Game 46: They Brought Brooms

Final Score:

Boston Red Sox 1, Toronto Blue Jays 8

I was pretty glad I missed this one; Wade Miller had nothing (two innings, six runs, seven hits, three walks, one strikeout), the offense had nothing (eight men left on base, one double play, one run on nine hits) and the rookie Chacin got his fifth win. Kevin Millar was one of the few bright spots, going three for four in the losing effort. Perhaps he heard about Olerud's call up (see below) and he heard the bell tolling. Jeremi Gonzalez also did well, giving up only one run on three hits of four-inning relief. In the end, it wasn't enough and with the Yankees outlasting the Tigers 4 - 3,* the Sox are now in sole possession of fourth place, with Toronto and New York in a virtual tie for second. It's scary down here. Clearly the team is in a big slump right now, but of course, on the other hand, it's the end of May; this is when the team goes into the dumps for about a month. Last year they did it for two months and still won, so I'm not too worried.

As mentioned above, John Olerud has been called up to the Bigs, along with home grown catcher Kelly Shoppach. To make room, catcher Shawn Wooten was designated for assignment and pitcher Jeremi Gonzalez was optioned back to Pawtucket. There was some speculation that Shoppach would be behind the plate tonight for Wake's start against Johnson, but Francona has gone with Varitek instead. Olerud may very well be here just to light a fire under Millar's ass; he hit pretty well for the Yankees last year and it was a good thing for the Sox that he was on the DL after Game 3 of the ALCS last year. Shoppach, of course, is up to serve as backup, since Mirabelli is on the DL, although I find it a mite strange that Varitek is catching tonight. He did hit REALLY well against the Yanks earlier this season.

Yankees / Red Sox tonight, Tim "Yankee Killer" Wakefield and Randy "My Theme Song is Metallica's 'Seek and Destroy'" Johnson. I'm decked out with the Shirt (which I haven't really worn much) and the Yankee Hater hat (but of course) to try and generate some positive karma. GO SOX!!!

* - Pretty fun game to watch until the Yankees finally woke up and started scoring runs. There were even a few errors to make New York look goofy. All for naught, of course, but I could hope. I was with Micah, who was pitching Tiger's starter Jeremy Bonderman for his fantasy league and thus wanted some weird confluence of the stars where Kevin Brown would have the ability to get into a pitcher's duel, leading to a 1 - 0 Yankees win off the Tigers' bullpen. He was also booing Giambi and every run the Yankees scored. Meanwhile, I was pitching Rivera as my closer and thus had to be happy with his strikeouts/save at the end of the game. Fantasy baseball does terrible things to people.