Red Sox - Rays ALCS IST

[Frayed Knot]

Game 1: 8:something tonight first pitch in the St Pete dingy dome

Matsuzaka vs Scott Shields

Mike Lowell (hip) is out of the series for Boston

[metirish]

This is a TBS game?

[Frayed Knot]

Yes, the AL games will all be on TBS and the NL all on FOX

[Centerfield]

I can't believe this is just starting now. If the schedule is going to be this protracted, you might as well make the Divisional Series seven games.

[stevejrogers]

Red Sox win 2-0.

Matsuzaka with a no-no through 7, despite walking the bases loaded in the 1st!

[Frayed Knot]

Through 6 with that no-hitter actually. Crawford singled on the 2nd pitch of the 7th.

Matsuzaka is a good pitcher but geez he's a chore to watch. Not surprising that he was part of a 2-0 game that still managed to go 3-1/2 hours.

Papelbon doesn't help either. I timed some of his pitches last night and he was taking 30-40 seconds between each, and that was with the bases empty.
Every Spring the league starts yapping about how they're going to enforce the time-limit per pitch rule and every year it doesn't happen. Not that I expect them to start in a playoff series but I'm sure Papelbon didn't just invent this pace for last night.

[soupcan]

Did you guys know this?

I had no idea until I saw him in the dugout last night.

[soupcan]

New York Times:

]MADDON RECALLS METS The 2008 Rays have often been compared to the 1969 Mets, a team that won a championship after seven straight losing seasons. The Rays endured 10 straight losing seasons before winning 97 games and reaching the A.L.C.S. When the Mets were making their dash to their first World Series title, Joe Maddon was a 15-year-old living in Hazelton, Pa. Maddon was a St. Louis Cardinals fan, but he monitored the Mets, too. �I followed it very closely on WOR, watched �Kiner�s Korner� every night,� Maddon said. He added, �I was a big fan, actually.� Maddon recalled that the Mets had a powerful rotation, a strong bullpen and resilience. �The biggest thing obviously was that they kept beating the odds and that they continued to move forward obviously from the meager past that they had,� he said. Maddon also fondly recalled Karl Ehrhardt, the fan who was known for holding up signs with catchy phrases. �Primarily, you know what you remember from that most of all when you watch those games on television,� Maddon said. �You remember the guy that held up the signs. The guy that was the sign guy. I mean, you always waited for the TV guy to break to the sign guy to give you the message for the day. And a lot of it was about believing, obviously.�

[Willets Point]

Further playing career notes should include: "His walk-off home run versus the Giants in June 1980 most likely inspired Willets Point to a lifelong love of the Mets."

[Guest AG/DC]

soupcan wrote: Did you guys know this? I had no idea until I saw him in the dugout last night.

I keep that thread going, man. It's all in there.

[stevejrogers]

Bogar and Zimmer are your other ex-Mets on the bench for Maddon.

Quite a collection spanning the eras of Met futility!

[soupcan]

AG/DC wrote: I keep that thread going, man. It's all in there.

Yes you do. My bad.

[Frayed Knot]

Game 2, 8:00 tonight
Kazmir v Beckett

Edited October 11, 2008 by Guest

[stevejrogers]

CLIFF!

Kaboom.

Rays 5-3, through 4.

[stevejrogers]

Dustin Pedroia with his second homer of the day, now 5-4 Rays.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Ellsbury demonstrating yet another reason that bunting is for losers as he fouls one off the bill of his batting helmet. Lucky he didn't hurt himself.

[Fman99]

8-7 in the 6th. This game will be on for many hours still.

[Frayed Knot]

Fman99 wrote: 8-7 in the 6th. This game will be on for many hours still.

About 5-1/2 as it turned out.

At least it was a Saturday so the game was started at a decent time rather than end at some outrageous hour of the mor ...
Oh wait!

One of these days the head honchos will realize that they're shooting themselves in the foot by opting for increased up-front money in exchange letting TV dictate the starting times ... but I'm not holding my breath until that point.



Neither starter was good.
Something's wrong with Beckett although no one will say what.
And while Kazmir obviously has talent and is still only 24 I'm starting to doubt his future as a real ace. His slider is only so-so and his penchant for walks, high pitch counts and HRs is going to get him into trouble. Given 5 runs in the first 4 innings he couldn't get through the 5th.

[stevejrogers]

Frayed Knot wrote: And while Kazmir obviously has talent and is still only 24 I'm starting to doubt his future as a real ace. His slider is only so-so and his penchant for walks, high pitch counts and HRs is going to get him into trouble. Given 5 runs in the first 4 innings he couldn't get through the 5th.

They said the same thing about Ryan.

Still easily the worse trade in Met history.

[Frayed Knot]

Well then fortunately for me I am neither worried about what "they" say nor am I
trying to justify the trade.

My point was that, while Ryan did become a much better pitcher in his thirties than he
ever was in his twenties, in addition to his fastball he also had a devastating secondary
pitch and one of the strongest bodies around that allowed him to go deep into games and
pitch-counts.
Kazmir has neither of those.

That doesn't mean he's not good or can't improve, it means I have doubts about him
becoming the kind of top-flight pitcher that Ryan (occasionally) was.
Even Nolan, despite his inclusion on that All-Century team stuff, was more there on account of
popularity generated by his occasional spectatular-ness and wasn't on the level of the pitchers
he was grouped in with.

[Guest AG/DC]

Wow, on what planet did they live when they chose him over Seaver?

[Frayed Knot]

[u:4449306c8c]Game 3, 4:00[/u:4449306c8c]

Lester vs Garza

[stevejrogers]

AG/DC wrote: Wow, on what planet did they live when they chose him over Seaver?

Simple really, the fans voted. Ryan is very Ruthian in the way he has been marketed, especially since he became a Ranger during the explosion of the memorabilia craze.

[stevejrogers]

Frayed Knot wrote: Game 3, 4:00 Lester vs Garza

Surprised this is the early evening game. Guess they'd rather have quasi prime-time in the West Coast markets.

[Frayed Knot]

I'd like to think that it was a common-sense decision made with weather (NE vs SoCal) and time zones (EDT v PDT) in mind, but more likely it was a pre-arranged deal where the higher paying network (FOX in this case w/the NL series) gets the prime time slot while TBS gets banished to the afternoon.

[Frayed Knot]

3R HRs from Upton and Baldelli are about to put the Rays up a game.

[Gwreck]

Frayed Knot wrote: I'd like to think that it was a common-sense decision made with weather (NE vs SoCal) and time zones (EDT v PDT) in mind, but more likely it was a pre-arranged deal where the higher paying network (FOX in this case w/the NL series) gets the prime time slot while TBS gets banished to the afternoon.

Maybe it's because they aren't going to start a game at 1:30 PDT?

[metirish]

TBS hyped Lester to the gills during the pre-game and in the first innings , it was way over the top stuff , yes Lester is a good story but when you start digging up silly stats that place Lester in the company of Christy Mathewson and Waite Hoyt then you are asking for trouble.

IIRC and I think I am then the stat stated that Lester has pitched 19+ scoreless innings in this post-season so far....not that he has not been scored on in his first 19 post-season innings but his last 19....it was silly.

[Frayed Knot]

Networks using small samples and pretending they paint large pictures is par for the course.


[u:2181a86d96]Game 4 - 8:00[/u:2181a86d96]

Game 4 is always a biggie in these series. At the end the series is either dead even or practically over.

And it's Boston who needs to get back into things and are depending on the erratic flutterball of Tim Wakefield to do it. That usually means no Varitek too although these days his bat isn't bringing much anyway.

Andy Sonnenstine (13-9, 4.38) for the Rays.

[Frayed Knot]

The rout is on and the defending champs are in deep doo-doo.