Boston Red Sox 2, Oakland Athletics 1
A Rare Sight?Red Sox with good pitching!!! Lies you say? Heresy you scream? Blasphemy you gasp? Something you… something? Well it’s true! Bronson was fantastic. Papelbon-bon was super hot and Timlin threw 9 straight strikes to get the save. It was playoff caliber pitching and it really is about time. I know it's football season and everything, but 14-9 scores every night get a little old.
Unfortunately, this game wasn’t all sunshine and moonbeams. The lineup seems to be suffering from a near fatal case of Dead Bat Disorder (DBD). Danny Haren pitched a hell of a game… but I mean really. Tek looks so beat, I think wires are actually holding him up when he bats. Millar has been hot recently (over .350 in September) but he still hasn’t found his mojo, Billy Mueller has had a “please don’t pay me well next year” offensive season and Renteria thinks RISP is the name of a band. Moving into the outfield, Nixon and Damon are so banged up they look forward to their cortisone shots like junkies waiting on a fix.
That leaves Olerud (he’s old), Tony G (he’s hurting), Alex Cora (doesn’t play everyday), Youlk (doesn’t play everyday), Mirabelli (thank GOD he doesn’t play everyday), Petagine (wait... who?), and then Manny/Ortiz.
Ortiz is automatic. His gun is usually loaded, but even Big Papi runs out of bullets now and then. And Manny? Well it’s been said that Manny is having an “off” season. Just don’t tell that to the homerun he hit tonight. It should be coming down anytime now… anytime. 36 homers, 126 rbi and counting. A few more of these “off" seasons and he’s going to be in the Hall of Fame.
So the combo of Manny/Ortiz is still the most potent in baseball, but still isn’t 9 guys worth of potent. The Yankees are still 1.5 games behind us and seem to be reading the paper over our shoulder. That means the other bats need to wake up and they need to do it around 2:05 tomorrow. The final non AL East game of the season is against Kirk “Stupid Dog Name” Saarloos, with Clement pitching for the good guys in red socks. Win the series and knock the extra vowels out of Saarloos name.
GO SOX!
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