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Boston Red Sox (3-1) @ Tampa Bay Rays (2-2) |
GAME NOTES: Is it going to be the October Josh Beckett or will he still struggle with his oblique? Kazmir, a Sox-killer, hasn’t had much success against them this year. Will he turn it around? Game Two.
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byrd and timlin are warming up. urghrghrghrghrhg
do we have any right-handed hitters on the bench? looks like Cash is going to have to hit for himself.
Papelbon has only thrown 18 pitches. He should be good to go in the 11th, right?
What the hell was that ump? Jesus fucking christ.
Nice. Which plate did that go over? It was nowhere near where Kotsay was standing.
that was a foot outside
I’m still mad about the Kotsay pitch, if he was a righty that would have hit him on the shin
Oh shit. Timlin.
guess we’re conceding this one, welcome to batting practice Tampa, you’ll enjoy it
i can’t believe i stayed up to watch Timlin?? He better not fk up!
This won’t last too much longer.
wait did Kotsay K again? cause that was the SAME PITCH
Gee, wasn’t that a strike when Kotsay was up?
Losing to the umps again.
Not good.
Have the umps gotten anything right yet this inning?
I bet Timlin will walk in the winning run.
Anybody else still watching this craptastrophe?
Again, with Timlin on, one out, and the bases loaded in extra innings, I put the blame for the imminent loss squarely on the manager, who kept telling himself that Beckett is his “playoff ace” and left him out there long enough for the Rays to pile up 8 runs.
And as I type this, we lose. Way to go, Tito.
Timlin sucks. He got no help at all from the umps, but wow, does he suck.
Yeah – too bad Pedroia scored on that WP to prolong the game, or the ‘L’ would be on Beckett’s shoulders, where it belongs.
Timlin needs a one-way ticket to the glue factory. He’s just done.
Six games, only two losses this post season. Who started those two games? Hmmm. Who could it be?
Lester goes Monday. It’ll be o.k.
I don’t blame Timlin…he should have had two Ks to start the inning (plus Price got the cheap K the inning before). I blame this solely on the home plate umpire who’s strike zone changed drastically over the course of a half inning.
Oh and Beckett, who’d if he’d even been a former shadow of himself would have won an 8-4 game
I don’t blame this one on Tito at all. Everyone needs to back off on him
Back off him? The most important decision he makes, once the game begins, is to pull his starting pitcher when necessary or prudent, and he blew the big one yesterday. Beckett was clearly toast. Like I said, Tito would have lifted Beckett ASAP if this had been a regular-season game, primarily for health reasons. The guy has been hurt recently and you can tell that he’s not right every time the radar gun registers, so why wait to pull him? Because it’s a playoff game? All the more reason to get him off the mound!
And for what it’s worth, at this point, Timlin should be the last man out of the pen in any meaningful circumstance. I’ll go so far as to say that I’d have put Wakes out there for an inning before pitching Timlin. Based on Timlin’s pitching this year, we all knew what to expect when he toed the rubber last night, and Timlin delivered exactly what we feared. Amazing oscillating strike zone or not, Timlin shouldn’t have been pitching at that point in the game, and Tito is the man who gave him the ball.
Sorry, Bob. Two bonehead pitching moves in an extra-innings October loss, this one lands on Francoma’s head, no ifs, ands, or buts.
The real problem with Timlin wasn’t Timlin, but the umpire though. If Mike had gotten the same calls that Price got the inning before he’d have struck out the first two batters and then you would have had the ground ball and/or pop fly. Basically he gave up two chintzy walks.
Props to Maddon for the double steal, but he was working with a great hand thanks to the home plate umpire.
The returning 2007 WS champs are largely not here:
Papi, J.D., Beckett are playing hurt. Mike Lowell, Julio Lugo and Curt Schilling are on the bench. Manny is gone. Those 5 position players and 2 pitchers represent about $80M, well over half our payroll, and a huge percentage of Red Sox production.
The wonder is that we are in the ALCS, having just split at the Trop, and heading to Fenway for 3 games. Few predicted we would win this in 4.
And the key is that we’ve managed a split at the Trop and are now headed home to Fenway, and we’ve got our best starting pitcher going in Game 3, whereas the Rays have already used their 2 best starters.