Humble Origins

We are recently masters of the difficult win.  We come from behind, we come back at the last minute, we barely eke it out.  But I’m proud of our slow-but-steady-and-successful showing of late; it’s the kind of confidence-building that we need to get ourselves back on track.  So this is a good sign; eventually we’ll be back to winning freely and easily.

Nava singled in the first and scored on a single by Papi.  We walked in each of the following three innings; in the fourth, the walk came after a single, but we didn’t capitalize on that opportunity.

Buchholz made a mistake in the third.  I suppose that he made two mistakes.  He gave up a double to lead off the inning and, one out later, he threw a bad curveball that missed.  How often this year have you seen Buchholz fire off a bad curveball and miss his spot? It’s a rare sight indeed.  I almost couldn’t believe it when I saw it.  But it was hit for a two-run home run.  He then issued two consecutive walks in the fourth but didn’t give up any runs; still, the sight of him issuing any walks, much less two in a row, was quite foreign.

As if that weren’t enough, he gave up two singles and a walk in the fifth, loading the bases with one out.  He pitched himself out of it thanks to a strikeout and a flyout.  But I can’t remember the last time he was in a bases-loaded situation.

Fortunately, it was smooth sailing after that, and Buchholz was back to his old self.  Also fortunately, we were able to tie the game at two in the seventh; Gomes walked, and when Ellsbury singled, it was deflected, and Gomes scored.

Drew doubled and Gomes walked in the eighth, but we didn’t score; Miller came in and held down the fort.  We went down in order in the ninth; Miller and Wilson combined to preserve the tie.

And then something wonderful happened.  For the third time in as many games, we were patient and resilient, and we came from behind.  And it was sweet.  We didn’t play well at all the last time we faced the Twins, but revenge is a dish best served cold, even in the month of May.  Pedroia singled, Papi walked, and Ciriaco came in to pinch-run for him.  Both runners advanced on Middlebrooks’s sac fly, and Drew loaded the bases thanks to an intentional walk.

The stage was set for another grand slam, or even another bases-clearing double.  But it seems like each come-from-behind win is more humble than the last.  Gomes was at the plate; he took a slider in the dirt and fouled off a fastball.  Then he got another slider, and he lofted it to center field.  It was obviously going to be an out.  But it was hit deep enough that Pedroia was able to come home.  One run on a sac fly in the tenth inning decided the game.

Uehara had a one-two-three tenth, and the final score was 3-2.  Buchholz’s final line featured seven innings, two runs on four hits, three walks, and nine K’s.  We totaled ten hits and walked a whopping seven times.  But Drew’s double was our only extra-base hit, and we went two for ten with runners in scoring position and left eleven on base.  In contrast, Minnesota was held to only four hits.  Throughout the game, we had one on base here, one or two on base there.  We just failed to close the deal and score; had we made good on all of our opportunities, we would have won the game long before the ninth inning rolled around.  Either way, though, we won; at least we’re getting on base again.

Boston Globe Staff

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In Confidence

We played a great game on Wednesday.  It was a slugfest, no doubt about it.  It felt really good to swing and win so easily, and it was a nice reminder of how potent we are when we’re on our game.  Our slump has been awful, and slumps that bad can potentially end overnight, but more often than not, they take a little bit of time to get a groove going.  They certainly take a lot of nailbiters.  We were losing for most of last night’s contest.  Most of the game felt like many of our recent ones.  But we waited it out, and it paid off.  Basically, it’s all an issue of confidence.

We went down in order in the first, second, and third.  Victorino doubled and scored on a single by Papi in the fourth.  Middlebrooks walked in the fifth, Pedroia singled in the sixth, and Napoli walked to lead off the seventh. Before the first inning was even over, I could tell that it was going to be a long night for Doubront.  When the game was over and the final line was in, he’d walked six.  Six.  That’s a season high, but forget about that.  No pitcher should ever walk that many batters in a single game.  It’s like giving out free hits.

Anyway, Doubront allowed a single and two walks, loading the bases with two out.  Fortunately, he managed to end the inning with a strikeout.  But the rest of his outing was a real grind.  He threw a bad fastball in the second that was hit for a solo shot in the second.  He gave up a walk and a single in the third but again escaped the jam unscathed.  He had a one-two-three fourth, his best inning of the night, but walked two in the fifth, again escaping.  He walked the first batter he faced in the sixth on four pitches and was then replaced by Mortensen.

Mortensen induced a force out and issued two walks that loaded the bases.  Between the walks, Salty passed a ball.  And when Mortensen gave up a single, the runner who reached on the force out, scored.  He was lucky that he gave up just the one run.  Miller came on after that and gave up a single that scored another run.  So two runs scored in the inning; Doubront was credited with the first, and Mortensen was credited with the second.

Breslow came on for the seventh and made it look easy.  Both teams went down in order in the eighth.

And then there was one.  Inning, that is.  Pedroia and Papi walked back-to-back to lead off the ninth.  Drew struck out, and we were thinking that maybe we really were the same team we were before Wednesday’s game when we were losing left and right.  But then Nava walked to load the bases, and Middlebrooks did something awesome.  He was down 0-2 but the pitcher just couldn’t close the deal.  He took a one-hundred mile-per-hour fastball for a ball and then got a changeup.  He stayed patient and read it like a book.

He didn’t hit a grand slam.  He doubled to left, but it was enough.  It cleared the bases.  It was one swing.  It wasn’t a home run.  But it put us on top.  And then Salty walked and Ellsbury grounded out to end the inning.

Breslow gave up two singles in the bottom of the ninth, but he bounced back, knuckled down, and prevented further damage.

In the end, the night was ours.  4-3.  We had been down to our final strike.  Look who just won two in a row.

In other news, the Bruins started out on the right foot against the Rangers, picking up the first game, 3-2, in sudden death.

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Homer Unhappy

We really are in the middle of quite the slump.  This team looks completely different from the one that had the best record in the Majors.  Our record is now 22-16; if we continue at our current rate, we’ll have to start winning just to stay at .500, and we all remember what that feels like.  We got swept by the Rangers; at least, at the time, we felt like the Rangers were a good match.  But Minnesota’s pitching staff has one of the lowest strikeout counts in the Majors, and Toronto’s pitchers are mediocre at best and their hitters swing at almost anything.  We are losing games we should not be losing.  Not that there’s ever a game that we should lose, but still.  Speaking of the Jays specifically, it would have been very nice to escape the series without allowing them to hit a slew of home runs.  Sure, we hadn’t been able to win by doing that, but at least we, for the most part, eliminated their chief mode of attack.

Dempster was not so fortunate.  He didn’t keep the ball down.  His heat is more lukewarm than anything else, so you can see why location would have been the key to a successful performance on his part.  He lasted only five innings and gave up six runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out three.  And he allowed three home runs.

It started in the second.  He gave up a single, a double, and a three-run home run with two out.  He gave up a solo shot to lead off the third, and he issued a walk and then allowed a two-run home run in the fourth.  It would have been worse had Victorino gotten hurt trying to haul the ball in for an out.  He tried to catch it right at the bullpen fence but fell flat-out; he left the game in the seventh with some stiffness.  Dempster gave up another solo shot in the fifth.  On a splitter.  If Dempster is anything, he’s a splitter pitcher, so the fact that he missed his spot with a splitter says something.  Dempster, overall, has been pitching very well, at least for him.  But, yes, all of his runs scored via the long ball, which is exactly how the Jays like it.

Miller came on for the sixth and gave up a solo shot on his third pitch.  After recording the inning’s first out, he gave up a single, issued a walk, and was replaced by Mortensen.  Mortensen gave up a successful sac fly followed by a two-run home run.  He had a one-two-three seventh, and Breslow had a one-two-three eighth, making him our only pitcher to not allow any runs in the game.  Jose De La Torre came in for the ninth and gave up a double, a walk, an RBI single, and an RBI double play.

All in all, that’s twelve runs.  By the time we got on the board in the fourth, we were already down by five.  Napoli answered the Jays’ power with his own, smashing a solo shot on the second pitch of his leadoff at-bat in the fourth.  And he hit it to one of the deepest parts of the park.  It was a nice piece of hitting; if only such a phenomenon were more common for us.

We didn’t score again until the sixth, when Pedroia singled and scored on a sac fly by Nava.  We went down in order in the seventh, and then Ciriaco hit a home run.  It was also a solo shot, and he also led off an inning.  It was the second pitch of his at-bat, also a fastball.  But he hit his beyond the Monster.  Either way, it was still also a nice piece of hitting that we also could have used more of.

Then Pedroia flied out, and Napoli singled, Nava walked, and Gomes got hit.  Just like that, the bases were loaded.  It was Salty’s turn to bat, but a force out was all he could muster; Napoli scored our last run of the game.  Napoli went three for four; the only other person to have a multi-hit game was Pedroia, who went two for five.  Napoli alone scored half of our runs.

So the Jays finally got what they wanted: a win via the long ball.  Dempster, a single pitcher, accounted for half the runs they scored, while the relief corps divided the other half among themselves.  The final score was 12-4; we scored less than half the number of runs that Toronto scored.  We left eight on base and were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position, so our dismal streak of being completely ineffective in situations when we need effectiveness most continues.  Dempster took the loss, but it was a team effort.

In other news, the Bruins got shut out by the Leafs, two-zip.  So it all comes down to tonight.

Boston Globe Staff

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Almost

You know, Lester pitches all the time.  And I watch him pitch, and I know that he’s a human being.  But it’s kind of hard to reconcile that fact with what you see him do.  He’s a human being, but he pitches like he’s superhuman.  Like pitching is the easiest thing in the world.  Like it’s no big deal to be truly amazing at throwing one of the best cut fastballs in all of baseball.

Yesterday, we almost witnessed something spectacular.  We almost couldn’t believe our eyes even though we knew that we were watching every second of it.  We almost stared incredulously as Jon Lester tossed the second no-hitter of his career.

But forget about the no-hitter.  What Jon Lester did yesterday almost left that in the dust.  We almost saw Jon Lester pitch a perfect game.

Maicer Izturis doubled in the sixth.  There were two outs, and it was the first pitch of the at-bat: an eighty-seven mile-per-hour changeup.  The ball ended up in left field, and Lester’s no-hitter evaporated just like that.  It would have been even more painful had it come in the ninth, and there are pitchers who could tell you what that’s like.  That would have been completely devastating.  But this wasn’t exactly a walk in the park either.  It was awful.  It was the only blemish on Lester’s line for the entirety of the game.  That was the one thing standing between Lester and a perfect game.  At least, had it been a walk, he would still have been able to pick up a no-no.  But it was a hit, and both bids were crushed instantly.

Thank about that for a minute, though.  Lester faced twenty-eight batters during the game.  That’s it.  Twenty-eight batters.  That means that he didn’t give up a hit or issue a walk before that double, and he didn’t give up a hit or issue a walk after it.  It’s not uncommon for pitchers who’ve just had their no-hitter bids broken to implode.  But Lester didn’t do that.  It was like nothing happened.  It didn’t affect him at all.  To prove it, he retired the next ten batters he faced, just like he retired his first seventeen.

I’m going to take this inning by inning because I want very much to relive the moments.  Needless to say, the sixth inning was the only inning in which Lester faced more than three batters.  In the first, Lester induced two flyouts and a groundout.  In the second, he induced two groundouts and a swinging strikeout.  In the third, he induced a lineout, a swinging strikeout, and a groundout.  In the fourth, he induced two groundouts and a flyout.  In the fifth, he induced two groundouts and a popout.  In the sixth, aside from the double, he induced a lineout, a flyout, and a swinging strikeout.  In the seventh, he induced two groundouts and a popout.  In the eighth, he induced a flyout, a groundout, and a lineout.  In the ninth, he issued two called strikeouts and a groundout.  Sensing a pattern?  The Jays have homered a lot this year, but Lester never let the ball get off the ground.

He threw six pitches in the first, thirteen in the second, twelve each in the third and fourth, fifteen in the fifth, twenty in the sixth, fourteen in the seventh, seven in the eighth, and nineteen in the ninth.  To close the deal on his strikeouts, he used changeups, sinkers, and mostly, of course, cut fastballs.  His cut fastball was absolutely lethal yesterday.  It was the epitome of everything a cut fastball should be, and Lester was the epitome of everything a pitcher should be.  He put the exact amount of movement on the ball, his release point was consistent, and his command, efficiency, and control were unparalleled.

I suppose that the seventh inning is really when it starts to occur to everyone that a no-hitter may be in progress.  If the hit came in the sixth inning and if there were more afterwards, then it wouldn’t seem like such a big deal; no-hitting the Jays through six would have just been Lester being Lester, an impressive feat for any other pitcher but business as usual for him.  The fact that Lester didn’t let the hit get to him at all, in any way whatsoever, is part of why Lester’s start yesterday was so absolutely amazing.

Obviously, we won; it’s difficult not to win when your pitcher shuts out the opposing team for a full nine innings.  We got on the board until the second, when Nava walked and scored when Middlebrooks reached on a force attempt.  We turned the order over in the seventh; Ellsbury, Victorino, and Pedroia hit back-to-back-to-back singles to lead it off, scoring one.  Two strikeouts later, Nava and Salty hit back-to-back doubles, scoring three.

And that was all we needed.  It was a clean, crisp, five-zip win.  I will say this about the offense.  We had a runner on base in every single inning but clearly didn’t score during all of them and certainly didn’t take advantage of a prime opportunity to really mount a lopsided outcome.  Instead, we left fourteen men on base, and we went 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position before Pedroia singled in the seventh.

But this is Lester’s moment now.  He threw 118 pitches in the whole game, a season high and a much-needed effort to give the bullpen the day off.  I am so crushingly disappointed that Lester didn’t get the perfect game.  So epically crushingly disappointed.  But it would be a disservice to what Lester did achieve to continue bemoaning that fact.  At the end of the day, it was a clean, crisp, five-zip win, and Lester mowed them down like grass.

In other news, the Bruins dropped one to the Leafs, 2-1.

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More Error

Wow.  I was hoping, at the very least, for a series split.  We got even less than that.  Even Lackey’s performance wasn’t that much of a silver lining.

Lackey had a one-two-three first and second.  He gave up a single in the third and fourth.  He gave up a triple followed by an RBI double.  Obviously, through five, Lackey had himself a pretty smooth sail.  The sixth was when he ran into some trouple.  He gave up a single, recorded the first out with a flyout, and issued a walk.  Then he committed a throwing error that scored one run, gave up a successful sac fly that scored another, and then gave up a two-run home run that scored two more.

He settled back down after that.  He had a one-two-three seventh.  In total, Lackey pitched seven innings.  He walked one, struck out eight, and gave up six hits and five runs, but only one of those was earned.  Except that Lackey was the one who made the error.  So, if you think about it, the runs may as well have been earned.  Run-wise, the start wasn’t great.  Everything-else-wise, the start was pretty great.

Uehara pitched a truly beautiful eighth.  Breslow would have pitched a truly beautiful ninth if Middlebrooks hadn’t spoiled the one-two-three progression by allowing a runner to reach on an error.

Victorino singled in the first.  Middlebrooks doubled in the second.  Finally, it bore fruit; Victorino double and scored on a single by Pedroia.  Nava singled in the fourth, moved to second on a grounder by Middlebrooks, and scored on a single by Drew.  Pedroia singled in the fifth.  Fortunately, we matched the Twins’ sixth-inning rally with one of our own; unfortunately, it wasn’t as significant.  Napoli doubled to lead it off and scored on a single by Nava.

Pedroia walked in the seventh.  Nava walked and Middlebrooks reached on a fielding error in the eighth.  Ellsbury walked in the ninth.

We lost, 5-3.  We lost the game, and we lost the series.  It’s like we were an entirely different team out there.

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