Instant

We have avoided arbitration yet again by locking down one-year deals with Carp, Tazawa, and Jonathan Herrera.

The big baseball news lately is the expansion of instant replay.  Obviously, this has been a hot issue since it became an issue.  Both sides of the debate have been pretty vocal in presenting their opinions, but I think it’s interesting and significant that the instant replay expansion was approved unanimously at the Owners Meeting, after which the Players Association and Umpires Association gave the go-ahead.

Starting this season, in addition to the review of close-call home runs, managers will have one challenge per game.   The manager will be able to communicate with someone monitoring video being the scenes so he can make a decision about whether or not to use a challenge.  As an extension of that, camera angles in all the parks now have to be standardized.

The has to verbalize his challenge to the umpire in a very detailed manner, so the umpire knows which parts of the play are being disputed, and in a timely manner, so the umpire doesn’t call for disciplinary action.  If it’s denied, he’s used it up.  If it’s approved, it’s replaced by another new challenge, but he can’t make more than two challenges.  If he doesn’t use it before the seventh inning, it expires, and after the seventh inning, the umpire can elect to institute a review.  All reviews will be conducted at the Majors media headquarters in New York, where four-umpire crews will be on hand, swapped out by rotation.  Field umps would communicate with them via a headset behind home plate, and their decision would be final.

And, last but not least, now replays can be displayed on jumbotrons inside the park.

So most plays will now be potentially subject to review.  As we all know, sometimes the lack of instant replay has burned us bad, and sometimes it’s helped us out.  But that’s true for any team because it’s been the nature of the game; everything tends to balance in the end.  Now, we’ll have to see whether instant replay balances things from the get-go.  It’s just going to be a huge change.  I mean, this is historic.  Baseball has stayed the same for most of its existence when it comes to instant replay, in part because the technology didn’t exist in the early and middle years.  Everything evolves, but we’re just going to wait and see what happens.

In other news, the Bruins lost to the Ducks, 2-5, and Kings, 2-4, but won a close one against the Sharks, one-zip, before losing to the Leafs, 4-3, and besting the Stars, 4-2.  And the Pats, of course, bested the Colts by a healthy score of 43-22.  Onward to Colorado!

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Recovery

Victorino’s thumb surgery was successful, and he should be good to go for Spring Training.  Andrew Miller’s looking forward to starting the season without a hitch as well.  We traded Franklin Morales and farm pitcher Chris Martin to the Rockies for infielder Jonathan Herrera.  And we signed Shunsuke Watanabe, a veteran submariner from Japan.

In other news, the B’s shut out the Flames and lost to the Sabres this week.

I’ll be taking a break of about two weeks.  I think we’re all looking forward to seeing the team take shape.

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Pure Bad Luck

Last night was the first time we played a game at Coors Field since October 28, 2007.  We all know what happened on the night of October 28, 2007: we won the World Series and became the team of the decade.  We witnessed many an Irish jig and spilled many a bottle of champagne.

Last night wasn’t exactly what I would call a suitable follow-up to that auspicious moment in Red Sox history.  Because last night two things beat us, neither of which were the Rockies.  We literally got beat first by the National League itself and then by a random rock or something that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We loaded the bases in the seventh.  We were down by a run with two men out.  And it was Lester’s turn to bat.  Naturally, because we were losing a close one, Tito had to lift him, even though he’d thrown only ninety pitches and was far from running on empty.  Papi stepped up to pinch-hit, so the Rockies turned to a lefty reliever.  On a 2-1 count, Papi hit a ground ball directly to Herrera at second, and that was the end of that.

That was one of a few opportunities of which we conspicuously did not avail ourselves.  For example, with only two outs in the game, we had the bases loaded with V-Mart at the plate with a 3-0 count.  He ended up grounding out on a full count fastball.

He certainly did his part to keep us in it.  It was a pitcher’s duel, and he kept pace with Chacin all the way through.  He tossed six frames of one-run ball.  He gave up six hits, so an average of one hit per inning, all singles, only one hard-hit.  He struck out six.  He located on both sides of the plate but concentrated on the left; he threw all of two balls to the right of the strike zone.  His cut fastball was excellent, as were his changeup and sinker.  He mixed them really well and kept the batters guessing; six of his fifty-nine strikes were swinging.  He threw twenty-one pitches in the fifth during the Rockies’ only substantial rally of the night, which included Lester’s only walk and the first run of the game.  But through between thirteen and fifteen pitches in four others, needing a game low of nine to finish off the fourth.  He had movement.  He had a tight release point.  But he had to take the loss for the first time since April because of the National League’s rules, and I couldn’t help recalling that the opposite was the case on the night of October 28, 2007.

Ramirez got his job done, but Okajima didn’t help things when he allowed what turned out to be the winning run.  Although that wasn’t completely his fault, either.  You can blame that run on Coors Field itself.  With one out and two on, Spilborghs hit into what appeared to be an excellent double play.  Instead the ball careened off of something on the ground and escaped Scutaro.  Delcarmen handled the last out.  The final score was 2-1.

We scored our one and only run in the ninth inning.  Beltre opened the frame with a double, our only extra-base hit of the night, and scored on Cameron’s single.  He finished the night two for three, our lineup’s only multi-hit performance.  Tito then put Lowell in as a pinch-hitter.  He landed one in the hole, but Barmes had, by Lowell’s own admission, ample time to throw him out at first because he’s so slow.

So between the National League and one particular rock or pebble or uneven dirt patch or whatever it was that caused that odd bounce, we lost.  It was absolutely frustrating, infuriating, and unbelievable.  It was painful to watch.  Because we would’ve had it in the bag! Our bats were more or less silent, but we pitched well and perhaps would’ve found a way to manufacture some runs.  Maybe we would’ve gone into extras, when anything can happen.  So as losses go, that was a tough one – especially considering that we’re now one and a half games back, although we are fortunate that Tampa Bay also lost – and an even tougher way to start off a series.  Pure bad luck.  But we’re going to need to gear up tonight if we want to go for the series win because the Rockies are starting Ubaldo Jimenez, whose 1.15 ERA is currently the best in the Majors.  He’ll take on Lackey.  All we need to do is practice patience at the plate; that’s a hallmark of our game, and it’ll help us get a handle on Jimenez early while tiring him out.  Then, after we’ve seen him toss to a few batters and know more or less what to expect, we need to be aggressive and get on him.  We don’t want a repeat of the first-pitch-strike-induced destruction we experienced, ironically at the hands of Lackey, last October.  Meanwhile, Lackey will need to be as efficient and powerful as possible.  If he uses his speed and pounds the zone, he’ll get some early outs and stay in longer.  So we’ll see what happens.

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