Beckett's 20th Win

May I start off by asking what the hell the Sox did to make opposing pitchers want to hit them so much? We all know about Youkilis (and the Yankees) but tonight Hinske and Varitek got hit in the same inning! Then Ellsbury almost got hit in the 9th, and Pedroia did get hit! This is getting suspicious. We don't need anymore Youk-type injuries.

So Jacoby Ellsbury is definitely a new favorite. He ran into Boston's bullpen and over a chair, all to make a catch in foul territory that yes, he held on to. The Toronto commentators even said it was impressive, one of the best they've seen! Ellsbury and Pedroia, my two favorite players (remember the last 4 players I said that about were Bronson Arroyo, Mark Bellhorn, Alex Gonzalez aka The Gonz, and Trot Nixon...hopefully DP and JE will break the curse).

This is going to sound strange, but...the bullpen held a lead! Josh Beckett left after 6 fantastic innings, then Manny Delcarmen came in and pitched a 1-2-3 7th (2 strikeouts even).

Okay. 8th inning. Our new nemesis. A good start though, a solo Jason Varitek homer. But nothing else good for us. So who would guide us through the potential disaster known as the 8th inning? Delcarmen actually stayed in this time, unlike last time when he came out and Gagne killed it (in a bad, bad way). He got his first out, then as I'm witnessing Toronto's meltdown, they take him out! UHH, okay. Not what I would have done, but okay. Javier Lopez came in, got the second out, got the third out. Nice pitching, actually. You went against me, Francona, and it worked this time. Hopefully it will continue working.

3-run shot in the 9th from David Ortiz! He is "more dangerous than dynamite," said the Tampa Bay guy. Follow that up with a Lowell solo shot, 8-1, this one was over (even with Gagne pitching the 9th). Ortiz and Lugo gave Mike an excited hug in the dugout, how nice :) Brandon Moss hit the first triple of his career, which is very awesome.

And yeah, Toronto? I HATE YOU. Up 4-0 going into the 9th against the Yankees and the next thing I see, it's 4-4. HATE HATE HATE. It was single after single after single, and those add up. It wasn't bad enough you swept Boston, NOOO, you had to blow a 4-run lead against NY in the bottom of the 9th! Extra innings--at least they won. Took 'em 14 freaking innings and a large percentage of my sanity though!

Rant of the Day:
Many fans are saying "as long as we get the Wild Card..." To them, I say: Not good enough! Had we been in second place all year, yes, the WC would be fine. But getting it now, after we've basically been in first place all season...hell no, I do not accept the WC. Plus, the Wild Card is just not as legitimate, really. I want to win. I want first place in the AL East, and settling for the Wild Card is not in the gameplan.

Keep it Up

What's this I see? Another Boston victory? And it was a beatdown as well? 9-3! And the best part is it was Matsuzaka pitching - 7 innings, 5 hits, 1 run. MUCH better!! Maybe he is finally getting in a groove.

A lot of HRs from our team tonight: Ortiz, Lugo, Manny, Lowell. I love it when the HR Bug bites these guys. Papi was 4-for-5 tonight, Pedroia was 2-for-4, and Lowell was 3-for-4. I hope it's like this forever and no one gets hurt to screw it up.

The Curt Schilling comments and subsequent apology? He says things all the time, you have to learn when to ignore and when to pay attention. Francona thought it was important, but me? I just ignore, ignore, ignore until I hear Bronson's name, or Trot's. I miss them.

Now That's a Beating

The Boston Red Sox put on QUITE a show today.

14-3!

Pitching: Beckett pitched SEVEN innings and gave up ONE run. Could this be his year??

(Who gave up the other 2 runs? None other than Timlin. How many guesses did you need?)

Offense: RBI leaders for the day: Drew and Varitek, each with 3. You'd think with 14 runs there would have been a lot of home runs, but there was only 1, by Mr. Drew, and it came early (2nd inning). Youkilis was 3-for-5, Lugo was 2-for-2, and Pena came in late and got hit by a pitch. Bad luck for him, but I want more Wily Mo! I like that guy.

Here's the man of the day, J.D. Yes, he's wearing #7, yes, I wish it was still Trot Nixon's number, but yes, I am happy he is on the team and doing well.

Bad Night

Javier Lopez came in after Julian Tavarez had a good inning (and he only ended up pitching 4) and gave up a triple with no outs. Tavarez had a great first inning, an okay second, a bad third, a good fourth, and then he was gone. Of course he did have 87 pitches, so that was probably why. He gave up 4 runs, all earned, all in one inning. If only that third inning hadn't happened, he would have had a pretty good outing.

So what happened after Lopez gave up the leadoff triple? Ground out x2, walk, fly out. He worked his way out of a pretty big jam. Nice work from Javier.

The Sox put together another run in the 6th inning, with Varitek RBI-doubling Drew home. That made it 4-3 in favor of Texas.

So in came Kyle Snyder, who gave up a double and got an out before he was replaced by J.C. Romero. Mistake? I'd say. He threw 3 balls and one strike before giving up a run, then let Sosa hit one out of the park to make it 7-3. Then a single, another single, maybe time to take him out??! Nope. Just a visit to the mound. Another single, this one an RBI. 8-3. FINALLY he came out and Brendan Donnelly came in. A little too late, if you ask me. It took Donnelly 22 pitches to get 2 outs, but hey, he got the outs and didn't give up any runs. I'm looking at you, ROMERO.

So Boston's offense was fed up with the bad pitching and decided they had to do something. Lugo started it off with a single, (Youk flied out), Ortiz walked, and Manny singled in Julio. Okay, down by 4 now. J.D. Drew popped out and made me miss Trot Nixon some more, Lowell did nothing, and I was wrong -- seems that only Lugo, Papi, and Ramirez wanted to do something about that awful score.

Okajima was 1-2-3. The one good thing.

Even though he had a perfect inning, Okajima was replaced by Pineiro in the 8th. But I'm not complaining, because he had a pretty good inning himself.

You know, it's really hard to get excited about games when you know there's a really good chance the bullpen will blow it in the end. This time, even though the relievers did give up a lot of runs, it didn't matter since the Sox offense didn't make up for Tavarez' earned runs. All in all, a very bad, forgettable game.

Oh yeah, and Youkilis hurt his ankle. Swell. Though, he should be ready to play again tomorrow. When Curt Schilling gets his first win of the season.

Funny Quote of the Day: Headline on redsox.com: Bullpen source of strength

And Finally

As we all know, the J.D. Drew deal has finally been finalized. They sure took their sweet time getting it done. What does the deal say? He gets at least $42 million over three years, with the possibility of $70 million over five years should his surgically-repaired right shoulder hold up. And that was what took so long. Drew had this to say about his shoulder:

‘‘The thing from my standpoint was that (the Red Sox) realized I had shoulder surgery and wanted to make sure that everything was upheld the way they wanted it to. I don’t think it was anything major. It was just one of those situations when you look at a guy who had shoulder surgery, you want to make sure that things are where they are and he’s going to be healthy. I was very up front and felt that my shoulder’s in great condition and is only getting better ...I know the surgery I had and the type of surgery that I had (holes were drilled in the shoulder blade to promote cartilage growth), they looked into that because ... I don’t know if it’s necessarily a newer surgery, but the kind of surgery it was maybe threw up a red flag.’’

I'm going to be optimistic and say he won't get hurt this season. But if he does, then by law Trot Nixon will have an injury-free season, because that's just how things go in Boston.

Well, at least it's done and we can focus on something else. Like the fact that there are only 66 days until the season begins. And how Fenway Park looks like a mess, but will in fact be ready to go by Opening Day:


And we can continue to wonder who our new closer will be. That, of course, is the number one thing on my mind, and probably all of RSN's. I'm still betting on Craig Hansen, if he can step it up.

Phew!

I've had a busy past couple of days and haven't have any time to update - I went to an interview a couple hours away and spent a lot of time preparing for it. But now.. back to the Red Sox!

My wonderful, fantastic, beautiful Trot Nixon is now a Cleveland Indian...and that SUCKS. I kept holding out hope that somehow he could come back, but the deal is done. He's an Indian for at least the next year.


He's going to wear #33. That's just wrong.

"Obviously you know how much the [Red Sox] organization meant to me. I’ll always love that city. I’m going to bring that same attitude, that same intensity, to Cleveland," Trot said. I guess now I have another team to like!

I Hope It's a Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone out there. I hope this year turns out to be a great one, and here are a few things that will help make that happen:

1. Find a closer. The Red Sox once again have their work cut out for them when it comes to closing games - with Papelbon as one of the starting 5, the job is up for grabs. It would be nice if one of the guys we have on the team now would step up during Spring Training and take the job with ferocity.

2. Figure out what the hell is going on with J.D. Drew -- we're all sick of writing about him.

3. The Patriots need to win the Super Bowl. Because we can all use a little more Tom Brady pictures in our lives.

4. David Ortiz needs to be the AL MVP. We all know he has been for the past 2 years, a little recognition would be nice.

5. Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield need to improve in the way of reliability. Who can forget Josh Beckett's first inning disaster against the Yankees? No more of that, please.

6. Coco Crisp should have a better year. He wasn't right after the injury to his hand in Baltimore (I remember because I was there and I told him not to try to steal that base and he did it anyway), but he should be ready to go in the spring. Plus, he won't have to be leadoff now that Julio Lugo is on the team.

7. Somebody will have to free me from my depression over losing Trot Nixon, Mark Loretta, Gabe Kapler, and my beautiful beloved Alex "The Gonz" Gonzalez. His defense was incredible and, to me, made up for his not-so-hot offense. I will miss the hell out of him, but I am glad he will join Bronson Arroyo in Cincy. I hope he has another great year.

And Trot? What can I say. I wanted him to stay on the team more than anyone (even the Gonz), he was my favorite Boston player. It sucks going to the Red Sox roster site and not seeing Trot there, he's been a staple for so long. One month ago we were reading about the possibility that he might stay in Boston, but... Right field misses him already, and it will never be the same!

Not Good

The Red Sox did not offer arbitration to Nixon. However, (from redsox.com) "the Sox are still eligible to negotiate with Nixon and the other free agents who weren't offered arbitration on Friday, a list that includes second baseman Mark Loretta, catcher Doug Mirabelli and outfielder Gabe Kapler."

If we keep Wakefield and lose Mirabelli, then we know the FO has the shortest of all possible memory spans. Everyone loves Kapler and he's incredibly reliable. Loretta is a fantastic second baseman, and while I know Pedroia will be too one day...is 2007 that "day?" And I really don't think I need to repeat my thoughts on Trot Nixon again.

Depressing. So it goes.

Quickly -- Trot!!

Quickly or else I'll be late for work..from the Globe:

In a decision that would lend further credence to the possibility of Manny Ramírez being traded, the Sox are likely to offer salary arbitration to free agent outfielder Trot Nixon by today's deadline, according to a source with ties to the team.
If the Sox offer arbitration today -- and one club source cautioned it wasn't definite -- and Nixon accepts by the Dec. 7 deadline, that would make him the equivalent of a signed player for 2007, and probably place him squarely in the team's plans.

Please let there be good news when I get home...!!