Another beauty from MLB.com
I was watching the Phillies vs. Cardinals on MLB.tv tonight. If you’ve ever watched a game on MLB.tv, you know that there are MLB.com headlines that flash to the right of the screen. All during the Phils game there was one headline that I wanted to click on. The teaser headline read, “Red Sox Dynamic as Frontrunners”.
I didn’t click on the story, because I didn’t want to chance interrupting my wireless connection.
But, after 14 innings the game finally ended. And then I clicked on the story. And, let me tell you, it was worth the wait.
From the first sentence, the story just grabs your attention.
They’ve never given themselves the thrill of a chase, these 2007 Boston Red Sox.
Um, okay. Except that after tonight’s Yankees win and Red Sox loss, the Bombers are now only 2.5 games back with 11 games to play. And, you know, it sure feels like the Yankees are chasing the Sox. And for New Yorkers, it is almost certainly at least a little thrilling.
Of course, the writer doesn’t stop there…
Backed by a new ace in Josh Beckett, a dominant closer in Jonathan Papelbon and an offense that is more timely than explosive, the Red Sox are looking primed to make this season almost a wire-to-wire job.
It’s very possible that the Red Sox will make this a wire to wire job. But I don’t think we’ve got too many Sox fans placing bets right now.
Assuming that the Red Sox don’t squander the comfortable lead they still held in the American League East as of Tuesday, they will finish out the regular season as possessors of first place for the final 166 days of the season.
Granted, this story was published on Tuesday morning, before the most recent Sox loss/Yanks win. But come on. How does one watch the Yankees take two of three from the Sox in Boston, with Papi striking out with the bases loaded to end Sunday’s game, then watch the Sox lose Monday to the Blue Jays and the Yankees crush the Orioles, and still walk away thinking that Boston’s lead is “comfortable”?
The article’s author, Ian Browne, must know something I don’t know. He must know something everybody doesn’t know. Because he’s the only one on earth crazy enough to think the Sox have the AL East wrapped up.
There are a lot of ways to describe how the Sox are playing these days. “Dynamic” probably isn’t the most appropriate word.
Tonight’s ESPN headline says the Sox are “Fizzling Down the Stretch.” The Globe goes with “Slumping Sox” and “Gagne Struggles Again.” Boston Dirt Dogs goes with “Eric the Dread”, “Behind the Eight Ball” and “The Incredible Shrinking Lead”.
I’d say that’s a little closer.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:59 am
In a totally unscientific poll on Boston.com, 35.4% percent of Sox fans described their current state of mind as “panic.” (This is the default state of a Sox fan, so this is perhaps not too surprising.) More alarming is the 31.1 percent—myself included—who describe their current state as “crawl on the ledge.” With 19.1% claiming “worry” and another 10% citing “concern,” just 4.3% of fans describe their current state as, “Relax! It’s all good…October is what matters, not September.”
To vote, here’s the link:
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2007/09/panic_time.html
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September 19th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Ortiz didn’t strike out on Sunday. He popped out. That might seem like quibbling but if you’re criticizing someone else’s article, you may as well get the facts right yourself.
The Sox have less to worry about considering that Torre won’t be playing for the division but, rather, resting his players to prep for October. Jeter and his balky knee, Joba, Mo, Giambi and his balky everything. These guys will all be resting to prep for a strong start.
Red Sox fans should be happy as most of them are bigger fans of the burden of being a Red Sox fan than of baseball.
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September 19th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Brian, as long as we’re quibbling, it was not a pop. It was a flare/weak fly to shallow center. A pop goes straight up and straight down. This is actually an important distinction because rather than dominating the Sox, Mariano Rivera was just one gust of wind away from a blown save.
Also, why do you think Manny, Mirabelli, and Youkilis have been taking so long this month to return from various bang-ups? So that we can play Moss, Cash, and Hinske in October?
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September 19th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Oh, I should have added Crisp to the list of day-to-day Sox starters. You can bet you’ll be seeing Ellsbury in October, but probably not starting.
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September 19th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Brian, you’re right. It was a pop up/flare to Jeter. But in the movie script I’m writing for Paramount right now, it’s been rewritten as a strikeout.
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September 19th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Also, Rivera would have struck Papi out, but the Yankees closer didn’t have his best stuff, because he was pitching with a sore thumb, because your Canadian disaster hit him with a wild pitch while warming up!
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September 19th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Sarah: It was scored a P6. Not a Flare6 or a Game-Winning-RBI-Minus-Necessary-Wind-Gust6.
Also, I never said that the Sox weren’t resting their company. This is an important distinction because I never said it. I was just making the point that Torre’s not playing for the division… hopefully.
Coley: Have you casted yet? May I suggest CGI’ing Ortiz?
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September 19th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
I don’t care how they *scored* it, dude. I actually watch the games. I know what I saw. Jeter had to cover a fair bit of ground to reel that one in.
But I’m just a lame Sox fan who secretly likes to lose, not a real baseball savant.
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September 19th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
I watched the game too. I swear. I was like this: “Oh my god. I’m so nervous. He popped it up. Jeter caught it.”
In fact, I watch almost every Yankee game and those “flares” that come off the handle of lefty bats have been Mo’s bread and butter forever. If you want evidence of Mo’s lack of dominance, he loaded the bases. So there you go. He hurt his pinky or whatever.
Listen, I don’t know exactly what we’re arguing here but I know I’m right… dude.
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September 19th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
You said it was a pop. A pop is when the pitcher has fooled the batter and the batter skies it and the catcher or second baseman or whoever comes in and catches it. A pop is evidence of dominance. There is no such thing as a “sac-pop.” This was not a pop.
I had been considering doing some sort of summation post on the Sox-Yanks series, but didn’t get to it. Basically, I can’t decide if those three games were:
I. Evidence that the Red Sox are fully capable of pounding the Yankees in October because:
A. Boston had the lead in every single game.
B. Game 1 was an insane outlier in the realm of Boston’s bullpen performance.
C. Game 2 showed Beckett cowing the Yankees like so many errant schoolchildren.
D. Game 3 really could have gone either way, and it was only due to a failure on the part of Kenmore Square’s air currents that the Yankees held on.
E. Boston was clearly running its B-squad out there.
or:
II. Evidence that the Red Sox realized they were overdue for their annual heartbreak/horror/choke-fest and that the Yankees are, as usual, coming to rain on my parade, shit in my bed, and utterly ruin my ability to appreciate the aesthetics of New England fall foliage because:
A. Boston squandered leads in two games!
B. Boston only has one remaining lights-out starting pitcher, though I still think Curt Schilling would pitch well in October even if he had to tape his head back onto his shoulders after a freak Everquest accident.
C. New York’s lineup is insane.
D. Boston’s bullpen is falling apart at the exact wrong time.
E. Boston isn’t just resting mildly injured players who could totally play if they had to…those players are actually too injured to play.
So. I’m not sure why I wrote all that, but there it is. Basically, I keep swinging back and forth between a faint whiff of hope and the foul bowels of despair.
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September 19th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Only on UmpBump could a David Ortiz popup be interpreted as a could-be-game-winner that failed only through divine intervention but a Derek Jeter rocket to the track in center as the greatest choke performance in the history of athletics.
http://umpbump.com/press/jeter-at-the-bat/
The Red Sox have been playing just barely over .500 for the last quarter of the season. I say panic!
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September 19th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Wait, where in that poem did I suggest that Jeter’s making out in that game was “the greatest choke performance in the history of athletics”?
I didn’t.
I was just noticing that that *particular* situation in that *particular* game was similar to Thayer’s poem.
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September 19th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Brian, as a follow up to your way earlier comment, I note that in BP today, Joe Sheehan argues that Torre isn’t resting his squad enough because he’s been playing for the pennant. (While Terry Francona is “resting players all around the roster, diddling with his lineup, and trying experiments like, ‘let’s see how many batters Eric Gagne can walk in one inning.’”)
I wonder if Torre is doing that Steinbrenner will throw a hissy fit if the Yankees don’t win the division? Or just because—such as with his famous over-reliance on Scott Proctor—he doesn’t actually like to *manage* that much?
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September 20th, 2007 at 2:24 am
Yes, exactly right Sarah. Changing the lineup to any extent greater than substituting Miguel Cairo for a superstar just hurts Joe Torre’s brain too much to even contemplate.
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September 20th, 2007 at 3:50 am
I’m not a huge Torre fan. But outside of the game on 9/13, Joe’s been playing these games sort of brilliantly.
But, Jesus, read the article. He doesn’t argue that at all. He’s responding to some quote about how true Yankee fans need to aim for a pennant victory. He even says that he should wait until there’s a comfortable cushion.
“If form holds through the weekend and the Yankees’ magic number reaches three or so, Torre needs to worry less about seeding and more about making sure his aging team is ready to go on October 2.”
Way to totally misrepresent someone.
Nick: Hyperbole aside. You have to see my point.
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September 20th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Picking up from where I left off in the BP article:
“It would behoove Joe Torre to start doing this as well. The Yankees are up five games in the loss column on the Tigers, with a magic number of seven for the wild card. If form holds through the weekend and the Yankees’ magic number reaches three or so, Torre needs to worry less about seeding and more about making sure his aging team is ready to go on October 2. Alex Rodriguez has missed two games all year, and none since August 8. Robinson Cano hasn’t missed a game since May 6. Jorge Posada has played his usual 130-odd games behind the plate; a couple of extra days off next week couldn’t hurt. I can’t quantify the effects of rest on a player’s performance, but I can say that the cost of doing so—possibly ending up as the wild card versus winning the division—is essentially zero.”
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September 20th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Yea… “it WOULD behoove Joe Torre to start doing this as well.” “If form holds through the weekend.”
He’s saying he should do this down the line. Not that he fucked up because he’s not doing it now. Francona has a cushion. Torre has one now. He’s always rested his lineup down the stretch and there’s no question that he’s going to continue to do so this season.
And if Francona is doing this too and being so careful with his Mannys and Crisps then why was an injured Ortiz out there yesterday? And Papelpon in a loss?
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September 20th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Oh, this is awesome.
Francona on Gagne: “Ten games, he can probably make five appearances if we want. That’s a significant amount. Ten games is a long time. [He could make] probably more appearances than that if you want, because of the days off.”
I can’t wait for him to gain some confidence in Gagne because he dominates some lame duck DRays and Twins and then puts him up in the playoffs expecting the same results.
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September 20th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Papelbon has other plans for the stretch:
["I want to win the division probably more than anybody," said Papelbon, who gave up a grand slam in Wednesday night's loss. "That's part of the goal, to win the division. Right now, we need to put our sights on winning that division and go out there and execute and do it."]
I’m assuming he screamed this entire quote into his glove.
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September 21st, 2007 at 9:01 am
Actually, he whispered it quietly into the air, through pursed lips.
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August 10th, 2008 at 10:36 am
crybaby.
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