Sox Send Angels to Hell

As gratifying as it was to see the Sox hang 17 runs on the Angels, I take the results with a grain of salt. The Angels are in the same position as the Sox this year. They are both struggling perennial playoff teams who lost key components in the off season. Both are floundering a few games under .500 and looking up from an unaccustomed position in the bottom portion of their divisional standings (although the Sox have to play much stiffer competition).

Still it was fun to see Boston hand out a beat down instead of losing another closing one. (The Sox are 1-5 in extra frames this season.) Even the much maligned J.D. Drew got in on the act going 4-5 with 3 RBI and 2 runs. Mike Lowell stayed hot with a perfect 4-4 night that included 4 RBI and 2 runs. (Can we make him the full time DH please?!) Clay Buchholtz continued to pitch pretty well. It wasn't his best start, but it was solid, and of course, he got plenty of runs. We'll see if Jon Lester can break out of his malaise tonight.

I usually don't care for Tom Verducci that much, but here's an interesting article from today. It's about the prevalence of the walk and the strike out in contemporary baseball. One stat, the walk, no one used to care about from a hitter's performance. The other stat, the strike out, used to be an absolute no-no for hitter. Now even elite hitters strike out 100 times a season. The combination of the two is cutting down on the amount of bat-to-ball contact in MLB games. It's an interesting observation.

Sox Vs. Rays Game 5: WTF

I have to admit to you all, even though it was potentially the last time I would see my beloved Sox this season, I couldn't bear to watch with Boston down 5-0 to Tampa. I turned off the game and watched a movie with my wife (George Lopez: Why You Crying, very funny). I woke up this morning and was flabbergasted by the results.

J.D. Drew amazes me. He always seems to have a solid regular season, plays good defense, but misses 20-30 games due to injury. In the playoffs, he has been invaluable for the Sox, Mr. Clutch in fact. Remeber his grand slam in the ALCS last season? It's almost inexplicable to me.

By the way, both Boston and Tampa have outfielders who go by initials that don't correspond to their given names. J.D. Drew was born David Jonathan. Shouldn't he be D.J.? B.J. Upton was born Melvin Emanuel. B.J. stands for Bossman Junior, a tribute to his dad.

It was curious that Tampa started Scott Kazmir instead of James Shields, although that was not the problem last night. It was their heretofore unhittable bullpen that finally had a bad outing. Tampa must have a little fear creeping into their minds that they woke up a sleeping giant. All history aside, we know that Boston has a dangerous lineup and the confidence of being world champs. Who knows? After all is said and done Tampa will probably win a very pedestrian 5-3 game on Saturday. My advice if the Sox want to win; stop pitching to B.J. Upton. I'm still waiting for someone to throw a brush back pitch or something. He is practically standing on home plate and just turning on everything.

I just keep thinking of all of those Sox fans who left early, in their cars, stuck in traffic, with the radio on. What will they say to their grand kids about this game? I turned the TV off, sure. But I never would've left the game early after paying several hundred bucks to be there.

Historical Note: Much has been made of the Red Sox 0-3 and 1-3 comebacks in 2004 and 2007 respectively. But people fail to mention that the Red Sox also came back from 1-3 vs. the Angels in the 1986 ALCS as well.