July 3, 2008
Sports Redux: Assume Crash Positions
This is getting out of hand. On a night when the Sox finally decided to support their starter (Daisuke) with some offense, the bullpen decided it was their turn to ruin the evening and send Sox fans to their rosary beads, panic buttons and fallout shelters.
The Sox cobbled together a 4-1 lead on a Pedroia home run, a Drew RBI triple, and a series of fortuitous bounces and wild pitches, the kind that's been takething away a lot more than it's been givething lately.
But then came the Tama Bay seventh, and all hell broke loose. Four Sox pitchers (Delcarmen, Hansen, Aardsma and Lopez) chipped in to allow six runs on five hits, the big shot coming from wunderkind Evan "We're Not Even Going To Make Any More Tony Parker Jokes, He's So Good" Longoria on a bases-loaded double. The Sox rallied in the ninth, but it was too late to prevent the 7-6 loss, the second Ray sweep of the season (each team has won all their home games this year), and the continuing plummet into second place.
And beyond? Every Red Sox-Yankee game seems like Armageddon anyway, as you know, but if the Sox don't right the ship in the Bronx this weekend, their troubles intensify even more. They currently trail TB by three and a half, and lead the Yankees by four. And it's a four-game series. Buckle up. Jon Lester goes against Andy Pettitte to start things off.
Tampa Bay, by the way, apparently celebrated the sweep by blasting "Sweet Caroline" after the game. In that it aggravated the pink hats and showed a touch of creativity, we're going to give it the Bostonist "thumbs up" on the mockery scale. Not as high as playing the beginning of Styx's "Babe" during a pitching change, but not bad at all.
Our condolences to our friends in Seattle, since it looks like the Sonics really are gone for good. While we don't blame the good hardworking people of Oklahoma for this, just the evil ownership, we're not sure that going from "being known for Rodgers & Hammerstein and tornadoes" to "being known for Rodgers & Hammerstein, tornadoes, and stealing an NBA team" is all that much of an upgrade.
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There are two big aggravations in baseball: (a) outfielders who can't throw a ball to the plate without bouncing it 10 times and (b) relief pitchers who can't throw strikes.
The Red Sox have a lot of (b). Delcarmen and Hansen are abominable. I'd like to remember once when I said "Delcarmen pitched a good game". I can't. Hansen needs to be sent to the minors and told "don't call us until you can throw 70% of your pitches for strikes".
That was pathetic.
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Quite often players are thrown out at home because of throws that bounce before they reach the plate.
In June, Delcarmen pitched in 11 games. The Sox won nine of those games. Before he combusted in Houston, Delcarmen allowed 3 hits, 0 runs and 2 walks, along with 15 k's. stats from cbssportsline.