So, THATS the Daisuke I want to see from now on. Dice was absolutely nasty. He started out, I thought, a little shaky and then he gave up a solo shot to Jack Cust and, I'll be honestly, I was ready for him to turn into Dice-BB; instead, he was Dice-KKKKKKKKK. Probably dishonored by his walking the ballpark in the Japan Opener, he bounced back beyond any fans reasonable expectations going 6 2/3s, giving up 1 ER while striking out 9 and - and this is important - absolutely no walks.
Meanwhile, the Sox offensive struggles continued. Despite a total of nine hits, they only scored twice. Youk was the star and went 3-for-4 with a freakin' triple. Watching him 'speed' around the bases is comedy gold. Honestly, we should have had more if it wasn't the combination of Hannahan - like 5,000 crazy good plays - and the umps - calling Tek's CLEAR homerun a double. Seriously, teach the umpires basic physics. A ball hitting a regular wall does not bounce UP. A ball hitting a lip marked by a yellow line? Yeah, that bounces up. The rest of the offensive blunders include Manny earning my ire by making outs on the first goddamn pitch THREE times. What the hell, Ramirez? Papi is still 0-for the season and I'm starting to worry.
Papelbon however? Not worried about him. After his frighteningly mortal March appearances, he came out in the eight for the four out save and proclaimed for the world to hear "That was MARCH. This is April, motherfuckers. It's go time!" After getting the last out in the eighth with a ground out, he struck out the side in glorious fashion in the ninth.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
State of the Pants II
Well, the "for reals" opener is upon us, so I just thought I'd talk briefly about this blog and what I hope to do with it. Anytime you see "State of the Pants" in the title of the post, it means that it's a post regarding the status of the blog, updates, news, etc.
First off, a commentator (liza) mentioned that she found my tag "Fuck A Hairy Duck" amusing. I don't want to receive credit for something I didn't come up with at ALL, so I'll cite it real quick. I'm an Aerospace Engineer by degree and as such one of my favorite Michael Crichton books is Airframe (one of those no one's heard of). In it, upon seeing the extent of the damage to airplane in the story, one of the engineers assigned to figure out what went wrong exclaims "Fuck a hairy duck!" I loved the phrase and, for Pants Optional, it will be used to signify an event that causes a great deal of anger or anguish. The opposite end of the spectrum is "Sweet Zombie Jesus" and, yes, that one IS mine.
Second off, I really really hope to have a Gamepost summarizing every game I actually get to watch, done very similar to Keep Your Sox On. I'll do my best to keep to that, and hopefully I'll be occasionally amusing. I may try an occasional live blog, but that'll be rare, if ever, as I tend to split my in-game commentary between Yanksfan Vs Soxfan, Out In Centerfield and Sons of Sam Horn.
Third, I'm going to try to include more statistical analysis in some of my posts as I'm a huge fan. It's gonna take me a while to find the proper balance between my rational sabermetric side and the side of me that wants to throw things when Daisuke gives up a run in the first inning or that freaks out at how awesome Ellsbury is while burying the knowledge that Santana would have been better deep in the back of my mind. Also, I tend to be pessimistic alot, more out of fear than any logic - just take a look at YFvSF's game thread for the first game of the 2007 ALDS.
Anyway, thats all I have to say I think.
Tonight is Opening Day (for reals) and its about god damn time.
First off, a commentator (liza) mentioned that she found my tag "Fuck A Hairy Duck" amusing. I don't want to receive credit for something I didn't come up with at ALL, so I'll cite it real quick. I'm an Aerospace Engineer by degree and as such one of my favorite Michael Crichton books is Airframe (one of those no one's heard of). In it, upon seeing the extent of the damage to airplane in the story, one of the engineers assigned to figure out what went wrong exclaims "Fuck a hairy duck!" I loved the phrase and, for Pants Optional, it will be used to signify an event that causes a great deal of anger or anguish. The opposite end of the spectrum is "Sweet Zombie Jesus" and, yes, that one IS mine.
Second off, I really really hope to have a Gamepost summarizing every game I actually get to watch, done very similar to Keep Your Sox On. I'll do my best to keep to that, and hopefully I'll be occasionally amusing. I may try an occasional live blog, but that'll be rare, if ever, as I tend to split my in-game commentary between Yanksfan Vs Soxfan, Out In Centerfield and Sons of Sam Horn.
Third, I'm going to try to include more statistical analysis in some of my posts as I'm a huge fan. It's gonna take me a while to find the proper balance between my rational sabermetric side and the side of me that wants to throw things when Daisuke gives up a run in the first inning or that freaks out at how awesome Ellsbury is while burying the knowledge that Santana would have been better deep in the back of my mind. Also, I tend to be pessimistic alot, more out of fear than any logic - just take a look at YFvSF's game thread for the first game of the 2007 ALDS.
Anyway, thats all I have to say I think.
Tonight is Opening Day (for reals) and its about god damn time.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Game 2: Let's Never Do That Again
Boston Red Sox - 1; Oakland Athletics - 5
Ok, I'm serious. Baseball at 6am sucks. Especially when you worked until midnight the night before and have to be BACK at work at 10 AM. Trying to squeeze a 3+ hour ball game in between those time frames (especially after an up all night Opening Day-a-thon), is an exercise in masochism. It took THREE Red Bulls to get me through my shortened 8 hour shift and I feel like I'm in a fog. So, Mr Selig, you can take your international goodwill and shove it - no more games in Japan!
As for the last of the Japan Series, well we lost. I know it's only one of, hopefully, 60-70 losses to come, but it still leaves me feeling bitter. I was kinda hoping to hit the ground running this year and, to make it worse, we get to sit with the taste of this loss in our mouth for the next five days, before there's meaningful baseball again. ANOTHER drawback of this crappy schedule. Honestly, I think I would have rather lost Opening Day and won this game.
The Bad: Jon Lester. That pretty much says it all. 4 Earned Runs over 4 innings with a healthy serving of walks and 85 pitches? Not making us feel better about the aborted Santana trade, kid. I KNOW its only one start. I KNOW its early. However, the problems in this game look exactly like the problems Lester has had in the past - only now he's healthy (still good!). I'm hoping that Theo and Farrell (who raved about Lester in the off-season) haven't made a big mistake here and that Lester's ceiling is that of a 4th or 5th starter.
Secondary Bad: The Offense. I really don't want to have to go through this whole men left on base nightmare again. Didn't we have enough of that last year?
The Good: Manny Ramirez. Holy Cow. Remember all that talk of a Monster Year going around in the winter? Well so far, and it is early, Manny is tearing it up. 2-5 last night with 4 RBIs including the game winner, and a solo shot for the only Sox run of the game tonight? Bodes well indeed.
Secondary Good: Ummm... For the second day in a row, Lugo did not suck at the plate? Yeah, I'll take that.
Ok, I'm serious. Baseball at 6am sucks. Especially when you worked until midnight the night before and have to be BACK at work at 10 AM. Trying to squeeze a 3+ hour ball game in between those time frames (especially after an up all night Opening Day-a-thon), is an exercise in masochism. It took THREE Red Bulls to get me through my shortened 8 hour shift and I feel like I'm in a fog. So, Mr Selig, you can take your international goodwill and shove it - no more games in Japan!
As for the last of the Japan Series, well we lost. I know it's only one of, hopefully, 60-70 losses to come, but it still leaves me feeling bitter. I was kinda hoping to hit the ground running this year and, to make it worse, we get to sit with the taste of this loss in our mouth for the next five days, before there's meaningful baseball again. ANOTHER drawback of this crappy schedule. Honestly, I think I would have rather lost Opening Day and won this game.
The Bad: Jon Lester. That pretty much says it all. 4 Earned Runs over 4 innings with a healthy serving of walks and 85 pitches? Not making us feel better about the aborted Santana trade, kid. I KNOW its only one start. I KNOW its early. However, the problems in this game look exactly like the problems Lester has had in the past - only now he's healthy (still good!). I'm hoping that Theo and Farrell (who raved about Lester in the off-season) haven't made a big mistake here and that Lester's ceiling is that of a 4th or 5th starter.
Secondary Bad: The Offense. I really don't want to have to go through this whole men left on base nightmare again. Didn't we have enough of that last year?
The Good: Manny Ramirez. Holy Cow. Remember all that talk of a Monster Year going around in the winter? Well so far, and it is early, Manny is tearing it up. 2-5 last night with 4 RBIs including the game winner, and a solo shot for the only Sox run of the game tonight? Bodes well indeed.
Secondary Good: Ummm... For the second day in a row, Lugo did not suck at the plate? Yeah, I'll take that.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Game 1: Baseball's Back!!
Boston Red Sox - 6; Oakland Athletics - 5
Well, that certainly was an experience. First time I've watched baseball at 6am. I'm going to be trying to write game summaries for every game, at least, that I actually get to watch (I work retail so.. there are times I must work during normal game hours). So what's the story of this game? Well, it certainly wasn't Daisuke. He threw 58 pitches in the first two innings and walked 5. However, he made it through 5 innings only giving up 2 runs by a miracle and even struck out 6. He would have been in line for the win, if it wasn't for Kyle Snyder giving up a two-run jack.
No, the story of the game was the new Manny Ramirez and Brandon Moss. Manny and Moss combined to hit 4-for-10 with all 6 RBIs. Most notable was Moss, a last minute sub for JD Drew (tight back... we know nothing else yet), hitting the game tying home run off closer Huston Street in the top of the 9th after he gave the Sox their first lead back in the 6th. Manny followed this up with a two-run double after David Ortiz was intentionally walk in the top of the tenth.
Papelbon got a VERY shaky save. He give up three hits and walked one, allowing only one run to cross the plate ONLY because of a horrendous baserunning error by Emil Browm who, stroking an RBI double, tried to take third on the throw and was caught in a run down for the second out. Paps was consistently up in the zone, but I'm not too worried. Its far earlier than he should starting so some wrinkles are acceptable.
However, I must dish out two Epic Fails from this game.
The first goes to Comcast (and other service providers) for repeated blackouts and losses of signal for ESPN2 during the game. I personally missed about 2-3 innings, some people missed the entire game. What the hell?
The second goes the ESPN2's broadcast team. Steve Phillips is an idiot, we all know this. However, far more egregious was John Thorne who resorted to the ridiculously cliche homerun call of "Sayonara!" I mean.. really? You're in Japan, so you go with that? That's so easy that its A) not funny at all and B) just plain stupid.
Well, I'm going to go get some sleep. As of right now, baseball is back and I couldn't be happier.
Well, that certainly was an experience. First time I've watched baseball at 6am. I'm going to be trying to write game summaries for every game, at least, that I actually get to watch (I work retail so.. there are times I must work during normal game hours). So what's the story of this game? Well, it certainly wasn't Daisuke. He threw 58 pitches in the first two innings and walked 5. However, he made it through 5 innings only giving up 2 runs by a miracle and even struck out 6. He would have been in line for the win, if it wasn't for Kyle Snyder giving up a two-run jack.
No, the story of the game was the new Manny Ramirez and Brandon Moss. Manny and Moss combined to hit 4-for-10 with all 6 RBIs. Most notable was Moss, a last minute sub for JD Drew (tight back... we know nothing else yet), hitting the game tying home run off closer Huston Street in the top of the 9th after he gave the Sox their first lead back in the 6th. Manny followed this up with a two-run double after David Ortiz was intentionally walk in the top of the tenth.
Papelbon got a VERY shaky save. He give up three hits and walked one, allowing only one run to cross the plate ONLY because of a horrendous baserunning error by Emil Browm who, stroking an RBI double, tried to take third on the throw and was caught in a run down for the second out. Paps was consistently up in the zone, but I'm not too worried. Its far earlier than he should starting so some wrinkles are acceptable.
However, I must dish out two Epic Fails from this game.
The first goes to Comcast (and other service providers) for repeated blackouts and losses of signal for ESPN2 during the game. I personally missed about 2-3 innings, some people missed the entire game. What the hell?
The second goes the ESPN2's broadcast team. Steve Phillips is an idiot, we all know this. However, far more egregious was John Thorne who resorted to the ridiculously cliche homerun call of "Sayonara!" I mean.. really? You're in Japan, so you go with that? That's so easy that its A) not funny at all and B) just plain stupid.
Well, I'm going to go get some sleep. As of right now, baseball is back and I couldn't be happier.
Opening Day
Today, I once again pledge to the Boston Red Sox my heart, my soul, my time, my tears, my voice, my allegiance.
Now....
LET'S PLAY SOME FREAKIN BALL!!!
Now....
LET'S PLAY SOME FREAKIN BALL!!!
Itinerary
Inspired by Paul over at Yanksfan vs Soxfan (where I'll be blogging the live part of Opening Day), I've decided to post what MY day will be like thanks to the insanity of Opening Day in Japan.
12:10 am - Now. Just got home from work. Make this post.
12:25 am - Climb into bed. Pretend to be able to sleep.
4:30 am - Wake up (get up).
4:35 am - Take a nice hot shower.
5:00 am - Get dressed. Sox cap and Papelbon # t-shirt.
5:15 am - Drive to pick up delicious hot latte and breakfast sammich.
6:05 am - Once again, give my life wholy over the Boston Red Sox in return for euphoric highs, soul-crushing lows, and hopefully baseball in October.
9:30 am (approx) - Go to bed.
1:30 pm - Wake up and get ready to go to work.
2:30 pm - Head to work. Repeat (?).
12:10 am - Now. Just got home from work. Make this post.
12:25 am - Climb into bed. Pretend to be able to sleep.
4:30 am - Wake up (get up).
4:35 am - Take a nice hot shower.
5:00 am - Get dressed. Sox cap and Papelbon # t-shirt.
5:15 am - Drive to pick up delicious hot latte and breakfast sammich.
6:05 am - Once again, give my life wholy over the Boston Red Sox in return for euphoric highs, soul-crushing lows, and hopefully baseball in October.
9:30 am (approx) - Go to bed.
1:30 pm - Wake up and get ready to go to work.
2:30 pm - Head to work. Repeat (?).
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