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Baseball Today: Thursday, May 1

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TAKE TWO: Twenty-four hours had passed, and the situation was almost identical: Great pitchers' duel. Tie game. Runners at first and second. Bottom of the ninth. But this time, as Sean McAdam writes, it took two singles to center, not one, to drive in the winning run. After pinch-runner Jed Lowrie was thrown out at the plate by Vernon Wells on Brandon Moss' first attempt to end things, Jason Varitek (above, being congratulated by first-base coach Luis Alicea) delivered Manny Ramirez and the Red Sox had their second straight walkoff win over the Blue Jays, 2-1. The postgame celebration, writes the Globe's Amalie Benjamin, mirrored the one from the night before, even if the principles were a little different. Lost in the afterglow was another good starting-pitching performance, this one from Daisuke Matsuzaka (seven innings, two hits, no runs), whom Jim Rice thinks is poised for a 20-win season (ask14.sullivantire.com) and whom Tom Hanks thinks would be a great subject for a movie. (afp.google.com)

They're still not hitting or scoring much -- yesterday's two-run output was their highest since last Friday, and they've scored a grand total of four runs in their last four games -- but their pitching has been lights out; how else could they be 2-2 over that span? And how else could they be back in first place (projo.com) despite such feeble production? Goes to show that when you can pitch -- and the ProJo Fantasy Sports Blog's pitcher rankings show the Sox can pitch, all right -- you've always got a chance.

ANOTHER WEAPON: You've also got always got a chance when you've got a Jonathan Papelbon at the back end of your bullpen, and Papelbon appears to have expanded his skill set by mastering something he barely used last year: A pickoff move. We all remember how he nailed down Game Two of the World Series with his unexpected, eighth-inning erasure of Matt Holliday (projo.com), made all the more surprising by the fact that he hadn't picked off a runner -- or, indeed, thrown over to first base very much -- all year. He did it again last night, nailing ex-Providence College star John McDonald in the ninth inning to help preserve the 1-1 tie. (Boston Herald) The Jays think Papelbon's move is a balk but they didn't argue the call; McDonald, to his credit, said simply, "[You] can't get picked off in that situation." (Both stories Toronto Star)

SPRING AWAKENING? The offensive catalyst at last was David Ortiz, who homered in the seventh and kick-started the game-winning rally with a single in the ninth. The Herald's Alex Speier says "he’s showing signs [of] coming around" despite the .184 batting average he takes out of the month of April.

GO FIGURE: Terry Francona didn't run for Ortiz on Tuesday night and the big guy managed to lumber home from second base with the game-winning run on Kevin Youkilis' single. Francona did send in Lowrie to run for him last night, and Lowrie got nailed at the plate. That dichotomy, and the reason behind it, is the lead item in Steven Krasner's Inside The Game, which also includes items on Manny Delcarmen's continuing struggles and a brain cramp by Marco Scutaro that could have cost the Jays in the eighth. The online-only version contains an item on Dustin Pedroia sterling defense at second base. (ProJo Sox Blog)

STAR POWER: Our pal the Tao of Steib isn't a big fan of Kevin Youkilis (caution: that distaste mainfests itself in some NSFW language), but MLB apparently is. For the first time, it has Youk on the All-Star ballot. (Boston Globe)

LOOKING FOR NEW DIGS: The news that the Sox may move their spring-training base to Sarasota -- their spring home for most of the 1930s, '40s and '50s -- when their deal with Fort Myers expires after 2011 is the lead item in McAdam and Krasner's notebook. The ABC7 Sports Blog in Fort Myers says not to worry, the Sox aren't going anywhere, but seems to base that bravado solely on the team's string of sellouts -- something that would probably happen anywhere they played -- while almost completely ignoring the fact that the Sox a) would like to house their minor-league spring operations together with their major-league program, which they can't do in Fort Myers because of a lack of land, and b) have their Florida State League affiliate play at their spring-training facility, which they also can't do at Fort Myers because the Twins own the territory.

IT'S NOT QUITE THE SAME AS FINDING A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK: So you bought something at Jordan's Furniture in the hopes of cashing in if the Red Sox sweep the World Series? The Wall Street Journal puts the odds of you winning this "bet" at between two and five percent.

HOLD OFF ON THAT TRIP TO COOPERSTOWN JUST YET: Everyone was singing Justin Masterson's praises after his one-shot in Boston last week -- including us -- but he had a crashing-back-to-Earth moment in his first start back with Portland last night. (Portland Press-Herald)

STRONG VOICE: Seacoastonline.com has a nice feature on Red Sox radio announcer Dave O'Brien.

DON'T JUST SIT THERE, DO SOMETHING! The struggling Blue Jays need something to shake them up, but general manager J.P. Ricciardi says the only thing anyone ever asks for in trade talks is pitching . . . so therefore he's not about to make any trades. (Toronto Globe and Mail)

NEW ERA: Tough times in the Bronx. Not only do the Yanks continue to stumble -- last night it was Andy Pettitte getting beat by the Tigers (New York Post) -- but the calm, in-control aura the team always exuded under Joe Torre is crumbling a bit, too. The news that Phil Hughes is headed to the disabled list because of a mysterious oblique injury (New York Post) -- mysterious because no one had heard a word of a potential Hughes injury until the announcement that he was headed to the DL came in the middle of the game -- was handled "about as adeptly as Jason Giambi handles grounders to his right," according to Newsday's Wallace Matthews. Peter Abraham noted the graceless way Joe Girardi handled routine media inquiries about Hughes prior to the game (LoHud Yankees Blog), leading to the Post's Joel Sherman to decry Girardi's "absurdly secretive nature . . . [which] would make Dick Cheney jealous." Sherman declares Girardi "is a hoodie away from being Bill Belichick . . . minus any success." That's off-the-field stuff. On the field, we have the unknown length of Alex Rodriguez' absence (New York Daily News) and a catching situation so dire that, as Abraham notes, Chad Moeller seems like a savior. Steven Goldman, writing for the Yes Network, says many of the Yanks' preseason plans are in ruins. Yes, tough times indeed.

OLD HURTS: Things aren't much better across town, where the Daily News' Mike Lupica says the stench of last September still reeks at Shea Stadium.

THE REAL RIVALRY: Forget Red Sox-Yankees. ESPN.com's Page 2 says the series between the Orioles and the Rays represents the future battle for A.L. East supremacy. (The Rays I can see, but I'm going to need to get a little more evidence before I sign off on the Orioles.) Pinto, writing for sportingnews.com, says Tampa's improved defense is leading to its sudden pitching success.

GOOD NEWS AT LAST: The ABC7 Sports Blog is the first to defend Roger Clemens -- sort of -- when it points out that it's highly unlikely Clemens met Mindy McCready at a Fort Myers bar when she was 15 in 1991, as reported by the New York Daily News and confirmed by McCready herself. The Red Sox still trained at Winter Haven at the time and it's extremely unlikely he made the Sox' only trip to Fort Myers that spring. (He didn't pitch in the game against the Twins, and starting pitchers almost never travel with the team to away games -- especially those that are 2 1/2 hours away -- if they're not working.) Whether it's a case of McCready lying (as the blog insinuates) or simply a matter of being off by a year or two on the timeframe (as McCready's mother indicates) remains to be seen.

RESUME FIRING: But Clemens and his defenders had almost no time to enjoy this rare bit of relief, as the Daily News now links him with John Daly's ex-wife.

AND A BABE SHALL LEAD YOU: Speaking of Clemens, David Pinto of Baseball Musings thinks Braves farmhand Jordan Schafer -- suspended for use of performance-enhancing drugs -- is doing just what Clemens should have done: Answering "No comment" to any and all inquires about his penalty and his use of PEDs.

COULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN FROM MY LIBRARY: I've read -- and own -- most of the titles in the Bronx Banter's list of essential baseball books. As a personal aside, I think You Know Me Al, which I've just been rereading, should be listed a little higher . . . although I don't know if it's as much "essential" as it is "enjoyable."

THE DEBATE: Two members of the mainstream media with strong online presences -- Joe Posnanski and Peter Abraham -- weigh on in Bob Costa's HBO special about sports media, specifically the part about bloggers and Buzz Bissinger's full frontal attack on Deadspin's Will Leitch, which Leitch chronicles here. Abraham does a great job of explaining the integration of new media by traditional media outlets and why it so angers/frightens many traditionalists. Posnanski -- as usual -- is insightful and elegant as he points out that many of the old writers Bissinger used in his anti-online diatribe would probably be writing blogs today if they'd come of age in this era: "Newspapers are shrinking. Magazines are shrinking. Opportunities in the mainstream are shrinking. Shrinkage is the word. But the Internet is wide open. If [W.C.] Heinz was young, he would be writing words on the Internet just like everyone else, and he would probably have his own blog, and it would be wonderful, and cranky old people would be screaming about Heinz in pajamas."

Great stuff. And must-reads if you're at all interesting in the changing information landscape.

HERE AND THERE: Mike Hampton had to leave his rehab start with Richmond because of pain in his left pectoral muscle (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) . . . Oliver Perez lasted only 1 2/3 innings in his start for the Mets yesterday and was blasted by Billy Wagner for taxing an already overtaxed bullpen (nj.com) . . . When John Smoltz is healthy enough to pitch again, he says he's willing to go back to relief (espn.com) . . . Nationals closer Chad Cordero has a torn muscle in the back of his shoulder (Washington Post) . . . Mets catcher Brian Schneider is out of the hospital but still shaken by the staph infection in his thumb (New York Post) . . . Still no word as to when Jimmy Rollins will return to the Phillies (Philadelphia Daily News) . . . Paul Konerko's hand hurts and he doesn't think it's going to get better soon (Chicago Tribune) . . . Jason Grilli's leaving Detroit for Colorado (Detroit News) . . . Alfonso Soriano returns to the Cubs today and says he can still finish the season with 30 stolen bases. (Chicago Sun Times)

OLD FRIENDS: Jorge de la Rosa has hooked on with the Rockies. (Denver Post)

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 6:51 AM | Permalink

Comments

Elliott | May 1, 2008 2:27 PM link