Sox Wave a White Flag: Game 153 Thoughts
Sox suck up a storm and lose 0-9
-There was one and only one bright spot for the Sox today, and that was Javier Vazquez. In all he was responsible for 3 runs, but he pitched far better than that statline would indicate. He pitched a brilliant 7 innings. In those first 7 innings he struck out 11 batters and only gave up 5 hits. He let up 1 ER on a mistake to Raul Ibanez, which was turned into a solo shot. Javy was truly dealing, but had a pretty high pitch count going into the 8th. I figured Ozzie would call a reliever, because we looked like we had no intention of winning this game, but he trotted out Javy and the inning got ugly. Javy struck out one more and ended up giving up 2 more ER to go along with 4 unearned runs.
-That was the one positive of the game, the rest was ugly, putrid, disgusting, barf-esque, whatever you want to call it. So instead of my tradional recap, I'm just going to roll right into an angry rant.
-I realize the Sox were for practical matters out of the playoffs, but by no means should they roll over and dye, sorry force of habit, die. The Sox suddenly turned into the Flubs from the north and stopped giving a damn. I don't care if you're in the playoff race or not, but you play with/for pride. There was a packed stadium today, and every single fan deserves their money back. Those are paying customer looking to see a baseball game, not to watch a bunch of millionaires roll over and take it up the rear. The Sox were piss poor and the lack of effort and execution makes me mad. I can live with losing, hell I grew up with constant losing watching these guys, but when it looks like the team isn't trying, I draw the line.
At the start of the game, I thought the Sox were going to bring it. Ozzie put out an everyday lineup. I personally wanted to see a lot of youngsters, a Sunday lineup to the extreme, but I was okay with the veteran heavy lineup. I figured the Sox were going to try and make a game of it. Oh man, was I ever wrong. The Sox brought nothing to the table, absolutely nothing. The defense was right out of a blooper reel. Juan Uribe lsoing a pop up in the wind and crashing into Crede, allowing a runner to score. Paulie throwing wide to second on an easy DP (which would have stopped the ugly 3 spot in the eighth). I still don't know why Juan didn't tag the runner, since it was obvious he wasn't on the bag.
The Sox offense managed 5 hits, which is respectable if you're facing the likes of Kofax or Gibson, but no they were facing Woods. No, read carefully I'm not even talking Kerry Wood, or Tiger Woods (wrong sport, bud) but I'm talking about Jake Wood. Oh, you've never heard of Jake Wood? Well, I'm not surprised. He's been used primarily as a reliever in the past, but he shut us down. You know why? Because he's a journeyman lefty, who we haven't seen much of, which is a great formula to beat the Sox. (Funny thing is, when I was writing the game preview I wrote Jake Wood, but had to double check on the Internet to see if Jake was infact his first name, that's how big of a nobody he is.) Not only did we make ol' Wood over there look as dominant has Eldrick, but we made Joel Pineiro, he of the 6.20 ERA look like an ace reliever. He pitched 2 perfect innings. If the Sox hitters aren't going to try, why not put the young guns in? They'll benefit much more from this than our ailing veterans.
The bullpen was pitiful. I don't even have the energy to call them out. All I can say is Boone has some problems in the head, because he has the tools to be a good reliever, and David Riske gave up a grand slam. In the ninth, DJ mentioned how he would like the Sox to put up 6 runs in the bottom half for the win, and then Hawk piped in how he would like 8 runs. Apparently a one run victory isn't enough for the lovable, senile one. The funny thing is, after our 'pen finished their work (which consists of giving up copious amounts of runs) those 8 runs wouldn't have even been enough for the victory.
For those of you who haven't read my site that much, I'm never this bitter. I'm usually quite the opposite, unduly optimistic. Even when we were emotionally knocked out of the playoffs, yesterday, I wasn't overly upset. (I guess I had been coming to terms with it over the past month). Today's lack of effort just irritated me. All I'm asking from my Sox, from here on out, is to play hard. Take down the white flag and show some of that fire from last year.
Again I'm passing on awards and player of the game. It'll be reinstituted once the Sox put up a proper display of baseball.
PS - Feel better Pablo. You were the only player not name Javy to bring something.
Pablo got beaned on the head in the third inning.
Sox Record: 85-68
-There was one and only one bright spot for the Sox today, and that was Javier Vazquez. In all he was responsible for 3 runs, but he pitched far better than that statline would indicate. He pitched a brilliant 7 innings. In those first 7 innings he struck out 11 batters and only gave up 5 hits. He let up 1 ER on a mistake to Raul Ibanez, which was turned into a solo shot. Javy was truly dealing, but had a pretty high pitch count going into the 8th. I figured Ozzie would call a reliever, because we looked like we had no intention of winning this game, but he trotted out Javy and the inning got ugly. Javy struck out one more and ended up giving up 2 more ER to go along with 4 unearned runs.
-That was the one positive of the game, the rest was ugly, putrid, disgusting, barf-esque, whatever you want to call it. So instead of my tradional recap, I'm just going to roll right into an angry rant.
-I realize the Sox were for practical matters out of the playoffs, but by no means should they roll over and dye, sorry force of habit, die. The Sox suddenly turned into the Flubs from the north and stopped giving a damn. I don't care if you're in the playoff race or not, but you play with/for pride. There was a packed stadium today, and every single fan deserves their money back. Those are paying customer looking to see a baseball game, not to watch a bunch of millionaires roll over and take it up the rear. The Sox were piss poor and the lack of effort and execution makes me mad. I can live with losing, hell I grew up with constant losing watching these guys, but when it looks like the team isn't trying, I draw the line.
At the start of the game, I thought the Sox were going to bring it. Ozzie put out an everyday lineup. I personally wanted to see a lot of youngsters, a Sunday lineup to the extreme, but I was okay with the veteran heavy lineup. I figured the Sox were going to try and make a game of it. Oh man, was I ever wrong. The Sox brought nothing to the table, absolutely nothing. The defense was right out of a blooper reel. Juan Uribe lsoing a pop up in the wind and crashing into Crede, allowing a runner to score. Paulie throwing wide to second on an easy DP (which would have stopped the ugly 3 spot in the eighth). I still don't know why Juan didn't tag the runner, since it was obvious he wasn't on the bag.
The Sox offense managed 5 hits, which is respectable if you're facing the likes of Kofax or Gibson, but no they were facing Woods. No, read carefully I'm not even talking Kerry Wood, or Tiger Woods (wrong sport, bud) but I'm talking about Jake Wood. Oh, you've never heard of Jake Wood? Well, I'm not surprised. He's been used primarily as a reliever in the past, but he shut us down. You know why? Because he's a journeyman lefty, who we haven't seen much of, which is a great formula to beat the Sox. (Funny thing is, when I was writing the game preview I wrote Jake Wood, but had to double check on the Internet to see if Jake was infact his first name, that's how big of a nobody he is.) Not only did we make ol' Wood over there look as dominant has Eldrick, but we made Joel Pineiro, he of the 6.20 ERA look like an ace reliever. He pitched 2 perfect innings. If the Sox hitters aren't going to try, why not put the young guns in? They'll benefit much more from this than our ailing veterans.
The bullpen was pitiful. I don't even have the energy to call them out. All I can say is Boone has some problems in the head, because he has the tools to be a good reliever, and David Riske gave up a grand slam. In the ninth, DJ mentioned how he would like the Sox to put up 6 runs in the bottom half for the win, and then Hawk piped in how he would like 8 runs. Apparently a one run victory isn't enough for the lovable, senile one. The funny thing is, after our 'pen finished their work (which consists of giving up copious amounts of runs) those 8 runs wouldn't have even been enough for the victory.
For those of you who haven't read my site that much, I'm never this bitter. I'm usually quite the opposite, unduly optimistic. Even when we were emotionally knocked out of the playoffs, yesterday, I wasn't overly upset. (I guess I had been coming to terms with it over the past month). Today's lack of effort just irritated me. All I'm asking from my Sox, from here on out, is to play hard. Take down the white flag and show some of that fire from last year.
Again I'm passing on awards and player of the game. It'll be reinstituted once the Sox put up a proper display of baseball.
PS - Feel better Pablo. You were the only player not name Javy to bring something.
Pablo got beaned on the head in the third inning.
Sox Record: 85-68
posted by Jeeves at 10:32 PM
3 Comments:
I'm going with Josh Fields tomorrow or Crede if he's playing third.
If I have time tomorrow, I'm going to put up a new poll, it's long overdue.
ESPN's infatuation with the BoSox and the Yanks is ridiculous.
Papi's 51st homer was the top play of the night.
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