Results tagged ‘ David Ortiz ’
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
Still Recovering
Well, after these past nine days that I’ve taken to somewhat rest, recover and commence a few rehab starts, I’m ALMOST ready to be reactivated. I’ve started my Fall semester of college and I’m aiming for a 4.0… after two days of class—so far, so good! I’ll keep you guys updated on that, but it will be taking up the majority of my time. Anyway, I’m still in some pain, but I see the doctor tomorrow morning and he’ll be able to give me more precise details as to when I’ll be fully recovered. I’m thinking, by Friday morning, I better be back to normal! I’ve got a long weekend ahead of me full of Red Sox baseball and I need to be in tip-top shape!
Now, enough about me and more about what really matters—baseball!
The Red Sox started their three-game series against the Seattle Mariners tonight and walked off the field with a 6-3 victory. John Lackey went eight innings giving up 3 runs (only 2 earned) off 6 hits, walking 2 and striking out a season high 10 batters. Lackey is now 12-7 with a 4.51 ERA. It was one of his best outings and came at a very good time for the team. Marco Scutaro lead the team offensively going 2-for-4, with a 2 RBI ground ball single to right in the fifth and then again in the seventh inning. J.D. Drew and David Ortiz each helped out, bringing in 2 runs on their RBI singles respectively to give us a 3-run lead. Jonathan Papelbon came in to close out the game, giving off a lead-off single, then retiring the next 3 batters to claim his 31st save of the season.
On to some other news, now, I’ve got to bring up what everyone seems to be discussing, which is the Red Sox claiming Johnny Damon on waivers today. The future is still unknown, and there’s still time for everything to get worked out, however, if it does happen, I think that Damon could be a huge contributor, offensively and defensively, for us and could be that extra drive we need to give us a run for the playoffs. Damon isn’t sure he wants to come back to Boston, but as we all know, if the trade doesn’t get worked out, we have at least kept the Rays and Yankees from being able to get him. Personally, I miss the old shaggy Damon from his Boston years. Most people considered him a “traitor” (including me, at times, I’m not going to lie) after he went to the Yankees, but you can’t deny his talent at the plate. During his career in a Red Sox uniform, he hit .295, with 461 runs, 56 homers, 299 RBIs, 98 stolen bases and a .362 OBP. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind seeing that in our line-up again.
Currently, the Red Sox sit 5.5 games behind the first place Yankees and 5 games behind the Rays who hold the Wild Card spot. I feel very redundant, as all my posts seem to talk about keeping faith and hope that we can make it to the playoffs. But, I want to inform you all of something—until it is mathematically impossible for us to still be in contention, I won’t give up. You will never hear the words, “maybe next year,” come out of my mouth because I will believe, always.
I now have three days to finish up my rehab starts, see my doctor one more time and fully recover before my exciting daddy/daughter weekend starts. I’m really looking forward to seeing my favorite boys up close during batting practice and experience first-hand the games I love to watch every night, no matter where they are in the country. I’ve seen the Red Sox play numerous times throughout my life, in different stadiums, but something tells me this weekend, this series against the Rays, will be one of the greatest weekends of my life. There’s nothing more important to me than family, baseball and the Red Sox—and I get to have all of those in one weekend. How did I get to be so lucky?
Red Sox Doll
Keeping the Faith
As a Red Sox fan, I’ve had to learn the true meaning of keeping the faith throughout the years.
This is what I’ve come up with.
Faith (n.) – Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.
OK, now what does that have to do with the Red Sox? I truly believe that the passion, belief and love I have in my team is far more helpful to my well-being than it hurts.
I know I’m speaking about the Red Sox, for me… but, no matter what team we root for, can’t we all agree that having faith in a baseball team is good for the soul?
Baseball is America’s pastime. It’s the epitome of a beautiful spring day, and the fright of a late-inning rally from your enemy on home territory. If you love America, how can you not love baseball and everything it stands for?
Without baseball, what would I have to live for? What would I put all my faith and hope in? What would keep me up all hours of the night, hoping that we can come back and win with a walk-off home run from Big Papi? Or what would get me out of bed, when I can’t even talk because I’m so sick, and give me the energy and strength to walk downstairs just to be able to watch my favorite players? What would give me hope that there is still good in this world, that there is still people out there who absolutely love what they do for a living, and enjoy every day on this earth? There’s only one thing: baseball, the players and everything that they represent.
This has been a difficult season for Red Sox Nation. We have gone through some of the hardest times in our history. We have lost so many players to injuries and it seems as if we won’t ever get a break. But as a die-hard, true Boston Red Sox fan, I can’t lose faith. How can we lose faith after witnessing, with our own eyes, the comeback in 2004? I know I bring it up a lot, but how can I not? 2004 represents what this Nation is all about. To come from behind in the ALCS like we did, and to completely dominate the WS and walk away with the trophy after 86 years of pain and hardship? You can’t tell me that those fans, through all those years, gave up faith. They didn’t. Because, if they did, there wouldn’t have been a single Red Sox fan witnessing those games. The players go out there every single day for the fans. They do what they do for none other than the people who support their every single move. They need us just as much as we need them.
As Red Sox fans we must keep the faith. We must have hope that we can do this, no matter how bad it looks now. We have to understand how truly amazing this game is. Because, as we all know, the game is NEVER over until the last out is made. So, who’s with me? Who’s willing to stick with me through all these troubled times and have hope that we can still do this? Because, no matter who comes along for this journey, I will be there–every step of the way, through every injury and loss. Because we will win, and we can do this.
I have faith.
RSD
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
Not-so-perfect
Ok, so it wasn’t as jaw dropping
as Armando Galarraga’s un-perfect-perfect game. But, Jon Lester had a perfecto
into the 6th inning of Saturday night’s game against the Mariners.
Eric Patterson ruined his heroic act from Thursday nights game, when he dropped a fly ball with 1 out in the 6th hit by Jack Wilson for
a two-base error. When will major league players understand the little league
concept of using two hands when catching a fly ball? Lester still had the no-no
possibility but that was shortly shattered by the next batter, Michael Saunders,
who jacked a 2-2 curveball over the right field wall. We then trailed 2-1 and
nothing good came after that. Lester had 13 strike-outs (career high) in his 8 and 2/3
innings pitched. He was obviously solid through 7 innings, other than the
homerun he gave up. However, in the 8th inning, something happened, and he lost
his momentum and gave up 2 more runs. When he was taken out of the game, we
were down 4-1 and we were not able to score again. We ended up losing the game
5-1.
It’s not rocket science, but we can’t expect to win games by only scoring 1
run. And we definitely can’t count on our starter’s to do all the work, as much
as we’d like to be able to. Run-prevention can only do so much when you have a shaky bullpen like we do. David Ortiz was
the only reason we were even on the board that night, belting his 19th homer of
the season in the 4th inning. It’s so frustrating that we keep losing these games in late innings, which only proves one thing— we need to work on our pen.
Fast forward to Sunday’s afternoon game in which Daisuke Matsuzaka started. He prevailed through 6 innings, giving up only 1 run on 4 hits with 5 walks and 4 strikeouts. He was taken out and replaced by Daniel Bard who came in for the 7th. Bard pitched the 7th with 1 hit, 2 ground outs and a strike out. He was taken out in the 8th with no outs after giving up a single and Hideki Okajima came in (which was, without a doubt, Tito’s mistake). From there, all hell broke loose. Oki loads the bases with no outs. He gave up 5 straight singles, Michael Saunders being one who hit a 2-run single which put the Mariners up front 3-2. Milton Bradley came in as a pinch hitter, and singles on a bunt which scores Casey Kotchman. We end up losing this one 4-2, giving up 11 hits, and no errors, although we had a few mental errors.
Oki misplays two bunts which truly cost us the game. Bard should have been kept in to finish the 8th, then bring in Jonathan Papelbon for the 9th to close it out. Why did Terry decide to bring Oki in when Bard is completely and utterly dominating? We have a one run lead in the 8th inning, and we replace Bard, who now has a 1.86 ERA (lowest on the team) with Oki, who now has a 5.81 ERA. I understand the pitch count, and the idea that we need to save him so we can use him more. But, I’m sure you all have heard the quote by Leo Durocher, “You don’t save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain.” We need to win games one at a time and not worry about the next day’s game. If we keep doing this, we’ll go 0 for the next 30 games.
We need to start making better defensive decisions. Our starters, for the most part, are doing their job and leaving the game with the lead. But, our pen is really struggling and we need to do something about that ASAP. It’s also tough for our offense to truly dominate when we aren’t playing with Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez or Jacoby Ellsbury.
It’s hard to stay hopeful when we are now 8 games out of first and 5 from the Wild Card spot. This is the worst deficit we’ve sustained since May 23. We are now 55-44. Positives— V-Mart could be back tonight for the series opener in Anaheim and most of our guys should be back by mid-August. But, is it too late? We can’t let this split series against the Mariners keep us down. We have to keep going out there every single day and fight—fight for our lives, practically. We must stay in contention with the line-up we have, so when we get all of our boys healthy, we can come back and, at the very least, take over the Wild Card. Let’s just hope the Yankees and Rays go on some major losing streak so we can gain some ground. We’ve done it before and we can do it again.
RSD 
Off-Day
Today is the most dreaded day of all
for true baseball fans. The worst Wednesday known to mankind… the day
after the All-Star game, and not a single major league game will be
played.
On this awful
Wednesday, I have an off-day of my own, with no work. And, personally, I
am not feeling the greatest, so having today to rest is probably a
good thing. But, I’m going to take this extra time to recap on my
thoughts of the first half of the season and what I expect for the
second half.
The Red
Sox, despite a multitude of injuries, went into the All-Star Break with
a 51-37 record. We are 5 games back from the first place Yankees and 3
games back from the Rays who are holding the Wild Card spot. I’m not
really worried about what Theo has up his sleeve for the trade
deadline. What I am concerned for is getting my boys off the DL and bac
k
onto the field. With Dustin Pedroia, Clay Buchholz, Jacoby Ellsbury,
Jason Varitek, Victor Martinez,
Josh Beckett, Jeremy Hermida, Manny Delcarmen and Mike Lowell sitting
on the DL, our starting line-up is really starting to hurt. I mean, no
offense to Darnell McDonald, Daniel Nava, Bill Hall, etc. because they
have done a great job contributing to our success this year, but it’s
depressing when I see our line-up and I barely recognize any of the
guys playing. Although, I am getting to know them a little too well for
my liking.
We have tons
of positives from the first
half of the season which gives
me hope for the second half. But, we have some pen issues that we need
to get straightened out.
I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I am really starting to love
Daniel Bard (1.90 ERA). I mean, he is the ultimate set-up guy and I
think will be a huge contributor to our bullpen in the future. Buchholz (currently on the DL, 10-4, 2.45 ERA)
and Jon Lester (11-3, 2.78 ERA) have proven their roles as starting pitchers and, in my
opinion, will be our two best starters as we enter the second half of
the seaso
n. However, Daisuke Matsuzaka (6-3, 4.56
ERA), John Lackey
(9-5, 4.78 ERA) and Tim Wakefield (3-7, 5.22 ERA) have been more or less
disasters and I’m not really sure what to think about them. I guess,
as Forest Gump would say, they are “like a box of chocolates, you never
know what you’re gonna get.” Also, our lack of bullpen is really
hurting us. Hideki Okajima (6.00 ERA) and Ramon Ramirez (4.79 ERA)
aren’t really two guys we can depend on in times of need. And our
closer, Jonathan Papelbon (3.50 ERA), even with 20 saves on the season, is not as dominant as we
need him to be.
David Ortiz, Big Papi, “Jose” Ortiz, or 2010 Home-Run Derby
Champ, has had a complete turnaround from the beginning of the season
and is really helping our offense with 17 HRs and 54 RBIs on the
season. But, can I PLEASE talk about should-have-been All-Star, Kevin
Youkilis, who was completely snubbed of that title. With a .297 batting
average, 55 RBIs and 17 HRs, and the fact that he’s one of the few
that has stayed healthy this season (despite the brief ankle injury),
is an absolute, defined bad-***. Adrian Beltre (.341 AVG), regardless
of the defensive errors, has greatly added to the teams offensive success and Marco Scutaro
(.285 AVG) is also playing
well. I can’t wait for my main boy, Pedey,
to come back and start this “Laser Show” again. Those pinstripes and
Rays really need to watch their backs, cause we’re going to come back
stronger than ever!
I
have complete faith in our boys to get healthy and start playing again.
I think that we will continue to win games and as long as we can get
through this tough start to the second half of the season, we will be
fine. I believe that we have stayed contenders in this race, even
through these difficult times, and have a great chance to win that
pennant, no matter what everyone else might think.
**I have to let you all know, on August
27th me and my daddy will be heading to Tampa Bay for a father/daughter
baseball weekend to watch the Red Sox at Tropicana Field. We have
booked our flight, hotel and most importantly purchased our tickets for
the 3-game series. On Friday and Sunday games, we will be sitting by
the visiting dugout and on Saturday, we will be near the visiting
bullpen. I had absolutely everything to do with those seating
arrangements. There is no doubt that I will be the only girl my age that
is headed to the beach for a weekend and not spend any time on the
actual beach. We will be at the Trop as soon as the gates open for BP
and I will stay till the last out is made, if not longer! No worries,
there will be a blog post for that trip along with tons of pictures!
—Best Dad Award goes to, MIKE DOLL—
I will always be behind my boys, no matter
the circumstances. I also completely believe that Red Sox Nation is
the greatest fan base of all time, in any sport, and with our faith,
hope and love for our team, we will get it done!
Go Red Sox!!
Jenn
mlblogsredsoxdoll
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