Sox White and Red
I watched the game last night and am eager to hear BGW's report. For my part, I thought Chicago looked just horrible. I don't know how they failed to score on Gabbard, who came in with a 6.75 ERA and looked to have just that level stuff. But even more surprising was their failure to hit Timlin. His sinker was repeatedly up in the zone and they just kept swinging through it. Santana had another monster game last night and if Loriano does indeed come back, as advertised, the Twins will be the wild card, if they don't manage to win the Central outright. The latter would be a much better outcome for the Yankees, who cannot relish the idea of a 5 game series against Minnesota. Just think, they'd have Santana and Loriano in the first 2 and then they'd go back to the Metrodome, which is hell to play in during the postseason. Say you split in NY, losing to Santana, and manage a split in Minnesota. You still have to come back in game 5 and beat Santana (who is Santa to the Twins and Satan to everyone else).
For their part the Red Sox still look incredibly weak offensively, in their bullpen and their rotation. I don't see how they keep getting these results over the medium term.
For their part the Red Sox still look incredibly weak offensively, in their bullpen and their rotation. I don't see how they keep getting these results over the medium term.
posted by joe valente | 12:26 PM
4 Comments:
Is this a joke?
Check out the lead to an article over at RedSoxNation.com (ie, espn.com); the article deals with teams getting injured players back in time for the stretch run:
"Players throughout baseball are now coping with the cumulative physical impact of an eight-month grind. But the daily scratch-and-dent updates are exponentially more meaningful for clubs that actually have something at stake.
The Red Sox welcomed back David Ortiz, Jason Varitek and Trot Nixon this week, which gives them a lift in their effort to fend off Toronto and the Angels for the sixth-best record in the American League. "
So, is it a joke? I can see the joke, but would you really lead off your article with such a joke, if it indeed was one?
You know, back on the batting title for a second, Cano really could win this thing. He's 5 points back and is the hottest hitter of the three of them--hotter even than Jeter I think. Right now he's got 414 total plate appearances; to qualify you need 3.1 TPA per game your team plays. The Yanks have now played 138 games, so Cano would need 428 TPA to qualify. He gets 4-5 a game so he should make up those 14 plate appearances over the next 10 games or so. If he keeps hitting like he is, he could suddenly appear, in the last week of the season, right at the top of the leader board.
BGW,
I said it about 2 weeks ago, and I stand by that judgment: the Red Sox are done, done, done.
I'm starting to think the other Sox will miss the playoffs too.
1. Yes, it does seem to be a joke, it must be a joke, and rather a nasty snarky little joke at the Sox expense. The first thing nobody cares about is who finishes 6th.
2. I disagree strongly that Boston can go on a run at this point. What I expected to occur last night, happened tonight. Chicago woke up to the fact that they were facing AAA pitching and Boston just couldn't compete. And the absence of Papelbon isn't even a major part of the problem. The Red Sox only averaged 2 runs per game this series, at Fenway! And this after two subpar offensive games to close out the Toronto series. Their problem is that Crisp is more downer than sparkplug, Varitek is no better than when he went on the DL, Manny has lost interest (he left the game again tonight), Lowell and Youkilis have stopped playing over their heads, which in either case means becoming a 285-290 hitter with little pop, Gonzalez has reverted to the bad offensive player he is, and, as BGW said, Ortiz doesn't have his timing. Even Loretta, who has been a stalwart, has begun to sag under the weight of diminished team expectations. Meanwhile they still only have 2 major league starters, Beckett and Schilling. They needed Wakefield to start pitching a couple of weeks ago and Wells to still be pitching (for them) a couple weeks from now. If they were going to make the run that BGW has been prediciting--with the suspiciousness of a true Yankee fan ensconced in Fenway--they really had to sweep this series. As it is, they picked up only a half a game in the wild card in the end, and nothing at all in the East. Barring something cataclysmic over the next 2 series, they will come into Yankee stadium needing to sweep 6 games of a 4 game set.
3. While I was commenting, I see Z weighed in. I think Cano will win the batting title, and while I have said that Jeter doesn't need to win it to be the MVP, if Cano is the one who beats him out, it might well cost him the MVP, particularly if the White Sox make the playoffs. Dye hit his 40th tonight to go with a 326 avg. and 120 or so ribbies. A Cano title would spotlight how much deeper the Yankees are, in their everyday players, than the White Sox, giving the Jeter-haters (and they are legion) an excuse to go elsewhere.
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