We’re coming back, that’s for sure. We beat the Yankees, 9-2 last night. Actually, with a final score like that, “beat” isn’t the write word. More like “shredded,” or “trounced,” or the ever-popular “completely drowned in quality lefty pitching and offensive production.”
The last time Lester pitched against New York, he went the distance for a nine-inning shutout in the Bronx, and he almost did the same thing yesterday. The two runs the Yankees scored came in the fifth inning by Jeter and Abreu and were pretty cheap. In fact, the second run had nothing to do with New York. Lester issued a walk with the bases loaded. All told, he pitched seven frames and allowed nine hits. That walk was his only walk, and he struck out eight. He was the first lefty to start against the Yankees in Fenway since David Wells did it in 2005. Delcarmen and Timlin closed it out. So Lester improves to 9-3 with an ERA of 3.17.
As for the offense, we’ve got plenty to talk about there. I’ll start off by saying that David Ortiz, Big Papi, the game’s best designated hitter, recorded his first Major League homer since coming off the DL. It was a two-run shot that landed a couple rows behind the right field wall. Bobby Abreu had no chance. Ortiz later collected another RBI, Manny and Lowell each collected two, and Tek and Dusty each collected one. Three of our starters went two for four last night. Manny had a great night, going three for five, as did a surprisingly and suddenly hot Jacoby Ellsbury, who went three for four. I hope it sticks. We need his bat in there. But Jacoby didn’t steal any bases. It was Drew with the theft, his third of the year.
I don’t usually do this, but I’d like to dedicate some space to the performance, or lack thereof, of Sidney Ponson. He allowed seven runs on ten hits over four innings pitched, walking one and striking out one. This is why the Yankees’ suddenly good performance won’t last. You can go on as many winning streaks as you want, but unless you can find a consistent rhythm for getting men on base and then bringing them home while also having someone on the mound with whom you can trust a lead, you won’t get anywhere. Last season, the Yankees got hot after the All-Star break as well. They had their fair share of winning streaks and hot hitters. But in the end it came to naught in large part because the ability to sustain that level of play wasn’t completely there.
Basically, yesterday’s game was a prime example of what the Red Sox need to do to win games in a three-way race for first. They need to throw well while also getting runs together, and they need the bullpen to hold their leads. And look what happens when they do. The team win big, and with some conveniently timed losses by the Rays, the Sox’ll be able to leave everyone in the dust.
In other news, Manny says he’ll approve any trade the Red Sox front office wants to make, and he’s implied that he’s done with Boston at the end of this season. Let’s face facts here. We’re not trading him. There isn’t enough time to trade him, and find a replacement, and have that replacement get used to the ballpark and the city, and use that replacement effectively to get us a World Series title. Nobody will want to pay him $100 million, and nobody can pay him $100 million, so I don’t know where he thinks he’s going to go at the end of the season. I don’t think he realizes how good he’s got it. Sure, he might be able to scrape together more money from a different team, but I don’t know of any team that’ll work as hard as the Red Sox do at defending his antics. In a different clubhouse, a move like the one he pulled on Friday and he’d be out of there before he can say “I’m tired of them, they’re tired of me.”
Dick Williams, manager of the Impossible Dream team, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, as was Larry Whiteside, journalist with The Boston Globe for thirty-one years, who posthumously received the Spink Award for 2008.
Finally, I’d like to congratulate fellow Red Sox blogger Matt Levine, author of Dirty Watah, on having a part of one of his posts broadcast during the game yesterday on ESPN. Keep up the good work!
