May 10, 2011

G36: Blue Jays 7, Red Sox 6 (10)

Red Sox   - 010 120 011 0 - 6 16  0
Blue Jays - 300 011 010 1 - 7  9  2
Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run home run to left to give Boston a 4-3 lead in the fifth, then hit another opposite field dong to tie the game in the ninth at 6-6. But it was the legs of Rajai Davis and the non-arm of Jason Varitek (pictured, at left) that sunk the Red Sox in Skydome.

Matt Albers followed Daniel Bard to the hill and pitched a perfect ninth. He retired the first Jay in the 10th, but Davis (who had shown his speed on a fourth-inning triple) chopped a single up the middle. On the first pitch to David Cooper (playing in his ninth major league game; he debuted April 29), the Red Sox pitched out, but Varitek's throw to shortstop Jose Iglesias was late, though Iggy put down a quick tag to make the play somewhat close. On the next pitch, Davis took off for third and beat Tek's throw to Kevin Youkilis.

Desperate for a strikeout or infield pop-up, Albers got ahead of Cooper 1-2 before Cooper lifted a fly ball to center. Jacoby Ellsbury was playing shallow and had to go back on it, but there was no chance of a play on Davis even if he had been coming in on the ball.

Lester (5.1-7-4-5-5, 114) battled most of the night, walking three of the first four Toronto hitters in the first inning, the last one forcing in a run. Carl Crawford singled in David Ortiz, who had doubled, to get the Sox on the board in the second. Ortiz hit a bomb (#5) to dead center in the fourth and Gonzalez (#5) went deep in the fifth, with Dustin Pedroia aboard.

Jose Bautista led off the fifth with his #11 homer - a laser to left - and J.P. Arencibia opened the sixth with his 5th long ball, which gave Toronto a 5-4 lead.

In the top of the eighth, Jed Lowrie doubled with one out and Iglesias pinch-ran. With two outs, Jarrod Saltalamacchia singled to left to tie the game at 5-5. Cooper hit the first homer of his major league career in the home half, but the Jays' lead was short-lived as Evil Bert hit #6 to begin the ninth. After two were out, J.D. Drew singled and Iglesias - in his first plate appearance - struck out, but reached first on a wild pitch. But the inning ended when Crawford struck out.

This wrap-up would not be complete without a loud FUCK YOU to third base coach Tim Bogar. In the fourth, Toronto led 3-2, but the Sox had runners on first and second with two outs. Ellsbury singled to left (3-for-6; 19-game streak!), and Bogar waved Crawford around third. The throw beat him to the plate by 10 feet, ending the inning. It's maddening, and Terry Francona will defend him to the media, of course, saying it was a good gamble, and he would have done the same thing. Like previous idiots in that position, Bogar remains permanently clueless about the relative speed of various Red Sox players and the arm strength of opposing outfielders, and seems allergic to common sense about choosing the right time to take a risk.
Example
Jon Lester / Kyle Drabek

After a 6-5 homestand, the Red Sox are in Toronto for two games before heading to the Bronx for a three-game weekend series against the Yankees. Then it's back to Fenway for a week to play the Orioles, Tigers, and White Sox Cubs.

Since April 15, Boston is 15-8 (.652), a pace equal to a 105.6 win season. If Boston plays at a .652 pace for the rest of the season, they would finish with exactly 100 wins.
            W   L   PCT   GB   RS   RA  DIFF  EXP W-L
Yankees    19  13  .594  ---  170  132  + 38   20-12
Rays       20  14  .588  ---  147  118  + 29   20-14
Red Sox    17  18  .486  3.5  146  154  -  8   17-18
Blue Jays  15  20  .429  5.5  147  159  - 12   16-19
Orioles    14  19  .424  5.5  128  161  - 33   13-20
In his last start, against the Angels, Lester had 11 strikeouts while allowing only one run in seven innings. He has allowed two or fewer runs in five of his seven starts this year; he allowed three and five runs in the other two outings.

The Red Sox have been trying to get Alfredo Aceves to stop part of his motion that is clearly a balk since spring training. (Yet Aceves's two balks in the Twins series are the only two of his major league career.) Peter Abraham of the Globe covered Aceves in New York and described him, in light of what appears to be stubborness about altering his motion, as "somewhat of a pain in the posterior. He's a quirky guy, quick to anger and not quite mindful that he ... isn't an All-Star".

AL East: Royals/Yankees, Mariners/Orioles, and Rays/Spiders at 7 PM.

260 comments:

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Amy said...

OMG, that IS truly disgusting! How can anyone sweat that much??

allan said...

GET THE FUCKING THIRD OUT, ASSHOLE

allan said...

thank you!!!

Amy said...

Please don't bring that guy back next inning. I cannot watch that again. The sweat or his pitching.

allan said...

he's nixon to yook's jfk.



(you kids won't understand)

allan said...

is the sweat new? i don't remember seeing it before.

Jere said...

Yanks won

Jere said...

position to ostensibly score

allan said...

iggy wearing a third # tonight?

Jere said...

what? Aceves actually has a towel on top of his hat! It's a sweat tourniquet!

Amy said...

Allan, thanks for the reference for those of us who don't know who Paul Hardcastle is.

Jere said...

ha, nope, 68, 76, 76. (I thought it was 78 last night at first)

allan said...

SALTY!!!!!!!!!




(i have no idea who paul hardcastle is)

Amy said...

All right! Tied!

Jere said...

SalTIE!

Amy said...

Someone who seems to have recorded a song called 19, according to Google.

But I did get the Nixon sweat reference.

allan said...

my porn name is paul hardcastle.

Jere said...

Paul Hardcastle had a one-hit wonder in the 80s with a song called "19" about the Vietnam war. (Title referred to the disputed fact that the average age of a combat soldier in 'nam was 19 years old.) Since it's kind of an electronic number, the number repeats, "nineteen, nine, nien, nineteen." So me and Meunier saying it back to back reminded me of the tune.

Jere said...

"my porn name is paul hardcastle."

I'm Bruce Power.

allan said...

it would be funny if he could be up for 2 weeks and wear a different # every day, 78-93 or so.

allan said...

i want mcdonald to stand on top of the base until the ball lands fair.

Amy said...

Thanks, Jere, for the explanation. The 80s, huh? I guess I should somehow have heard of him, but I didn't.

allan said...

Ig up 5th in the 9th!

Jere said...

I'll just never forget that 19 song because our town got cable TV in 1985 and that video was one of the first I remember, and they played the hell out of it. (Along with "Road to Nowhere" by Talking Heads and the ultra-weird "Cry" by Godfrey & Cream. Those are the ones I'll always think of from my first experience with music videos. Except for Friday Night Videos.)

Goddamn, another dong and we're losing again.

meunier said...

Who the hell is this guy?

meunier said...

Seems like we can never win a game that is tied late in this park.

Jere said...

those last 3 HRs by them have led off the inning I believe. For 3 of the last 4 innings.

Jere said...

big bats coming up

allan said...

you know what they say -- those lead off homers always come around to score....

allan said...

make me sorry i didn't go to this game.

allan said...

EVIL!!!

PURE FUCKIN PIGEON-LOVING EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jere said...

this guy is the fucking natural

meunier said...

BERT IS EVIL TO TORONTO

allan said...

The Adrian Gonzalez Years are going to be awesome!

Amy said...

Crazy game. I take the dog out and we fall behind and then we tie it up.

Jere said...

I was hoping for a triple & error for the lead there, Paul O'Neill style. (Seinfeld O'Neill, not real.)

allan said...

drooooooooooooooo

Jere said...

Jose!!!!!

allan said...

"take a pitch" - what does that mean?

Amy said...

Wow, you sure don't see that happen too often.

Jere said...

Jose's always in the middla sumthin!

allan said...

iggy scored two runs before his 1st AB

i wonder what the record is (non-herb washington division)?

Jere said...

Speaking of Herb Washington, did you see Josh Wilker's gonna be a daddy??

allan said...

everyday albers.

meunier said...

Where is Bot?

allan said...

yeah, not crazy about going with a lesser pitcher before a better one.

Jere said...

will he be hank or tommy aaron-cibia?

allan said...

"Hey, Tommy, good to see ya!"

Jere said...

hey tommy good to see ya

Jere said...

I know Amy didn't need convincing, but Zaun has convinced me Tek is the best defensive catcher that ever walked the earth and/or on water.

allan said...

should have known jere would be on the ball with the senile sias reference.

Jere said...

Zaun talking about "all ____ teams"! And how as players they'd constantly be coming up with them! His examples were all-ugly and all-handsome.

allan said...

i wanna hear his all-ugly team.

Jere said...

i was purposely repeating the Tommy line. That last one was perfectly placed! I felt.

allan said...

i thought it was a blogger glitch and rejected them!

allan said...

davis running wild on jason de milo

allan said...

need a K here

Jere said...

letting them steal 2 bases in a row for no reason was the key to the loss

allan said...

albers was winning hearts and minds out there -- damn

was worried davis might go deadball era on us and steal 2B, 3B and home.

Anonymous said...

Nice summary. It really is incredible just how often we're destroyed by 3rd base coach blunders. Doesn't really matter who the guy is, we can be certain he'll bungle the job...

Meanwhile, Bard in tie games this year (according to baseball-reference):
22 PA: (.412/.500/.706), with a crazy .545 BABIP. Small sample, yes, and a painful one.

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