I Miss Good News!

There really needs to be some interesting news soon, because I miss posting!

Let's see what I have here that is somewhat interesting...well, here's one that's bad: Manny switched his agent to the devil, Scott Boras. Why? I don't know...contract's almost up?

Too bad for the Sox....they're going to the White House on Wednesday.

What else? The Red Sox held their first official full-squad workout of the spring Friday. A spring-high of 1,906 fans attended. "Real" play starts soon, as they will open exhibition play Thursday at City of Palms Park with a day-night doubleheader against Boston College and Northeastern.

The battle between Coco and Jacoby for starting center fielder continues...with quotes from Ellsbury: "I'm just looking to get better as a player in spring training, and the competition is going to make us both better. Competition doesn't bother me at all." But....."I prepared the whole off-season to be a starter," he said yesterday. We'll see.

I miss baseball.

It Finally Happened

The day had to come when NY lost and we won, and that day is today. We won 2-1 and the O's killed the Yanks 12-0 (ha). I hear Coco had a game-winning single, which is great. I was out watching a tennis match but this is how I imagine the game went:

Boring...boring...boring...9th inning heroics

(No, a Sox game is never boring)

But yeah, 2 runs in the 9th after nothing for the 1st 8 makes for an exciting game. "Lowell's solo homer over the Green Monster with one out in the ninth tied the game, and Coco Crisp's single to right later in the inning scored Jason Varitek with the winning run, leading the Red Sox to a dramatic 2-1 victory over the Devil Rays on Tuesday night."

Good deal.

Welcome to Boston

Umm...NO. Bases loaded with one out, tie game, 6th inning. Ortiz hits what appears to be a sac fly, but suddenly we see slow Mirabelli out at the plate!

Coco Crisp just made a fantastic catch in center field, holy crap. I just forgot how mad I am at Mirabelli because of how great that catch was.

Okay, Doug, you made up for that prior out. An RBI single to put us back on top works for me! More runs to follow -- courtesy of who? Dustin Pedroia, of course. That man makes me really, really happy.

So today we got the unveiling of our newest player, none other than Eric Gagne. And he started off right: strikeout! Then another strikeout! Then a strange hit, a ground-rule double as Lowell and Cora let the ball bounce in front of them. It was weird, and nothing I got too mad over. But Manny caught the next one and the game ended in Boston's favor. As they all should!

Huge Lead

It's like 13-2 up in Boston, and we are on the good side of that score. There is NO WAY they can blow this. NO WAY. And with All-Star Okajima in that bullpen, it's an even safer lead.

Coco Crisp hit a grand slam earlier, which is awesome. Mike Lowell hit a 3-run HR over the Green Monster, and he's got 4 RBI, Crisp has 5, and everything is going quite smoothly. If only all the games could be like this!

Beckett Can Hit

The Red Sox are actually winning, but it's only the 7th inning so you know they can still blow it. Josh Beckett had an RBI double. Yes, I said Beckett. I wish I could WATCH THE GAMES and see stuff like this!!!

And Curt Schilling is apparently back in Boston to run some tests.. Oh no. Red Sox manager Terry Francona indicated that Schilling's right shoulder was the cause for concern. HEY that's the same thing that's wrong with me. Perhaps he has some impingement as well?

And just because he needs some positive press: Coco went 4-for-4 and belted two homers in Monday night's loss - the loss sucks but maybe Crisp is ready to break out.

I'm very uncomfortable with this 8 game lead. I want a 28 game lead. Tonight has to be the start of something good, because I feel an implosion coming on if it isn't.

5 Out of 6

MAN David Ortiz can hit the ball! He killed one in the first inning to give us an early lead. Then that lead increased when Coco Crisp tripled and went home on a Cora RBI.

Then a 3-run Yankee HR, blah.

But then Alex Cora came through with a two-run shot! He sent Coco home in the process, he was on base because he got hit by a pitch :( Cora showed his skills again later in the 7th with a triple, and he did score on a sac fly to make it 5-3.

But that wasn't all the offense Boston had in store. Manny hit his 3rd home run of the year to put the Sox up 7-3 (Ortiz had singled earlier). So at this point I was relieved that despite NY's win yesterday, we would still win the series.

But Mike Timlin would not feel right if he didn't give up some runs. Jeter hit a solo HR off him, and really, who didn't know that was coming? He even let ABREU get a hit, who was 0-for-19 up until he faced Old Reliable. Of course, then the other Old Reliable grounded into a double play (who? A-Rod of course).

Papelbon came in to pitch the 9th and protect a 7-4 lead. Giambi led off with a double, which was most shocking. In more normal fashion, Matsui struck out, Posada grounded out, and Cano ended the game with another ground out. THAT is how Papelbon works. Minor mistake to Steroidface.

Another day, another beat-the-Yankees-fiesta. Tomorrow is an off day, and a series against Oakland begins Tuesday.

They Must End

I so wanted 8 losses in a row, but I guess all things that are fantastic must end eventually. But it would have been nice if NY's losing streak had ended after the Boston series.

Of course, after I mentioned the fact that NY had no saves yesterday, they had to get one today. I should keep my mouth shut about those things!

Even though Boston's offense was quite bad (so many, MANY chances to score all blown), there's always tomorrow. And those bats better be on fire tomorrow, since Julian Tavarez will take the mound against Wang. And we are still in first place, and NY is still in last. Things are as they should be.

And what was with Mike Lowell's errors today? Both when Jeter hit the ball right to him! Time to fix whatever the problem was there.

Today I saw a picture and suddenly realized what all the Yankee fans are truly thinking when they see Manny. I thought, since I am so enlightened now, I shall share with my wonderful readers:

Mistake of the (Yester)Day: Mentioning Coco's bad hair. Because now it's even worse!

That's Right

4 hour game, lots to say:

4th inning - Matsuzaka loaded the bases on 3 walks with no outs. Stupid bloop single cut our lead to one run. Manny made a pretty cool-looking catch on it though. But then D.M. got Cano to strike out, Mientkiewicz to pop one up on the infield, but.... then stupid Johnny Damon got a stupid half-swing 2-run single to grab the lead. Then more Yankees scored.

Then some good stuff happened again, with a David Ortiz RBI to make it 4-3. Then it was a tie game when Pettitte threw a bases loaded walk. And it got better - we got the lead on a wild pitch! Then another walk to make the bases loaded again with 2 outs, and out came Andy. But, nothing.

Julio Lugo HR! 6-4!

Another RBI from Mr. Lugo to get the Sox up by 3. Lugo had a good night, indeed.

Timlin, Okajima, and Pineiro all had great outings, allowing zero runs. Okajima's ERA is 0.84. NICE.

Rivera came in to pitch the 9th and he got one out, then Boston had consecutive singles from Lowell, Varitek, and Crisp (Coco's was an RBI). Then he walked Pedroia to load the bases and out came Mariano for Mike Myers. And he proceeded to walk in a run. Hehe. Then Youkilis grounded out but a run scored on the play to make it 10-4, and then Ortiz hit an RBI single and man! They really wanted Matsuzaka to get a win or something.

A nice factoid from YES - the Yankees are the only team in baseball that does not have a save.

And I did have to buy the monthly subscription to MLB.TV. But only because it's free for 5 days and then I will cancel it. I CANNOT miss Sox/Yanks games!

Imploration of the Day: Coco, please. Stop the hair madness. Just cut it!