Captain and Coco
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by Rawbeezeitz
This article originally appeared on http://bloodsox.blogspot.com
1-41. That was our record when trailing after the 8th inning. Now it's 2-41, which isn't much of an improvement. But let's be optimistic here. We've DOUBLED our 9th inning come from behind wins! Hooray!
Anywho, I find it funny that my last article criticised Jon Lester. A few articles ago, I criticised Gagne. So what happens? Lester throws a gem, and Gagne gets the win. Should I take responsibility for this a la Steinbrenner? I probably shouldn't, but I will. Your welcome, Sox fans.
Here's my favorite stat for Jon Lester's night: 13.9 pitches per inning. That's actually really good. For him, that's simply astonishing. This was Jon's best start in a Red Sox uniform since he went 8 scoreless against the Royals on July 18th of last year.
As of right now, our 5th starter is Lester, and probably will be for a few weeks, at least.
Gagne's inning wasn't perfect, but it might have been his best with us so far. He allowed a double, but also struck out the side. He threw 17 pitches, 11 of which were strikes.
Some fans at Fenway gave some boos to Gagne. He was also booed a bit at Camden Yards. I think it might be a bit too early to be booing him. This is what happens in Red Sox Nation. We fall in love with the likes of Butch Huskey, and Rico Brogna, who we expect nothing from. Then when we get a top of the line player and they perform less than perfectly, we start to dislike them.
For some reason, Manny Delcarmen struggles against the Devil Rays. He let up a hit and a pair of walks last night. He had that awful outing on the 29th in Tampa, allowing 3 runs. I don't know what it could be. Maybe because he's up against Tampa, he thinks he's back in AAA, so he eases up a little.
At the end of the game NESN did the dramatic "cut to nervous fans" series of shots in between pitches. However, I have to give props to the director for showing attractive female fans being nervous. I still hate the constant cutting to fans to see how some person in Box 86 is feeling, but having it be a cute girl makes it a fair compromise.
There was also some guy right behind home plate that was calling out Al Reyes' pitches before they were thrown. In Varitek's at-bat in the 9th, the guy yelled "Change-Up!" before the 1-2 pitch was delivered. It was a high changeup that Varitek took for ball 2. The next pitch, the fan called for the same thing. Lo and behold, Tek hit the changeup to right for a double. The guy behind home plate must have done his homework. Either that or Al Reyes pretty much throws changeup after changeup. I think it's the latter.
The next time we face Kazmir, I don't think David Ortiz should start. He's got that bad knee, and bad shoulder anyway. He's hitting .147 (5 for 34) against Kazmir. Manny is actually doing a little bit worse. He's hitting .139 off Kazmir (5 for 39). Using these numbers, the odds of either Manny or Ortiz getting a hit off of Kazmir in an inning are about 1 in 4. That means that neither one of them will get a hit off Kazmir 3 times out of 4 chances. For you hold em players out there, those are slightly better than the odds of hitting a gutshot straight draw on the turn or river. And if you don't know, I'll tell you that you shouldn't be chasing gutshot straight draws.
Having Ortiz and Manny hitting 3 and 4 against Kazmir is just a bad idea. He owns them, let's face it. Having the heart of your lineup having very little chance of doing anything is not the way to score runs.
Anyway, a nice heart warming win for the Sox, which was made even warmer by the Yankees loss to the Orioles. Daisuke goes tonight, looking for the sweep.
