Damn, it's easier to remember to write when they win

Ok, I've been outta the country, on vacation and trying to catch up getting back to work.  So I haven't had time to write.  Poor excuses I know.  So what the hell has been going on here???  Holy shit the wheels are coming off.  Can't pitch.  Can't hit.  JBJ couldn't run the bases today.  Can't manage the game, the bullpen or the roster (Mike Miller called up to spell Bogaerts at SS and then sits on the bench while Tazawa, Koji and Kimbrel pitch in a lopsided loss????? The hell is that?!).  10-16 in June is brutal, this team should be better than that.  Something needs to be done with the roster or with the manager.  Let's stay tuned and I'll try to write more (of course there's an off day tomorrow and I'm going to Weezer Friday, but that's beside the point).

Are the wheels coming off?

Funny how it can be tougher to find time to write entries while on vacation than during the work week..

Are the wheels coming off? What's Farrell doing? Papi hitting before he could tie the game? That I didn't hate as much as Marrero hitting in the 9th last night.  I'm worried about Koji.  And two nights ago - you load the bases with nobody out you gotta figure out a way to score.  Been frustrating losing these games lately.  Worried the wheels are coming off.

About to board a plane to Montréal.  First time visiting, oughta be fun.  Why did the Expos ever leave?

Did you think I quit?

You're not getting rid of me that easily!

Didn't see much of the weekend series with Seattle.  Had puppy duty Friday night.  Had my sister's wedding Saturday morning so I actually got to see most of that game.  Went with the gf to see her dad for Father's Day and spent most of the day at the beach, so caught a little on the radio on the drive home.  So not a whole lot of impressions from the weekend in Seattle other than Elias sucks, Porcello finally put together a decent start (and JBJ really crushed that HR) and it looks like Price is getting going.

As far as tonight's game (I know that's not the name of the blog) I can't believe they didn't score when they had bases loaded nobody out. Ugh.

On vacation this week so I'll do my best with entries for the games.  Montréal Thursday here I come!

Another wasted Price start

Price was pretty damn good last night.  Set down a bunch in a row against a damn good lineup.  But Tillman is just one of those guys we always have trouble with.  A modern day Rodrigo Lopez only actually pretty good against teams other than the Red Sox, if you will.

The question for me is why was Rusney hitting for Vazquez in the 9th?  Guy hasn't had a plate appearance since before the Celtics season ended.  Maybe you could've found him an at-bat in the 15-4 game a few days ago if you were planning to send him up against one of the best closers in the game?  Just a thought...

Free blog for my 100th page view.  Who's it gonna be?!?!

Last weekend's games

Sorry for the long delay (if there are any actual readers of this blog out there), but we were dog-sitting our dog's sister over the weekend, and these are two pretty high-energy dogs that take up a lot of time and effort, so I didn't even have time/forgot to write even a short entry.  But I do have some thoughts on the weekend...


The Twinkies are so bad you gotta sweep 'em.  You just do.  You show up for a season in baseball and you win 60 and lose 60.  So it really just comes down to those 42 swing games, how do you handle those.  Sunday was one of those and it went in the L column.  Not good.  I was glad they were able to get a win for Steven Wright, and I was glad they had a mashfest on Saturday like they should against such a weak team.  But they needed to go for the kill on Sunday.  Bogaerts losing his focus in the field was hopefully just a one-time thing.  He had the base-running issue when he thought he homered, and the lack of focus on Sunday, so hopefully he has this stuff out of his system now.  Obviously he's been pretty stellar other than that.  Pretty questionable call for Farrell to have Shaw try to lay down a bunt when that's clearly not something he's ever done very much.  They definitely had a chance in this one and it's frustrating to lose to a team you really should've swept.  Hopefully Price can get them back on track in a good pitching matchup tonight.

Cheers!

No game last night, so we watched Cheers.  Starting season 5 (again).  Grew up watching this show.  Love it.  This is the season where we've had about enough of Diane.  Still great though.  Hope to sneak in an episode before tonight's game.  Could be tough since we have our dog's sister joining us for the weekend.

As far as the games this weekend, the Sox better win at least 3. No excuse to lose to this team.

A split

A mid week split with a pretty good team.  Tough to lose a well-pitched game, but Bumgarner was pretty good too.  Giving up a homer to a rookie like that hurts, and that guy was almost the goat too when he coughed up Hanley's fly ball the next inning.  Tough to strand the tying run like that, but what can ya do?  Nice to see Chris Young continue his hot streak at least.  Another night off tonight and then a weekend taking on the brutal Twinkies.  Should take all 3.

Thought I spotted that wild haired Sox fan from the games in Chicago at The game Tuesday.  Didn't notice him last night but we'll see if he makes the trip to Minneapolis this weekend.

Late post - shocking I know

Sorry for the late post.  Judging by my 81 views on 28 posts I have a lot of people relying on me for their Sox news, so I apologize.

Bogaerts really coming into his own.  I suspect he'll be the main focus of quite a few Sox game storylines this season. He already has.

The play of the game was definitely Chris Young avoiding being tagged on Papi's pinch hit grounder to prevent the double play.  I was talking with my brother about the Sox base running this season the other night.  It really has been noticeably excellent, which was a hallmark of the 2013 team.  That team had great base runners.  Obviously guys like Ellsbury were fast, but I'm talking guys who were smart on the bases like Napoli, Gomes, Victorino.  It was great to watch.  Pretty much everyone except Daniel Nava.  That dude could not run the bases.  Where is he now anyways?  I think I'll Wikipedia his ass..

As far as Porcello, I'd say he performed about as expected against a decent team.

Ok, Price v Bumgarner has already started, so time to settle in and check this one out.

No game

No game last night, so I did a lot of yard work.  It was getting bad and I'm actually pretty pleased with how it looks now.  It's really hard to have a yard and a young dog, so we'll see how long it lasts, if at all.  I don't have high hopes.  Also took her for a long walk and went to the gym.  How else would I spend a Sox off day?  We'll find out Thursday oddly enough.

Settling in for tonight's late night game and what do I see but Steve Lyons.  What the fuck! Isn't it bad enough we gotta stay up late for these games?  Now we have to stay up late AND put up with Lyons?  Geeze, what did I do to deserve this punishment?  I had my hopes up that Eck might make this trip since he's from the San Fran area.  No such luck I guess.  Story of my life!

Ok almost game time once the Giants finish up their David Ortiz tribute.  The fuck?! You read that right.  Isn't this getting to be a bit much?  We already knew it would, but still.  It's not like David Ortiz has a long, rich past in San Francisco.  They probably could've/should've sat this one out.

Sat-Sun split

Funny there's been some games where Steven Wright didn't necessarily deserve to lose or get a no decision and did.  So it kinda balanced out on Saturday when he picked up a win without having his best stuff.  Had some bad luck too.  Maybe it all does even out?

ERod got hit around pretty bad Sunday, huh?  I missed some of the start of it since I started drinkin early at the afterparty for a 5K race in Cambridge.  When I did watch I spent a lot of time waiting for the Sox to just get a hit.  Gotta figure that's an anomaly.

But what we can't say is an anomaly is the shitty pitching we've been subjected to lately.  Guys are coming back down to earth, relievers are getting worn out, new guys are struggling.  Something's gotta be done.  I hope Dombrowski doesn't wait until we fall real far behind.  Staring and relief help is needed badly now.  The sooner the better.

Are you glad to be alive?

I missed last night's game because I was at the Cowboy Mouth concert on the rock cruise ship.  Anyone know this band?  If not you should.  Amazing show.  Actually it was more than a show, like Cowboy Mouth shows are.  It was a celebration of being alive.  Love it.  Got way drinker than I should have, but that's part of the beauty.  Incredible music, unbelievably fun show.  Do yourselves a favor and check them out the next time they come by.  You can thank me later.

As far as the game, I guess Bogaerts' hitting streak is over now.  We couldn't hit the knuckler. Let's hope that's the case for the Jays this afternoon.

"If you score X amount of runs...."

Say it with me now, "....you should win the game."  I'm afraid of that becoming the theme of this season.  Porcello clearly didn't have it and the bullpen is so thin right now there was no chance they were gonna pick him up.  Not against a team like Baltimore.


Love Xander Bogaerts obviously.  But I don't want to see him admire his off-the-wall singles that he thinks are home runs but in reality could be doubles if he ran.  Why does this happen so much?  Hit the ball and run!  We ask so little of baseball players, yet still.  Let's hope he learned from this.


Rough trip.  Hitting like crazy and still losing games is tough.  Time to turn it around at home.

Goodbye, Joe Kelly

When you score 9 runs and hit 5 home runs you should win the game 11 times out of 11.  Joe Kelly has pretty much been a total disaster and I'm glad they're doing the right thing and sending him down to Pawtucket.  I hope that's the end of him here and the next time we need a 5th starter (a week from Saturday) we can actually trot out someone competent.  Hell, I'd even settle for half competent.

As far as positives go, there's Mookie.  Leading off the game with another HR was obviously great, but I most enjoyed how he stood in there after they threw a pitch near his head and took Orioles pitcher Mike Wright yard.  THAT was beautiful.

Didn't love the umpire warning the Sox bench after they threw at Mookie.  The hell did we do?  I know the umps do it that way a lot but it's a pretty stupid practice if you ask me.  All we did was rake, are we getting warned for that?

Anyone catch Dave O'Brien say Adam Jones was high school teammates with Sam Horn last night?  I had to rewind it twice and text my brother to make sure I heard it right.  The producer must've cued him in on his mistake or something, since the next inning he said that Jones "went to the same school as" Sam Horn.  Sorry, Dave, you don't get credit for the correction unless you acknowledge the dumb thing you said the inning before.  Am I picking nits with this one?

Mookie! Mookie! Mookie!

Actually getting an entry for last night's game in BEFORE tonight's game.  I'm getting better at this whole time management thing...

How about Mookie?  Kid might have a future in this game, huh?  3 HRs and a dazzling catch in right.  Have a day, Mookie.

Also encouraged by ERod's debut.  Not as good as the numbers would indicate, but I'll definitely take it.

They could have a bunch of all stars from this team.  You could make a case for all 4 infielders (a strong case for Pedroia and Bogaerts is a lock), 2 outfielders, Papi is a lock, Wright, Kimbrel, Porcello and maybe even Price with a few more good starts.  By my count that's like 30 guys. Someone will get gypped like always, but we're gonna be representing at the mid summer classic, and deservedly so.  I won't miss the Brock Holt-as-token-Red-Sox days, which were mercifully brief.

Game time!