Red Sox

Teddy Kokoros sums up last night's Sox game:

... Some random back up catcher from the Mets takes your all-star closer deep to win the game. You can't dwell on it too much and there is nothing to analyze. All you can hope is that you don't miss the playoffs by one game and then look back on the season and think what if that Santos guy did not happen to run into a Papelbon fastball? ...

Red balances good and bad:

... One pitch changed everything, although a timely hit -- Ortiz, Bay, Drew and Lowell were a combined 0-for-15 -- might have given us a little more padding. Either way, it was a taut, exciting game on a gorgeous night at Fenway. Who am I to ask for anything more?

Yes, Ortiz finally hit one out!

Photo from Fenway: Fans going nuts.

After watching last night's 2-1 win, Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom wrote and sang an ode to Wake:

Dylan has written all about Catfish
I may never write like Bobby, WAKE like Pedro won't pitch
But true Red Sox fans will always know what they wish
To have nine players just like Timmy Wakefield
Nine players just like Timmy Wakefield
Give me nine players just like Timmy Wakefield

Via Surviving Grady.

The Sox Sistahs are trying to organize a campaign to send David Ortiz postcards of support:

Get or make 10 postcards and write encouraging messages. Mail them ASAP but not after Wednesday, May 20, because they hit the road again the following Monday.

David Ortiz
c/o Boston Red Sox
4 Yawkey Way
Boston, MA 02215

The point behind this is to show Papi that we support him and want him to do well - in spite of the negativity that might show itself through the media or jerks at the park.

Too depressing to repeat the day's scores, but at least the Celtics have one more chance and the Sox still have the whole rest of the season.

OK, so Wakefield had, you know, one of those nights, but the three of you (and, um, me) who stayed up to see Daniel Bard pitch got to see a guy who didn't even look like he was putting any real effort into throwing 97-mph pitches. And can you imagine the rich cheesey goodness if Eckersley had been in the booth? As Soxaholix put it:

... Bahd brings so much cheese that on days he pitches they need to post signs around the pahk warning the lactose intolerant to entah at their own risk. ...

UPI tells us something we didn't know about Boston's 4-3 win over the Rays on Sunday:

Jonathan Papelbon closed out the game by striking out three consecutive batters in the ninth after the first two hitters had reached base safely. Papelbon earned his eighth save while Pedro Martinez (3-0) got the win in relief in the rubber match of the three-game series.

Via Red Sock, who has a screen capture in case UPI finally realizes what year this is, although that might be doubtful given that the story's been up for more than a day now.

Dan Tobin analyzes the Red Sox, concludes that while they are not the whitest team in baseball or even the American League East, they are trending away from minority players:

... The days of deciding not to sign Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson for racial reasons are behind us, but the franchise that was the last team in baseball to field an African-American player now fields zero African-American players. A city with a troubled racial past, from Charlestown busing of the '70s the Celtics of the '80s, now fields a whiter than average baseball team. It's not panic time, but it’s still slightly troubling. ...

Massarotti once again tears into Boston fans, this time for allegedly ignoring the fact that the Sox were cheaters. Bruce Allen once again tears into the sportswriter, asking if the fans ignored cheating by the Sox, what of alleged professionals like Massarotti who never raised the issue?

... Massarotti was on the Red Sox beat during the height of the steroid era. All this was supposedly happening right under his nose. We never heard him say a word about it.

But it is the fans who are blind. ...

How to use them safely, Merloni says.

Celtics: 95-94.
Bruins: 4-0.
Red Sox: 4-3.

During yesterday's painful Sox loss, Tim McCarver, when he wasn't busy mispronouncing Massachusetts place names and just being Tim McCarver, kept blathering on and on about how Sox fans felt about stuff, as if he actually talks to Sox fans.

Today, Dan Shaughnessy does the same shtick, writing that:

Red Sox Nation is beaming over the news of Manny getting slapped for 50 games for using a banned substance.

Really, Dan? Yes, many people are relieved Manny's no longer on the Sox, but beaming? Is there anybody out there actually happy that Ramirez is now an all-but-convicted steroid user?

Aside from Shank, that is, who once again has somebody to heap hate on now that Curt Schilling is retired?

Cyn says she is fed up with the Lugo haters:

... Idiots. That what you all are, those of you who booed Julio Lugo yesterday. Funny, I didn't hear any boos for the pitcher who gave up 10 hits in just over four innings. The guy who gave up 8 runs - all of them EARNED - in a game the Sox lost by nine runs. A guy who many had pegged to be this year's Cy Young winner who couldn't make it out of the fifth inning. Where were Jon Lester's boos? ...

Up in a helicopter, Ryan captured the 7 cut into the grass at Fenway in honor of Dom DiMaggio.

See more copter pix from the Boston Photo Mob's helicopter ride.

Copyright Ryan.

Chad Finn explains why, even if Manny were on the juice in 2004 and 2007 - and there's no evidence yet he was - the Sox victories those years were no worse than any other team's titles over the previous ten years (especially the 1999 and 2000 Yankees).

Schilling says stop worshiping ball players, just accept the fact that tons of players (but not him, he hastens to add) juiced up, and don't you dare suggest 2004 is now "tainted:"

... Relish in the Halladays, Rolens, Sabathias, Lowells, Counsells, Variteks, Garnetts, Jameses, Bruschis, Vrabels, the Jason Bays of the world. Relish in men of supreme character and tireless work ethic who respect the game and their teammates and suit up every day to leave it all on the field. If 100 more names come out I can still give you my word there are a lot more great men and phenomenal people in the game than not ...

Then go home and raise your own damn kids with your own set of values, integrity and morals. Be accountable to them and responsible for them and stop blaming video games or the 25-year-old kid from the Dominican who can hit a baseball 455 feet but you don't know and never will, for the "problems of today's youth". It starts and ends under your own roof. Your kids idolize the people you allow them to, and believe things you don't refute or discuss, and that's no one's fault but your own.
...

Meanwhile, Comcast SportsNet interviews Jonathan Papelbon about Mannygate.

... I don't know who that guy is. He quit on me, he quit on our team ...

This is the deal, regardless of what you take and regardless what you put in your body, every year at Spring Training they give us a long list in Spanish and in English of what you can do and what you can't do. There are no excuses.

The Globe reports.

Cameron Martin tells the Sports Guy what he can do with his maudlin back-from-the-future piece about how he has to explain to his kid that everybody on the 2004 Sox juiced up:

Grow a pair, Greenwich boy, and stop acting like a dumb, naive homer.

Dan Kennedy, meanwhile, tries to pinpoint exactly when Manny started shooting steroids taking fertility treatments. He narrows it down to the end of the 2007 season, not sure of the month and day yet.

Holds the record for longest Sox hitting streak.

NESN says he'll have a seat in the announcers' booth when he returns:

"I hope that disclosing my bout with cancer will reinforce the dangers of smoking to every member of Red Sox Nation, especially children," said Remy, the president of Red Sox Nation.

Remy posts some more details:

... Unfortunately, following the surgery, I developed a bad infection further compounded by a case of pneumonia. It was the pneumonia and the infection that set me back. This all happened just as I was leaving for spring training. ...

Not very long:

... It's nice to be 5-0 against the Yankees. Yanks fans will make excuses, like A-Rod being out. And that's fair. After all, April and May are A-Rod's best months. ...

Mike Giardi: I'm not to advocate violence, but I’ve about had it with Joba Chamberlain:

... Not only that, but I've about had it with the Red Sox letting him get away with it. The kid had impeccable control last night, yet somehow loses his grip to stick one right between Jason Bay’s shoulder blades? ...

Dan Tobin: Sox now have as many wins against New York as Teixeira has home runs:

... I ain't feeling sorry for you [Chamberlain], not when you act like you deserve Glen Davis's nickname more than he does. We call HIM Big Baby because of his girth and young-looking face. You? You got the girth, but that's not the only reason you'd qualify. ...

Kristen wonders why NESN screwed around with Buck "OR-tiz" Martinez when the Eck is such a wonderful Remy fill-in:

... Now don't get me wrong, I love Remy more than is probably healthy and wish him the speediest of speedy recoveries, but Eckersley is nothing short of a national treasure. The man simply says what he thinks, whatever pops into his head, regardless of appropriateness or tact. It's simply delightful. ...

Peter notes the Sox are now 4-0 against the Yankees:

... Great job, Jon, and at the perfect time against the perfect foe. ...

Red says Big Papi is back:

... With everyone asking just what the f@#k's wrong with Papi, the Large Father bought himself at least a few days of reprieve from the slings and arrows with a showing against the Yankees that conjured images of Vintage Ortiz. Bringing bat to ball with extreme prejudice, hustling his oversized arse down the line like a trained bear chasing a motorized cookie tray, and surveying the damage like Zeus after a Mount Olympus bender.

One game doth not make a season, but for a few moments, it felt like 2007 all over again. And it didn't suck. ...

Flannery said sleep be damned:

It's nearing midnight and I’m sitting here shotgunning a fresh can of diet coke. I have to be up in just over 6 hours.

Yup. Just another game night.

AND IT PAYS OFF WITH A 2-RUN HOMER FROM BAY!

Beth enjoyed the Orsillo/Eck/Dave Roberts combo:

If we can't have the Rem-Dawg, this is the next best thing.

Jimmy notes the failure of Girardi's faux outrage over a called strike three against Jeter and discusses Julio Lugo:

Julio Lugo was essentially benched by Terry Francona after botching a few plays in the field upon his return. I actually think he can outhit Nick Green fairly easily, but you don’t want to have a guy playing SS when he’s this rusty. Take a couple of days off, grab a coach, grab a fungo bat, and go take a few grounders. By "a few" I mean 400,000.

Infection set in during spring training.

He fields, he blasts home runs and now he has an ERA of 0.00.