Tampa 2, Boston 1

Posted by Projo SoxBlog April 27, 2008 at 12:14 am

By Joe McDonald
Journal Sports Writer

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Almost!

All Red Sox rookie pitcher Clay Buchholz could do was stare into the right-field seats as he nearly repeated his no-hit performance from last September with a three-hitter against Tampa Bay Saturday night at Tropicana Field as the Rays narrowly defeated Boston, 2-1, on some late-inning heroics.

The only three hits Tampa was able to register off the talented right-hander was a double by B.J. Upton in the fourth inning, a pinch-hit single by Dioner Navarro and a two-run homer by Akinori Iwamura in the eighth inning.

“He was good,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “He was throwing all of his pitches for strikes. He was changing speeds. He just left one breaking ball over the plate. . . I thought Clay was great. He just gave up a home run when we didn’t need him to.”

Other than those three hits, Buchholz was just as good – if not better – than he was during his history-making performance last year.

“You could see as the game progressed he was coming off the mound with jump,” said Francona. “I don’t mean he was jumping out of his delivery, he was aggressive with arm speed on his change-up. It was fun to watch. You’re not going to throw a two- or three-hitter all the time, but that’s the kind of guy we envision. His stuff was electric.”

It was Sept. 1, 2007 when he recorded a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles in only his second major-league start. He threw 115 pitches that day and struck out nine for the 17th no-no in club history.

Saturday night didn’t have the drama, the edge-of-your-seat excitement, but he was just as good as he was last fall. He threw 113 pitches (76 strikes) but came up a bit short.

“I felt in control,” he said. “I never thought (Iwamura’s) at-bat would go down like that. I thought I had him struck out with a curve ball. He hit a good pitch, man. When I let it go I thought he would take it or swing over the top of it, but he was sitting all over it. Hats off to him because I threw a pitcher’s pitch and he hit it.”

Along with the no-hitter, last fall was bittersweet for Buchholz. The Red Sox shut him down for the remainder of the 2007 season due to arm-strength issues. That made Buchholz a bystander during the magical postseason run to a World Series championship. In fact, management had serious conversations with him about his preparation both on and off the field.

“In my opinion that’s in the past,” said Francona. “He’s done everything I’ve asked. He competes. He doesn’t back down from anybody. He’s exciting. He has good demeanor on the mound and he just wants to win.”

Buchholz was slow going to start the season, but he exploded onto the scene once again yesterday.

“Overall I felt great tonight,” he said. “It was just a little misfortune, I guess.”

Buchholz got two quick outs in the bottom of the first before issuing back-to-back walks. He got out of the jam by striking out the Rays’ Evan Longoria.

Buchholz then retired the next six batters he faced before Upton’s double in the fourth. He reached third on a ground out, but was left stranded.

With the way Buchholz was pitching, the Red Sox didn’t need much offense.

The Sox’ Coco Crisp led off the top of the fifth inning with a single, and reached third with some heads-up baserunning. Tampa starter Edwin Jackson threw a wild pitch and the speedy Crisp took off from first and reached third relatively easy. Crisp was stranded 90 feet from home plate until Jacoby Ellsbury’s two-out infield hit that gave Boston a 1-0 advantage.

Buchholz was extremely efficient in the bottom of the inning and quickly retired the side in order. He did the same in the sixth and again in the seventh. It was clear he was dialed in.

With one out in the eighth inning, and Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon warming in the bullpen, Navarro hit a soft liner to right field. Ellsbury, playing right field, attempted to make the play, but the ball just fell in at his feet.

The Rays weren’t done.

After Jason Bartlett flied out to center field, Iwamura scorched his two-run homer to deep right field to give Tampa a 2-1 lead. He said he was sitting on the curveball.

"Yes," said Iwamura. "I took a previous swing on his change-up and it carried pretty well to center field (in the third inning). I figured Jason Varitek knew I had timed his change-up."

After the game Buchholz admitted he knew the ball was gone as soon as it was hit. For a few seconds after it landed in the seats, Buchholz just stood there, glaring into right field.

“He pitched great,” said Sox’ Kevin Youkilis. “He just made that one mistake and got hurt on it. But, he threw the ball great and had a great outing. This is how baseball works sometimes.”

Buchholz was close to perfection, unfortunately almost only counts in horseshoes.

Kielty has surgery, out 4 to 6 weeks

Posted by Extra Bases April 25, 2008 at 1:08 am

The Coco Crisp trade watch, such as it is, probably can be called off for the time being.
Bobby Kielty, the veteran center fielder in waiting in Pawtucket, underwent surgery on his left hand and is expected to be out from four to six weeks. Kielty, who was placed on the Pawtucket DL on the 19th with what was described as soreness in the hand, told club officials he is uncertain of how he hurt the hand. He did not respond to a message yesterday afternoon.
"He had a bone spur or something on top of his hand that was causing the ligament to snap back and forth,'' general manager Theo Epstein said, confirming the timetable for Kielty's return.
With Kielty out of the mix, the Sox have even less incentive to try and move Crisp, who yesterday returned to the lineup for the first time since April 15 (tight right hamstring) and had a big day, hitting two doubles, stealing third twice, driving in three runs and scoring another.
Until Crisp was hurt, he had started five of the previous six games in center field. His injury allowed rookie Jacoby Ellsbury to start eight in a row in center until yesterday, when he started in right field in place of J.D. Drew. Ellsbury made the most of his opportunity while Crisp was out. He went hitless in eight at-bats in two games in New York, but still jump-started two rallies by getting hit by a pitch and then stealing second. In his next six games, Ellsbury batted .417 (10 for 24), with a double, triple, two home runs, four RBIs, five walks and four more stolen bases. He had an on-base percentage of .417 and a slugging percentage of .517, before going 1 for 5 yesterday.
Drew was 2 for 20 on the homestand, but Francona said prior to yesterday's game that he had told Drew four days earlier that he'd have yesterday's game off against Angels left-hander Joe Saunders, whom Drew had never faced. Ordinarily, the switch-hitting Crisp likely would have led off against Saunders, but Francona noted the extended layoff factored into his decision to leave Ellsbury in the top spot.
The Sox are scheduled to face three right-handers in Tropicana Field against the Rays--Matt Garza, Edwin Jackson and James Shields--so it will be interesting to see how Francona divvies up the playing time among his center-fielders. While Ellsbury has been hot--Tuesday, he became the first Sox rookie to go deep twice in a game since Kevin Youkilis on Aug. 8, 2004--Crisp has been no slouch, batting (11 for 27, .407) in his last seven games with an at-bat.
And while much has been made of the fact that Ellsbury has yet to be caught stealing in the big leagues--he has yet to be caught in 17 attempts, the most successful attempts without being caught by a Sox rookie since 1920--Crisp has been caught only once in his last 18 attempts, going back to last July 6, and overall, his success rate of 84.4 percent (54 for 64) is the highest in club history for any player with 50 or more attempts.
Crisp said he had no idea how the playing time will shake out.
"He (Ellsbury) is playing well, I'm playing well, J.D. and Manny (Ramirez) are playing well--I wish it was softball,'' Crisp said. "We'll see what happens. It was a little different story about five days ago. Hopefully we'll continue to play well and make it a tough decision.''
Asked how Kielty's injury affects his situation, Crisp said: "It doesn't do anything to my situation. We have two different names. There are other minor league guys. JT (Joe Thurston) will be back. He's a good player.''

Goodbye Cleveland (Red Sox 3-2 in seventh)

Posted by Rob Bradford April 15, 2008 at 8:21 pm

(Will be updating throughout the game)

8:07: Sorry about the late start, but there are stories for the newspaper that need to be done.

While we wait for the first run to be scored, let’s throw out another question that is making the rounds in the press box: Who is the most obscure Red Sox player in recent memory. My choice? Lefty reliever Brian Bark (who just so happened to fix my computer back in 1995).

Jacoby Ellsbury is in right field tonight, giving J.D. Drew the night off. Ellsbury said that he hadn’t played right before this season since his freshman year of college. He noted that while playing in the Cape Cod League his manager gave him the option of either leading off and playing left field, or hitting No. 9 and starting in center. He chose the leadoff spot. Ellsbury, by the way, just legged out what they are calling a single and an error with one out in the fifth. Julio Lugo followed with a single to move Ellsbury to third. Rookie (or intern as Curt Schilling called him) Jed Lowrie notched his first major league RBI by beating out a fielder’s choice.

Ellsbury also said that he never did switch brand of bats after toying with the idea of going to a bigger barrel in Los Angeles.

It is cold here, although not as frigid as it was last night. After being asked by a few players if he had a pizza box under his shirts, Terry Francona revealed seven layers. Speaking of the cold, some of the talk in the Red Sox clubhouse was the ball Travis Hafner hit in the ninth inning last night. Everybody thought that one was out of Jellystone, but the frigidness knocked it down. The same thing for Sean Casey’s blast in the same frame.

Was talking to Casey about coming up with Bartolo Colon in Cleveland and how, like every team that has had the hurler, the Indians were always talking about getting him to lose weight. Casey noted dominant Colon was when he was with him, and marveled at the leg-drive he possessed from the get-go. As for his weight the first baseman responded, “I don’t think David Wells would be any good with a six-pack.” Point taken.

8:27: Classic scene when a group of Red Sox players looked over at their starting pitcher before the game and just started laughing. Tim Wakefield was in the zone … playing the video game “Buck Hunter.” Usually the knuckleballer’s pre-start routine revolves around just crossword puzzles, but when in Rome. After all these years, it would be safe to say that he knows what he’s doing.

What went fairly unrecognized in last year’s playoff series against Cleveland was the effort turned in by Wakefield in Game 4. Pitching with a SLAP tear in his labrum, the pitcher had to get through his start with a cortisone shot and guile, barely able to lift his arm to his head a few days later.

With runners on first and third with one out, Wakefield is facing Travis Hafner, who is already 0 for 2 after coming in with an 0 for 7 mark against the hurler. Hafner walked, which was the Sox’ starter’s fourth free pass of the game. Now comes Victor Martinez, perhaps one of the more dangerous hitters for Wakefield. Coming in the Indians’ catcher was 3 for 5 against Wakefield and has notched a hit earlier in the contest. Martinez just waved at a 59 mph knuckler. Two pitches later Martinez got Wakefield again, singling up the middle for the Indians’ first two runs. The hurler has thrown 95 pitches with Cleveland carrying a 2-1 lead after five.

Although the Indians’ switch-hitters are hitting righty against Wakefield tonight, lefty hitters came into the game with 3 hits in 6 at-bats. Another interesting stat is that hitters came in managing a .300 average against the hurler after falling behind in the count 0-1.

8:53: Julio Lugo just made his fifth error of the season, twisting his ankle in the process. It didn’t matter as Kevin Cash threw out Asdrubal Cabrera trying to steal. It was Cash’s first caught stealing of the season, having succumbed to three basestealers in Wakefield’s initial two starts. The Indians have four stolen base attempts tonight.

If Lugo didn’t remain in game it would have been interesting considering Alex Cora still isn’t fully recovered from his elbow injury. Cora did take some grounders today, but felt some discomfort. Francona insinuated that the infielder might be going on the disabled list, although Cora said that certainly wasn’t the case today and plans on checking it out again tomorrow.

Jorge Julio has just come and gone for the Indians, walking both Kevin Youkilis and Jacoby Ellsbury to begin the seventh. It seems like forever ago that Julio finished third in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. Rafael Perez is now on to face a bunting Julio Lugo. The dream of a Julio vs. Julio match-up was so close yet so far away. Lugo’s bunt attempt worked out for the Red Sox, with a diving Perez knocking the ball away from Cleveland’s catcher, Martinez, loading the bases.

Storyline alert: Jed Lowrie just got his first major league hit, driving in two. Red Sox take the lead, 3-2 with still nobody out. Lowrie now has more RBI with the Red Sox then he did in eight games in Pawtucket.

That leads me to your minor league update: Last night George Kottaras hit two home runs for Pawtucket (3 for the season), while Justin Masterson allowed five hits and two runs over five innings with Portland. For those keeping score, Lancaster also allowed runs in the first inning for hte fifth straight game in their 9-5 loss to Modesto. Today, David Pauley pitched well for the PawSox (6 innings, 4 hits, 1 run) but got the loss.

The announcement has just been made: Kobayashi is warming up for Cleveland! That, of course, would be Masa Kobayashi, relief pitcher, not Kobayashi from “The Usual Suspects” (right).

9:25: Javier Lopez is on for Tim Wakefield and got another left-handed hitter out, inducing a weak grounder to first by Grady Sizemore to lead off the Indians’ half of the seventh. They are now 1 for 10 against the lefty hurler. How does he do it? You have to pay your 50 cents (or click here for free). By the way, Wakefield finished his six-inning stint with 106 pitches and got an equal number of fly balls and ground outs (6 apiece).

Pitches and pitches

Posted by Extra Bases April 10, 2008 at 10:56 pm

That was a 46-pitch seventh inning between Zach Miner and Francis Beltran.

But the Sox did score two more, bringing the tally to 8-3 right now. That was on a two-run single by Sean Casey that scored Jacoby Ellsbury (running for Manny Ramirez) and J.D. Drew, who was intentionally walked.

Center of Attention

Posted by Craig Kolodny April 10, 2008 at 4:13 pm

Wasn’t this supposed to be determined by now? I have nothing against Coco Crisp personally, but am I missing something here? Didn’t Jacoby Ellsbury cement his place in the everyday lineup with his play down the stretch last year? I understand the Sox are probably trying to build up Coco’s value for a hopeful trade down the road, but in the meantime, it’s hurting the team. Ellsbury needs to be at the top of the lineup EVERYDAY for the Sox offense to start clicking. Tonight’s 7-8-9 hitters are Coco Crisp, Sean Casey, and Kevin Cash.  Sounds more like a bottom of the lineup fit for a National League team, and that’s not good with the Sox having scored only 30 runs in 9 games. With my luck that means Coco is due for a big night, but I don’t think we’ll really see this offense get going until Ellsbury is in there everyday.

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