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All credit to the Rays.

That being said, we sucked eggs today. Lester wasn't Lester and I'm actually going to give him a pass on this, personally. No, NG, he wasn't sucking momentum. Do you guys remember the last time Lester threw more than 160+ innings in a season? That's right, it was never. If he's hitting a wall w/r/t command, I'm not sure it's something we can blame him for. He certainly didn't look like he was pitching hurt, unlike Becks. Just wasn't locating.

DP rolling into that dp in whatever the f inning it is that I can't bother to look up or remember just pissed me the heck off. Few things piss me off about DP, but trying to get a hit on those low-and-away pitches is one of those things. Wait a bit on that count, DP. We had a run in, and you don't need to just jump on Howell. He didn't look rattled because of the SF to me.

Paul Byrd "saved" the bullpen, so that they'd all be ready to go in case Wake gets pummeled tomorrow. My issue with him coming in today rather than, perhaps, to start the 5th inning of Game 2 is that we were already behind. They had the "NG-copyrighted" momentum before he came in. Yeah, he could come in and keep it close without having to use MDC or Oki or somebody, but a foolish vote of confidence in Becks, truly, is what still bothers the f out of me even after an a-kicking of a Game 3 @ Fenway. This also might mean Byrd couldn't start a possible Game 6 if we get that far. It can't be Becks, and I'm not sure who else it could be. That might not be worth worrying about.

I have about as little faith in Jason Varitek right now as I do in Sean Casey's ability to snag a hot shot down the line at 1b. And yes, that's my roundabout way of saying I continue to be pro Kotsay over Casey. 

I wasn't kidding in the thread. Rays: We get 2 outs rather than 3 in our innings, and you let us use DP, Youks, and Bay in the lineup over and over and over. I'm pretty sure we'd have a better shot. Much more balanced in that Rays' lineup.

On the plus side, look. Wake is going in Game 4, and he's absolutely got the ability ot keep the Rays off-balance. Game 5 is Daisuke, who DID keep the Rays off-balance in Game 1. We're not done yet, but the Rays made a huge statement with this game, and I can't remember where I heard it, but whoever said it is absolutely right: I'm among the many Sox fans who penciled in W's for Lester's starts, and this should throw off all those prognostications, a great accomplishment for the Rays.

Let's call it the "venting" thread.

Lester takes the mound vs. Garza, hopefully to get us back a series lead.

v.

Lineups:

Cora in at SS? Ells still at leadoff? Not sure, ladies and gents. Not sure. Cora has a .000 OPS vs. Matt Garza in the span of one game. Lowrie, the same, though I've got a heckuva lot more faith in Lowrie's hitting abilities. Still like Kotsay at 1b for defense.

I'm probably not the only one who hasn't cared for Angels SP John Lackey's comments. The semantics have been debated ad nauseum. Allan Wood makes many excellent points on the subject. 

I'm not as bothered by some of the other comments. Torii Hunter steered more towards the "I feel we were the better team this year." angle, and he came off more disappointed in the outcome than indignant at the idea of being outplayed. Scot Shields talked about not hanging their heads too much after a fairly successful season. 

To be honest with you, I was disappointed. Lackey always came off to me as a poor man's Roy Halladay, in a good way. Until Halladay says something offensive or does something worse than being absolutely an awesome pitcher, you'll never see me write a negative word about him on this site. I would steal Halladay from the Jays as quickly as Ells gets down the 1b line if presented the opportunity. It was a similar situation with Lackey. But this is just ridiculous. Harping on specific plays, whining about DP celebrating his first postseason hit and RBI, while the Angels surely never had any similar outbursts of emotion during the games. Lackey pitched well enough to win a couple games, but came off as a big loser with his comments (via JoS) after the series.

Can't imagine DP isn't going to hit better in the next series. Which is good, because the Rays most likely won't commit the kind of errors we were able to capitalize on vs. the Angels. Definitely need Papi to get it together as well, he was lacking vs. the Angels. Bay, Ells, Drew? Gracias. 

Bullpen usage: MDC over Masterson for those tough innings in which we can't or shouldn't go to Paps. Otherwise, hard to quibble too much. 

I've seen some stuff about Jon Lester pitching in Game 3 so that he could throw a possible Game 7. Great storyline, but let's plan on using our best pitcher as often and as early as possible. I hope this doesn't come off as arrogance, but I don't want to have to plan out a Game 7. It seems smarter to plan on winning more of the games 1-6, rather than "saving" Lester's 2nd start for a game that may not come around either way.

Ideal lineup unless Alex Cora has a great history against Shields, Garza, Kazmir or Sonnanstine:

Ells, DP, Papi, Youks, Drew, Bay, Kotsay, Lowrie, 'Tek. Honestly, no Sean Casey starting. If Kotsay didn't sell you on his ability to play 1b this series, I don't know what else he needs to do. Could flip Kotsay and Lowrie potentially. I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this as the ideal lineup, especially after seeing it in Game 4 (even if it didn't score a spectacular amount of runs). I do think we need to have Casey ready to PH for 'Tek with runners on in the late innings, but otherwise. F. Anyone think there's a chance the higher power potential of a Bailey or Carter might push Casey off the roster this time around?

Whew. Enough for now. See you all later.

Oh wait. This.

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What can be said about this, tonight? A satisfying win, of course, if frustrating for awhile. Jon Lester was all we could have asked for for 7 innings, even if he ran into trouble in a couple of those innings. Never allowed a leadoff hitter to reach base for the Angels in either of his starts in the series. He's taken the mantle from Beckett, at least temporarily, and the ALCS rotation needs to be made out in such a way as to maximize the impact he could have for us.

Oki was okay to start the 8th, but walked Mark Teixeira on four pitches. In came Justin Masterson, and I hope I'm not the only one who wasn't too sure about him coming in to face Guerrero and Hunter. I'd have preferred MDC myself, and he only reinforced that when he eventually came in in the 9th. Anyway. That particular situation is only worth remembering for something I harped on in the thread: MDC is our second-best and second most-talented RP. He needs to be treated as such. If he was available tonight, he needed to be in to face the Angels two top RHHs in the 8th inning with a runner or runners on base.

Mark Kotsay played a good game at 1B tonight, and absolutely smoked a ball in a bid to win the game before Jed Lowrie came up. Youks looked good at 3b, and that's good news, because that's where they'll probably both be playing for the duration of the Sox postseason run.

Jed Lowrie. Bam. He did that kind of thing for us for the good part of the season (if not in walk-off style), and he looked like himself there again. Very Bill Mueller. 

I'm out. An awesome win tonight, we advance to face the Rays. No doubt there'll be plenty of coverage in that respect before Friday: Let's just enjoy this one for a little while.

Bickety-bam.

Also, keep an eye out for Johnny Pesky's retired number ceremony before the game, if you have NESN. 

Mussina (going for 20 wins?) v. Daisuke in Game 1.

Sidney Ponson (going for embarassment?) v. Wake in Game 2.

Rain on the docket as well? Boo to the rain.

JD Drew will supposedly start Game 2 in RF. Even a PH appearance from Mike Lowell could be big, positive news, though it seems we shouldn't get our hopes up about even that.

I've got a lot of random things kicking around my head. 

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MVP.

You probably know all or most of the numbers. 54 2Bs. 2 3Bs. 17 HRs. 20 SBs (1 CS). 118 R. 211 H. 123 OPS+. His defense at 2b has been almost impeccable, and he's made it into 156 of 160 games. Dustin Pedroia has an excellent case for MVP of the league. In addition, there's a certain media fascination with him due to both his size and his attitude about the game and himself. Whether that should contribute to MVP balloting or not, it probably has in the past and could this time.

John Donovan and Joe Posnanski weighed in this week on the debate, and both bring up Kevin Youkilis as both an MVP candidate and, thusly, a reason why DP is not the MVP. You can certainly see their point in the numbers. There's not a lot offensively that DP has done that Youks can't or hasn't done. One point needs to be made clear, though I'm probably preaching to the choir in this forum: DP would have 115 RBIs or more himself if he had guys like Drew (.408 OBP), Papi (.370 OBP), "Being" (.398 OBP) and DP himself (.375 OBP) batting ahead of him most of the time, as opposed to Who-Lio, Ells, and Coco. This isn't to disparage Youks at all, but you have my all-encompassing permission to smack the crazy out of anyone who uses the RBI argument to say that Youks has been more valuable this season. The defense argument is bunk, as well, because even if Youks is better than his peers at 1b to a larger degree than DP is to his peers at 2b, 2b is obviously the more difficult position.

With that in mind, we can only hope (for those of us who, even if we don't put a lot of stock in the individual awards, do a good job of faking enragement when things don't go as they should) that Joe Mauer is DP's competition for the award. Not because it makes DP the clear choice, but because Mauer seems pretty deserving himself.

Playoff Roster.

Quite a conundrum here, with Lowell and Drew's statuses up in the air. Have to imagine the roster will be something like:

C (2): Cash, 'Tek

IF (6): Bailey, Mayor McSpeed, Cora, Lowrie, DP, Youks

OF (4): Bay, Coco, Ells, Kotsay

DH (1): Papi

P (11): Becks, Byrd, Lester, Matsuzaka, Wake, MDC, Lopez, Masterson, Okajima, Papelbon, Timlin or Aardsma

That makes 24. Last spot would (if Lowell or Drew are not available) go to Chris Carter, Jonathan Van Every, or Gil Velazquez. Perhaps both Timlin and Aardsma would go, though either are perfectly capable of blowing a lead.

I suppose I'm thinking too much about all this, but Bailey is kind of already an all-hit no-field option v. Carter, Van Every would be a defensive replacement or pinch-runner for 4 guys who don't really need such a thing, and Velazquez has 3 minutes of ML experience. I wouldn't mind carrying either Bailey or Carter, because I think both have the ability to hit ML-pitching. I'm sure there'll be plenty of debate between now and when the rosters show up, and I'd appreciate seeing all of your input on the subject. Most likely, in my opinion, Lowell is not available but Drew plays long enough and well enough tomorrow that he's written onto the ALDS roster using a pencil full of hopes and dreams.

George Kottaras:

Congratulations to him, and the aforementioned Velazquez on making their ML-debuts. I think it's rather interesting that Kottaras (the more highly regarded catching prospect w/r/t hitting) got the call-up rather than Dusty Brown (higher rate stats at Pawtucket with a better defensive reputation). It's not as though either were going to see a lot of PT in September, I suppose.

Eh. That's it. Watch em retire Pesky's number if you can. I've gotta work. I'll admit it's petty, but I'd be totally down with us spoiling Mussina's bid for 20 wins.

V.

Amidst a busy schedule of stealing quite generic nicknames, the Sox take on the Clevelands tonight at Fenway Park with a chance to seal up a spot in the 2008 postseason. There's only one October, just like last year.

You can have your Hanley Ramirez, Freddy Sanchez, Carlos Pena, Brandon Moss, David Murphy -regrets. The Clevelands have a catcher whose hitting line in 107 games this season is .268/.346/.534, and it ain't Victor Martinez.

Despite a recent hot streak, still not loving Ells in the leadoff spot. The rest of the lineup, however, is just about exactly as it should look given the individuals playing tonight. Jason Bay returns from maternity leave. I might've given Bailey a shot a little higher in the order, but then he might've just reached base and not been knocked in by Kotsay or 'Tek, so maybe it all works out. Zach Jackson is LH, which is good news for 'Tek, as he can hit from the side of the plate that he can still hit from (.875 OPS v.  LHPs this season from the right side). Go Sox. Clinch. Down with the Rays. All that good stuff.

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Beckett was exceptional, throwing 8 innings of 1-run ball in enemy territory. The Sox offense was simply unable to back him up properly.

So, a big fat shout-out to Josh Beckett, who was every bit of himself for 8 innings this evening. He left with the game tied, having engaged in an excellent pitching duel vs. Andy Sonnanstine and co. A Carlos Pena solo HR is the only blemish on an excellent night tonight from Becks.

Offense. Boo. Boo. Boo. All right. Credit where credit is due. Andy Sonnanstine is the exact kind of pitcher the Sox generally struggle against, and his command of the strike zone and fearlessness in attacking the zone were pivotal in his success tonight. However, the Sox continually alternated between being aggressive and patient/passive at the plate tonight, and there never seemed to be a consistent game plan. Despite three decent PAs, I am going to single out Jed Lowrie a little bit. His last PA against Dan Wheeler was abysmal, one of maybe a handful of PAs he's had in sort of "crunch time" situations in which he has looked like a rookie. He's not the only one, however, who should wish for their own personal time machine.

Second-guessing: Justin Masterson over Manny Delcarmen or Jonathan Papelbon: If you're going to not use Paps, then entering a tie game with your 3rd or 4th most talented reliever rather than your second-most talented reliever doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I know there are many who have lost faith in MDC this season, but two facts are worthy of consideration: He truly is the second most talented RP in our bullpen; and his FIP (fielding independent pitching) is actually down a half-run from last season (3.85 v. 3.32). MDC has had some meltdowns in games that have seemed more important than "just one game" this season, but the fact is that he's pitching better than last season and has been unlucky w/r/t BIP v. last season. He also hadn't thrown since Friday.

Second-guessing: Leaving Mike Lowell in: Yes, he got the single and is a valuable safety net for Becks who seems partial to influencing his GBs to the third baseman. However, he was clearly in a lot of pain after making the play vs. Jason Bartlett, and you wonder whether giving him the rest of the night off tonight could've made him better available to play tomorrow. As it is, we have to assume that Bailey or Carter will probably start at 1B tomorrow (Sean Casey?) with Youks at 3B, leaving our offense looking weak with Cash and a rookie in. I suppose Cora at SS and Lowrie at 3B is also an option, but Cora doesn't exactly inspire me with confidence either, along with Kotsay and Ells kind of dragging down the OF lately. 

Second-guessing: The timing of Evelyn Jane Bay: Just kidding. Amidst a poor game for the Sox, we're brought news of this wonderful miracle in the life of our new LF, Jason Bay and his wife and family. Congratulations to Jason and all the Bays.

...

Sox get a chance to tie the division back up tomorrow, with Tim Wakefield against short-rest Garza. I'll be working, hold it down for me.