Flatlining: Game 129 Thoughts
Sox crumble in extras 7-8
-Let's face it, our playoff chances are on life support now. I would like to be optimistic and point out that there's still a lot of baseball to play, but this is the most demoralizing loss of the season. The Piranhas ripped out the Sox' heart today. A victory today, in such dramatic fashion, with their ace on the mound, would have given the Sox an unbelievable surge of confidence and momentum. Instead, we have a loss and the question of whether or not our best can beat the Twins.
-The Sox did nothing early to suggest that they had any interest in winning this game. Contreras sucked. He HAS to be hurt. I don't understand how there could be such a huge drop off in his performance. His ERA is now a whopping 4.25! The blame can't fall squarely on Contreras' shoulders. Ozzie can be attributed 3 of the 5 runs Jose gave up. How's that you may ask? Well, I'll tell you. Ozzie, after claiming he was going to leave Brian Anderson alone, decided to play Rob "I belong in LF or in the infield" Mackowiak. He botched two plays terribly, ones that I'm confident BA would have made. I groaned upon seeing the lineup without BA penciled in at center, and I was feeling murderous after watching Mack out there.
I don't want to blame Mack, because really, it isn't his fault. He's not a centerfielder; we all know that, well all of us except Oz.
-Our first three RBI's came from Mack and from solo shots by Sandy and Gload. Unusual suspects indeed.
-Brandon McCarthy has finally been spotted. I don't know what Ozzie was getting at, not pitching him yesterday. I assumed he was hurt, but he came out and pitched an outstanding 5 1/3. The only blemishes on his performance were a solo shot by Hunter and a walk. Outside of that, he didn't allow any baserunners. Ozzie, please take notice, only Jon Garland could currently accomplish something like that. Just go ahead and put Jose on the DL, because he must be hurt, and plug Brandon into the rotation.
-Actually, would it be too much to ask for a two-man rotation? Garland and McCarthy are young, they could bounce back.
-The Twinks manufactured runs against Jenks and Thornton, our two best relievers. You can't even fault our guys all that much. They pitched well, but just not well enough.
-JD wanted to spark us to the playoffs; he wanted to be remembered as the man that saved the 2006 season, but alas, his teammates let him down. I would have given anything to be at The Cell when Dye unleashed that smash. Did you hear Hawk's call of that homer? I think it was the most passionate "You can put it on the board" ever. I thought he was going to blow a vocal chord. Team MVP, anyone?
-We had good and bad defense today (overlooking Mack's, which was horrendous.) Uribe made some nice plays, but he also botched one, which lead to a run. Gload has to be commended for his picks at first. If it wasn't for Gload the Sox would have given up a few more runs. I put no blame on him for not snagging that liner in the 11th.
-The Sox have a knack for hitting closers; it's too bad we no longer have a knack for winning.
Onward to the awards...
Good Ozzie Move of the Night - Pulling Contreras early and going to McCarthy. This time the reliever he chose, actually performed.
Bad Ozzie Move of the Night - Rob. Mackowiak. In. Center. Period.
Big Ups of the Night to Jermaine Dye for continuing to show why he is our MVP, and why he should be mentioned along with Jeter and Papi for the AL MVP.
Sox Player of the Game
I know there will be some outrage about this pick. I cannot understate how clutch JD's homer was, especially after just missing one on the first pitch. However, McCarthy provided something that has been missing for the Sox all season, good pitching. We have scored runs all season long, but a strong performance like this has been hard to find. I feel like I need to reward this rarity, and hope (though I doubt it) that this sways Ozzie to give McCarthy the rock at the start of a game.
Brandon McCarthy (2)
Sox Record: 75-54...check the sidebar for the standing, I don't even want to say it.
-Let's face it, our playoff chances are on life support now. I would like to be optimistic and point out that there's still a lot of baseball to play, but this is the most demoralizing loss of the season. The Piranhas ripped out the Sox' heart today. A victory today, in such dramatic fashion, with their ace on the mound, would have given the Sox an unbelievable surge of confidence and momentum. Instead, we have a loss and the question of whether or not our best can beat the Twins.
-The Sox did nothing early to suggest that they had any interest in winning this game. Contreras sucked. He HAS to be hurt. I don't understand how there could be such a huge drop off in his performance. His ERA is now a whopping 4.25! The blame can't fall squarely on Contreras' shoulders. Ozzie can be attributed 3 of the 5 runs Jose gave up. How's that you may ask? Well, I'll tell you. Ozzie, after claiming he was going to leave Brian Anderson alone, decided to play Rob "I belong in LF or in the infield" Mackowiak. He botched two plays terribly, ones that I'm confident BA would have made. I groaned upon seeing the lineup without BA penciled in at center, and I was feeling murderous after watching Mack out there.
I don't want to blame Mack, because really, it isn't his fault. He's not a centerfielder; we all know that, well all of us except Oz.
-Our first three RBI's came from Mack and from solo shots by Sandy and Gload. Unusual suspects indeed.
-Brandon McCarthy has finally been spotted. I don't know what Ozzie was getting at, not pitching him yesterday. I assumed he was hurt, but he came out and pitched an outstanding 5 1/3. The only blemishes on his performance were a solo shot by Hunter and a walk. Outside of that, he didn't allow any baserunners. Ozzie, please take notice, only Jon Garland could currently accomplish something like that. Just go ahead and put Jose on the DL, because he must be hurt, and plug Brandon into the rotation.
-Actually, would it be too much to ask for a two-man rotation? Garland and McCarthy are young, they could bounce back.
-The Twinks manufactured runs against Jenks and Thornton, our two best relievers. You can't even fault our guys all that much. They pitched well, but just not well enough.
-JD wanted to spark us to the playoffs; he wanted to be remembered as the man that saved the 2006 season, but alas, his teammates let him down. I would have given anything to be at The Cell when Dye unleashed that smash. Did you hear Hawk's call of that homer? I think it was the most passionate "You can put it on the board" ever. I thought he was going to blow a vocal chord. Team MVP, anyone?
-We had good and bad defense today (overlooking Mack's, which was horrendous.) Uribe made some nice plays, but he also botched one, which lead to a run. Gload has to be commended for his picks at first. If it wasn't for Gload the Sox would have given up a few more runs. I put no blame on him for not snagging that liner in the 11th.
-The Sox have a knack for hitting closers; it's too bad we no longer have a knack for winning.
Onward to the awards...
Good Ozzie Move of the Night - Pulling Contreras early and going to McCarthy. This time the reliever he chose, actually performed.
Bad Ozzie Move of the Night - Rob. Mackowiak. In. Center. Period.
Big Ups of the Night to Jermaine Dye for continuing to show why he is our MVP, and why he should be mentioned along with Jeter and Papi for the AL MVP.
Sox Player of the Game
I know there will be some outrage about this pick. I cannot understate how clutch JD's homer was, especially after just missing one on the first pitch. However, McCarthy provided something that has been missing for the Sox all season, good pitching. We have scored runs all season long, but a strong performance like this has been hard to find. I feel like I need to reward this rarity, and hope (though I doubt it) that this sways Ozzie to give McCarthy the rock at the start of a game.
Brandon McCarthy (2)
Sox Record: 75-54...check the sidebar for the standing, I don't even want to say it.
posted by Jeeves at 1:19 AM
3 Comments:
That was painful to watch, and twice as painful to have to write about it.
Since I'm up watching USA basketball, I'll second your PotG pick. Really, he's the star.
In the recap thread at SSS, someone just mentioned that he knows someone in the Sox organization and the reason McCarthy hasn't seen the field much lately is that he is being stretched out in side sessions for a trip into the rotation come September 1st.
Reason for hope? If tonight's game was any indication, I'd say yes.
But we absolutely must win tomorrow's game.
Oh shit. It's a Buehrle day. M$#%@r F!@#$r!!!!!!
Shameless plug alert! Make sure to check out the Buehrle Bile File preview and recap tomorrow.
Man, I hope that's true. I would love seeing McCarthy in the rotation.
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