Wet, ugly and wonderful

When I saw the Red Sox were down 3-0 early, I slumped on my couch.

Beckett was wetting the bed and this was going to be a long weekend.

And then of course it went back and forth and by the time the Red Sox took the lead, I was in a restaurant with my wife and kids scarfing down sushi.

I snuck a peak at my phone and saw Papelbon had loaded the bases with 1 out in the 9th and had only a one run lead.

I shut my phone off. In my head, I threw this in the loss column. I did some teeth grinding and went back to being a decent father.

So imagine my glee when I checked the scores and saw that Paps did a Houdini act and squeezed a win out of it.

At this point in the season, there are no style points. Wins are wins, no matter how ugly they are… and this one was ugggggly! And yet so alluring.

Kind of like Maggie Gyllenhaal.

The Sox are dodging a lot more bullets these days.
Let’s hope it spills over into September and October!

DODGED A BULLET GAMES – 21

April 17 – 10-8 win against Orioles. (Overcame 7-0 deficit.)

April 24 – 5-4 win against Yankees. (Bay homers off of Rivera in 9th to tie it.)

April 25 – 16-11 win against Yankees. (Overcame 6-0 deficit.)

April 29 – 6-5 win at Cleveland. (Overcame 5-0 deficit.)

May 12 – 4-3 win at Anaheim. (Down 3-1 in the 8th.)
June 11 – 4-3 win against Yankees. (Down 3-1 in the 8th. Rallied against Sabathia.)

June 12 – 5-2 win at Philadelphia. (Overcame Ryan Howard’s 9th inning shot to win in 13)

June 21 – 6-5 win against Atlanta. (The wind turns Nick Green’s fly ball into a walk off shot)

June 27 – 1-0 win at Atlanta. (Masterson and Papelbon wiggle out of late jams.)
July 1 – 6-5 win at Baltimore. (Sox score 4 in the 9th and Lugo wins in in the 11th)

July 8 – 5-4 win against Oakland. (Wind keeps Hairston’s 9th inning go ahead homer in the ballpark)

July 10 – 1-0 win against Kansas City. (Pedroia drives in the only run with 2 outs in the 8th.)

July 30 – 8-5 win against Oakland. (Ortiz tests postive then hits a 2 out 3 run go ahead homer.)

July 31 – 6-5 win at Baltimore. (Youk’s 2 run homer saves Smoltz from another bad start.)

August 10 – 6-5 win against Detroit. (Sox snap 6 game losing streak with 7th inning rally.)

August 14 – 8-4 win at Texas. (Victor Martinez hits a 2 run 2 strike 2 out double to take the lead and make up for Buchholz’s baserunning mishap.)

August 18 – 10-9 win at Toronto. (Ortiz homers and the Jays defense collapses, saving Beckett from a bad start.)
August 24 – 12-8 win against White Sox. (Red Sox overcome early 4-1 lead and a bad Buchholz start.)

August 25 – 6-3 win against White Sox. (Red Sox win with 4 unanswered runs despite some sloppy defense.)

August 26 – 3-2 win against White Sox. (Wakes pitches 7 strong and Papi homers twice including a walk off)

August 28 – 6-5 win against Toronto. (Sox come back from early 3-0 hole and Paps wiggles out of a bases loaded jam in the 9th.)

TEETH GRINDER GAMES – 22

April 14 – 6-5 loss at Oakland. (Sox blow early 3-0 lead. Lose in 12)

April 28 – 9-8 loss at Cleveland. (Sox blow early 5-1 lead. Lopez drops 3rd out.)
May 14 – 5-4 loss at Anaheim. (Ortiz goes 0-7 stranding 12 runners.)
May 15 – 5-4 loss at Seattle. (Red Sox blow their second 4-0 lead in three days.)

May 17 – 3-2 loss at Seattle. (Red Sox strand two in the 9th. Lose in the bottom of the 9th.)

May 23 – 3-2 loss to the Mets. (Papelbon lets up a 2 out 2 run homer in the 9th to Omir Santos)

June 18 – 2-1 loss to the Marlins. (Rain washes out a tight game after 5+ innings.)

June 28 – 2-1 loss to the Braves. (Tying run on base in the 9th. Solid Penny outing wasted)
June 30 – 11-10 loss at Baltimore. (The Red Sox blow a late 10-1 to the lowly Orioles.)
July 3 – 7-6 loss to Seattle. (Red Sox comeback in the 8th only to lose in the 11th.)

July 4 – 3-2 loss to Seattle. (Saito walks three in the 9th as the Mariners rally to win)

July 9 – 8-6 loss to the Royals. (Bullpen blows early 4-0 lead.)

July 21 – 4-2 loss at Texas. (Beckett loses a complete game and the Yankees take over first.)

July 22 – 3-1 loss at Texas. (Sox are swept for the first time all season.)

July 28 – 9-8 loss to Oakland. (Sox blow 3 run lead in 9th. A’s rally with 2 outs in 9th and 11th.)

July 29 – 8-6 loss to Oakland. (Down 5-0 in the first, Sox comeback falls short)

August 4 – 4-2 loss in Tampa Bay. (Longoria hits 13th inning walk off with first base open.)

August 5 – 6-4 loss in Tampa Bay. (Sox gets swept in a 2 game series with the tying run at the plate).

August 7 – 2-0 loss in New York. (A-Rod’s walk off with 2 outs in the 15 ends a teeth grinding marathon.)

August 9 – 5-2 loss in New York. (4 outs from avoiding a sweep, Bard lets up back to back homers to Damon and Teixeira.)

August 13 – 2-0 loss to Detroit. (Verlander wiggles out of early and late jams.)

August 16 – 4-3 loss at Texas. (Red Sox can’t rally and fall behind the Rangers in the Wild Card race)

Down to -1. Almost at break even.

Couple that with the Rangers loss (thanks again Minnesota) and the magic number for the post season is 33.

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A strange thing happened at the Dodger game the other day

I’m talking about the August 27th game between the Dodgers and the Rockies.

I was listening to the game in my car and there was a managerial decision that has been bugging me because it made no sense to me.

In this critical game, the Dodgers had a 3-2 lead in the 9th. Torre had already brought in Jonathan Broxton to escape an 8th inning jam. Broxton was in the #5 hole because of a previous double switch.

In the top of the 9th, Franklin Morales was pitching for Colorado. He had thrown a 1-2-3 8th inning and got the first two out in the 9th when Andre Ethier reached on an error. 

Manny Ramirez was up next followed by Broxton.

Rockies manager Jim Tracy walked Ramirez. A no brainer. Who would you rather face in Coors Field? A Hall of Famer or a reliever with 4 career plate appearances?

So Ramirez is put on… and remember Morales has pitched well thus far… and should have been out of the inning because of the error… and now is pitching against a reliever.

And Jim Tracy makes a pitching change.

And more than that… a double switch.

He removed Brad Hawpe from the lineup, brought in Ryan Spilborghs to play the outfield and put Rafael Betancourt on the hill.

Am I missing something?

I checked the Rockies websites, and Morales wasn’t injured.

Why the heck did Jim Tracy not trust Morales against a reliever who has only 3 more plate appearances than Eddie Gaedel? 

Did Morales plead his case?

“Skip! This guy is 0-4 lifetime and doesn’t participate in batting practice. I have a plan on how to get him out!”

“What is it?”

“I am going to throw the ball towards the plate and he won’t hit it.”

He had no problem having him throw to Andre Ethier but was there a scouting report saying “Broxton kills Morales. He takes him deep!”

Maybe he thought Broxton was due.

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Sully Baseball Salutes… Jody McDonald!

I’ve been a big fan of Jody McDonald for a while.

He was a great co host on WFAN, first with Suzyn (sic) Waldman and then with Joe Beningo.

I even called in a bunch of times… once after the Red Sox extended the 2004 ALCS and I referenced the Pacino line “Just when I thought I was out… they pulled me back in.”

He’s now matched up with Rob Dibble on XM. I was always a big fan of Dibble and Kennedy, but Jody Mac has proved to be a wonderful ying to Dibble’s yang (or is it the other way around.)

Today they were talking about the mess that has the audacity of calling themselves the New York Mets. 

When the subject of the Mets financial woes tied in with Bernie Madoff came up, they talked about how it affected Omar Minaya from pursuing Manny Ramirez when they needed a left fielder.

Jody Mac said “When Minaya didn’t even call the agent, I knew something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

Folks… Jody Mac dropped a Shakespeare reference during a baseball call in show!

Hamlet, act 1 scene 4. 

It’s one thing to drop a “to be or not to be” reference… but for an XM crowd, that was a smidge more obscure.

I wonder if Dibble caught it.

Either way, kudos for Jody Mac for not talking down to the audience!

And maybe with new management the Mets can unleash the dogs of war.

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