magraine noted that it was only Curt's 2nd HBP of the year "which ought to tell you something ... he's probably not happy about that home run".

According to Migraine, if a control pitcher like Schilling hits someone, it's probably on purpose. And a pitcher who hits a lot of batters is likely throwing at them. So all HBP are intentional. Very good, Joe.

Both announcers were annoyed at what they perceived as Schilling getting strikes called on pitches wide of the strike zone. All the replays showed that calls were legit, but that didn't stop them from complaining, even as the evidence contradicted what they were saying as they were saying it. Soon, they began whining in shorthand -- "Schilling gets another one".

As expected, when Rays relievers got the exact same pitch called a strike, like the 1-0 pitch to Lowell in the 8th, they praised the reliever for hitting his spots.

Likewise, Migraine moaned early in the game about Schilling getting strikes called on pitches at the letters (true, not often called these days, but within the rule book strike zone). So when Lowell was rung up in the 8th on a pitch at the letters, Migraine noted that the Rays got a gift, right? [crickets chirping]

Good news: Cleveland 19, Yankees 1.

G81: Devil Rays 9, Red Sox 6

I. Am. Annoyed.

Watching the Sox drop their second straight game to the Devil Rays is one thing. To have also to listen to three hours of Dewayne "That 70s Hair" Staats and Joe Migraine is quite another.

***

Curt Schilling (3.54) / Casey Fossum (5.03), 4:15 PM

In two games against Fossum this year, Boston batters are hitting a collective .205.

       IP  H  R ER BB  K  ETC
0418  6.1  6  2  2  2  1  107 pit; Sox 7-4
0428  6.0  3  0  0  5  2  106 pit; TB 5-2

Schilling vs. Rays

       IP  H  R ER BB  K  ETC
0419  6.0  6  1  1  1  7  108 pit; Sox 9-1
0430  6.0  6  3  3  1  9   98 pit; TB 5-4
0527  7.0  8  4  4  0  7  111 pit; Sox 7-4 (200th win)

Schilling's ASG Snub

Curt Schilling should make the All-Star team based on his reputation or becaue his ankle finally healed enough? Is John Tomase serious?

Now that a day passed, it's abundantly clear that Curt Schilling got screwed.

There's no excuse for leaving Schilling off the American League All-Star squad given his stature, his remarkable comeback from a career-threatening ankle injury and the fact he's the ace of maybe baseball's best team.

Tomase calls Ozzie Guillen's selection of Mark Buehrle over Schilling "inexcusable". It's the wrong choice, that's for sure -- but that's Ozzie's perogative.

    IP    H  BB   K  ERA  AVG  OBP  SLG
CS 114.1 110 14 102 3.54 .253 .277 .423
MB 116.2 125 28  51 3.86 .275 .318 .434

AL Rankings:

       CS   MB
ERA    13   20
WHIP    5   22
K/BB    1   36
AVG    21   31
OBP     5   22
SLG    29   35
OPS    16*  30

(*: Tim Wakefield is 8th.)

Schilling's superior control and high number of strikeouts account for the huge difference in some of those categories. Looking at everything else, I'd find it hard to call the choice "inexcusable". But the odd thing is that Tomase offered exactly zero evidence to back up his argument against Guillen's choice. In fact, the only pitching stat in the entire article is Kansas City's Mark Redman's ERA.

(By the way, has anyone in Chicago tasted "The Effen Ozzie GuillenTini" at the Kit Kat Lounge and Supper Club? The drink -- assorted fresh fruits and vodka -- is served with a complimentary copy of the Sun-Times sports section.)

And speaking of Redman, Jayson Stark says it's

Time to abolish the dumbest rule in baseball: The one that says every team deserves its own All-Star. ... We have to have our standards, don't we? ... Of the 52 pitchers in the American League who have pitched as many innings as Redman has (74), just eight have higher ERAs than he does (5.59). ...

And in the last 12 calendar months (starting last August), Mark Redman has won a game -- any game -- in exactly one of them. (That would be last month, when he ripped off five straight wins -- after going 17 starts in a row with zero wins.)

Obviously, the Royals played games that count in only six of those 12 months (and that includes this month), but it's still pretty bad.

In those other starts, Redman was blown out in a few of them and pitched poorly in many more. And his team can't hit (they are slugging .398). But there were some good outings in there -- such as May 7 against the White Sox (7-6-2-1-6). Anyway, why focus on wins and losses anyway? This isn't the 1870s.

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon would agree. He studied at data showing where David Ortiz hits the ball and positioned his fielders accordingly. "It's the age of information. It's no longer the Industrial Revolution. With information available, why even subscribe to this stuff if you're not going to use it." Ortiz is 9-for-42 (.214) against the Devil Rays this year.

Before striking out in the seventh inning last night, Mike Lowell had gone 47 plate appearances without a whiff (since June 19). ... Kevin Youkilis is the sixth Red Sox player to hit at least four leadoff homers in one season, joining Nomar Garciaparra (five, 1997), Dwight Evans (five, 1985), Mike Andrews (four, 1970), Tommy Harper (four, 1972-73), Bernie Carbo (four, 1975) and Ellis Burks (four, 1987).

Wily Mo Pena played center field and went 1-for-3 with an RBI, two runs and two walks in Pawtucket's 8-7 win over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. ... If all goes well with Matt Clement's Gulf Coast League outing today, he'll pitch for Portland on Sunday. ... The Red Sox reached 50 wins in 79 games or fewer for the 9th time in 106 seasons, and the first time since 1986 (51-28).

G80: Devil Rays 3, Red Sox 0

Scott Kazmir threw the first complete game of his career, limiting the Red Sox to two hits (9-2-0-2-10, 120). Alex Gonzalez singled in the third and Manny Ramirez doubled in the ninth. (Jason Varitek struck out four times.)

Josh Beckett surrendered three solo home runs (he's given up 22 already this year), including back-to-back shots from Russell Branyan and Ty Wigginton in the fifth. Wigginton also hit one in the third.

AL East: Cleveland beat the Yankees 5-2.

More Pedro Stat Insanity

Something I wrote after the 2000 season that I, being a disorganized pack rat, couldn't put my hands on last week (and there wasn't a clear link to it on my Pedro site).

How Good Was Pedro In 2000?

Imagine an AL batter hit .454. Would he win the MVP Award? Do you think he would receive at least one first-place vote?

In 2000, Pedro Martinez -- whose 1.74 ERA was the equivalent of that otherworldly batting avarage -- finished fifth behind Jason Giambi, Frank Thomas, Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Delgado. Only two out of the 28 voters placed Martinez in their Top Three, and eight voters ignored him entirely.

[The American League ERA in 2000 was 4.91, so Martinez's ERA of 1.74 was 64.5% lower than the league. A batter hitting at 64.5% above the league average that year would have hit .454.]

More from Pedro's 2000 season:

He allowed only 6.636 walks+hits per nine innings, easily breaking Guy Hecker's record of 6.923 from 1882. They are the only two pitchers in history below 7.00.

Martinez retired the side in more than half of his innings: 112-of-217. He faced 3 or 4 batters in 179 innings (82.5%). And he faced five or fewer batters in 206 innings (a mind-boggling 94.9%). (His other 11 innings: 6 batters six times, 7 batters three times, 8 batters once and 9 batters once.)

Martinez registered at least one strikeout in more than 80% of his innings (177 of 217). He struck out the side 10% of the time (22 of 217) and never went more than two innings without a strikeout.

Pitching in a league where the average team scored 5.3 runs per game, Martinez allowed more than 3 earned runs only twice in 29 starts (June 25 and August 24). He allowed 2 runs or less in 21 starts and 1 run or less in 17 starts.

Somehow, Pedro was charged with six losses in 2000. What did he do in those games? 48 innings, 30 hits, 13 runs, 8 walks, 60 strikeouts, a 2.44 ERA (stats any pitcher would kill for). While Martinez was on the mound in those six games, the Red Sox scored a grand total of four runs -- an average of less than one run per nine innings (0.75).

On June 14, after twelve starts, his ERA was 0.99. His ERA never rose above 1.81 (September 14) and he finished at 1.74.

Roger Clemens's ERA of 3.70 was second in the AL, yet was more than twice Martinez's ERA. That difference of 1.96 was the largest margin in history. In fact, among qualifying pitchers, Clemens at #2 was actually closer to #38 [Rolando Arrojo, 5.63] than he was to #1.

Gary Mathews Robs Mike Lamb

And makes Coco's grab look like a can of corn. Almost.

Ortiz, Ramirez, Loretta, Papelbon Are All-Stars

Starters (rosters):

AL                                  NL
David Ortiz        1B    Albert Pujols
Mark Loretta       2B      Chase Utley
Alex Rodriguez     3B     David Wright
Derek Jeter        SS       Jose Reyes
Ivan Rodriguez      C     Paul Lo Duca
Vladimir Guerrero  OF        Jason Bay
Manny Ramirez      OF   Carlos Beltran
Ichiro Suzuki      OF  Alfonso Soriano

Craig Hansen has looked much better in his last two outings: 6 batters, 19 pitches, 2 strikeouts, 0 baserunners. Francona: "[H]e's been down and that ball has been exploding through the strike zone with movement, that's exactly what we're looking for."

Mike Lowell on Manny Ramirez:

His setup and his approach are so simple. Not what he's thinking. I have no idea what he's thinking. I don't think anybody has an idea what he's thinking. But it seems like he's so slow, and then the explosion is so violent.

That combination, usually guys that swing so fast and crisp through the zone usually have something to trigger it. He looks like he can go at almost a standstill to this tremendous and polished swing on any pitcher. He'll hit a 1-0 slider a mile. I don't know if he waits until the last possible moment. I don't know what does. ...

There are balls in BP that looks like a routine fly ball in medium right center. It's 12 rows back. I don't know how he generates bat speed or backspin, whatever it is.

Case in point on the explosion: It looked like Manny just flicked at the ball with his bat on his first inning home run on Saturday.

Wily Mo Pena continues his rehab assignment today with Pawtucket. He went 1-for-6 in two games with Lowell. ... Matt Clement is expected make a rehab start on Tuesday in a Gulf Coast League game in Fort Myers. Opposing MLB batters hit .211 against Clement the first time through the order, .295 the second time, and .384 the third time. ... The Red Sox are 33-4 when Ramirez and Ortiz each homer in a game.

Phillies President Admits Myers Mistake

Philadelphia Phillies president Dave Montgomery says it was a "mistake" to have Brett Myers pitch against the Red Sox a day after being arrested and charged with hitting his wife.

The decision to allow Brett to pitch was wrong. And the reason I believe it was wrong was that an unintended message was sent that we are somehow indifferent to the matter of spousal abuse. ... It created in the minds of others that there was a condoning of what [allegedly] took place.

G79: Red Sox 4, Marlins 3

Only five hits for the Sox in this one, but three of them were solo home runs: Youkilis (leading off the game), Varitek (leading off the 2nd) and Ortiz (with two outs in the 3rd). The other two hits were singles: Manny in the 1st and Kapler in the 8th.

Lester battled through five innings (5-7-2-3-3, 99). Tavarez pitched a solid sixth, but Tito had to bring him back for another inning. He should have quite while he was ahead after the scoreless frame. Sure enough, just like clockwork, Miguel Cabrera bashed a solo home run to tie the game at 3-3. After a walk, Timlin came in. An error and another walk gave the Marlins a bases-loaded, one out situation. But Timlin got out of it, with two infield pop-ups.

Boston took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 8th and Delcarmen was in for the home half. He retired the first two hitters on seven pitches, then Papelbon was brought in to face Cabrera. He got him on a 3-1 grounder to short and then closed it out in the 9th.

I wish Tito had gone with Delcarmen, Timlin and Papelbon for the final three innings instead of pushing his luck with Tavarez. Pulling MDC and bringing in Pap for Cabrera was obvious, perhaps, but an excellent move. Even then, it sounded like Papelbon was pitching around him . Maybe Francona didn't trust MDC enough to not make a mistake in that situation, but I thought bringing him in after Timlin rather than earlier in the game was a sign of growing confidence.

Also: Toronto lost this afternoon, so they fall 5 back. ... Let's go, Mets!

***

Winners of the "Be Dan Shaughnessy" contest!

***

Kevin Youkilis is back at the top of the lineup and playing third base, as Mike Lowell starts the day on the bench. Coco Crisp is batting 7th. Alex Cora is at shortstop, hitting 8th.

Jon Lester (2.95) / Josh Johnson (2.20), 1 PM

Lester held the Mets to two runs and four hits over five innings on Tuesday. ... Johnson picked up his third straight win in his last start against the Devil Rays. He has a 2.09 ERA in his last three starts.

Doug Mirabelli, on ending the team's 17-game errorless streak: "We set a record? I didn't know that. And I ended it? Sweet. Got to be remembered for something." (Coco Crisp also said he didn't know about the record: "I knew we'd gone some games without making an error, but I didn't know what the record was. I thought it would be a lot higher than that."

Boston leads both New York and Toronto by 4 games.

G78: Red Sox 11, Marlins 5

It was the Papi & Manny Show for Fireworks Night at Dolphin Stadium.

Ortiz: 3-for-4, 3 runs, 4 RBI, double, 2 HR
Manny: 2-for-4, 2 runs, 5 RBI, 2 HR

Mike Lowell chipped in with three doubles. ... Manny's 3-run home run in the first inning was his 2,000th career hit. ... Tim Wakefield picked up his 150th career in his 300th Red Sox start.

Sadly, Doug Mirabelli and Alex Gonzalez made errors (both in the first inning).

***

Timmeh! (3.86) / Brian Moehler (6.55), 6 PM

Wakefield pitched six shutout innings against Philadelphia on Monday before leaving in the seventh with the bases loaded (all three runners eventually scored). He has allowed three earned runs or less in his last six starts. ... Moehler had his shortest outing of the year in his last start, against the Yankees: four innings, eight hits and five runs.

Innings Per Start: Pedro/Schilling

In comments to my Pedro post, Jack said "the inability [of Pedro] to finish games has to be factored in" when discussing his all-time greatness. Part of that way of thinking is that the longer an ace starter lasts, the more he prevents a lesser arm from coming into the game. He mentioned Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens and Sandy Koufax as more durable pitchers.

Baseball is not played the same way in 2006 as it was in the 1960s and the lack of complete games should not be held against Pedro. Even if Martinez could go nine innings every time out, no manager or front office would allow it.

Here are the starts, innings pitched, average innings per start and ERA+ for Martinez and Schiling. Pedro's stats are his entire Red Sox career (1998-2004) and the 2005 season with the Mets. Curt's stats are with Philadelphia (1993-2000), Arizona (2000-2003) and Boston (2004).

            Martinez              Schilling
Age GS   IP    AVG  ERA+  GS   IP    AVG   ERA+
26  33  233.2 7.07  160   34  235.1  6.92  100
27  29  213.1 7.35  245   13   82.1  6.33   96
28  29  217.0 7.48  285   17  116.0  6.82  121
29  18  116.2 6.47  189   26  183.1  7.05  138
30  30  199.1 6.64  196   35  254.1  7.26  143
31  29  186.2 6.43  212   35  268.2  7.67  134
32  33  217.0 6.57  125   24  180.1  7.51  130
33  31  217.0 7.00  148   29  210.1  7.25  124
34                        35  256.2  7.33  154
35                        35  259.1  7.40  136
36                        24  168    7.00  159
37                        32  226.1  7.07  150

In their respective age 26, 27 and 28 seasons, Martinez averaged more innings per start than Schilling. Since then, Pedro has pitched fewer innings per start.

But it doesn't seem like that big a difference. At age 31 and 32, Schilling averaged almost 1.1 more innings per start. That sounds significant -- is it? -- but how many hits and runs did Schilling allow (if any) while recording those additional four outs. Relying only on innings pitched doesn't tell us what we want to know. And assuming effectiveness from those totals would be a mistake.

For example, what if Pedro pitched 6 shutout innings and Schilling allowed 4 runs in 7 innings? Schilling pitched deeper into in the game, but was not as effective. Judging by their respective ERA+s, something similar to this example must have happened more than a few times.

Schilling's best ERA+ seasons (2003 and 2001) are superior only than Pedro's final year in Boston (2004) when he turned in an un-Pedro 3.90 ERA. In every other one of his Boston seasons (save perhaps the first, 1998), his performance has dwarfed the career bests of Schilling.

That doesn't mean Schilling isn't a damn good pitcher (his outings in June, mostly against other top pitchers, were superb), but it makes me question whether not sticking around for those extra outs (in their age 33 seasons, the average is less than one out per start) should be considered a strike against Martinez.

Pedro And The Geeks

Seth Mnookin points out that the stories Pedro told recently of his leaving Boston don't quite match reality:

[W]hen Pedro says he wanted nothing more than to return to Fenway and finish out his career with the Sox, a little context would be nice. Pedro -- one of the proudest men ever to put on a uniform -- hated the fact that Schilling had supplanted him as the team's ace. He hated it so much that he didn't travel to New York for Game 6 of the ALCS against the Yankees, when a bloodied Schilling took the mound ... He resented the fact that the Sox had juggled their World Series rotation so it was Schilling who got the Game 2 start at Fenway. (That way, Schilling wouldn't need to bat and risk running on his ankle.) ... [L]et's not allow the misty-eyed tributes to cloud a clear-eyed view of reality.

Listening to some of Martinez's press conference on the web, I also felt like Pedro was spinning the press. Frankly, I don't recall Pedro's blunt statements during the 2004 season of wanting to remain in Boston. And of course, he could have returned to Boston. The team (eventually) offered him a three-year guaranteed deal. But I think most fans knew -- for many reasons (including, I believe, Pedro's pride at what he would consider was capitulating to the Sox front office) -- that wouldn't happen. (By the way, Mnookin's upcoming book Feeding The Monster looks like a must-read.)

On June 29, Herald columnist John Tomase reported:

Pedro Martinez didn't want to leave Boston? Then why have multiple sources confirmed that mere hours after the Red Sox clinched the 2004 World Series did he scream the following at members of the front office as they walked triumphantly to the team charter:

"Hey computer geeks!" Martinez screamed. "Computer geeks! This is my World Series, not yours! And now I'm a free agent and there's nothing you can do about it!"

Because of some ridiculous claims in that column, I was tempted to dismiss the anecdote, but then Roger Rubin, on the same day, wrote this in the New York Daily News:

Moments after the final out last night, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein sailed through the interview room, where manager Terry Francona gives his postgame news conferences. He was whistling a happy tune, stopping only to utter five words before resuming the song: "Computer geeks one, Pedro nothing."

And in mid-December 2004, after signing with the Mets, Martinez questioned Boston's commitment to resigning him:

What were they waiting for? There was no need for all those computer geeks. Hadn't they seen me pitch all those years? They saw me in person.

Some people have claimed Martinez's numbers in 2005 and 2006 are good because he's pitching in a weaker league (the same has been said about Bronson Arroyo) and they point to his Fenway start as proof of that.

It's impossible to say at this point if that is the case. Here are Pedro's other starts against American League teams as a member of Mets:

2005
Date Team  IP  H  R ER BB  K  W/L
0522 NYY    7  4  1  1  1  6   ND
0618 Sea    6  9  4  4  1  7    L
0624 NYY    8  6  2  2  2  3    W
 
2006
Date Team  IP  H  R ER BB  K  W/L
0520 NYY    7  4  0  0  1  8   ND
0617 Bal    7  8  4  3  1  5    L
 
Totals     35 31 11 10  6 29  2.57

Not too shabby, considering three of the five starts were against the Yankees.

Anyway, as much as I love Pedro and wish he was still in Boston, I agreed with the front office's decision to not offer a guaranteed fourth year. And we'll have to wait until 2009 to see if that was a wise business move.

Look! I'm Praising Tito!

Since I often rip Terry Francona for various transgressions (both real and imagined!), when I approve of something he does, I should mention it. So: I liked him resting Trot Nixon and David Ortiz last night.

Nixon had also sat against Tom Glavine on Thursday, but that was apparently more because of illness than Glavine's left-handedness. Nixon must have felt a little better last night, since he pinch-hit against lefty Dontrelle Willis in the fifth inning. Anyway, an extra day of (mostly) rest couldn't have hurt.

And considering the pitching match-up, it was a good time to give Ortiz a much-needed breather. Not that I thought Tito was conceding a loss (although it has seemed that way in the middle of some games this year), but if the odds are against Boston winning the game -- and with Jason Johnson facing Willis, I'd have to say they were -- that's the right night to sit the Big Fellow. (And he was able to bat when needed.)

I was also wondering if Francona should pull Johnson in the second inning before he allowed the 5-0 deficit to get out of hand. Francona must have gambled that Johnson would get his act together -- and he did (although if the score had ballooned to something like 8-0, he would have yanked him). And the back-end of the pen was able to pitch the final four innings.

Johnson admitted to feeling a bit nervous last night:

I had a lot of adrenaline going the first couple innings, my first start with Boston and stuff. I was trying to go out there and impress guys, trying to throw a little too hard, falling off the mound a little bit. ... Over the last two innings, I settled down and threw the ball where I wanted. ... I'm just going to go out there five days from now and pitch against Tampa and work at getting the ball down right off the bat.

Wily Mo Pena went 1-for-3 in his first rehab game with Lowell (A) and is expected back with the Red Sox after the All-Star break. ... Matt Clement will pitch in a Gulf Coast League game in the next few days. ... David Wells has done some light throwing in San Diego and will meet the team next week in Tampa. ... Palm Beach Post article on Mike Lowell and his rebirth in Boston.

Willis, on the ovations for Boston's two ex-Marlins:

I was really happy for [Lowell]. I stepped off [the mound] for Gonzo as well. Great guys, great ballplayers. They're the reason why I am the player I am today. I have a lot of respect for them. They got a couple of hits off me, so I'll be expecting that check to my house soon.