July 3, 2007

G82: Red Sox 4, Devil Rays 1

He'll never grab my heart the way Pedro did, but I'm really starting to enjoying watching Dice pitch.
          IP  H ER BB  K  PIT-ST  SOX
0605 @OAK 7 7 2 2 8 130-78 L 0-2
0610 @ARI 6 4 2 4 9 120-78 L 1-5
0616 SF 7 3 0 3 8 112-66 W 1-0
0622 @SD 6 5 1 5 9 126-81 W 2-1
0627 @SEA 8 3 1 1 8 113-77 L 1-2
0703 TB 8 4 0 1 9 122-84 W 4-1
42 26 6 16 51 ERA: 1.29
I was thinking we might have to wait until next season to see him settle in and really start toying with hitters, but we're seeing it right now. With those six starts, he's lowered his ERA from 4.83 to 3.53. (Walks can still a bit of a problem though.)

Julio Lugo singled twice, the first coming in the second inning (snapping his 0-for-33 slump) and driving in Boston's 2nd and 3rd runs of the game. Lugo also singled in the seventh (and was picked off first base).

Kazmir walked three consecutive batters to start the second -- all three scored.

***

Scott Kazmir (4.26, 105 ERA+) / Daisuke Matsuzaka (3.80, 117 ERA+)

The Red Sox are officially in the second half of the 2007 season and are now playing their first game against a team in their own division. How can this be?

The good news is that 18 of Boston's remaining 81 games -- 22%! -- are against the lowly Devil Rays.

In five June starts, Matsuzaka's ERA was 1.59 ERA.

Exactly one year ago tonight, Kazmir pitched his first complete-game shutout, two-hitting the Red Sox in Tampa. Since then, he is 0-4 with 10 no-decisions at home. ... In his last start, Kazmir threw 113 pitches in 5.1 innings.

25 comments:

allan said...

Red Sox lineup

Crisp, cf
Pedroia, 2b
Ortiz, dh
Ramirez, lf
Youkilis, 1b
Lowell, 3b
Varitek,c
Pena, rf
Lugo ss

Douglas said...

Good to have Crisp and Youk back...but Kazmir always seems tough.

Patriots Film said...

Crisp back, Pena in. hmm. SOSHers thought at least a few more games for ellsbury...i thought maybe he'd sub for drew. not that he really has the power numbers, but i'm sick of pena, and the speed of right and center with jcobb and crisp would be such that manny could probably sit the game out in the monster.

On a serious note: anyone thinking that this many games against the devil rays at this point can only be a bad thing? sure, they should be able to take a lot of games in the next month, but playing bad teams for a long time can be bad overall.

Benjamin said...

Part of me wonders whether they brought Ellsbury up mostly to get him some exposure as trade bait and are sitting him so his avg doesn't drop below .300 before a trade. Perhaps just conspiracy thinking.

allan said...

ellsbury as trade bait?

there is no. fucking. way.

everything i read says he is untouchable.

if jacoby stays, one of coco or pena has to go, right?

tim said...

Holy Lugo, Batman! he has the only hit in this game?!

Benjamin said...

2-RBI single for Lugo? WTF?

tim said...

*only hit for bahston

laura k said...

ellsbury as trade bait?

there is no. fucking. way.


Agreed. NFW. He is ours.

allan said...

don't give the sox fans that much credit, remy.

first they booed the crap out of lugo, then when his skid go sooooo bad, they felt they had help him out. but the boos came first.

9casey said...

redsock said...
ellsbury as trade bait?

everything i read says he is untouchable.


He is going to be son's ,who is 2,
favorite player , the kid is excitement.

With ellsbury, youk , pedroia..This team has a lot of potential stars in the making.
Throw in Dice-K, Beckett, Papelbon.Over the next 5 years they are going to be young and fun to watch...

Ron said...

I will be first in line for an Ellsbury jersey when the time comes.

Benjamin said...

Could someone please remind Minnesota that while they suck, they don't suck this badly?

Daniel said...

[/lurk]

How do the Sox do so well against Kazmir after scoring one run against Ryan Feierabend and Kameron Loe?

I am also sick of WMP (now 0 for 3 with 3 K's).

Benjamin said...

Fourth K of the night for WMP.

Zenslinger said...

Hm, why Papelbon? I don't think he "needs the work".

Benjamin said...

He hasn't pitched since Friday.

Home run. Oh well. Game over 4-1.

9casey said...

.194

Patriots Film said...

I still haven't convinced myself about ellsbury staying, however, I don't think they're sitting him to keep his average up- small sample size is an understatement. Even if it does drop, he is barely used to AAA pitching, nevermind the big show...he is allowed to adjust.

re: lugo cheer- i agree and said as much when it happened...i'm still glad they chose to cheer, because booing wasn't helping.

Benjamin said...

Toronto's down 2-1 in the bottom of the 5th. Do we root for them to lose so we can extend our lead to 11? Or do we root for them to win so the MFYs stay in third place?

tim said...

Blanton complete game for A's, jays lose 3-1. Had it on the TV, casually glanced at it and saw someone hit a jack for Oakland at some point and the final out...

11 games is nice. The fact that we have an 11 game lead, and IMO the bats have been somewhat anemic to this point, says a lot about this team. Someone run some statistics on the hitting up to this point, or I will tomorrow! To me, it just seems that they haven't had their A game at the plate this year.

Time for some muted MLB2K7 and bed.

laura k said...

Toronto's down 2-1 in the bottom of the 5th. Do we root for them to lose so we can extend our lead to 11? Or do we root for them to win so the MFYs stay in third place?

I say we root in this order:
1. Red Sox wins. (duh)
2. Largest possible lead in AL East.
3. Yankee losses.

Winning the division by a huge margin will be very sweet, and we can enjoy watching Murray Chass's head explode. The Yankees will stay home in October regardless.

laura k said...

i agree and said as much when it happened...i'm still glad they chose to cheer, because booing wasn't helping.

Booing never helps.

It makes me sick when people boo their own players. If Red Sox fans want to be different than Yankee fans, they should cut that shit out.

Patriots Film said...

That sure would be nice...but every sports team attracts losers, and crowd-think takes over at any sporting event.
Booing sucks, unless it's really youuuuuk-ing

allan said...

They were chanting "Luuuuuuuuuuuugo".