Yikes

Best case scenario: two wins at home, followed by a Game 5 back in Chicago. But who starts?

Bottom line: much more dire situation than 1999, or 2003...

ALDS Game 2: open thread

A slightly better 1st inning than yesterday. Already matched yesterday's total offense, and the Sox starting pitcher looks like he knows how to pitch. Let's keep it up -- anyone online?

WTF?!?

I keep hearing and reading complaints to the effect of, "Why did Francoma bring Clement in for the 4th?!?" Okay, maybe it wasn't the best decision in the world, but...I mean, did these people actually watch the game? Or, you know, actually look at the final score? The Red Sox lost by 12. Let's just say Clement was pulled after 3 IP. And somehow the bullpen magically becomes really really good and pitches 6 innings of shutout baseball. So then what -- the final score is 6-2, and the Red Sox still lose. No, the simple fact is, the hitting sucked. They made Contreras look like...well, the Contreras that the Yankees thought they were getting back in 2003. (Once again, proof that Mel Stottlemyre is a terrible, terrible pitching coach.) The way Manny and Damon and everyone else looked lost at the plate -- it's reasonable to assume they flat-out told Francona the guy was unhittable (and the huge strike zone didn't help). And so Francona assumed -- correctly -- that a 4-run lead was in fact insurmountable, and so wanted to keep Clement in the game, to save the bullpen.

If anyone here wants to argue that Tito did in fact blow it with his decision, I'd love to hear it. (Please, no "we had him on the ropes the previous half inning" arguments. Crede made a huge error, and even after the runs were scored, Contreras needed just 10 pitches to get three outs. He was still very much on his game.)

Anyway, no matter what Boston loses by, 14-2 or 6-2 or 5-4 (remember Game 1 in 2003? ugh...), they're only down 0-1. A win today ties it, after two on the road. Let's go Wells! Let's go...entire lineup!

ALDS Game 1: open thread

Anyone online?

Okay, really now...

...what the hell is wrong with this guy?

Parity scorecard

Following up on something Grieve said a few days ago...remember when we were told this was the year parity returned to baseball? That neither the Sox nor the Yanks were making it to the playoffs, as the Orioles would take the East and a low-payroll team like the A's or Indians would win the Wild Card? Yeah, those predictions were spot-on. Just like they were last year. The Yanks, Red Sox, Los Anaheim, and Other Sox rank 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in salary in the AL (4th was the Mariners, somehow). Put another way:

• Yankees: highest-paid team in baseball (and hence in the AL East)
  
• Red Sox: second highest-paid team in baseball (and hence in the AL East)
  
• Angels: highest-paid team in AL West
• Hose: highest-paid team inthe AL Central

Talk about parity! Highest salary means you get in; it was the same last year, except the Twins had a slightly lower payroll than the Hose. And the year before that, except the A's beat the Angels. Only one lower-salaried team even came close this year, the Indians; and this was at least in part because they benefitted from the best strength of schedule in the entire league.

The NL is not as clear-cut. But this is due to two horribly mismanaged, overpaid teams (Mets and Phillies...who almost made it) and of course the Worst Division in Baseball History. The only playoff spot not affected by those two factors was the NL Central -- which was also won by the highest-salaried team in the division.

Yet all this year - just like last year - we had the sports media and Bud Selig going on about parity finally arriving to baseball. Next year, when they do the same, don't believe them.

Good Thoughts

Not that the bullpen appeared much in this series, but they seemed to pitch well when they had to...Not sure if that is a sign of how things will continue in the upcoming series, but certainly facing the White Sox lineup might be a good confidence builder.

With that said...
In the long run, is it an advantage for the Sox to face Chicago in the short series rather than LAA? I think so...First off, because of how things line up, we will only face Buerhle or Garland once...We might see Buerhle on short rest in Game 5 (if necessary). I think the Sox starters can go deeper in to games against the White Sox lineup than the LAA lineup. We will go with Clement in Game 1, then my guess is Wells, Schilling, and Wake. That makes the matchups Clement v Contreras, Wells v Buerhle, Schilling v Garland (in Boston) for the first three.

Meanwhile, the Angels have their rotation lined up and ready to go against the Yankees. Colon in Game 1 against Mussina. Not too sure about how it rounds out after that...

Not sure what any of this means...If there is one thing this year has taught me is that nothing means anything in baseball. Even baseball prospectus stats had the Yankees chance at making the playoffs at 25% in August, they won the division. We had also thrown out things like, "If the Sox go .500 the rest of the way, the Yankees will have to play .667 baseball to catch them." Well, the Sox went better than .500 and the Yankees played better than .667." And who would have thought Cleveland folds like that? Craziness.

My ALDS predictions-
Angels in 4
Red Sox in 5

Another question

One month ago today I commented the fact that Joe Torre replaced 7 of his 8 position players. In the 6th inning of today's game he outdid himself, replacing all 8:

- M. Bellhorn at third

- T. Womack at second

- F. Escalona at shortstop

- M. Vento in right field

- M. Lawton in left field

- W. Nieves catching

- B. Crosby in center field

- A. Phillips at first

I don't think I'd ever heard of Mike Vento before (turns out he has only one career at at-bat).

The inning also featured a pitching change (F-Rod for Franklin), two pinch runners (Shoppach for Ortiz, and Machado for Manny), and two pinch hitters (Mirabelli, whose HR made the pinch runners sort of useless, for Varitek, and Hanley Ramirez for Tony G). That's 13 substitutions in a single half-inning. Is that a record?

[P.S. 46 players used total, for an 9 inning game (8 1/2 innings, really). Is that a record?]

Non-Red Sox question

Jimmy Rollins just got a hit (2, actually), extending his hit streak to 36 games. On the last game of the season. So what happens to the streak? If there's a one-game playoff (unlikely -- Astros are winning, and Oswalt is on fire), does that count? What about the playoffs? I assume hit streaks carry over to new seasons?

And so...

...the de facto postseason has begun. A best-of-three series between the Sox and the Yankees (2 games at Fenway, one at Yankee Stadium), winner takes the AL East. Loser now has a real shot at the postseason also, given that Cleveland lost their game against the White Sox's bench (after losing 2 of 3 from Tampa Bay). But who cares: the division is within sight.

Win today; win tomorrow; get a day off.