Rained Out

Today’s game between Seattle and Boston has been rained out. It will be made up on Thursday, May 3rd.

Felix Upstages Dice-K/Ichiro

As so often happens when a sporting event is overhyped, something else happens to steal the spotlight. Such transpired the events at Fenway last night. All throughout the offseason and into this young season the media was focusing on the first meeting between ex-Japanese superstars Daisuke Matsuzaka and Ichiro Suzuki (seems I’m one of the few people left that remember Ichiro’s last name). While Dice-K continued (for the most part) his dominance of Ichiro and all-in-all pitched a good game, two other things happened:

1) Boston’s bats were colder than Ted Williams’ decapitated head. They seemed to have left their offense behind in Tuesday’s game (note… Boston lost so they’re they instead of we… subconscious terminology).

2) Felix Hernandez, the young ace-in-the-making for Seattle pitched a one-hitter… he carried a no-hitter into the 8th inning when J.D. Drew hit a single which would prove to be the game’s only hit for Boston. Oh, and since Drew was the ONLY piece of offense for Boston last night, of course Francona is benching him today and starting Wily Mo Pena in RF.

Bob Uecker: Obviously Francona’s thinking…. I don’t know WHAT the hell he’s thinking!!

Final score: Seattle 3, Boston 0. At least the Yankees lost as well so we remain tied with them. The overachieving Blue Jays are in first place right now. We travel up to Skydome (or Rogers Field, or whatever the hell it’s called now) next week and hopefully we won’t be playing catchup going into that series.

Tonight we look to at least take 2 out of 3 against the Mariners with Tim-MAY (0-1, 1.50 ERA) going against the M’s Jarrod Washburn (0-0, 3.00 ERA).

Yesterday’s Rout

Man, we put a POUNDING on the Mariners yesterday for a final score of 14-3. The game wasn’t even as close as the score indicates. Beckett (7IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 8K) had much better command yesterday and just cruised through the innings. Our offense finally woke up and chased journeyman Jeff Weaver after two innings.

Weaver just plain out sucked. I don’t know why he’s even a major league pitcher anymore, not that he ever was anything special. We got to him early. In the first, Lugo walked, Youk and Ortiz singled, Manny singled Lugo home (1-0), and Drew hit a sac fly to knock Youk in (2-0). After Lowell grounded into a fielder’s choice causing Manny to be out at second Varitek walked and “Wheaties” Crisp hit a ground rule double to make it 4-0. We got 3 more runs in the 2nd inning and the rout was on.

Today’s matchup will be a bit more exciting with Dice-K (1-0, 1.29 ERA) going up against Felix Hernandez (1-0, 0.00 ERA). Plus with the Ichiro angle I’m sure the media will be all over it.

Manny Being Manny

Some Photoshop fun this afternoon:

Home Opener

Today is the home opener for the Red Sox, which kicks off at 2:05 PM against the visiting Seattle Mariners. Josh Beckett (1-0, 1.80 ERA) is on the mound for us against Yankee reject Jeff Weaver (2006: 8-14, 5.76 ERA). Hopefully Josh can have a bit better command than he did against Kansas City (which still got him the win).

Boston was off last night but the Yankees gave a pounding to Sir Sidney Ponson and the Twins. Mr. April* continues his offensive prowess and the Yanks were finally able to get a starting pitcher into the sixth inning.

* a.k.a. E-Rod, ShowPony, etc.

MLB Power Rankings (Week 1)

1. New York Mets (LW: –)
2. New York Yankees (LW: –)
3. Los Angeles Angels (LW: –)
4. San Diego Padres (LW: –)
5. Minnesota Twins (LW: –)
6. Detroit Tigers (LW: –)
7. Oakland Athletics (LW: –)
8. Chicago White Sox (LW: –)
9. Toronto Blue Jays (LW: –)
10. Los Angeles Dodgers (LW: –)
11. Atlanta Braves (LW: –)
12. Boston Red Sox (LW: –)
13. Houston Astros (LW: –)
14. St. Louis Cardinals (LW: –)
15. Cleveland Indians (LW: –)
16. Texas Rangers (LW: –)
17. Philadelphia Phillies (LW: –)
18. Arizona Diamondbacks (LW: –)
19. Cincinnati Reds (LW: –)
20. Florida Marlins (LW: –)
21. Seattle Mariners (LW: –)
22. Baltimore Orioles (LW: –)
23. Milwaukee Brewers (LW: –)
24. Colorado Rockies (LW: –)
25. San Francisco Giants (LW: –)
26. Pittsburgh Pirates (LW: –)
27. Chicago Cubs (LW: –)
28. Kansas City Royals (LW: –)
29. Tampa Bay Devil Rays (LW: –)
30. Washington Nationals (LW: –)

Off the Road Again

Didn’t get much of a chance to blog over the weekend. We went 1 and 2 against Texas which made our season-opening road trip an even 3 and 3. We’ll be back at friendly Fenway starting tomorrow afternoon to take on the M’s and the Angels. The next scheduled off-day is April 30th.

Papelbon is still looking quite good and Schilling had a nice bounce back performance last night to prevent the Texas sweep.

Boston Dirt Dogs pisses me off. Everything they print has to be negative and designed to stir up stuff. Case in point… following Papelbon’s brilliant effort in closing last night, they posted this picture:

Friday’s game

I’m trying to multitask between programming, making travel arrangements and keeping an eye on the6 Sox/Rangers game. It’s 2-0 Texas in the bottom of the 7th. Wake did alright: 6IP, 3H, 2R, 1ER, 2BB, 4K. Okajima is pitching in relief right now.

Looks like MLB GameDay has added pitching animations. Kind of cool I guess. They’ve also added pitch speeds. Okajima just walked Wilkerson to start the inning, so it’s no outs with a runner on first.

8:04 PM - Well, the score stayed the same… 2-0 Texas final. Wake pitched pretty well and so did our pen… we just couldn’t get any offense going. Hell, we didn’t even get a runner to third base the entire time… what is our team a bunch of 8th graders now?

Road trips are tough… at least we’re not out on the West Coast where we don’t do very well at all. Still got two more games in Texas before returning home; we can still finish this road trip 4-2 or even 3-3.

Friday Morning

Looks like the Yank-E’s (snicker) lost to the always formidable Tampa Bay Devil Rays last night so we’re in sole possession of first place. Granted we’re only three games in, but given how awful 0-3 would feel, I think it’s only fair to feel encouraged and hopeful about our start so far.

Wake goes this afternoon. It will be interesting to see how much he has left in the tank. He’s not getting any younger but at least this time putting in Mirabelli for Tek won’t be that huge of a negative offense adjustment with the way Jason’s been batting lately.

And so, we begin

Alright. Game 1 of the Matsuzaka era is in the books. Dice-K’s line: 7 IP, 10 K, 6H, 1 R.

it’s just the Royals… don’t get excited Pat

He started the game giving up a single to DeJesus and then settled down and by the second or third inning he was grooving. He struck out the side in the 4th… Brown only saw three pitches.

dammit… it’s just the Royals… wait til he faces the Yankees

DeJesus hit a solo blast for the Royals only run. Matsuzaka pitched himself out of a jam (I believe there was a questionable call involving Esteban German as well) and struck out three of the last four batters he faced. Romero got the hold and Papelbon (YAY!) got the save, striking out 2 in a perfect 9th.

let’s coin a term for the Matsuzaka + Papelbon combo that should hopefully be a beautiful thing for the ages… how does Matsu-Bon sound?

I “watched” as much of the game as I could from work but had to leave midway through the 6th to catch the bus home. When I got home I rushed to flip the computer on and did so just in time to see Paps register the final K of the night. Alright!

This puts us at 2-1 and puts us (at least temporarily) in a tie for first place with the Yanks who currently are tied with the lowly D-Rays of Tampa Bay in the top of the 3rd. Andy Pettitte is making his first start since returning to NY tonight. Looks like he’s doing decent. E-Rod’s got an RBI double and Jeter’s got another error. He has an amazing way of making the easy plays look hard, doesn’t he?

Off to Texas tomorrow for another afternoon game. Wake gets the start against Robinson Tejada. Me and Julian (Down by the Schoolyard) Tavarez goes on Saturday and then Schilling will get a chance to redeem himself on Sunday in a game televised on ESPN. Since we’ll be over at Pauline’s parents’ for Easter maybe I’ll try and catch a few innings.

Question of the day (and there are still many questions to be asked and perhaps answered): What’s the deal with Coco Crisp?