Terry Francona lost his gig as replace Tim McCarver as Joe Buck's partner for the first two games of the American League Championship Series. MLB teams may face stiff competition for Francona's services as he already has a managerial offer in his back pocket. The Laconia (N.H.) Muskrats of the New England Collegiate Baseball League offered him a $6,000 contract to manage the club in 2012.
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If you thought the day after an epic sports fail wouldn't produce even more news, you'd be wrong. A day after being eliminated from the playoffs in a dramatic, gut-wrenching, uniquely Red Sox fashion, the team and manager ended their collaboration in a seemingly amicable way. A press conference doubleheader on Friday confirmed the end of Terry Francona's tenure as manager after eight seasons.
Terry Francona is apparently no longer the manager of the Boston Red Sox after a 10 a.m. meeting with ownership today. The Sox will reportedly decline his two contract options. Rumors are floating about Tito going to the White Sox.
The Red Sox have begun the post-choke era on Thursday. Call it Heimlich Day. Terry Francona and Theo Epstein eulogized the team's total collapse of 2011 with some blunt comments to try and explain the 7-20, uhhh, effort in September. They started with themselves. "This year, we weren't at our best," Theo said. "I can say that about myself. Tito and I talked about it and I think he'd say the same about himself." He also said part of the post-choke analysis requires management to evaluate themselves to see if they should stay in their current jobs.
They'll probably make the playoffs despite Jonathan Papelbon's first blown save since May 9th as Baltimore beat the Red Sox, 7-5, last night. Baltimore took two of three games this week with a fourth today.
The newest of Boston's starters salvaged the Red Sox only win in their last five starts as Sunday's game in Pittsburgh went in the visitors favor by a 4-2 score. Andrew Miller (1-0) pitched six innings and allowed two runs on five hits for his first win in a Red Sox uniform. The Red Sox bullpen held the Pirates scoreless for three innings. Alfredo Aceves, Daniel Bard, and Jonathan Papelbon also didn't allow a hit. Paplebon eared his 14th save.
Nearly flawless pitching was necessary as Boston's offense was unproductive once more. They mustered six hits, but benefited from four Pittsburgh errors and two sacrifice flies.
The Red Sox turn to Tim Wakefield to end the Curse of Whitey, Boston's three-game losing streak that sort of coincided with Jimmy Bulger's capture on Wednesday in California. Okay, that's a stretch. But, the Sox have run into some trouble with the National League this week, going 1-3 versus the Padres and Pirates. That's three straight losses to two teams the Red Sox should crush. A 3-1 loss on Friday followed a 5-1 defeat on Wednesday. Two runs in two games won't cut it.
Not everyone loves inter-league play. But, seeing the Chicago Cubs in Fenway Park is pretty cool after 93 years. Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who played with Chicago in 1986, appreciated what this game means. "I think this is a great series for the fans," he said. "I think it’s going to be a big ticket. I think from where we look at it, it’s an opportunity to win a game. We got a team coming in that we’d like to beat." There are numerous connections between the teams. Of course, only the Sox broke a decades-long slump to win the World Series. The two teams have shared many players including Andre Dawson, Dennis Eckersley and Bill Buckner, who were traded for each other, and Nomar Garciaparra and Bill Mueller.
It took eight months of chasing, but the Miami Heat finally caught and surpassed the Boston Celtics last night with an emphatic statement and a 97-87 victory to close the series 4-1. The Celtics took the first three regular season games before losing five of their last six games against Miami.
When is it not a good day for a Sox game? Usually, the answer is never. However, in 2011 cellar days, the 2-9 Sox welcomed a rained out game. They don't play today. Two days off might be just what the struggling Sox need.
No Sox watchers ever thought the team would be winless four games into the season. The idea that Daisuke Matsuzaka would be all that stood between Boston and an 0-5 record is a pretty ridiculous thought to actually type. But, that is the reality that is 2011.
Terry Francona finally confirmed the worst-kept secret at Red Sox spring training: Jon Lester is the Opening Day starter for the Red Sox in Texas on April 1. Francona made the decision sometime this winter and kept quiet until now. I think he has that stature in the game now where other teams view him as No. 1. It's a big honor," he said. "I thought we'd wait until now because if something happened in the spring I'd rather not undo it."
The Bruins returned to TD Garden and didn't lose their winning touch with a 2-1 decision over Tampa Bay, the team's seventh straight win. Boston (38-19-7) has 83 points and is in second place in the East. Milan Lucic got the game-winning goal, his 28th, late in the third period. In the second period, Lucic fought Eric Brewer. Steve Kampfer also scored with help from newcomers Chris Kelly, Rich Peverley. Tim Thomas had 27 saves.
The other shoe has dropped. After weeks on life support, the Red Sox learned once and for all last night that their presence will not be expected in the 2010 postseason. Sigh.
Scoring two runs a day isn't any way for a team clinging by their fingernails to the pennant race to vault themselves back into the contention. Especially if it takes 18 innings to score them. The Red Sox lost 3-1 to the White Sox yesterday afternoon, then went back to work at night and lost 3-1 again. Even with Tampa Bay losing, the Sox still lost ground, and their tragic number is down to 20.
The weather was more Seattle-in-November than Boston-in-August. The fans that actually slogged down to Fenway looked, on TV, pretty dejected. And by the end, Red Sox were getting ejected. It was a weird long day at the ballpark. And it ended with a split.
OK, All Star fun is over. Fun in the sense that no Red Sox players got hurt, and the blame won't be laid on any of our guys when Game One of the World Series is in Cincinnati or someplace like that instead of an AL city. (OK, there are some people who blame Ortiz for being caught in no man's land on that fly ball to Marlon Byrd, but this is exactly why Terry Francona keeps a pinch-runner in reserve.)
Felix Doubront? Niuman Romero? Mitchell Friedman*?! These are now the 2010 Red Sox, and 25-year-old Niuman Romero became the latest man on the spot when Kevin Youkilis left last night's game early with ankle pain. (He's OK! Really! He says so.) That meant the rookie had to bat in Youk's cleanup spot for the rest of the game, which meant Tampa Bay could and would walk David Ortiz with abandon, challenging the kid to deliver the big hit.
Wow. A lot happened this weekend. Some of it good. Some of it bad. Some of it inexplicable. Let's start with the good news.
Yes, it's possible that the Blue Jays are just really bad and the Red Sox caught them at the right time. But until last week, the Red Sox were really bad too. But now, after a few days in Toronto and two straight gems thrown by their starting pitchers, the Sox feel OK about the world again.
“The season doesn’t wind down. It just comes to a crashing halt,” Boston manager Terry Francona.
That quote wraps up the entire sports day as the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots were on the losing end of comebacks today.
Two weeks ago, if you had told us that two weeks from now(then), the Sox would be closer to catching the Yankees than they were to falling behind Texas, we'd have put you on the disabled list with flu-like symptoms. Not that we (seriously) think they're going to catch the Yankees, but it can't be denied that the Sox have been playing their best ball of the season lately, and the roll continued with an 11-5 throttling of the O's last night in Baltimore.
Well, not us as in Bostonist and its beloved readers. But the Angels hate coming here once the first fall wind blows. They can barely win a playoff game here to save their lives, and lost their second straight at Fenway with a sour taste in their mouths.
Paul Byrd comes back from a year on the shelf and throws a gem. Tim Wakefield comes back from the DL and gets a W. And now Daisuke Matsuzaka comes back from three months away and beats the Angels. Clearly, some of these guys need weeks and weeks off between starts. Let's seriously look into the 75-man rotation next year.
It's been a tough few weeks (months) for the Red Sox. That's always a good time to see the Baltimore Orioles appear on the schedule.
With most of September left to go, it's too early to say anything definitively. But it sure seems this morning like the Red Sox dealt Tampa Bay a devastating blow in the AL Wild Card race last night.
A few hiccups aside, Beckett and Lester have been more than fine. Tim Wakefield is back. Clay Buchholz is doing better than we expected. Unfortunately, you need a five-man rotation in this day and age (somewhere up there, Pud Galvin just snorted derisively), and that fifth starter has proved elusive all year for the Sox. Brad Penny was just sent packing. Daisuke Matsuzaka isn't ready. And Junichi Tazawa sure wasn't the answer last night, burying the Sox in a 9-0 hole in the fourth inning.
Victor Martinez sparks dramatic Sox comeback
For five innings in Texas last night, the Boston Red Sox looked the way they've looked a lot lately. Jon Lester was good, though not great, as he allowed three runs in six innings. The offense checked out and extended their latest consecutive scoreless innings streak to 17 before David Ortiz blasted a two-run home run to tie the game at 2-2 in the sixth.
Texas carried a 4-2 lead into the ninth inning and then crazy baseball goodness ensued and the Sox won a game they were barely aware of for 3.5 hours by unloading on Frank Francisco's inner John Smoltz for six runs on seven hits, five of which came with two outs.
Runs = wins. It's not a 100% certainty, but since the Sox learned last week to their sorrow that "no runs = no wins", it was worth a try.
This ain't the Orioles any more, brother.
The toughest week of the Red Sox' 2009 schedule began last night, and Game One ended with a thud, as two home runs by Evan Longoria led to a 4-2, 13-inning, five-hour Tampa Bay win over a dismayed Boston team.