Steals and hand outs

Before the weekend's sweep gets too distance in the rear view, let's talk about the two double steals in one game! I've been chided in the past for my fixation with the stolen base. But look here, thirty stolen base attempts for this Sox this season and only FOUR times have they been caught. Surely that kind of efficiency makes even the most hardened stolen base skeptics excited about the team's base running. I also wish to praise Dustin Pedroia, who has managed four stolen bases in four attempts. It's true what they say, you don't have to be fast to be a good base stealer.

Now, moving to last evening, EIGHT walks for Daisuke! Good god. But even with the plentiful walks, he and Lester have admirable WHIPs in their past couple of starts (1.17 and 0.86 respectively). Lester has allowed five hits in his last fourteen innings, Daisuke four over twelve. If both of them could get the walks under control and go deep into games with consistency, mercy. But we've been saying this for a minute now...

And speaking about a guy who, if only he could find the plate, could be very special, there's been a lot of talk lately about how Craig Hansen could be the bridge to Okajima and Papelbon. Last night from Hansen we saw a great sixth inning and a horrible seventh. I've seen little to suggest that Hansen is ready for a big role at the major league level. But frankly Manny Delcarmen, having allowed 10 base runners over his last 2.2 innings, has been so dreadful of late that I'm growing curious about the availability of Bobby Jones. And I'm still not ready to give up on Timlin. His ERA is nearly below 12.00, you know!

Also, Kevin Youkilis:
Ranks 9th in AL in RBI
Ranks 8th in AL in Runs
Ranks 8th in AL in Walks
Ranks 7th in AL in OBP
Ranks 8th in AL in SLG
Ranks 6th in AL in OPS

In closing, I am proud to announce that through Children International Me & Pedro recently became the sponsor of a young man in the Philippines. That's right, other blogs ask for handouts, we give handouts. We eagerly await our first letter from the chap, but in the meantime, here are his vitals: ten years old, 4 feet tall, 49 pounds, resides in Quezon City. His favorite school subject is mathematics, and while he professes no love for sports, only "Drawing, playing with toys and cars," we will be mailing him a baseball very shortly. We will do our part to mold him into the best Filipino ballplayer since Benny Agbayani. Or the best mathematician since Euclid.

Transcontinental ownage

So I'm watching a Celtic-Rangers game from earlier in week (think Sox-Yanks with a religious element, more racism and, loads of sectarian violence) and I'm thinking about how interesting it is that a Japanese fellow named Nakamura is an Old Firm veteran. Then he goes and scores an incredible goal, and it dawns on me, Matsuzaka beat the Rangers too! Remarkable. Take a look at the goal:



Back to Dice-K. Two walks this evening. We can live with that. I'll say it now, if Dice-K averages two walks a game he wins the Cy Young. Still, 101 pitches through 5.1 innings is a bit of a concern. Less walks is a start. Now throw more strikes!

Wouldn’t you know, Papi busts out of his slump with a guy named Mendoza on the mound. A grand slam and an RBI single. Patience paid off. Eventually you knew something would happen. And boy did it ever.



Jed Lowrie is batting .429 (coulda been higher if he weren’t called out on a highly questionable third strike) and he has zero errors. Be afraid, Julio Lugo, be very afraid. Or maybe Alex Cora should be afraid. No, not likely. Baseball 101 dictates that when Cora comes back Lowrie goes down to play every day.

Conflicted on Aardsma. Throws very hard but doesn’t strike a lot of guys outs and has control issues. If Timlin can't turn things around Aardsma could become an important part of the pen. My confidence in Timlin is such that when I saw him warming in the eighth inning of a 9-3 game I took pause. But remember, Timlin was dreadful in the early going last season, posting ERAs of about 6.00 through June, before having an incredible July (14.1 innings, 0 ER, .111 AVG) and holding opponents to a .192 average post-All Star break. All hope is not lost. Not by a long shot.

Around the AL East
Today was a banner day in Rays history. They signed Longoria to a long term deal and claimed Dan Johnson off waivers. Then they went out and lost to white Sox.

Perennial disappointment Daniel Cabrera held the Yankees in check this evening. Meanwhile, Phil Hughes struggled once again (0-3, 8.82 ERA). That's what happens to 21 year olds. It just is. He'll be fine. So will Clay, for that matter.

The Blue Jays? Barajas, looking beauteous in the powder blues, played first base and socked a solo home run. But the homer and David Purcey's decent start were wasted when Jeremy Accardo took his third loss in relief.

The rest of them teams
Torii Hunter doubled thrice and yoinked Richie Sexson's bid for a third home run to record the final out in the Angels' 5-4 victory.

Ben Sheets looked sharp, allowing two hits over five, but was forced to leave the game with a sore triceps.

With Sabathia struggling, Cleveland's other lefty continues to shine. Cliff Lee outpitched Francisco Liriano to improve to 3-0 and lower his ERA to 0.40.

David Wright collected four hits and Johan Santana struck out ten to lead the Mets over the Phils by score of 6-4.

Derek Lowe struggled in Andruw Jones' return to Atlanta as the Braves bested the Dodgers 6-1. But the real story is Glavine, who is going to the DL for the first time in his 22-year career.

Friend of Posnanski Brian Bannister had his first sour start of the season, allowing five runs in the A's 13-2 victory.

Dan Haren blanked the Padres over seven and Connor Jackson drove in four runs in the D-Backs 9-0 win.

There are more teams. Some of them won, others of them lost.

We begin again

Tonight the Sox beat the A's 2-1 to improve to 2-1 on the season. Dice-K gets the game ball. He surrendered an opposite field home run to Jack Cust in the second inning but after that he dominated Oakland's hitters, striking out nine (no walks!) and retiring the last twelve men he faced. Very impressive. Okajima pitched a scoreless inning. Papelbon struck out the side in the ninth. Youk was 3-for-4 with two runs. Manny and Ortiz were a combined 1-for-8. Tek is NOT finished as a batter of balls. He went 2-for-4 and knocked in the game-winning run. The Sox' two runs were surrounded by controversy. We have illustrations to prove it!














Youk was called safe while attempting to score on Ellsbury's fifth inning single to right. This isn't actually a great shot. Suzuki's swipe tag appeared to miss and Youk's left foot deposed Suzuki's left leg and perhaps caught part of the plate before Suzuki slapped a second tag. Youk was shaken up on the play, but would remain in the game.














Here the umps confer after blowing the call and ruling that Tek's home run shot to right had stayed in the park. They failed to correct their mistake and Tek was credited with an RBI double instead of a two-run homer. In the end the Sox would not need the third run in order to prevail. But still. Boo.














Here Dick Williams, manager of the 1967 Impossible Dream team and two-time World Series winner with the A's, chats with Ray Fosse and the other guy. Dick Williams seemed a lot friendlier than his reputation as a hard ass would suggest. Ray Fosse looks like Donald Sutherland. Not that you can tell by looking at the back of his head. Just trust me. The other guy is Duane Kuiper's brother. Williams and Fosse taunted the audience with Charlie Finley tales, claiming they were too salacious to discuss on air.

Hannahanahanan started at third base for Oakland on opening day in Japan. Prior to that Eric Chavez has started on nine consecutive opening days. Do you know who started at third for Oakland on opening day 1998? None other than Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan! The Aflac trivia duck on CSN Oakland told me so.

Oh and J.D. Drew was supposed to start but did not. Rest is best. Coco is appeased for a day. Everybody wins.

Comedian in Chief

On Manny Ramirez:
"Sorry ... Manny Ramirez isn't here, I guess his grandmother died again."

On Jonathan Papelbon:
"Guy pitches as well as he dances. And I appreciate the dress code. Thanks for wearing pants."

On Daisuke Matsuzaka:
"His press corps is bigger than mine. And we both have trouble answering questions in English."

George Walker Bush! He'll be here all wee- err, rather until noon on January 20, 2009. But who's counting....