April 23, 2011

G20: Red Sox 5, Angels 0

Red Sox - 011 021 000 - 5 11  0
Angels  - 000 000 000 - 0  2  0
After allowing only one hit to the Blue Jays in seven innings last Monday, Matsuzaka (8-1-0-3-9, 115) showed similar dominance over the Angels. The new economical Dice has faced only three or four batters in 14 of his last 15 innings; he has retired the side in order in 10 of the 15 innings.

The Red Sox have won four straight games and seven of their last eight -- the starting pitchers have a 1.01 ERA in those eight games -- and are now tied for third place in the AL East.

The lone hit was a second-inning infield single by Alberto Callaspo, who lined the ball right back at Matsuzaka's head. Dice got his glove up in time and deflected the ball to Jed Lowrie at shortstop. Lowrie tried to make a play at first base (and it was fairly close), but Callaspo beat it out.

Carl Crawford and Jason Varitek hit back-to-back doubles in the sixth inning. For Varitek, it was only his second hit of the season (he's now 2-for-27). Crawford also singled in the second, driving in Boston's first run against Santana (7-9-5-1-9, 104). Kevin Youkilis hit a two-run opposite-field dong, Lowrie had two hits, and Jacoby Ellsbury singled twice, stole two bases, and scored two runs.
Example
Daisuke Matsuzaka / Ervin Santana

Last Friday night, the Red Sox rallied with a three-run eighth inning against the Blue Jays, but lost 7-6, dropping their record to a dismal 2-10. For the week since then, here are the records of the AL East teams:
Red Sox 6 1 (outscored opponents 34-16) Yankees 3 1 Rays 4 3 Orioles 2 4 Blue Jays 2 4
Boston picked up 1.5 games in the standings and is now 3.5 GB the Yankees. All four of the non-first place teams in the division are within one game of each other, so there should be a fair amount of shifting around in the next week. After the Angels series, the Red Sox head to Baltimore.

AL East: Rays/Blue Jays at 1 PM and Yankees/Orioles at 7 PM.

239 comments:

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allan said...

i think he had 10 K in his first sox start.

Pokerwolf said...

JEDI!

Amy said...

Really? I sure don't remember that!

Pokerwolf said...

Man, it says a lot that I can hear a "Let's go Red Sox!" chant right now.

ON FIRE!!

allan said...

This is the 9th start for Dice with at least 9 strikeouts. Career high is 10 (done 3 times). In two of the 9K games, he walked 0.

list

Jere said...

Eight times 9 or more Ks, four of those times 0 or 1 walks.

Amy said...

Another Little League defensive play!

allan said...

first start; 10K

Amy said...

Interesting. My memory is only for all the walks, not the games when he pitched that well.

allan said...

6 of the (now) 9 games with 9+ K were in 2007.

Amy said...

Almost all in 2007, only one since 2008 and none in 2009. Perhaps this will be more like 2007??

allan said...

hit raised tek's avg to .077

allan said...

5 starts with 6+ BB.

Amy said...

OK, I am hitting the hay. Enjoy the rest of the game.

meunier said...

Where did Callaspo's hit go?

allan said...

dice has thrown only 11 balls to the last 13 batters (there was 1 BB in there)

Amy said...

Thanks for the stats, Allan. Interesting that his big walk games were mostly in 2008.

What the hell was he doing in 2009 and 2010??

OK, I am off to sleep. Will have to check the answers in the morning. :)

allan said...

it nearly got dice in the forehead, he deflected it with his glove to lowrie. i think jed made a throw but it was late.

allan said...

jeemer & bard up

Jere said...

Finally NESN has the real sport on again. So I get an inning and a half in HD.

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

Only 1 of the 9 9K games after the All-star break

allan said...

don giving a recap: "crawford getting off the snide"

allan said...

shit, if dice can do this (or just be real good) most of the time, that will be fuckin HUGE

allan said...

another 123 for dice!

Jere said...

Instead of our starters saying, "soon these mediocre outings will be wins, when the offense heats up," they said, "screw it, we'll just give up nothing, that way we can't lose."

Pokerwolf said...

Do you think Dice will come out for the ninth? He's over 110 pitches, but he's still doing well...

allan said...

i say no 9th for dice.

laura k said...

shit, if dice can do this (or just be real good) most of the time, that will be fuckin HUGE

I was just thinking that! When we all went over the team's strengths in the off-season, Dice never figured in. We'd name all the other pitchers, then "...plus Lackey and Dice-K." If he can pitch like this with any consistency... damn!!

Pokerwolf said...

Heidi with some real baseball information!

allan said...

bard in

win puts us in a tie for third place!

allan said...

dice's last 15 innings, opponents hitting .043. (or like the cactus)

laura k said...

Don't drink the water! It is dirty!!

allan said...

FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WIN!

Jere said...

we win

laura k said...

Dice = awesome

Pokerwolf said...

Nice play by FY for some dirty water to ride into third place in the division!

laura k said...

hey, 4 wins in a row! 7 of last 8. we are so back!

laura k said...

good night!

Kathryn said...

dice's last 15 innings, opponents hitting .043. (or like the cactus)

This is an incredible stat. How do things change so drastically for him? He says that he was afraid that Patriot Day was his last chance. Is it motivation? sheer will? If that's the case, he should have been that motivated to begin with.

I won't analyze it, I'll just be happy!

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