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.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
We begin again
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2 comments:
The announcers were TERRIBLE.
I disagree. I thought they were middle of the road. Perhaps it was my faux opening day excitement, but compared to what else is out there I found them perfectly tolerable.
Early in the game when Mike Lowell dinged A's catcher Kurt Suzuki in head with his swing I was quite concerned when Fosse spent far too much time discussing how "this is exactly why catcher wear helmets." And going so far as to say, "If he weren't wearing a helmet I don't think he'd have been able to stay in the game." But he rebounded from that.
Trust me, when the power rankings come out Fosse and Kuiper shan't be in the cellar.
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