Monday, July 09, 2007

No Dice!

It is said that everyone has a bad day here or there, and yesterday in Detroit, it was Daisuke Matsuzaka's turn for mediocrity. As he said himself, from the Courant.........

"First and foremost, I think the problem today was with my command," Matsuzaka said through an interpreter. "Of course, there were a few hits that their hitters made some good contact on, but overall I felt that I left a lot of my pitches in soft locations.
"Had I been able to throw to a few better locations, I might have been able to hold them a little bit better in this game."

Peter here. He gave up 6 runs and 10 hits in only 6 innings, his shortest outing of the season. The Red Sox are a tired club, and the All Star game could not have come at a better time. Nagging injuries and an overused (lately) bullpen have contributed to the .500 baseball of the last 5 1/2 weeks. That's a long time to play "win one lose one," and I hope starting on Thursday the club will get it together once again. Or those "other" AL East clubs, namely one, will continue to creep up on us. I do not want that to happen.

In other news, Mark Buehrle has decided to sign a contract extention with the White Sox, so any dreams of him in red socks are just that....dreams. And I do have to mention, once again, the horrid play of Wily Mo Pena. He was 0-4 with three strikeouts, but to his credit he was robbed of a home run by the Tiger's Curtis Gunderson. His defense, however, is what really bothers me, and I mean REALLY BOTHERS ME, as he badly misplayed a drive to left by Gary Sheffield that should have been an out, but turned into a double. Theo, there must be a team looking for a DH......WMP is your guy. He is a defensive liability that frankly the club cannot have on their roster, be it in center, left or right. Bundle him with someone and get us another starter for the last seventy plus games. Please.

Click on the title of this post for the mid-season Red Sox report card, written by the Boston Herald's Tony Massarotti. A great read, and something I look forward to every season. Thanks Tony! In fact, here's a sample from the multi-pictorial mid-season review. You must read the whole thing, but here goes......

"Wily Mo Pena - For Sale: 6-foot-3, 245-pound outfielder who plays like the Dominican Rob Deer - hits it a mile, strikes out a ton , but defense is not nearly as good ... still just 25 years old ... in very good condition as he was acquired in a regrettable trade and has been used only sparingly ... owner seeks a right-handed reliever in return."

Peter here, and I so agree. I hope your week will be a great one as we here in Southern New England batten down the hatches and turn up the a/c to get ready for temperatures in the upper 90s and dew points in the low 70s. The dew point is a combination of temperature and humidity, and when it's in the lower 60s, it starts to feel humid when you leave the house. When it approaches or exceeds 70, we're talking jungle-type humidity, when the air feels just like you can cut it with a knife. A dew point of 74 or above is just plain old dangerous. But such is mid-July....hot and steamy. Let's hope our Sox get hot and can reel off 6 or 7 straight wins when baseball, in all its glory, returns to us on Thursday, from Friendly Fenway. Our home. Have a great All Star break. I'll be here every one of those three days, writing about something or other. I wouldn't have it any other way. Now please, click on the title, and you'll see, in pictures and words, Tony Massarotti"s mid-season thoughts. Have fun! I did!!!!!!!!!!

7 Comments:

At 7/09/2007 12:15 PM, Blogger Suldog said...

Pena. Pain. Yuh.

 
At 7/09/2007 12:29 PM, Blogger Peter N said...

Sul, as long as I've loved the Sox, I've NEVER seen anyone butcher the Fenway outfield grass like he does. And yesterday, he was playing the hallowed ground of Yaz, who unlike Manny was able to go BACK to the wall and catch it, rather then letting it go over his head.
Thanks.....stay cool. Peter

 
At 7/09/2007 4:08 PM, Blogger Bosox Fan in Wichita said...

Oh I wish you hadn't said Nate was the "weakest link". It seems to work as a jinx. Kinda like when our team faces pitchers with an ERA over 6 & we start licking our chops only to see that pitcher perform like Cy Young while our team bats like Loretta Young. I know when you say not to worry, you're right, but those sweeps at good contending team's ballparks are disconcerting. Our team has developed some patterns that they need to break out of the second half of the season or the post-season won't be a fun one for us.

Schill says he expects to be back this weekend. Could you be more specific why you think it will be August?

 
At 7/09/2007 4:33 PM, Blogger Michael Leggett said...

WMP/like Windows Media Player=CRASH:

Jay Beuhner for Ken Phelps, revisited;

Well Put, Jim & Peter

 
At 7/09/2007 4:33 PM, Blogger Michael Leggett said...

Loretta Young?

Grand Comparison

 
At 7/10/2007 6:35 AM, Blogger Peter N said...

BFW, he's still throwing from flat ground and I remember recently reading that it won't be until the beg. of August for his return. I hope I'm wrong and you're right.....where did you hear that he said that?? Wow!!
Good stuff ML.

 
At 7/10/2007 10:22 AM, Blogger Bosox Fan in Wichita said...

In Schilling's July 7th blog entry, he says his goal is to be back next weekend. That may be wishful thinking, but whenever he comes back, let's hope he's got good stuff and the ability to use it for the rest of the year. We'll need him.

 

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