Final Score: Boston Red Sox 12, Detroit Tigers 6What a great night for DC to make his game blog debut! His eyewitness report is after my italics... wish I went with him.
If you didn’t watch this game then you’ll have to trust me when I tell you, this was the closest 12-6 game that I have seen in a very long time. The Old Town Team spent most of this game putting themselves into jams and then wiggling out of them with minimal damage and may have lost if the Tigers weren’t in the process of holding open tryouts for their bullpen.
Tonight was one of those nights when it was a little too windy for Timmy Knuckles to be effective. As usual, this resulted in a lot of full counts, a lot a walks (5) and a couple of hit batsmen. Possibly the most telling sign of Wake’s struggles: 100 pitches in 4 1/3 innings of work. The good news is that the offense finally realized that run support is a good thing and picked up the slack enough to get Ole Timmy Knuckles his first win of the season.
Wakefield wasn’t the only one who took his lumps tonight. Tavarez took it upon himself to make this game close by giving up 3 hits, 2 walks and 3 runs in just 2/3 of an inning. I don’t know if he just wanted to give Papelbon a save situation or forgot to ritualistically kill some livestock last night, but he was a great double play by Lugo away from costing Wake his victory and in the process boosted his own ERA from 0.00 to 7.36. Don’t you just love the first couple weeks of the season when stats can change more drastically than Michael Jackson’s appearance over the last 30 years?
The most exciting thing that happened tonight was the re-emergence of the well rounded offense that we have come to know and love. Most of the production tonight came from unexpected and unheralded sources. The “hated” J.D. Drew (3 for 3, 1 BB) and the “untrade-able” Coco Crisp (2 for 3, 2 BB) each plated 2 RBI’s, and continued their hot starts (hitting .404 and .304 respectively). Sean “The Mayor” Casey (in cause Lowell is now on the DL) chipped in 3 RBI’s of his own and even Kevin Cash (who has one of the coolest names ever) drove in one of his own. The remainder of the runs came from Youk (who also shined on defense) and Manny who according to the drunk BU student on the bus ride home will be the American League’s MVP this season.
A couple of other notes on this game:
1. Miguel Cabrera looked FOOLISH trying to hit the knuckleball. It was painfully clear that he’d never seen anything like it in the National League. Seriously, to all those overbearing dad’s out there… if you want junior to make it to the pros, just teach him how to throw this pitch effectively. I promise, you’ll thank me later.
2. All I can say about Big Papi… STRUGGLING!!! Pretty soon Tito is going to call up the President from 24 and see if he still has that little voodoo doll from Major League.
3. Tonight was Japanese Night at the ball park. The pregame festivities featured martial arts displays, little girls dancing in kimonos, and the Japanese national anthem. This all begs the question: How hard could it have been to schedule this on a night when Dice-K was actually starting? Perhaps the marketing department over there on Yawkey Way needs to hire some new people?
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