Results tagged ‘ Adrian Beltre ’

Weekend Worries in Red Sox Nation?

Opening Weekend in Arlington, Texas was a highly anticipated series as the reigning American League Champs, the Texas Rangers,
hosted the much-hyped lineup and starting rotation of the Boston
Red Sox.

Ace Jon Lester took the mound for the Sox on Opening Day, followed by John Lackey and Clay Buchholz in games two and three. Boston fielded a solid lineup including the off-season acquisitions Adrian
Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, plus a healthy Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin
Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis. With the young Saltalamacchia behind the
plate and veteran lovable David Ortiz in the DH spot, along with the
revamped bullpen including Daniel Bard, Jonathan Papelbon, Bobby Jenks,
Matt Albers, Dan Wheeler, Dennys Reyes and Tim Wakefield, the outlook was promising facing the stacked lineup of the defending AL champs.

We all know what happened in this three-game set. The Rangers dominated the Sox pitching, led by the likes of Ian Kinsler
and Nelson Cruz, who were the first pair of teammates in MLB history to each homer in the first three games of their season. Not to mention Adrian Beltre, who captured the hearts of Rangers fans after a monstrous grand slam off of his former
teammate, Lackey, who intentionally walked Josh Hamilton to load the
bases and get to the Dominican slugger. The Red Sox starters gave up 9
home runs in the first three games of the season, and in a combined 15.1
IP, had a 10.56 ERA, a 1.72 WHIP and only 6 strikeouts.

Bard, in 73 appearances last season, didn’t give up more than two
runs in a single inning. On Friday, he gave up 4 ER in 0.2 IP with one K
and 1 BB. In a combined 8.2 IP, the Red Sox bullpen garnered an 8.30
ERA, a 2.08 WHIP and 6 strikeouts.

With all the negativity surrounding the Red Sox after an 0-3 start, I
can only say a few things: First, chill out. This is three games in a
162-game season. I’m fairly certain with 159 games left that we don’t need to worry about either team’s “Magic Number” yet. Second, look at the positives. Ortiz, after a slow start in his previous three seasons, went 4-12 (.333
BA) with two home runs. Also, Gonzalez went 5-13 (.385 BA) in
his first series in a Red Sox uniform. Third, CHILL OUT. Can we take a
look at the 1998 New York Yankees? They started their season 0-3, then
ended the season with a 114-48 record and won the World Series. If this series happened in June, nobody would be talking about it.

Now that I’ve gotten my ranting and venting out of the way, I’d like to
look forward to the next 3-game set starting Tuesday when the Red Sox
take on the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Game one will see
Josh Beckett on the mound for the Red Sox while Josh Tomlin (2010: 6-4, 4.56 ERA) makes his
2011 debut hoping to shut down the Sox lineup. Beckett had a very
disappointing 2010 campaign. In 127.2 IP, he had a 6-6 record with a
5.78 ERA and 1.535 WHIP. “I think his pride took a beating last year,”
said skipper Terry Francona. “I definitely agree with that. I think he
feels like he has a
lot to prove” (via RedSox.com).

So, let’s take a little breather, get excited about some more baseball,
and follow Marco Scutaro’s lead in an old, familiar “Beltre Head Rub.”

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Jenn

P.S. In a totally unrelated, non-Red Sox note, in the 8th inning of the Mets/Marlins game on Saturday evening, the Mets inserted pinch-runner Chin-lung Hu. So I know somewhere Abbott and Costello were smiling, as we all know, “Hu’s on First?”

Memorable Season

April 4, 2010—the Red Sox had their home opener against their biggest
rival and the defending World Series Champions, the New York Yankees.
They came out on top that day, winning 9-7. Dustin Pedroia (2-for-4,
2-run HR, 3 RBIs) and Kevin Youkilis (3-for-4, 2 RBIs) helped carry the
team to victory. Josh Beckett started that game, going 4.2 innings,
giving up five runs off of eight hits, striking out only one while
walking three. This outing for Beckett was just a preview of things to
come this season, while he was anything but dominant all year long.

On
October 3, 2010, we ended our regular season on a high note against
those awful pinstripes, salvaging a W (8-4) over our arch rivals, while
managing to play spoiler and preventing them from clinching the AL East
title. Jed Lowrie went 2-for-3, belting two homeruns with 3 RBIs. John
Lackey, surprising us all, ended his season the way we were hoping he
would have pitched all year. He went 7.2 innings, giving up three runs
on six hits, walking only two, while tying his career high for strike
outs with ten.

I wish I could say that those two wins summed up
our season of positivity and success. However, there were 160 games in
between which messed with our emotions, sent us on a roller coaster
ride, broke our heart, devastated us as Red Sox fans and left us with
little hope that we could make it into October this year. We managed to
stay in contention into the final week of the season, but,
unfortunately, we were right. We didn’t make it to the postseason, the
first time since 2006, and we were forced to start this lonely,
miserable off-season much earlier than we would have wanted. 

There’s
so many excuses that we could use, or so many people we could blame
this season on. But, what’s the point? There are multitude of reasons
for our struggles this year, and we’ve discussed them numerous times
throughout the season. I’ve decided to skip all that nonsense…because
as we all know, I’m all about optimism!

Daniel Bard has definitely proved
himself this year. In 74.2 IP, he finished strong with a 1.93 ERA.
He struck out 76, while producing a WHIP of 1.004. He’s been a great
set-up man, but could potentially take over our closer position.

Clay
Buchholz had an absolutely outstanding season, and has even been in the
discussion for the Cy Young Award. He went 17-7 this year with a 2.33
ERA in 173.2 IP.

David Ortiz, despite having a rough start to
the season, ended with a .270 AVG, .370 OBP, .529 SLG and a .899 OPS. He
had 32 homeruns, and 102 RBIs. While winning the Home Run Derby this
year, he is showing everyone that Big Papi still has what it takes to
produce for our team.

Adrian Beltre had his best season since
2004, finishing with a .321 AVG, 28 homeruns, and 102 RBIs. He had a
.365 OBP, .553 SLG and a .919 OPS. Even though he inflicted some major
pain on a few of his teammates, he deserves a nice head-rub (joking)
after an exceptional season. 

Jon Lester proved very dominant this season. With a 19-9 record, he ended the year with a 3.25 ERA in 208.0 IP, striking out 225 and walking 83. 

Rookies Daniel Nava, Ryan Kalish
and Darnell McDonald managed to step up when asked and really helped our
team get through one of our toughest seasons in history.

We were plagued with many injuries this season, so here’s a list of the players who spent time on the disabled list during the year:

Jarrod Saltalamacchia
Mike Lowell
Adrian Beltre
J.D. Drew
Marco Scutaro
Dustin Pedroia
Eric Patterson
Jacoby Ellsbury
Kevin Cash
Hideki Okajima
Jon Lester
Kevin Youkilis
Mike Cameron
Manny Delcarmen
Jason Varitek
Victor Martinez
Clay Buchholz
Jeremy Hermida
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Felipe Lopez
Josh Beckett
Junichi Tazawa
Boof Bonser
Jed Lowrie

Now, let’s look at our Opening Day starting lineup-
Ellsbury LF
Pedroia 2B
Martinez C
Youkilis 1B
Ortiz DH
Beltre 3B
Drew RF
Cameron CF
Scutaro SS

This is absolutely heart-breaking to look at. David Ortiz is the only player from our Opening Day lineup to not have spent any time on the DL. We were given some tough hands to work with, and we still managed to end our season just shy of 90 wins (89-73).

On October 2, 2010, the Red Sox recognized Mike Lowell for an outstanding career, and honored him with an on-field ceremony as this was his final season in a Major League Baseball uniform. The 2007 World Series MVP was not only an exceptional player throughout his 12 year career, but an incredible human being who was well respected by everyone in the baseball world. He is a Tony Conigliaro Award Winner (1999), Silver Slugger Award Winner (2003), Gold Glove Award Winner (2005), 4x All-Star Selection (2002, 2003, 2004, 2007) and a 2x World Series Champion (2003, 2007). He will forever be #25 in the hearts of Red Sox Nation and will truly be missed as a player and person. We love you, Mikey!

Honestly, this has been one of my favorite seasons so far as a Red Sox fan. I know that might sound odd, and as surprising as it might be, I’ve grown to love this team, and Red Sox Nation even more than I used to. The Red Sox have been an important part of my life since I first stepped inside Fenway Park at the age of twelve and I’ve met so many amazing people because of my love for this team, and this game. I’m excited to see what happens this off-season, and I absolutely cannot wait until Spring Training next year. I plan on making a trip to Ft. Myers, FL in 2011, along with a few trips to my favorite place in this world—Boston and Fenway Park!

This sure has been a memorable season, and I’m so ready to see what’s in store for next season…because like they say, there’s always next year!

“It
breaks your heart.  It is designed to break your heart.  The game
begins in spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in
the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the
chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.” -A. Bartlett Giamatti

Jenn

Home Stretch

It is September 21 and the regular season is scheduled to end on October 3. With 12 games left to play, the Red Sox are 83-67. They sit 8 games out of first in the AL East and 6.5 games back in the Wild Card. We have two games left against the Baltimore Orioles, a three-game series this weekend at Yankee Stadium, a four game series against the Chicago White Sox next week and we end our regular season at home in a three-game series against those awful pinstripes.

Me…negativity? Yeah, right!

Most people would say that this year has been somewhat of a disaster. I highly disagree. OK, so we’ve been dealt some tough hands, and we’ve been thrown some nasty curve-balls. But, the success that we have had this year despite the injuries we have sustained is remarkable. We have played the majority of the season without some of our key players and have managed to stay in contention.

We still have 12 games left and Clay Buchholz will be starting tonight in the second game against the Orioles. He’s looking for his 17th win this season and with a 2.48 ERA, he has continually been a starter that we can depend on every outing. He is holding opponents to a .229 average this season and is 7-4 with a 2.38 ERA in 12 starts at Fenway.

Our starting line-up for tonight’s game is as follows:

1. Scutaro, M    2B .272 AVG
2. Drew, J         RF .257 AVG
3. Martinez, V     C .296 AVG
4. Ortiz, D        DH .261 AVG
5. Beltre, A       3B .327 AVG
6. Lowrie, J      SS .259 AVG
7. Kalish, R      CF .233 AVG
8. Nava, D        LF .246 AVG
9. Anderson, L  1B .267 AVG

As important as it is to have an ace on the mound, you can’t win games without scoring runs. The Red Sox, this season, seem to leave runners on base in very critical situations. We need to see more clutch hitting throughout our entire line-up. We can’t continue to count on a few players to drive in runs (Adrian Beltre and David Ortiz lead the team in RBIs with 98 and 92 respectively). Let’s make these last 12 games interesting, and not back down now!

Whether or not we can mathematically come back and make it to the
playoffs really doesn’t matter to me anymore. I love baseball and I love watching my team win games. I just want to see all of our guys succeed and play great baseball. We need to go out with a bang!

What’s
really started to sink in, though, is that we are in the home stretch…
baseball season is coming to an end and I am not happy about it!

Go Red Sox!
Jenn

Almost Doesn’t Count

Unless we’re talking about hand grenades and horseshoes, of course… But, this is baseball.

David “Big Papi” Ortiz hit a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning to get us within one run of tying the game. We were trailing 6-1 with almost no hope of winning when we came up to bat in the ninth at Fenway Park. With one out, Detroit Tigers closer, Jose Valverde, walked the bases loaded and Big Papi took full advantage and went yard with his 22nd homer of the season. Adrian Beltre hit a 2-out double to keep the momentum up and J.D. Drew was then intentionally walked to enable a force-out. But, that wasn’t needed when Mike Cameron came up to the plate and with a full count, struck out looking to end the game. We walked off the field with the scoreboard showing 6-5 in the Tigers favor.

This was a tough loss for the Red Sox. There was one positive I can think of, though, and that is the determination and drive our players have. They didn’t give up. That is what baseball is all about. The game is never over until it’s over– not until the last out is made.

With that being said, we have to look back on this game and wonder what happened, wonder why we lost and what went wrong. I mean, if you look at who was on the mound for us tonight, and the fact that Papi hit a grand slam, and we still walk away with the loss, it just doesn’t make much sense.

Jon Lester had one of his worst outings. He gave up 4 runs on a career high 11 hits, throwing 115 pitches in 6 innings. I hoped after sweeping the Angels, and having an off-day, our offense would have stayed alive and we would dominate this series. However, we didn’t even get on the board until the 5th inning when Marco Scutaro hit a solo homer on a 1-1 pitch. We leave too many runners on base, especially RISP, in crucial situations. We must get on the board early and keep the momentum up throughout the game.

We need to make sure everyone stays healthy and hope that we can gain some major ground in the 59 games that are left to be played (currently we are 58-45). After the Rays beat the Yankees tonight at Tropicana field, we are now 6.5 games out of the wild card and 7.5 games from first. With the trade deadline quickly approaching (4 PM on Saturday), I really hope we can get some bullpen help. Luckily, Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury will be back in the line-up within the next few weeks so our fielding and offense should be set.

I feel like these wild, late-inning wins rarely happen for us anymore. I feel like all of Red Sox Nation is hurting, right along with our team, and nobody has any hope anymore. We have to keep the faith. Our boys, our players that we live for and watch every single day still have hope that we can do this, and we should too.

So, no, almost didn’t count tonight. But, can I please remind all of you about 2004? I’m sure none of you can forget, but take a look back at the standings on July 31st and tell me again that we can’t do this, and that there is no hope for us.

RedSoxDoll

Oh- How Sweep It Is

One swing… one swing taken by Marco Scutaro scored 4 runs, gave us the lead, ended up winning us the game and ultimately was the last act to help us sweep the Los Angeles Angels. And to add on to that– it was the first series sweep at Anaheim since 1998.

However, we can’t forget about all the outstanding baseball that was played in the last three days to put us in the position to end this 10-game road trip 6-4.

Clay Buchholz started Monday night’s game and came out with the win thanks to an outstanding 4-out save by Jonathan Papelbon. Buchholz dominated, going 7 innings, giving up only 1 run on 5 hits with 1 walk and 7 strike outs. I, of course, must mention David Ortiz, who came back to Anaheim after winning the home-run derby and kept his power alive. He belted 2 home-runs to help the Red Sox win 6-3. Victor Martinez started the scoring off early, though, when he came out for his first at bat since being activated from the disabled list, with an RBI single to score Adrian Beltre. J.D. Drew helped out in the 9th, with a 2-run double to add some cushion for Paps who returned for the 9th inning to close it out. Papelbon came in with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th after Scott Atchison gave up a 2 run homer to Hideki Matsui. Drama in the 8th inning is something every Red Sox fan has, unfortunately, grown accustomed to.

Game 2 of the series was an interesting match-up. John Lackey was returning to the mound at Anaheim for the first time since joining the Red Sox. He didn’t get the kind of welcome he was hoping for after spending 8 seasons with the Angels. After receiving mostly boo’s from the crowd, he pitched a gem of a game and came out with the win against his former teammates. He went 7.1 innings, giving up 7 hits, 2 runs, 1 BB and 2 strike outs. Daniel Bard came in for relief, walking 1, striking out 1 and one FO to end the 8th. Paps came in and pitched a perfect 9th to get the save. It’s just so perfect– this Bard to Paps set-up and closer deal we have going on. We walked off the field winning 4-2, giving Lackey his 10th win on the season.

Today’s afternoon game, Josh Beckett came out hoping to get his 2nd win on the season. It was his second start after being activated from the DL and we really needed him to go deep in the game, mainly because Bard and Paps were unavailable. We also needed our offense to show up to give us some confidence towards the later innings. Beltre and Bill Hall both belted solo home runs early on, while Kevin Youkilis tied the game in the 7th with another solo shot. But, the hero of the game was by far Scutaro, who had his 2nd career grand slam to break the tie and put us on top 7-3. Beckett went 7 innings, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits, with 1 walk and 5 strike outs. Manny Delcarmen came in for the 8th giving up a hit and a walk while striking out 2. The Angels had runners on first and second with hope for a 2-out rally, but, Bill Hall had something else in mind when he made an incredible catch to end the inning. Ramon Ramirez came in and pitched a perfect 9th to get the save and to give the ever-so-deserving starter a win. It was a very smooth game, and everyone worked together to prove that the Red Sox will keep fighting and keep winning.

This sweep couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. Victor Martinez being back in the line-up has obviously boosted our offensive confidence (which I knew it would). We outscored the Angels 17-8 this series if that proves anything at all. Mike Lowell, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Jason Varitek are all doing everything in their power to get back on the roster quickly. I’m hoping J.D. Drew’s injuries aren’t serious and he’ll be back in the line-up this weekend. I’m really looking forward to this 7 game home-stand that’s coming up after our off-day tomorrow. Jon Lester will be on the mound Friday against Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga. We’ll finish off this weekends series with Dice-K starting on Saturday while Buchholz will be back on the mound for Sunday’s game.

I hope to take my broom out once again this weekend because oh–indeed.. how sweep it is!

Go Red Sox!
Jenn Doll

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