After a wild weekend of baseball at Fenway, the Red Sox clinched their season series against the Yankees and remained atop the AL East standings. Friday night saw a nailbiter as John Lester, Bartolo Colon, and their respective bullpens battled it out to a 3-2 Yankees victory. On Saturday the Red Sox continued their dominance of CC Sabathia en route to a 10-4 victory. Sabathia is now 0-4 with a 7+ ERA on the season versus the Sox while going 16-2 against all other opponents.
As for last night’s series concluding match-up, well, it was befitting of this rivalry to say the least. Josh Beckett pitched 6 innings of 1-run ball, yielding yet another no decision as Freddy Garcia threw 5 innings allowing a single earned run as well. The Red Sox squandered bases loaded opportunities in the 2nd and 6th innings, displaying nothing but an ineffective offense until the bottom of the 9th inning when they found themselves down 2-1. All of a sudden, three players executed perfectly. Marco Scutaro drove a double high off the monster, Jacoby Ellsbury laid down a perfect bunt to move him to third, and Dustin Pedroia (who was 0-10 against Mariano Riveira in his career) drove a ball to deep left field scoring Scutaro and tying the game.
Surprise surprise David Ortiz doubled in the bottom of the tenth, setting up a Josh Reddick game winning single. This hit was huge for Reddick, who has come out of the AAA gates hot as could be. After cooling off bit as of late, I think this hit will help Reddick keep his momentum going and realize that he can contribute the the team’s success at the highest level. As I watched this game go into extra innings just after midnight you couldn’t tell from the atmosphere at Fenway that it wasn’t October.
The Red Sox are now 10-2 against the Yankees this season, so I have few major concerns there. But I must admit that watching Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon pitch so well against the Sox only adds to my hesitations about whether or not Boston will be able to beat the Phillies in October. We’re still a few months away, so for now we’ll savor this win.
If Nunez covers third like he should have on that bunt it is a different story. Hopefully A-rod is a few weeks away.
I don’t think that’s necessarily true at all – you may have had a play but there’s certainly no assurance the runner is out. A-Rod is a joke.
It was a bad bunt that Mariano got to very quickly. there was plenty of time to make a tag if there is someone covering. Is he a joke like Freddy Garcia?
Did I call Freddy Garcia a joke? He pitched very well I thought.
I dont see that many Red Sox games but why is it that beckett cant seem to make it 7 innings most of the time. Is it the manager trying to keep him fresh, is he throwing too many pitches? Hes only averaging 6 innings per start.
His average is 6 2/3 – they certainly do try to keep him fresh and he never throws a ton of pitches. He doesn’t waste many pitches at all either – look at the number of walks he allows. He’s pitched a bunch of 8 inning games, but they have no hesitation in pulling him after 6. They know that keeping him fresh could win them a WS.
Scutaro’s double is a fly ball out in any other ballpark. That monster inflates so many batting averages.
I’m not so sure about that, the ball was almost out of the park. That said, yes the monster does inflate averages to some extent. Sort of like Yankee Stadium inflates home run numbers (see Curtis Granderson).
Granderson has exactly as many home runs at home then he does away. The yankees have played more games at home so he is hitting home runs at a better rate on the road, so your point is baseless.
Fenway is also smaller then yankee stadium at both foul polls
That doesn’t prove anything – it could be completely circumstantial. Regardless of where he hits more or less, balls that wouldn’t go out in other parks go out in Yankee Stadium (the mall). Just like balls hit the green monster that wouldn’t in other parks.
well the sox have more homeruns in away games then they do at home, so put that in your pipe and smoke it.
but the monster does help averages, so i am not entirely sure what my point is
Yeah not sure what you are going for there. But I will smoke whatever your selling.
so you say that Yankee Stadium “THE MALL” is the reason player such as Curtis Granderson hit alot of home runs and supply no evidence, I bring cold hard numbers that show that is not the case, and my stats are called circumstantial? You are better then that, bring facts or go home.
A) I’m not saying it’s the reason he hits a lot of home runs, but it contributes B) I’m not saying your stats are circumstantial, I’m just saying it’s a pretty small sample size and regardless of how many he’s hit on the road vs home, he’s hit more because of the size of The Mall.
Just as Fenway is not the reason Adrian Gonzalez is hitting .350, but it does help when he hits balls off the wall… it contributes for sure.
Scutaros ball hit just above the scoreboard. It was not almost out by any means. To jimmys point, Geoff your argument is baseless because if those stats are true then in fact Yankee stadium hurts his homerun numbers and he should have more if he played in a different stadium. Adrian gonzalez hits .376 at home and .323 away so fenway does more than its fair shair of inflating his average.
I see your point, but again playing devil’s advocate that’s not necessarily true. Who says it’s Fenway inflating his average at home as opposed to the fact that he’s sleeping in his own bed, getting a home cooked meal, and playing in a familiar place? Don’t you think that could make a difference? I’m not saying Jimmy’s argument is wrong or right, I’m saying there’s certainly multiple factors. You can’t say that more home runs don’t occur in parks with shorter fences or that the monster doesn’t help averages, but I don’t think that either fully explains changes in home run numbers or averages.
Geoff your better than this. Come on now
What is unreasonable about what I said?
The stat man saying that jimmys facts are circumstantial yet now your arguing home cooked meals and his own bed. Is it that impossible to state that a red sox players numbers are skewed because of the ballpark?
No I said they were as were Granderson’s, but in both cases there’s more to it than simply the length/height of the fences. Most players tend to have better numbers at home, and there’s a lot of reasons for why that is.