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Game Story: Rockies pound Red Sox, 12-2

BOSTON - Less than a week ago, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling flirted with history. Last night he fluttered.

Boston’s ace was one out away from tossing a no-hitter against the Oakland A’s last Thursday, but had to settle for a complete-game one-hitter. Unfortunately, he couldn’t carry that momentum into his 14th start of the season last night as Colorado beat up on the Red Sox at Fenway Park, 12-2.

After the loss Schilling was already waiting in the interview room for the media to arrive to discuss his sub-par outing. As he spoke about it, it was clear he was visualizing the game in his head.

“I don’t know if there was one big problem,” he said. “I had a manageable and winnable game there in the fifth and the three-run homer (by Rockies’ Brad Hawpe) put it out of reach.”

Ask any player and they’ll tell you they play one game at a time. They don’t let a previous game or an upcoming game factor into the here and now. Schilling said the almost no-hitter in Oakland was not on his mind.

“It was a downer because we lost,” he said. “Every fifth day it’s a new game. I certainly wanted to build on it, but I felt I was throwing the ball well early.”

Nothing seemed to be clicking for Schilling last night, which is unusual because heading in the veteran right-hander had lost just once in his previous 12 starts.

“He had some crazy things happen,” said batterymate Jason Varitek. “On the three-run homer the wheels came off a bit, balls found some holes and we didn’t make the pitches we needed to with two outs. They did a good job of hitting with two outs. Right before the three-run homer, he was getting out of it, but he made one mistake. Until that he would left us in the game and capable of coming back.”

After two innings last night he was already up to 51 pitches and allowed three runs. He settled down in the third and fourth, retiring the sides in order in both innings. In the fifth, however, Hawpe almost hit the Prudential Building with a two-out three-run homer, an absolute blast off a change-up, to right field to give Colorado a 6-2 advantage. He closed out his outing with a strikeout as the Rockies scored all six runs (five earned) with two outs.

“We played a sloppy first two innings all around,” said Schilling. “But, we settled in and it was a very winnable game until the fifth. . . I didn’t make that last pitch when I needed to.”

The bullpen wasn’t all that great, too, as it allowed six more runs over the last four innings as Colorado rolled over Boston.

The Sox didn’t help matters much and stranded runners in scoring positions in the middle innings to give Schilling any kind of cushion.

“He’s going to give it up at some point,” said Youkilis. “It was just one of those days. He didn’t have his A-game. He’ll have to bounce back. He didn’t have his A-game before his (almost) no-hitter, so hopefully he can bounce back like that again.”

The rubber match of this three-game set will be Thursday night with Josh Beckett (9-0) facing the Rockies’ Jeff Francis (5-5).

“It was just one of those nights,” said Schilling. “It started off weird. We got it under control and then we just let it get away.”

That was obvious with all the late-inning empty seats at Fenway Park.

With the Red Sox losing and the Yankees winning, Boston’s lead in the A.L. East is the lowest (8 ½ games) since May 16 when it lead by the same amount of games.

--JOE McDONALD

Posted by Corey Bourassa  at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments 1

They're not saying much after this one

Curt Schilling on his outing:
“I don’t know if there was one big problem. I had a manageable and winnable game there in the fifth and the three-run homer (by Rockies’ Brad Hawpe) put it out of reach.”

Schilling on not carrying the momentum from his near no-hitter last Thursday:
“It was a downer because we lost. Every fifth day it’s a new game. I certainly wanted to build on it, but I felt I was throwing the ball well early.”

Jason Varitek on Schilling:
“He had some crazy things happen. On the three-run homer the wheels came off a bit, balls found some holes and we didn’t make the pitches we needed to with two outs. They did a good job of hitting with two outs. Right before the three-run homer, he was getting out of it, but he made one mistake. Until that he would left us in the game and capable of coming back.”

Kevin Youkilis on Schilling:
“He’s going to give it up at some point. It was just one of those days. He didn’t have his A-game. He’ll have to bounce back. He didn’t have his A-game before his (almost) no-hitter, so hopefully he can bounce back like that again.”

More Schilling on Schilling:
“It was just one of those nights. It started off weird. We got it under control and then we just let it get away.”

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments 1

FINAL: Colorado 12, Boston 2

BOSTON -- Less than a week ago Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling flirted with history. Last night he fluttered.

Boston’s ace was one out away from tossing a no-hitter against the Oakland A’s last Thursday, but had to settle for a complete-game one-hitter. Unfortunately, he couldn’t carry that momentum into his 14th start of the season last night as Colorado beat up on the Red Sox at Fenway Park, 12-2.

Mike Lowell and Manny Ramirez provided the runs for the Red Sox with a solo homer and a RBI-single respectively.

The rubber match of this three-game set will be Thursday night with Josh Beckett (9-0) facing the Rockies' Jeff Francis (5-5).

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 10:04 PM | Permalink

More on Youkilis as an All-Star

Red Sox manager Terry Francona just concluded his daily scrum with the media, and the topic of the day was the club's decision to ask Major League Baseball to put Kevin Youkilis on the All-Star ballot in place of David Ortiz.

The Red Sox, however, still need to file the proper paper work with the league before a decision is made.

Francona was told of the situation by general manager Theo Epstein on Monday, the team's off-day, and the manager is in full agreement.

"The way I understand it is that it's on the players' vote," said Francona. "I don't understand all the idiosyncrasies of it, but what it comes down to is David being a really good guy and a great teammate. He's trying to help Youk out.

"I think the ballclub feels that David, because of his popularity is going to be the first baseman, and maybe this is a chance to have the players vote because (Youk) wouldn't be on there. . . I think it's David being real classy. That's it in a nutshell because I don't think I understand all the other things."

With the season Youkilis is having, it's understandable why the Red Sox, and their fans, feel he should participate in the All-Star game next month in San Francisco.

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 4:19 PM | Permalink

Tonight's lineups

COLORADO
Wily Taveras, 8
Kazuo Matsui, 4
Matt Holliday, 7
Todd Helton, 3
Garrett Atkins, 5
Brad Hawpe, 9
Ryan Spilborghs, DH
Troy Tulowitzki, 6
Yorvit Torrealba, 2
Josh Fogg, SP

BOSTON
Coco Crisp, 8
Kevin Youkilis, 3
David Ortiz, DH
Manny Ramirez, 7
J.D. Drew, 9
Mike Lowell, 5
Jason Varitek, 2
Alex Cora, 4
Julio Lugo, 6
Curt Schilling, SP

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 4:17 PM | Permalink

Red Sox ask MLB to sub Youkilis for Ortiz on All-Star ballot

ESPN's Buster Olney reports that the Red Sox have asked Major League Baseball to remove David Ortiz from the All-Star ballot distributed to players, and to replace him with Kevin Youkilis.

Because he is overwhelmingly ahead of all other first basemen in the fan balloting, Ortiz appears to be a shoo-in to start in the game, which will be played in San Francisco. Ortiz is on the ballot as a first baseman because there is no voting for designated hitter, which is Ortiz's usual slot. Making him the Red Sox first baseman for the purposes of All-Star balloting left Youkilis out in the cold, but Youkilis has had a great beginning to the season. He's batting .335 so far.

Youkilis could still make the team as a selection of manager Jim Leyland, or as the final player to the roster by fans.

Ortiz was reportedly supportive of the club's symbolic gesture.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments 3

Mike Lowell wants to start a Manny blog

According to The Boston Globe, Mike Lowell thinks he has discovered a business plan. Here's the scoop, from Gordon Edes:

Lowell revealed he has plans to start a blog. "Not for me," he said. "My philosophy is, if Manny is willing to sell a grill for $20,000, I'll tell him just to talk to me, and I'll type a blog for him --Mannysblog.com. And I'll pay him $21,000, he'll think he sold a grill, and I'll negotiate a dollar a hit. I'll be a gazillionaire, and Manny will be happy because he can buy a new barbecue . . . Everyone wants to know what Manny's saying, so all he has to do is give me two legitimate answers and after that I'll make up anything I want, and nobody will know the difference."

Rotoworld says Manny "played the ball like a bag of toys" on Yorvit Torrealba's double last night. Pretty good description.

It's play like that that got Manny named yesterday to the All Lead Glove Team by the Web site Bugs and Cranks.

Manny's also made another top 10 list: The athletes who are the most fun on and off the field/court/whatever. Number one, by the way, is Tom Brady.

Ramirez is one RBI away from tying Fred McGriff for 37th on baseball's all-time list.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 2:17 PM to Projo Mannybeingmanny | Permalink

What do Red Sox and beach volleyball have in common?

BOSTON (AP) - Fenway Sports Group, Boston Red Sox principal owner John Henry's sports marketing firm, is bringing the region's first sanctioned professional beach volleyball tournament to the Boston area this summer.

The event scheduled for August 16 to 19 in Quincy is a test by Fenway Sports to see whether the area's interest for beach volleyball is large enough to warrant expanding its relationship with AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour Inc.

"This is an event that, in and of itself, is not a huge financial play," said Mike Dee, Fenway Sports president. "If this goes well, we would also look to potentially expand our relationship with the AVP into other markets."

Dee said the tour is expanding and the popularity of the sport is growing.

The event is expected to draw up to 18,000 fans to watch more than 100 pro volleyball players compete for $280,000 in prize money.

Fenway Sports has evolved from being a marketing tool for the Red Sox to a national sports power that produces a PGA Tour event and is part owner of a NASCAR team. But the alignment with AVP is the first time the group has partnered with a sport that is not firmly established. AVP has not been profitable since 2001.

AVP chief executive Leonard Armato thinks pro volleyball can be successful in New England.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 1:44 PM | Permalink

Projo SoxTalk with McAdam: Wakefield's baffling streakiness

Sean McAdam and Art Martone break down last night's Red Sox win on projo SoxTalk. Click here to listen to the full audio file. The topics of discussion include Tim Wakefield's return to effectiveness, the lineup shuffle, and Jonathan Papelbon's fine ninth inning.

Here are a few excerpts from Sean's comments:

On Wakefield last night: "He worked quickly, kept the knuckleball down, did everything you would want him to do, and he had good command of the knuckler. And that was vintage Wakefield. If Colorado hadn't come up with that run, we may have been looking at the first sub-two-hour game at Fenway in some time. But as it turned out it worked out OK for the Red Sox."

On Wakefield's streakiness: "I've been watching him pitch with the Red Sox since he came here in 1995, and he doesn't have a lot of explanation for when things go right or wrong."

On keeping Papelbon sharp: "I think it's settling in, so that he doesn't go five or six days in a row without pitching, which is what had happened prior to getting into trouble with the Yankees and giving up that home run to Alex Rodriguez on the last homestand. They've been trying to get him a little bit more regular work and that's not easy to do, because they have to sort of navigate that fine line between keeping him sharp and making sure they don't overuse him and are conscious of his shoulder strength and all the things that went wrong last year. But whatever they did, I think [last night] he looked fresh, he was aggressive, he was throwing strike one to every hitter, he wasn't falling behind, his command was sharper. That was as good as we've seen Papelbon since the first week of the season."

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 11:38 AM to Martone , McAdam | Permalink

Baseball Today: Wednesday, June 13

CAN'T LOSE IF THEY DON'T SCORE (MUCH): As Terry Francona pointed out, the lineup switches -- Dustin Pedroia to leadoff, Julio Lugo to No. 9 -- didn't exactly jump-start the Red Sox offense; after all, the Sox managed only two runs last night. But it proved to be enough for Tim Wakefield (above, Journal photo by Bob Breidenbach). Morphing back into Dr. Jekyll after spending some time as the knuckleballing Mr. Hyde, he baffled the Colorado Rockies, most of whom were getting their first look at him, and pitched Boston to a 2-1 win. (Both stories projo.com) The Rockies were certainly impressed. (Denver Post) It was closed out in grand style by Jonathan Papelbon, who, pitching as well as he has since the beginning of the season, turned up the velocity about 30 mph from Wakefield's offerings and blew the Rockies away in the ninth, striking out Kaz Matsui and Todd Helton as he retired the side in order. (Boston Globe)

WHATEVER: The Fenway Park game operations crew has found the perfect musical mix to herald Papelbon's entrance into a game: The Troggs' Wild Thing as soon as the bullpen door opens -- the opening guitar twang incites the crowd -- and then I'm Shipping Up To Boston by the Dropkick Murphys, made famous in last year's movie The Departed, which really gets them going. Papelbon (shown at left reacting to the game-ending strikeout of Todd Helton, Journal photo by Bob Breidenbach), though, doesn't really care one way or the other what they play. ''Sometimes I don’t even realize what the hell’s going on besides me and the catcher,'' he told John Tomase of the Boston Herald.

COMING AROUND: J.D. Drew drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly and his eighth-inning at-bat was a continuation of his recent offensive upswing. (Boston Herald)

IT'S HOME: Pawtucket's Chris Iannetta grew up watching the Red Sox play at Fenway Park. Last night, for the first time, he played a game there himself . . . or at least was in uniform with the Rockies. (projo.com)

IT WAS ALMOST HOME: Todd Helton says he's happy in Colorado, but admits the idea of joining the Red Sox -- which almost happened last winter -- was appealing. (projo.com)

HELPFUL HINT: Daisuke Matsuzaka says Osamu Higashio, his former manager on the Seibu Lions, found a flaw in Matsuzaka's approach that the right-hander is trying to fix. (Boston Herald)

I'M ALIVE AND DOING FINE: Matsuzaka's old Seibu teammate, Kaz Matsui, has found himself with the Rockies. (Denver Post) Matsui, Matsuzaka and Higashio had dinner in Boston on Monday night.

ST. PAPI: The Rockies' LaTroy Hawkins played with David Ortiz in Minnesota and is amazed at how the Boston fans adore Big Papi. ''When you play for the Red Sox, you are a rock star. But it’s more than that with David,” Hawkins said. “He’s a god here.” (Denver Post)

MASTERPIECE: The Tigers' Justin Verlander threw the second no-hitter of the year last night (Detroit News). FoxSports' Ken Rosenthal says it's further demonstration that the Tigers should have no pitching worries for years to come.

TURNING THE ARGUMENT AROUND: Sources report Bud Selig feels he can suspend Jason Giambi for steroid use prior to baseball's institutionalization of a drug policy because using steroids at the time was illegal. (New York Daily News)

EVEN STEVEN: The Yankees are finally back to .500, but Jay Greenberg warns that it will take better pitching than the Yanks have received so far for the surge to continue. (Both stories New York Post)

PEACE: The Daily News' Filip Bondy says the Yankees' recent upsurge means that they ''are suddenly a lot like that Sopranos final episode. We know now that nobody important is going to get whacked.''. So that means the White Sox, Pirates and Diamondbacks have been playing the Phil Leotardo role.

PEACE II: Joe Torre had a sit-down with Mike Mussina to clear the air over Mussina's irritation over being lifted early last week. (New York Daily News)

NEW ISN'T BETTER: The blog River Ave. Blues is no fan of the new Yankee Stadium.

GUESS WE CAN RULE OUT ICHIRO-TO-THE-INDIANS: Ichiro Suzuki, reacting to the Mariners' having to fly back into Cleveland for a makeup game Monday, seemed to eliminate the Indians from his list of potential free-agent suitors when he told the Seattle Times ''If I ever saw myself saying I'm excited going to Cleveland, I'd punch myself in the face, because I'm lying.''

WATCH YOUR MOUTHS: Singer Patti LaBelle apparently was offended by a group of White Sox players sitting near her at a restaurant. (Chicago Sun-Times)

THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: A.J. Burnett suffered a shoulder strain in the Blue Jays' loss to the Giants last night. (Toronto Star)

WHISPERS: A National League team executive says he expects the Nationals' Chad Cordero and Jon Rauch, the Rangers' Eric Gagne and Akinori Otsuka and the Pirates' Salomon Torres (currently on the DL) to be among the relievers available for trade in the next six weeks . . . The Orioles will probably make Steve Trachsel available (Baltimore Sun) . . . The Philadelphia Daily News' Sam Donnellon proposes a Mark Buehrle-for-Aaron Rowand trade (Philadelphia Daily News).

HE'S BACK: Harold Reynolds has been hired by mlb.com.

OLD FRIENDS: Johnny Damon says he's feeling much better (New York Daily News).

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 7:16 AM | Permalink