[Rough Carrigan]

Larry Gardner, on Apr 2 2007, 11:10 PM, said:

From a lurker.......I'm worried that this team isn't going to score runs. This team today reminds me of the team that was in a total offensive slump the 2nd half of last year......Lowell, Tek, Coco all together in this lineup scare the hell out of me......

Coco standing with the bat on his shoulder and watching that 3-1 cookie was irritating. Passivity is not discipline. The next pitch was a perfect fastball on the corner for strike 3.

[GriffinDoerr]

Larry Gardner, on Apr 2 2007, 10:10 PM, said:

From a lurker.......I'm worried that this team isn't going to score runs. This team today reminds me of the team that was in a total offensive slump the 2nd half of last year......Lowell, Tek, Coco all together in this lineup scare the hell out of me......

Give due credit. Throughout his career Meche has had good stuff - he's just had trouble finding consistency. He pitched a hell of a ballgame, mixing his pitches well and not falling behind - his control was excellent and his offspeed pitches were killers.

[Paul M]

For the last five years, this has been a different team on offense away from home. I think we'll continue to see some low-scoring away games, and we'll probably play close to .500 on the road than .600. Obviously, it was not Schilling's day when he walked in a run, which I assume he's done less than 3 times as a member of the Red Sox.

Still, Meche had two breaking balls working, and even spotted a decent change-up. It was going to take an ace-like performance, and no mistakes to win today.

161 to go.

[SoxFanPJ]

Does WMP get the start in CF tomorrow?

WMP .815 OPS vs. LHP to Crisp's .760 OPS.

Crisp has 2 career hits vs. Perez in 6 ABs, WMP has 2 career hits vs. Perez in 11 ABs.

[Noah]

SinCitySoxFan1973, on Apr 2 2007, 07:26 PM, said:

Well the changeup needs to go. Joe Morgan even saw it coming from the booth I believe. He said Schilling slowed his motion down considerably. Perhaps messing around with that pitch has affected his mechanics somewhat?

And it's too bad, because he had it working really well at times during ST.

On the other hand, maybe he should have spent more of that effort on getting his splitter working, because he never really ahd a good one consistently in ST, and certainly didn't have a good one today. After all, that's really his bread and butter.

Rough Carrigan, on Apr 2 2007, 08:12 PM, said:

Coco standing with the bat on his shoulder and watching that 3-1 cookie was irritating. Passivity is not discipline. The next pitch was a perfect fastball on the corner for strike 3.

Good point. Compare that to how Youkilis has been swinging the bat all month. Great example of aggressiveness on pitches in the strike zone, while maintaining discipline on pitches out of the zone. I think Youk is really going to have a big year.

And Meche really had it going today, it's not usually going to be this hard to score runs.

This makes tomorrow a really long day.

[behindthepen]

SoxFanPJ, on Apr 3 2007, 12:37 AM, said:

Does WMP get the start in CF tomorrow?

WMP .815 OPS vs. LHP to Crisp's .760 OPS.

Crisp has 2 career hits vs. Perez in 6 ABs, WMP has 2 career hits vs. Perez in 11 ABs.

While those sample sizes are obviously too small to tell you anything, that doesn't mean Francona won't rely on them.
I'd say it's possible mainly because they might still be worried about Coco's shoulder still, batting from the right side.

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

yecul, on Apr 2 2007, 09:42 PM, said:

Okajima was good after the first pitch. Given that it was his first pitch in the majors and the whole world had to know Tek wanted him to throw a get-me-over FB it's not terribly surprising that a major league hitter could hit a telegraphed fastball right down the middle. His second pitch in the majors is hopefully a bit more indicitive of his ability.

Yecul nailed it perfectly. Here's what Buck said after the game:

"I knew it was his first pitch in the big leagues," Buck said. "I figured he was going to try to be aggressive with his first guy, so I was just looking for my pitch out over the plate. He happened to throw it right there. It was a good pitch to hit, a fastball."

Pretty disappointing Tek's pitch calling was so predictable.

[Omar's Wacky Neighbor]

Smiling Joe Hesketh, on Apr 3 2007, 08:48 AM, said:

Yecul nailed it perfectly. Here's what Buck said after the game:

"I knew it was his first pitch in the big leagues," Buck said. "I figured he was going to try to be aggressive with his first guy, so I was just looking for my pitch out over the plate. He happened to throw it right there. It was a good pitch to hit, a fastball."

Isn't that pretty much what that kid from BC said after he put Matsuzaka's first ST pitch down the LF line.......?

[The Gray Eagle]

The Sox have been terrible in KC recently. Need to put a stop to that, as I don't expect NY and Tor. to lose most of their games there. It's only three games a year, but you don't want to dig a big hole for yourself.

From a glance at the schedule, it looks like the Sox only play 3 games in KC this year, Toronto plays 4 and the Chokers play 7.

The Sox have a fairly easy start to the schedule, it'd be good to rack up some wins against KC, the back of Texas's rotation and then Seattle at home.

We play 9 games out of 11 against NY and Toronto at the end of this month, those are going to be pretty big for April games.

[B H Kim]

gcapalbo, on Apr 2 2007, 07:39 PM, said:

Starters for the rest of the series:

Odalis Perez, in 2006: 4-4 6.83 ERA 20 games 59.1 innings
Zack Grienke, in 2006 4.26 ERA 1-0 ERA 3 games 6.1 innings

The Matsuzaka-Greinke pitching matchup on Thursday should be very interesting. Greinke had a great spring, with 27 Ks and only 2 BB in 24 innings, and I'll be rooting for him to turn things around this year (starting with his second start).

[LynnRoyalRooter]

Maybe I just need reassurance about this, but there was no "We're going to try to be more aggressive on the basepaths this year" garbage coming out of ST right? I am chalking that part (Youks/DP baserunning) up to just bad baseball by these two. Especially Youk's play down 4 runs...that was extra special.

Anyway - Just confirming that there were no rumblings of a more recklessly aggressive mentality on the basepaths this year without the personnel.

[Rough Carrigan]

Nope. There wasn't a peep along those lines. The only mention of running was that Lugo might run a bit and that Crisp can run all he wants down in the 8th spot in the order.

On the positive side, look at it this way. Pedroia (and Youkilis) got their hands burnt touching the stove on a day when nothing was going right anyway. With those bits of negative reinforcement administered they can play smart in the rest of the games.

[LynnRoyalRooter]

Rough Carrigan, on Apr 3 2007, 11:40 AM, said:

Nope. There wasn't a peep along those lines. The only mention of running was that Lugo might run a bit and that Crisp can run all he wants down in the 8th spot in the order.

On the positive side, look at it this way. Pedroia (and Youkilis) got their hands burnt touching the stove on a day when nothing was going right anyway. With those bits of negative reinforcement administered they can play smart in the rest of the games.

I like the analogy and I am more for running near the bottom of the order than near the top...With Perdroia and Lugo coming up 9/1, you are going to have to be at 2nd to score (most likely)...running near the top always kills me because you can walk home on a HR or make it on a 2B.
Anyway - thanks for the confirmation.

This post has been edited by LynnRoyalRooter: 03 April 2007 - 11:55 AM

[GriffinDoerr]

LynnRoyalRooter, on Apr 3 2007, 11:13 AM, said:

Maybe I just need reassurance about this, but there was no "We're going to try to be more aggressive on the basepaths this year" garbage coming out of ST right? I am chalking that part (Youks/DP baserunning) up to just bad baseball by these two. Especially Youk's play down 4 runs...that was extra special.

Anyway - Just confirming that there were no rumblings of a more recklessly aggressive mentality on the basepaths this year without the personnel.

I didn't see the play, just heard it on the radio, but didn't the ball on Youk's play bounce directly to Grudzelanik? That's the impression I got - that nine times out of 10 the ball would have been out of reach. Not to excuse Youkilis, especially if he saw the play developing and went anyway, but it seemed that the odd bounces went KC's way all day.

[underhandtofirst]

GriffinDoerr, on Apr 3 2007, 01:38 PM, said:

I didn't see the play, just heard it on the radio, but didn't the ball on Youk's play bounce directly to Grudzelanik? That's the impression I got - that nine times out of 10 the ball would have been out of reach. Not to excuse Youkilis, especially if he saw the play developing and went anyway, but it seemed that the odd bounces went KC's way all day.

I saw the replay a couple times and I thought Youk looked and saw that the catcher (running up the line) wasnt going to get to the ball in time so he turned and started towards second. He didnt catch Grud flashing by towards the ball. The ball did shoot off the barrier pretty well which made the play that much easier for Grud. I dont know for sure that Youk didnt see Grud, because if he did he should have been able to determine that he would make the play.

Totally different topic. I was pleased Tito took Schilling out after 4 yesterday when it was clear it just wasnt his day. He was at 89 pitches and you were looking at 110+ the way his command was if he were allowed to pitch in the 5th. My first impression was to leave Lopez and Donnelly in for another inning since we have a day off today. Thinking back today I think his decision to get a good portion of the bullpen into the game was a good call. It will serve the team better that everyone got work in a real game. He also showed some confidence in Okajima to stick with him a bit longer that I think is good for all involved.

I was a bit surprised to see Pena bat in the 9th at first, but it was 7-1 at the time and getting Pena an AB in the opener is better than hoping for a 6 run rally in the 9th when you've got to go through your bottom of the order along the way. Although the team lost, I give Tito a thumbs up for game management in Game 1 of the season.

[GriffinDoerr]

underhandtofirst, on Apr 3 2007, 02:39 PM, said:

I saw the replay a couple times and I thought Youk looked and saw that the catcher (running up the line) wasnt going to get to the ball in time so he turned and started towards second. He didnt catch Grud flashing by towards the ball. The ball did shoot off the barrier pretty well which made the play that much easier for Grud. I dont know for sure that Youk didnt see Grud, because if he did he should have been able to determine that he would make the play.

Thanks. I saw a similar play in a Sea Dogs game last year; a runner on third base charged home on a wild pitch that went right through the catcher. That's what you're supposed to do, right? The ball was nowhere near the catcher (Portland's Dusty Brown), so it looked like a no-brainer. Unfortunately for the runner, the ball ricocheted off the low (about 6 inches high) concrete barrier behind the backstop and directly into Brown's glove as he turned around, and all he had to do was turn back and tag the runner out. You can't predict bizarre bounces.

Pedroia's base-running gaffe yesterday was much worse than Youk's, but he did note after the game that it was a matter of overzealousness. It's not terrible IF he learns from it.

[Harry Hooper]

Quote

Pedroia's base-running gaffe yesterday was much worse than Youk's, but he did note after the game that it was a matter of overzealousness. It's not terrible IF he learns from it.

No, given the game situation, outs, and following batters, Youks' blunder is way worse than Pedroia's. Even without the bounce to Grud, they were going to have an excellent shot at him. You can only go to 2B there if you can make it standing up.

They both picked a good day for their gaffes it would seem.

This post has been edited by Harry Hooper: 03 April 2007 - 02:08 PM

[KBO25]

In defense of Pedroia, he's relatively inexperienced to pro-ball. I'm sure in College, his being aggressive worked more often than not. I know he was thrown out by a good deal, but in college, he probably makes it on a bad throw/desision by the defender. Then his manager praises him for his aggressiveness. I'm sure with more experience he learns there's not a big margin for error in the Majors.

[Madison33]

Game 2 - Efforts to Garner a Dub Ya Beckett vs. Perez

Redsox.com's pitching analysis:

Quote

BOS: RHP Josh Beckett, 16-7, 3.97 ERA in 2006
Beckett is hoping to be more consistent in his second year in Boston. Still, he did achieve career-highs last year in wins and innings. Beckett pitched his best game of last season against the Royals, firing eight shutout innings. On the road, he was 9-5 with a 5.21 ERA. Beckett's 31 wins over the last two seasons rank eighth in the Major Leagues. Beckett has limited opponents to a .239 average over his first five seasons.

KC: LHP Odalis Perez, 11-8, 4.48 ERA in 2006
In his lone start against the Red Sox last season, Perez gave up three runs, two earned, on five hits in six innings, while striking out a season-high 10 batters in a no-decision. He left with a 5-3 lead, but the bullpen couldn't hold on to the lead.

Game Notes:

- Mark Grudzielanek has faced Beckett 20 times in his career with a .364 result.

- Ortiz is 4 - 6 against Perez in his career with a Triple and a Home Run

- Beckett worked to re-find his fastball command and use his offspeed stuff effectively.

- Perez left his final Spring Training start after only three innings because of a blister on his middle left finger. In case he does run into issues, rookie Joakim Soria is on notice to come in and give the Royals innings.

- Against Perez in one game last year, Varitek and Youkilis both went 1 for 2 and Ramirez went 1 for 3.

- Pitching in Kauffman Stadium last year, Beckett allowed 6 hits, one for extra bases.

- The Red Sox have not yet faced Perez in Kansas City

This post has been edited by Madison33: 04 April 2007 - 10:29 AM

[Harry Agganis]

Weather here was taken a turn for the worse. Temps tonight expected to range from 45 at game time to 36 around 10:00 tomorrow 1:00 start at 41 going down to 39 by 4, Possible snow showers.

One would expect the temps to produce low scoring games. I have to wonder if the cold temps will cause Beckett to stay with his fastball more due to grip difficulty for off speed pitches. I also wonder If Dice K has ever pitched in weather this cold.