Tuesday, October 14, 2008

From the High of Live Blog, to the Low of Tuesday Morning

ALCS Game 2 - Tampa Bay 9, Boston 8 (F/11).
By Kyle Baxter

One of the worst things about three day weekends, is that hyper Monday that happens on Tuesday. You see, it's like Monday, except 30x worse because you've had an extra day to just sit around and watch sports (or go to a Renaissance Faire and watch sports). So with that, feeling already firmly planted in my bowels (which are better now, thanks for asking), I get to help recap games 2 and 3. I'd say "woohoo" but I think you'd know I was lying.

If you don't know what happened - Terry Francona stuck with a struggling Beckett who surrendered 8 earned runs in 4.1 innings, but the Sox came back to tie the game at 8 only to have Mike Timlin lose it in the 11th. If you want to know more than that then go read redsox.com or ESPN or something, if I recap it again I might vomit. So a lot to be said for this game, and let's start with the man at the front of the rotation.

Josh Beckett has been a playoff beast his whole career. So what happened here? Well, unfortunately a 96-98 MPH fastball is quite different from one at 92-93. His curve was also down from 77-78 to 74-75. These dips in velocity resulted in Beckett going from "dominant" to "hittable". The guy just did not have it on Saturday, and it was painfully obvious. In fact, I was pleading to Terry Francona (err... well my TV) to take out Beckett in the THIRD! Look, I know what Beckett has done in the playoffs, but something is amiss, he's getting shelled, get him out of there. This is the playoffs, not time for delicate egos or going on hope that someone can pull it together. At that point, you bring in Paul Byrd and hope for better.

I'd love to say the offense came along nicely that game, but of the 12 hits, all were gotten by Bay, Pedroia, Crisp, and Youkilis. So 4 guys hit well, 5 guys (Ellsbury, Ortiz, Varitek, Lowrie, and Kotsay) did not manage a hit (though did get 7 walks). The offense knocked out Kazmir early (4.1 innings) and even got runs off of a usually steady bullpen - one each off of Howell, Balfour and Bradford. However it wasn't enough.

Alaskan Governor David Brescia noted "who didnt think it was over when they put Timlin in. sigh." Indeed, Mr. Governor, indeed. It sucks that it's come so far for Timlin, but at 42, despite having the velocity to pitch he no longer seems to have the control. He issued three walks and a sac fly to BlowJ Upton to end the game. Meanwhile, Dan Wheeler threw 3.1 scoreless innings before being removed for rookie David Price who got the final two outs of the 11th.

I this game was a punch in the gut. For some reason I kept a calm demeanor, believing that the Sox were going to pull this one out. That pulling the game tied would catapult them into going home up 2-0 in the series. But it was not to be, as the Rays pulled off another one run victory. Once the game reached extra innings, I did not feel good about this game - in the one run phenomenon this column noted almost a month ago, it seemed a foregone conclusion that if the game reached extra innings that the Rays would pull it out. And pull out they did.

Win: David Price (1-0, 0.00)
Loss: Mike Timlin (0-1, 13.50)
Player of the Game: Dan Wheeler - 3.1 innings of relief out of your closer is unheard of these days, and holding the Sox scoreless despite facing 12 batters is truly a feat. Sad we can't give this one to Dustin Pedroia who hit two homeruns.


ALCS Game 3 - Tampa Bay 9, Boston 1.
By Dan Zappulla

As I made my weekly migration from Providence to Boston yesterday morning, I was in high hopes. WEEI was blasting on my car radio, John Dennis and Gerry Callahan were up to their usual right-wing antics, and the hometown boys had their ace on the hill later in the afternoon. As Callahan noted, "Lester's on the mound, the Sox are gonna be up 2-1, and we'll go from there." Not so fast, Gerry.

The afternoon contest started exactly how most baseball enthusiasts pictured it: Lester tossed four pitches -- FOUR -- and buzzed through the first three hitters in the Rays' lineup. Everything went downhill from there. Lester couldn't spot pitches, had no life on his fastball, and seemingly forgot how to throw a cutter. Tampa Bay hopped all over him. A third inning home run by B.J. Upton sealed the deal. The Rays had a five-run lead, and never looked back. Lester ended up going into the sixth, giving up five runs on eight hits. Not ace-like numbers.

Matt Garza, on the other hand, kept the Boston lineup in check. He was magnificent through six strong innings, and seemed more like Jon Lester than Jon Lester did. He had minute precision on all of his pitches, throwing with Brady-like accuracy. (I love cross-sport analogies, don't you?) He surrendered six scattered hits, and shut down the 3-4-5 spots in the Red Sox order, keeping them to only one total base.

The Red Sox now face a familiar, yet worrisome, situation. They trailed the ALCS in both 2004 and 2007, 3-0 and 2-1, respectively. In both of those seasons, they had offenses firing on all cylinders. They had at least once pitching ace that they could turn to when trouble arised. This year's initial ace, Josh Beckett, has been nothing but dismal this postseason. The same can be said, after last night, about Jon Lester. And so, Red Sox Nation turns its eyes to their new stopper: Daisuke Matsuzaka. After tossing a gem in Game 1 on Friday night, he might be Boston's only hope at pushing this thing to six or seven games.

Have I mentioned that the offense has been stagnant at best? Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz and Jason Varitek are currently hitless in the series. That should tell you all you need to know.

Immense pressure now rests on the shoulders of veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who takes the ball in tonight's Game 4. If Boston wins, we have a series again. If Tampa pulls it out, the Red Sox might need to channel the magic of postseasons past.

Win: Matt Garza (1-0)
Loss: Jon Lester (0-1)
Player of the Game: Matt Garza, Tampa Bay. Kept the Sox lineup at bay (no pun intended) in a critical game for the Rays. An outstanding performance that he may have to duplicate in a possible Game 7.


On Tap for Tonight:

ALCS Game 4 (8:07 PM ET, TBS) -- TB Leads Series, 2-1.
Tampa Bay Rays vs. Boston Red Sox
Andy Sonnanstine (TBR) opposes Tim Wakefield (BOS).

1 comment:

D-Rock said...

My new nickname is B.J. "Beej" Upton.