It's On!
Here we go again. It all comes down to 3 games at Fenway. I guess the new schedule makers this year really knew what they were doing. FOX and ESPN must be loving this. Hell, I’m loving it too, it couldn’t be any better.
This is about what I was hoping for going into that 7 game stretch against the Orioles and Blue Jays. We went into that stretch trailing the Yankees by 1 game and we came out of it the same way. I knew we had 7 tough games to play and I was hoping that however many we lost between the 2 teams, they Yankees would lose the same. That’s what happened and here we are.
Normally we have a huge advantage playing at Fenway, but with Red Sox/Yankees that advantage isn’t quite as big. First of all, there are always a lot of Yankees fans at these games, usually enough to make a difference. Secondly, it’s the Yankees, they’re not intimidated by anything, and they’ll be up for these games just as much as we are.
We need to sweep this team to win the AL East title outright, not going to be easy. Or we can win 2 of 3 to force a 1 game playoff in the Bronx, not something we really want to do. We can definitely go into the Bronx and win with everything on the line, we proved it last year, but we really don’t want to be playing baseball and using up pitchers on Monday if we can avoid it.
The Wild Card is still not likely. We’re tied with the Indians, but they play 3 against the White Sox, who clinched yesterday and are not going to waste any pitching trying to win any of these games; which means the Indians have a big advantage.
But even if the Indians lose, we still have to win, and if we win, we win the AL East.
This series is going to come down to pitching, as it always does, both starting and the bullpen. We both have bullpen problems, but Rivera gives them the edge. Starting pitching is a toss up.
Tonight it’s Wang against Wells, that sounds kind of funny to me, actually, it's just the Wang that's funny. Anyway, we’ve faced him once at the end of May and got to him for 2 runs on 6 hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings. We always have trouble against pitchers we haven’t seen much of, and he pitched pretty well in his last 2 starts against the Jays and O’s.
This is the game we signed Wells for. As I’ve said a hundred times, he has a history of coming up big in games like this. The problem is, he’s also battling a bad knee, which forced him out of his last start early.
Tomorrow it’s Johnson against Wakefield in a rematch of the September 11, 1-0 showdown won by Johnson. Wakefield has been our best pitcher this year, and our ace this month, and he’s been great against the Yankees in his career. Those guys do not like to face him. He’s also pitching on 3 days rest, and has a 5.13 ERA when he does that.
Meanwhile, Johnson is still not the old Johnson and has been continually inconsistent. He’s pitched well his last couple of starts but that was after coming off a start against the O’s where he got ejected in the second for arguing balls and strikes after giving up a 3 run bomb to Vernon Wells in the first. At Fenway this year we’ve scored 9 runs off of him on 13 hits and 5 walks in 13 1/3 innings.
Sunday, it’s Mussina against Schilling. Moose is battling a sore elbow and coming off one of his worst starts of the year. Schilling is battling himself and still trying to find some of that magic he had last year. It’s not too late for it to happen.
With all of the problems this team has, I still have faith in them. All of the players are still capable of going out and getting the job done. We need our starters to give us some innings to keep this bullpen fresh so that when we do need them they can come out and get it done. We need the defense to make all the plays because we can’t afford to make any of these pitchers throw extra pitches, and we really can’t afford to give this team extra outs. We need this offense to get back to their old hitting ways. It would be great if they could jump out early and take some pressure off the pitching.
All of these things can be done, although they could be done by either team. We just have to hope that our guys want it a little more than their guys do.
It’s also most likely that the MVP will be decided over this weekend. Right now I would say Papi may have the advantage because of his late inning numbers and almost half of his homeruns have either tied the score or given the Sox the lead. But with all eyes on Fenway this weekend, both of their performances will go a long way in the final decision, as well as the outcome of the series. If they’re performances are close, the team that wins it could be the determining factor.
No matter what happens this weekend, it’s going to be pretty exciting, even if you’re not a Sox or Yankee fan, hell even if you’re not a baseball fan.
Let’s go out and get it done.
GO SOX!!!!
This is about what I was hoping for going into that 7 game stretch against the Orioles and Blue Jays. We went into that stretch trailing the Yankees by 1 game and we came out of it the same way. I knew we had 7 tough games to play and I was hoping that however many we lost between the 2 teams, they Yankees would lose the same. That’s what happened and here we are.
Normally we have a huge advantage playing at Fenway, but with Red Sox/Yankees that advantage isn’t quite as big. First of all, there are always a lot of Yankees fans at these games, usually enough to make a difference. Secondly, it’s the Yankees, they’re not intimidated by anything, and they’ll be up for these games just as much as we are.
We need to sweep this team to win the AL East title outright, not going to be easy. Or we can win 2 of 3 to force a 1 game playoff in the Bronx, not something we really want to do. We can definitely go into the Bronx and win with everything on the line, we proved it last year, but we really don’t want to be playing baseball and using up pitchers on Monday if we can avoid it.
The Wild Card is still not likely. We’re tied with the Indians, but they play 3 against the White Sox, who clinched yesterday and are not going to waste any pitching trying to win any of these games; which means the Indians have a big advantage.
But even if the Indians lose, we still have to win, and if we win, we win the AL East.
This series is going to come down to pitching, as it always does, both starting and the bullpen. We both have bullpen problems, but Rivera gives them the edge. Starting pitching is a toss up.
Tonight it’s Wang against Wells, that sounds kind of funny to me, actually, it's just the Wang that's funny. Anyway, we’ve faced him once at the end of May and got to him for 2 runs on 6 hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings. We always have trouble against pitchers we haven’t seen much of, and he pitched pretty well in his last 2 starts against the Jays and O’s.
This is the game we signed Wells for. As I’ve said a hundred times, he has a history of coming up big in games like this. The problem is, he’s also battling a bad knee, which forced him out of his last start early.
Tomorrow it’s Johnson against Wakefield in a rematch of the September 11, 1-0 showdown won by Johnson. Wakefield has been our best pitcher this year, and our ace this month, and he’s been great against the Yankees in his career. Those guys do not like to face him. He’s also pitching on 3 days rest, and has a 5.13 ERA when he does that.
Meanwhile, Johnson is still not the old Johnson and has been continually inconsistent. He’s pitched well his last couple of starts but that was after coming off a start against the O’s where he got ejected in the second for arguing balls and strikes after giving up a 3 run bomb to Vernon Wells in the first. At Fenway this year we’ve scored 9 runs off of him on 13 hits and 5 walks in 13 1/3 innings.
Sunday, it’s Mussina against Schilling. Moose is battling a sore elbow and coming off one of his worst starts of the year. Schilling is battling himself and still trying to find some of that magic he had last year. It’s not too late for it to happen.
With all of the problems this team has, I still have faith in them. All of the players are still capable of going out and getting the job done. We need our starters to give us some innings to keep this bullpen fresh so that when we do need them they can come out and get it done. We need the defense to make all the plays because we can’t afford to make any of these pitchers throw extra pitches, and we really can’t afford to give this team extra outs. We need this offense to get back to their old hitting ways. It would be great if they could jump out early and take some pressure off the pitching.
All of these things can be done, although they could be done by either team. We just have to hope that our guys want it a little more than their guys do.
It’s also most likely that the MVP will be decided over this weekend. Right now I would say Papi may have the advantage because of his late inning numbers and almost half of his homeruns have either tied the score or given the Sox the lead. But with all eyes on Fenway this weekend, both of their performances will go a long way in the final decision, as well as the outcome of the series. If they’re performances are close, the team that wins it could be the determining factor.
No matter what happens this weekend, it’s going to be pretty exciting, even if you’re not a Sox or Yankee fan, hell even if you’re not a baseball fan.
Let’s go out and get it done.
GO SOX!!!!
posted by Bob at 9/30/2005 09:47:00 AM
1 Comments:
The world will be watching. I think they can do it.
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