Red Sox take a split, series sweep over Texas and on par to take series from LAA

Got so much catching up to do! Lets just say that the Yankees pummeled the Sox in a 15-9 loss on April 16 - and the Sox haven't lost since. No lead is to large to overcome, and every player has contributed. Our versatility is incredible!

Last night, opener against the Angels, Ellsbury hit a lead off homer in the first. Then with Beckett out with the flu and stiff neck (and Varitek out with the flu, as was Manny D., Coco out, Lowell...etc) David Pauley was called up to pitch. He was knocked around for 5 runs early on. But 5-1 deficit is easy for Boston to overcome. By night's end Pedroia will have 3 doubles, Ellsbury will have 2 homers (!), and a great bunt single (of which he scores from first). Papelbon had three perfect outs on what NESN called 98-100 mph fastballs. He maybe threw 9 pitches. 8 saves for Papelbon, 15-7 record for Boston.

Some great material from the game recap:

"When Ellsbury first stepped to the plate in the eighth, he wasn't thinking bunt. But after taking the first pitch for a strike, Ellsbury noticed first baseman Casey Kotchman take a few steps back. Ellsbury then pushed a bunt past Shields, and the Angels never had a chance.

Then he went to work on distracting Shields. And with Pedroia's hard grounder rolling all the way down the line, Ellsbury went into his 270-foot sprint.

"I was thinking 'score' right as I took off," said Ellsbury. "I ran to second like I was going to score the whole way, and I saw [third-base coach] DeMarlo [Hale] wave me in, and I knew I'd be scoring from there. It feels great to help this team win and to do whatever you can to win. That's what we're here for, is to win ballgames and it's been fun so far.""

Sox Win past three series against Detroit, New York Yankees & Cleveland

I've got to catch up here now. So once the Sox got home to Fenway - they start playing great ball.

They won the home opener against Detroit, then lost the middle game 2-7, and won the rubber game 12-6. Notes: The 3rd game was actually as close as 8-6 Red Sox and Papelbon finished off the inning. The Red Sox then tacked on 4 more runs in the bottom of the 8th to win 12-6. I believe Papelbon finished the game.

On to the Yankee Series! Well, the first game - you may know - Chien-Ming Wang threw a 2 hit complete game with the only run being a home run from JD Drew. All my Yankee friends were rubbing the 4-1 Yankee win in my face - but I told them that what the Red Sox got out of that game was a solid start by Clay Buchholz. He completed 6 innings and only gave up 1 run and 4 hits. So even if the Yankees did win - and who would lose after throwing a 2 hit complete game - the Red Sox got a consistent, solid start out of an improving Clay Buchholz. He'll get his chance to get that game back when he faces Wang again tomorrow (Wed 4/16) at Yankee Stadium.

The second game of the Yankee series ended up being a close game that endured 2 hour 11 minute rain out. Top of the 8th inning, with two outs to go and a 4-3 Boston lead, Papelbon is called out too pitch as it starts to pour. Papelbon warmed up three separate times and never wavered from his game mentality for the whole 2 hours. He was also to face A Rod upon return to the mound. Needless to say, after the rain delay ended, Papelbon threw A Rod three pitches and struck him out. Francona was worried about sending Papelbon back out for the top of the 9th but he did and Papelbon earned his third save.

The rubber game on Sunday, the Yankees were short Jeter, and Posada had a tired arm and was DH'ing instead of catching. The Red Sox sat Ortiz (who was batting .070), were short Lowell (Sean Casey played 1st, Youk played 3rd), and Okajima and Papelbon were not available. The rest of the team carried the Sox to a 8-5 win. The Sox actually had 7-1 lead on the Yankees which they whittled down to 7-5 at one point.

In Cleveland The Sox won Monday 6-4 and Tuesday 5-3. Both nights the Sox fell behind and came back in 7,8,9 innings. In fact both games were won in the 9th. Monday the score was 4-3 Cleveland and after Pedroia hit a sac fly to bring Julio Lugo home to tie the game at 4-4, Ortiz hit a single and Ramirez homered to take the lead 6-4. Tonight, the Sox were tied 3-3 and Varitek came off the bench to hit a solo home run to take the lead 4-3. After a few more hits, baserunners and walks - Youk knocked in Crisp for an insurance run. Sox win 5-3 and head to NY for two games at Yankee stadium.

Notes: Jed Lowrie made his MLB debut today, playing 3rd base, with Youk at first. He struck out first, but then knocked in an RBI on a CLE error in the 5th, and got his first hit knocking in 2 more RBI's in the 7th. Lowrie seemed pretty fearless and about as fast as Ellsbury, as he just beat the ball to the bag on the 5th.

Papelbon is still the greatest pitcher on the Sox roster right now and Ortiz is hitting a healthier .113 with 4 hits in the CLE series.

Off to NY!

Detroit Tigers @ Red Sox: Sox home opener; Sox win 5-0 shutout

First I want to mention how odd it is that the last post I posted the Sox also won with a 5-0 shutout. It was also their last win before today. Either way...
Red Sox were presented their 2007 World Series rings today! Very momentous occasion with several key people on hand - Bill Buckner who helped unveil the 2007 banner at Fenway and threw the first pitch. Johnny Pesky was on hand to say "Play Ball!"

Good News: Yankees lost to Kansas City. Ironic News: Toronto falls apart for a 9-8 loss to Oakland, just after the Red Sox leave town. Yankees and Red Sox share a 4-4 record for now while Baltimore is sittin' pretty at the top of the division 6-1.

Red Sox @ A's: Sox win 5-0 shutout

Well, the Sox take the first two games in the U.S. making their final series total 3-1 vs. the Athletics this season.

Today the Sox started out in an unfortunately, familiar manor - stranding 3 men, bases loaded with no outs in the first. A's Rich Harden arguably pitched very well for 5 innings with 4 hits, 4 walks and 6 K's through 86 pitches. Jon Lester turned out a very nice outing, 6.2 innings, 94 pitches with 3 hits, 3 walks and 3 K's.

The game was scoreless up until the 7th inning. The Sox, ended in a better, familiar scenario - knocking around the A's bullpen. Ortiz finally made his first hit of the season in the 7th, where the Sox loaded the bases with no outs and managed to score 2 runs. For more firsts, Ortiz followed up with a 2 run homer in the 8th to set the score at 4-0. Varitek, who very likely scored a home run last night that the referees missed, hit a solo home run to right field.

Final score 5-0 Sox

Notes: Lugo played well yesterday, but Cora played today. Crisp played and Drew was back in the line-up. Ellsbury went out for Manny in the 9th. Manny was very Manny today - who started out watching a hit ball and when he finally started to trot - suddenly stopped when the ball was caught near the track. He looked in disbelief, while we were all annoyed he wasn't running anyways. I love how Youk is a fantastic first baseman. He forces his teammates to throw to him, on the base. and once they get used to it, it's almost foolproof.

Sox have an off-day tomorrow and resume their road trip in Toronto. I'm glad to leave the Oakland announcers behind.....simply terrible!!!!

Up Next:

Friday, April 4 - Wakefield vs. Marcum 7:15 PM
Saturday, April 5 - Buchholz vs. Litsch 1:07 PM
Sunday, April 6 - Beckett vs. Halladay 1:07 PM

Becket is scheduled to be back in action on Sunday. Still waiting for Timlin.

How I Follow the Red Sox - My Obsession

Everytime I start explaining to someone how much I am into the Red Sox I always start telling my list of things I follow and own. I wanted to have that list here on my blog as well.

I aim to go to at least one Spring Training game, one Fenway game (while I am not in the Boston area), and as many Camden Yards games as possible (I did all this last year). Living in RI I would probably try to go to a few weekend Fenway games every 3 or so weeks and go to lots of PawSox games.

I own:
1 red sox hat, B in front, socks in back
1 spring training city of palms park red sox visor
1 red sox 2004 WS tee
1 red sox "curse reversed" tee
1 generic Bob's stores girly red sox tee
1 Varitek home jersey
1 city of palms park tee
1 2007 WS tee

I pay for MLB TV so I can watch the games on my computer since I don't have NESN

I also pay for Red Sox text messages: During the season I get major MLB news, when a Red Sox player homers, when the lead of the game changes from the 7th inning on, and the final score. During the offseason, I get texts about major MLB news and Red Sox news like signings.

I am an admin and contributor to the Facebook group: One Million Red Sox Fans

I am an officer for the Boston Red Sox fans Facebook application, monitoring trivia, photos, videos and articles.

I have read:

A Tale of Two Cities: The 2004 Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry and the War for the Pennant (Paperback)
by Massarotti, Tony

Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season (Paperback)
by O'Nan, Stewart & Stephen King

I am reading:

Fenway: An Unexpurgated History of the Boston Red Sox (Paperback) by Golenbock, Peter

Watching the Red Sox in 2007

Since I am residing in Maryland, I do not have easy access to networks like NESN. I instead opted for purchasing MLB TV, viewable on my computer. The thing I like the most about it is that I can watch archived versions of games - something that is not necessarily so with network TV. I believe I can go back and watch 2004 post season games and I have spring training coverage, the previous year...etc. Other than that, I prefer MLB Gameday. I think this coming year I might try getting into home game audio as well as scoring the games. This past year I have had cable and could watch Sox/Orioles games and other network covered games. In 2008 I think I will be cutting cable for budgetary reasons and forcing myself to go out and find a bar when there is a locally broadcast game. Wow - mingling with people, have I ever done that before??? This coming year is going to be all about taking the things I love and want to do and making them all work with my demands to work as I must. So while I watched the games on my computer and received MLB text updates on the games, my first trip to a major league ball park was April 26th at Camden Yards.

City of Palms Park, March 2007

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, I just bought tickets to Spring training, Camden Yards and Fenway. By the time March rolls around, I've bought MLB TV so I can watch the Red Sox games (since I live in Maryland). March 12, 2007 I've got an afternoon flight to Ft. Myers, FL that arrives around 5 PM. The Red Sox/NYY Spring Training game was at 7 and I had just enough time to get there. City of Palms Park was the first baseball park I had been to in a very long time - the first being McCoy Stadium where the Pawtucket Red Sox play. My seat is only a few back from the visitors dugout and I'm surrounded by what looks like season ticket holders. Apparently, someone gave their tickets up because I was able to purchase my seat. I remember the Yankees sent a watered down team - which at the time I took as the Yankees saying "Well, the game doesn't count so we'll wait until it does count to play you for real," only maybe they were just injured. Since the Yankees were watered down, we couldn't lose. Even if we won, it wouldn't be anything to brag about, but loosing to a watered down team would be so much worse. We won 7-5. (Box Scores) I had a 6 AM flight the following morning and didn't have the money to stay in a hotel. I figured I would just take a cab to a a local bar and stay til closing. Then it would be 2 AM and I would just take a cab to the airport and wait. Well, turns out that down town Fort Myers is actually not that interesting - in fact "ghost town" might be more appropriate. I wander around play a game of poll with some guys at one place, and move on to another bar. There I meet what else? guys from Alexandria VA! It was fun and they bought be drinks. I got a little drunk, and went with them back to their rented house. They called a cabbie they had earlier in the day and once we all got back to the house, the cabbie stayed with us. We all had breakfast at 3 or so in the morning and the cabbie said he'd nap there and take me to the airport in the morning. I guess cabs can drive whenever they want in Florida...LOL All in all it was a good trip and I'm excited to go back next year!