“Heart of the Season”

We’re nearly a third of the way through the schedule and the teams are heading into the Heart of the Season, a time where the Darlings of Spring begin to wilt and the true contenders begin to stake their claims for October.

The Sox went down to Tejas for three, which is just as well considering that the temperature in Boston is 20˚hotter than in the DFW Metroplex. Better to be in Texas in late May than late July that’s for certain. The opener (Game 47, Fri. N. 5/25/07) was held up for a couple of hours due to thunderstorms. Daisuke (6-2, 4.06) got the start against one-time White Sox phenom Brendan McCarthy (4-4, 5.82).

After McCarthy set down Boston’s hitters 1-2-3, Lofton led off with a walk and Michael Young lined a base hit to right. Texiera hit a hard grounder that went through Matsuzaka’s legs; Lugo was waiting directly behind the second-base bag, stepped on it and made the throw to pick up the double play (talk about being lucky). Slammin’ Sammy (sitting on #598) struck out swinging.

Manny led off the second with a walk, as did JD Drew (hitting a robust .161 over the last 25 games). McCarthy (who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Clement) then walked Lowell on four straight. The kid cannot find the strike zone, his composure is shot and action has already started in the Rangers’ bullpen. Varitek hit a long fly to right-center, scoring Manny with the first run of the ballgame. Crisp walked to re-load the bases and Pedroia (who swings like David at Goliath) hit an inside-out fly that dropped between Lofton and Sosa, and two runs scored. Lugo hit a short fly to right. Sosa (looking to make the quick grab and throw home) made a one-handed grab and dropped the ball. Crisp came around to score the fourth Boston run. Pedroia was forced at second on the play.

Wes Littleton entered in relief for Texas in the third as McCarthy just didn’t have it tonight. Ortiz reached on a base hit against the shift and Manny followed with a double to the gap. His baserunning blunder on Drew’s grounder was costly, as he was tagged out Ortiz didn’t go for home and Lowell grounded into a double play. The Sox failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity.

Daisuke appeared to be ill with a stomach issue early in the game. After struggling in the first inning he settled down (bad pun) nicely. Hopefully they could get him through five innings. Teixeira started the Rangers’ fourth with a triple off the left field wall and scored on Sosa’s double to the gap. Sox Killer-Deluxe Catalanotto followed with a two-run homer to right, to make the score 4-3. If Catalanotto earned his daily bread on a steady diet of Boston pitching, he’d be the next Bambino. Some guys simply feast on one particular team. With two outs, Laird singled which allowed the Rangers to hit for the cycle in one inning. To celebrate the moment, Ramon Vazquez (who couldn’t hit his way out of a paper bag in Boston a few years back) hit a two-run homer that put the Rangers on top 5-4.

To the Sox’ credit, they came right back with a pair in the top of the fifth. With one out Youkilis singled and scored on Ortiz double to right. Manny followed with a base hit, driving in Ortiz with the go-ahead run. The Sox put it out of reach in the sixth, scoring four more times. Frank Francisco came on in relief for Texas and really struggled. Lowell led off with a walk. Varitek tripled to right scoring Lowell and Crisp followed with a double, driving in Varitek. Pedroia sacrificed Crisp over to third and Lugo singled, scoring Crisp. Lugo stole second and Youkilis singled scoring Lugo.

Kyle Snyder came on and pitched 1 ⅓ innings of scoreless relief, Donnelly allowed one run in his ⅔, and Okajima and Papelbon each chipped in with a scoreless eighth and ninth. The story of the night was Matsuzaka, who came through big time while seriously under the weather.

On Saturday Night (Game 48, 5/26/07), the Sox played catchup again and pulled away with a 7-4 win, Wakefield (5-5) got the start against Vicente Padilla. Texas picked up a run in the second, but the Sox picked up a pair when Youkilis led off with a double and Ortiz walked. Following Manny’s walk, Drew hit into a 3-6 force, Youkilis. Young`s return throw went awry and Ortiz scored on the error. Texas came back with three in the bottom of the fifth, two of which scored on Laird’s double. He scored on Lofton`s sacrifice fly.

The Sox came from behind once more, hanging a big crooked number (“5”) up on the board in the sixth. Youkilis singled to lead off. With one out, Manny ripped a three-bagger to right. With Drew at the plate, Padilla threw a wild pitch and Manny scored.
Drew eventually walked and Lowell singled. Padilla was relieved by Benoit. Crisp singled, scoring Drew. Mirabelli walked. Cora hit a sacrifice fly which brought in Lowell. Lugo walked to load the bases and Youkilis’ walk brought in Crisp. Take that!
Brendan Donnelly came on for the eighth and was effective and Papelbon entered in the ninth and struggled a bit (two baserunners) but was good enough to pick up his 12th save.

The series finale (Sun Aft. Game 49 5/27/07) was simply a gorgeous day for baseball. For the third straight day, the Sox had to comeback from a deficit to post a 6-5 win. X got the start for the Red Sox, but never made it through six. The Sox put up three runs in the fourth inning when Drew led off with a single, Lowell followed suit and Varitek rapped a three-run shot over the wall in right. The lead was short-lived. In the bottom of the sixth, Teixeira’s three-run homer tied the score then Catalanotto, Byrd and Kinsler hit consecutive singles, Kinsler’s driving in the lead run. Piñiero came on and struck out Sosa to put out the fire.

The Sox weren’t finished quite yet. Otsuka came on in relief and Youkilis singled to start things; then stole second. Drew followed with a base hit, scoring Youkilis. Drew went to second on the throw. Lowell’s single drove in Drew with the go-ahead run.

In the ninth, the Rangers brought in Éric “Game Over” Gagné (the one-time LA fireballer). In a case of being overmatched, the burly Gagné seemed to be amused at the prospect of facing Dustin Pedroia. This kid is fearless. After fouling off several pitches, hit smacked a homer over the leftfield wall with his trademark upper cut swing. Now it was Pedroia’s time to be amused. Okajima came on to close things out for the Sox and struggled. Teixeira drove in another run (to think that Boston could’ve had this guy but were too cheap to sign him!), but Okajima got Sosa to fly out. Piñiero got his first Red Sox win, and rightly deserved it.

The Sox ended up with the sweep, but in truth, they played sloppy baseball and were very fortunate to have won any of the games. Had they faced a contender and played as such they would’ve been the ones on the business end of the broom.

On Monday, Cleveland came into town for three, and have a marvelous team that will contend all year in the Central. It was the return of Trot Nixon to Boston, and he received a lengthy ovation when he stepped to the plate. He seemed very much out of place in a different uniform. In the opener (Game 50, Mon. N. 5/28/07) Schilling got the call against lefty Cliff Lee (who’s always a tough draw). Schilling rediscovered his splitter and had the Indian hitters flailing in the early going. The game remained scoreless until the fourth when the Sox put up a pair. Youkilis hit a ground-rule double into the bullpen to lead off. With one out Drew doubled to the left-center gap, scoring Youkilis. Lowell followed that with a double of his own, driving in Drew. Manny homered in the fifth to put the Sox up 3-0.

The Tribe got on the board in the sixth when Blake doubled and Martinez drove him in with two outs. The highlight of the evening came in the bottom of the seventh when Youkilis drove a ball into the triangle. While the ball was rolling out there in no-man’s land, Youk flew around the bases for an inside-the-park home run. The poor guy nearly collapsed by the time he reached the dugout.

Nixon drove in Cleveland’s second run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly, but the Sox got it back with two outs on back-to-back doubled by Pedroia and Lugo. Papelbon came on to close things out and struggled again. Dellucci led off with a walk. Garko followed with a single. Barfield doubled, scoring Dellucci. He was able to blow away Blake and Hafner on strikes to end the ballgame, but was anything but dominant in saving the game. The Sox won 4-2, but Cleveland made things very uncomfortable in the process. Schilling had an outstanding night, his best outing in awhile, and ran his record to 5-2.

In the middle game of the series (Game 51, Tue. N. 5/29/07), Josh Beckett returned from the DL after having missed his last two starts with an “avulsion” on the middle finger of his pitching hand. It was another 4-2 squeaker with the Sox coming out on top. The Sox took an early 1-0 lead when Lugo bunted his way on first and scored on Youkilis’ double. Through the first five, Beckett was lights out, throwing a perfect game. Varitek put the Sox up by a pair with his fifth homer of the season leading off the bottom of the inning.
In the sixth, they added two more on Youkilis’ leadoff homer and Pedroia’s bases loaded walk with two outs.

Beckett’s magic ended in the seventh. With one out Peralta lined a base hit into center, breaking up the no-hitter. Hafner pushed across Cleveland’s first run with a triple into the triangle. Victor Martinez grounded out to first and Hafner came in the back door.

Brendan Donnelly came on in the eighth and ran into trouble, putting two runners aboard before Javier Lopez came on to strike out Sizemore. Okajima came on in the ninth and was great, striking out Nixon to end it and pick up his fourth save.

In the series finale (Game 52 vs. Cleveland, Wed. N. 5/30/07), Daisuke (7-2, 4.43) looked to continue his winning ways against a powerful crew of mashers from Cleveland.
Matsuzaka’s start over the weekend at Texas was nothing short of amazing. On a night when most baseball players would’ve begged off with a stomach virus, he stood tall.
Despite having lost the first two games of the series, The Tribe remains atop the AL Central. Their key is scoring four or more runs per game. When they do so, they’re 26-7. GM Mark Shapiro has done a fabulous job in rebuilding the Indians into a serious contender.

With one out in the first, Blake and Hafner reached on back-to-back singles and Garko was hit by a pitch. The bases were loaded for Trot Nixon who fortunately grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.

The well-traveled Paul Byrd (5-1, 3.81) got the call for Cleveland. Byrd has rebounded quite well from arm surgery not long ago. He always throws strikes and forces a ton of ground ball outs. With two outs, Ortiz (back in the lineup after a few days off recovering from sore hammies and dehydration) lined a single to center, but that was it for the Sox.

Coco Crisp made another spectacular backhanded diving catch of Peralta’s corkscrew line drive in the second, my goodness; this guy is simply awesome with the glove. That catch had to be the fifth or sixth “web gem” play he’s already made this year. Say what you will about his offensive struggles, no one can kick about his ability to play centerfield. With two outs, Barfield singled to right and stole second. (Wasn’t only a few seasons ago that his dad was a fixture in the Blue Jays’ outfield? Somebody’s gettin’ old around here…). But Matsuzaka was able to get of the inning.

Drew reached on Barfield’s flub of a ground ball and Lowell hit a rocket off the wall for a double. Dellucci made a nice throw and Barfield did, in fact, tag the headfirst sliding Lowell out, but the ump called him safe. (Bad calls tend to even themselves out over the course of a long season). Varitek grounded to first and Drew came in the backdoor with the first run of the ballgame.

In the bottom of the fourth Manny lined a double into the rightfield corner and took third on a wild pitch. Drew grounded to short and Manny came home with Boston’s second run.

Cleveland came right back in the fifth. Kelly Shoppach (remember him?) singled and Sizemore (whose father was also a long-time major leaguer) ripped a double down the left field line. Blake grounded to short and Shoppach came in with the Indians’ first run. Hafner followed with a double to the gap in left-center and Sizemore scored the tying run. Daisuke struck out Garko swinging to avoid further damage.

Pedroia led off the bottom of the inning with a ringing line drive single to center and moved into scoring position on Crisp’s sacrifice bunt. All for naught as Byrd set down the next two batters in order.

Nixon led off the sixth by pulling a double down the line in right. Peralta hit a long fly into the triangle that Crisp hauled in; on the play Nixon advanced to third. Dellucci followed with a double off the wall and Nixon scored the go-ahead run. Barfield singled to left and Dellucci scored the fourth Cleveland run. Shoppach singled to left, on the play Barfield was “thrown out” by Manny when he overran the bag. The umpire missed the call again, Pedroia’s sweep tag never touched the runner. Nevertheless, Sizemore belted a two-run shot into the bullpen, putting Cleveland up 6-2. Daisuke’s night was finished on that sour note. He started out well, but really unraveled in a hurry.

Cleveland kept hammering away at Boston’s pitching. Garko led off with a wall-ball single and Peralta lined a base hit to the gap with one out.

Varitek and Cora led off the Boston seventh with back-to-back singles. Pedroia lined a base hit through the hole in short to load the bases. Byrd’s night ended at that point. For six innings, he pretty much had Red Sox hitters eating out of his hand. Thomas Mastny entered in relief. Crisp fouled out to third on a nice play by Blake, while falling into the visitors’ dugout. Youkilis was blown away on strikes. Aaron Fultz came on to face Ortiz and got him to line out weakly to short.

Shoppach took Romero’s first pitch O-U-T, 7-2 Tribe. Sizemore walked and stole second. With one out, Hafner roped a two-bagger off the wall, Sizemore game in with Cleveland’s eighth run. So, in the space of ten minutes what appeared to be a comeback in the making deteriorated into a rout. In the bottom of the eighth, the Sox got back a pair on Lowell’s homer to left.

Shoppach was on fire tonight with three singles and a homer. With the dearth of catchers in the Red Sox organization, it’s puzzling why Boston traded him as part of a package to acquire Crisp before the ’06 season. Could they not have settled on someone else? While he will remain Victor Martinez’ understudy for the foreseeable future, it’s nice to see the young man have a big night against the team that traded him away.

Now, the (last place) Yankees come to town 13 ½ back looking to relive 1978. Let’s see what the Sox have to say about it…