O-uch!!!

The Orioles finally said enough and took it out on Justin Masterson and the rest of the bullpen tonight. John Smoltz pitched 4 innings, allowing 3 H's, 1 BB, 1 ER, while striking out 2, all on 52 pitches, 34 of them strikes. He was staked to a 9 run lead by the work of Lugo, Pedroia, Youkilis, Ellsbury, Ortiz, and Bailey, all of whom had at least 2 hits. Smoltz did not return to pitch after a 71 minute rain delay. Enter Justin Masterson, exit wheels. Masterson allowed 5 straight hits, 5 ER's. Exit Masterson, enter Delcarmen, who allowed 1 of Masterson's runners in before registering 2 outs. Exit Delcarmen, enter Okajima. His line is ugly: 0.1 IP, 5 H's, 4 ER's. Exit Okajima, enter Saito. More ugly: 0.1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER. Exit Saito, enter Papelbon. Sigh. We're still in the 8th inning. The O's scored 5 in the 7th, and 5 in the 8th. Pap gets BS #2.

Sox lose 11-10 Box Score

You Can't Tell Me Wake Doesn't Deserve To Be In The ASG!

Wake tossed 6 innings of 3 hit shutout ball against the Braves today for his 10th win of the season, lowering his ERA to 4.18, as the Sox beat Atlanta 1-o in a great pitcher's duel. Papelbon got his 18th save.

I'm still in the middle of moving, Fenway West is headed to CO for some RnR, so details in this post will be few, but check back soon. Fenway West (Matt) will soon have a special interview treat coming in a couple of days.

Sox WIN 1-0 Box Score

Dice-K Emerges From the Shadow of Big Papi

Only this time, it’s not a shadow that one would want to emerge from. Big Papi’s ‘slump’ appears to have been a thing of the past, leaving Dice-K bare-ass naked right now. Yes, I know he’s won 36 games including the post-season in the past 2 years; and yes, I know the Sox have invested over $100m in the guy. But right now, ya can’t trade him, ya can’t send him to Pawtucket, and ya can’t send him to the bullpen. DL? That certainly won’t go over well with DK. About the only thing you can do is cross your fingers, send him out to the mound, and hope to hell he finally breaks out of it.

Tonight, he didn’t. His line is once more ugly as sin: 4 IP, 8 H’s, 6 ER’s, 4 BB’s, 2 K’s, 1 HR allowed, leaving him 1-5, with a Wang-like 8.23 ERA. All this on only 67 pitches. Usually Sox give him plenty of run support, (usually not enough), but their bats were unusually quiet tonight- 2 hits, that was it. Jason Bay clubbed his 18^th HR of the year, but outside of that, they pretty much e-mailed in their AB’s. The left side of the diamond coughed up another E, this time it was Mike Lowell. (OUCH! It hurts to just even write that!)

Theo and Tito gave Papi over 2 months to get past his slump and their patience has paid off. He’s swinging the bat much better these days. Dice-K did spend some time on the DL, so he still has just a little bit of time left before the FO pulls the trigger on some sort of action regarding him. What that action is remains to be seen, but I’m sure glad I don’t have to decide what to do with all those arms.

Sox Lose 8-2 BOX SCORE

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Braves	2	0	0	2	2	0	1	0	1	8	11	1
Red Sox	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	2	1

Moving Sucks!

I'm in the middle of moving and may be away from the computer for a while (aaaggghhh- not that!!!) But no matter how great your new situation may be, the actual physical part of putting all your 'stough' into boxes and moving it all from point A to point B Sucks with a capital "S". (Where does all this crap come from, anyhow?!) Thankfully, I am moving to a 1st floor. After many years of trying to get here, I am finally living in Sonoma County, CA, and coincidentally enough, not very far at all from Mr. Fenway West himself. (I had been living one county to the south of here.)

If any of our readers live in this area, let us know and we'll schedule some local gatherings any time the Sox are on the tube. I will be scoping local bistros to see who has the best Sox viewing ambiance, as well as the best selection of brews, as well. I'll be continuing with the Best Western Sox Bars series soon, too.

In the meantime, LGRS!!!!

A Red Sox fan and a Yankee fan get into an accident....

No, this is not a joke (well, it is sort of funny), this is a true story. I had just come on line and was about to post something (um, now what was I going to post?) when I got a phone call from a friend who is a Dodgers fan. She was standing at California and Montgomery in San Francisco on her lunch break today when she saw a car accident take place. The offending vehicle had a 'Yankees Suck" sticker on the back. The driver of the vehicle who got hit jumped out and screamed "You must be a GDFN Red Sox fan!!" You can imagine the ensuing argument. The two guys are going at it pretty hard with the baseball epithets, so hard that the Yankees fan didn't notice that his car was rolling downhill and hitting another car! We all know Massachusetts drivers suck (JK! and I'm not from MA), and the Yankees fan in the accident just reinforces what we all know about them.

ROTFLMAO

Ken Rosenthal is an ass. Manny's OK by me (so far.)

PREVIOUSLY POSTED ON KEN ROSENTHAL WATCH

NOTE: I wrote this last year for FenwayWest.com about 2 weeks before Manny was traded. Reposting here because I don't like KR much, either.

Ken Rosenthal is an ass. That he opines for Fox is more proof of his mediocrity as a journalist or sportscaster. I'm sure the NY Daily Fish Wrap will snap him up once his tenure at Fox is over. This is not the first time I've read some of his garbage and said, 'wtf?'

That article of his serves absolutely no purpose at all other than to stir up shit in Boston. (Is he from NY?) There is no new information in that article, there are no new revelations about what Manny said or what could happen to him. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. Zilch. Zito.

Rosenthal writes, "It's mostly pointless to analyze the comments of a player who demonstrates the maturity and attention span of a 12-year-old." So why is he even writing this?

As for having "the maturity and attention span of a 12-year-old", we already know that Manny marches to the beat of a different drummer. Manny is one of those guys, to quote Jimmy Buffett, who is "growing older, but not up." I know. I'm also one of those guys. As for growing older, Manny is doing it, but at a much, much slower pace than the rest of us, that's for sure. Thirty-six is not that old anymore for a well-conditioned ball player. (At 36, I was still going on 30 mile, 2500' elevation gain mountain bike rides, and skiing down double black diamonds at Tahoe. At 46, I was still playing drums in 6 hour jam sessions.) His work ethic and conditioning have been well documented. His production at the plate has been well documented. His performance on the field is much better than most realize. He is virtually guaranteed a spot in Cooperstown. Yes, he is a clown and a buffoon at times, but ask me if there is a stronger 3-4 combination in MLB. He's had his transgressions, but he has also apologized and paid for them.

Baseball fans all over the country love to dump on Manny, as they did to Barry, but I know their feelings would be much different if either had been clubbing all those taters at their team's park.

As for his most recent comments that po'd John Henry, how about letting the dust settle so you can see exactly what is happening before starting to spew?

I read what Manny said, but I have not heard a recording of it. (Much can be lost or changed from spoken word to printed word.)

I think this could be another photo of Rosenthal when he was taking a break from writing that hit-piece.

Papelbon v. A-Rod: Classic Moment

Oh, How Sweet It Is!

Hey NY! How does it feel now? Your umpteen bazillion dollar man that you 'stole' from the Sox just went 0-5, including the final out of the game! BWAAHAAHAA!!! I can't wait for the NY covers tomorrow!

The Sox have now won all 8 games played against the Yankees this year, besting the previous mark of 7 set back in 1912, a year coincidentally that the Sox won the World Series.

Brad Penny turned in 6 strong innings, allowing 6 hits and 1 BB while notching 5 K's. Unfortunately for him, Sabfathia was just a bit stronger. He had a 4 hitter going into the 8th inning. Joe Girardi pulled a GL and left him in there 1 pitch too many, though, as the Sox put up 3 more runs that inning. Those 3 runs and the Papi tater in the 2nd were just enough. Yes, Papi hit another HR, so he's not quite dead yet! This is why slump or no, David Ortiz is Big Papi!

Manny Delcarmen had a rare blown save, his 1st of this season, but Saito came in and did his job and got the win while setting up for Papelbon in the 9th who had a 1-2-3 inning notching his 16th save.

Oh this feels so good right now!

Sox Win 4-3 BOX SCORE

Another Reason Why the Sox Will Stay With Papi

Just take a look at these statistics for a sample of Sox players vs. the Yankees so far this season, and see where Papi ranks:

Jason Bay, 11 for 21 with 2 doubles, a triple and 3 home runs -- .524 batting average, .655 on-base percentage, and 1.143 slugging percentage.

Kevin Youkilis, 7 for 17 with a double and a game-winning home run -- .412 batting average, .565 on-base and .647 slugging.

Dustin Pedroia, 8 for 23 with 2 doubles -- .348 batting average, .500 on-base and .435 slugging.

Mike Lowell, 9 for 26 with 2 doubles and 2 home runs -- .346 batting average, .414 on-base and .654 slugging.

David Ortiz, 7 for 23 with 4 doubles and a home run -- .304 batting average, .379 on-base and .609 slugging.

Wang's ERA

Chein-Ming Wang, ace of the Yankee staff, threw 69 pitches in 2.2 innings of work tonight, allowing 4 earned runs thereby shaving his ERA from 14.46 to a minuscule 14.34.

Where Are They Now: Keith Foulke

Keith Foulke was the Red Sox closer in 2004 when they won their 1st WS in 86 years. Foulke won 1 of those games and saved the final game as he tossed the ground ball he fielded to Doug Mientkiewicz. After allowing 1 little run in 11 postseason games that year, knee surgery the next year hastened his downfall. He retired before 2007 due to injuries, and came back to work the next year in the Oakland A’s bullpen, albeit just another arm rather than closer. His cell phone has been quiet ever since.

Foulke finds himself in Newark, NJ this year closing for the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League where he has a 2.41 ERA and 9 saves. He is 36 years old and looks across the river where the Yankees have an aging, yet still effective 40 yo closer and says that he doesn’t want to retire yet.

Fenway West wishes him good thoughts and good luck on his quest to hook up with a major league team as the trading deadline surfaces on yonder horizon. A tip of the cap to Star Ledger sports columnist Steve Politi for asking if Rivera is done, and pointing out that Foulke is pitching just 5 miles from Yankee Stadium.

Yankee Fans Are REALLY Getting Desperate

The LA Times reports that a Yankee fan from VT purchased some Yankee grass seeds, went to the Phish concert at Fenway Park on May 31st, put some water in the bag and dispersed the seeds while at the show.

Apparently, they do sell bags of Yankee grass seeds, but if the grass that sprouts from the seed was never in Yankee Stadium, I say it's not authentic and his effort was all for nought.

Also, the Yankee fan in question is a Phish fan, leading me to believe that he may well have gotten his Yankee grass seeds mixed up with his other grass seeds.

While no one was watching....

It appears the reports of David Ortiz's demise appear to have been greatly exaggerated.

Big Papi has quietly been turning things around. With the single he hit yesterday, he extended his hitting streak to six games. In these games, he has hit for an average of .280, with 7 hits in his last 25 at bats. He has two doubles, a home run, 4 RBI's, and 3 runs scored.

While these numbers aren't quite the scorching numbers we have come to expect from the big guy, it is a noticeable improvement. His batting average has risen by 12 points in these last six games

Let's hope it continues, (and just in time for the Yankees, no less.)

Can you name the 2004 Red Sox World Series winning roster?

Can you name the 2004 Red Sox World Series winning roster? Click here to play the game, but no cheating, no looking up the answers first. Just click and go.

Someone Has Too Much Time On His Hands, This is Scary (Yankee Abuse Inside)

Someone at Jock and Balls has been spending way too much time with Photoshop, as evidenced by photos he composed of famous male athletes faces onto bikini model's bodies. Here are his photos of Clemens and Jeter. Follow the link above for more disturbing photos. You have been warned.

Phish at Phenway: Down With Disease

From May 31, 2009

Red Sox June National TV Schedule

June 3 Weds BOS @ DET, ESPN 4:05 PM
June 7 Sunday TEX @ BOS, TBS 10:35 AM
June 10 Weds NYY @ BOS, ESPN 4:10 PM
June 27 Saturday BOS @ ATL, Fox 1:00 PM

All times PDT.

That Umpire with the Quick Thumb in MN?

Todd Tichenor is the umpire who tossed Redmond, Gardenhire, Varitek, and Francona in MN the other night and is a relative newcomer to Major League umpiring. Tichenor is a AAA umpire who has been called up to the big leagues for only 81 games since 2007 and has a history of 'itchy finger disease.'