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August 9, 2007
WHAT A RELIEF: The Red Sox took the field in Anaheim last night knowing they wouldn't lose any ground in the A.L. East race -- the Toronto Blue Jays had seen to that (New York Post) -- but it sure didn't seem they would gain any, either, not with a lineup that featured Brandon Moss, J.D. Drew and Wily Mo Pena in the outfield (both Coco Crisp and David Ortiz were given the night off; read why on projo.com's Red Sox Journal) and not after Jon Lester was lit up for three runs in the first two innings. Four hours and two minutes after it began, however, the Sox walked off the field with a 9-6 victory powered by the one thing they've been able to depend on all season: Their bullpen. Sean McAdam reports the 'pen turned in 5 2/3 innings of one-run relief, with Hideki Okajima (above, AP Photo) getting the win, enabling Boston to salvage the final game of the three-game series with the Angels and push its lead over the Yankees back to six.
LET'S DO IT AGAIN, REAL SOON: The Riverside Press-Enterprise's Jim Alexander hopes these last three games, which he described as ''intense [and] entertaining,'' were a preview of a Red Sox-Angels playoff matchup.
THE GLASS-IS-HALF-EMPTY REPORT: Lester was ineffective for the second start in a row and says it's ''back to the drawing board'' in an attempt to figure out what's wrong. (Boston Herald)
THE GLASS-IS-MORE-THAN-HALF-FULL REPORT: FanNation.com predicts the Red Sox will ''cruise to their first division crown since the 1995 team Kevin Kennedy always talks about on his XM Radio show.''
'WHAT'S THE FASCINATION, WHAT'S THE FASCINATION, WHAT'S THE FASCINATION WITH J.D. DREW?' Sean McAdam examines the poor season -- thus far -- of J.D. Drew (projo.com), which was parodied in a hilarious mock-rap by WEEI's Pete Gustin. (weei.com)
FATHERS AND SONS: Bill Reynolds has a conversion with Skip Buchholz, father of Sox pitching prospect Clay Buccholz, who says he's known his son was destined to be a baseball star since the young man was 7. (projo.com)
THE CURSE OF O-CAB: Orlando Cabrera says the Red Sox won't win the World Series again until they put his old No. 44 in mothballs. (Boston Herald) Don't quite understand why Cabrera thinks the number had anything to do with 2004's championship, since it had been worn by Fabian Gaffke, Ben Steiner, Joe Trimble, Haywood Sullivan, Don McMahon, Bob Gallagher, Andy Kosco, Joel Finch, Jim Dorsey, Wes Gardner, Danny Darwin, Kevin Kennedy, Rudy Pemberton, Michael Coleman, Butch Huskey, Ed Sprague, Rolando Arrojo, Chad Fox and Bill Haselman before Cabrera ever arrived in Boston. (redsoxdiehard.com)
WESTWARD HO: The Los Angeles Daily News has an interesting feature on how Lancaster, Calif., has become an outpost of Red Sox Nation after the Sox put a Class A team there.
AND BECAUSE THERE ISN'T ENOUGH CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING ALEX RODRIGUEZ . . . Chipper Jones decides to make a veiled steroids allegation against A-Rod, though, when pressed to clarify, he backpedaled faster than Ty Law. (New York Post)
SORE POINT: What hurts A-Rod even worse than Chipper's comments is his right calf, where he was hit by an apparently intentional Josh Towers pitch Tuesday and which forced him out of the lineup last night. (New York Post)
SUMMER VACATIONS: Joe Torre and Roger Clemens may each get one soon, thanks to their bit in Tuesday night's beanball battle with Toronto. (New York Post)
AND FURTHERMORE . . . The New York Daily News' Mike Lupica fires away at people who claim Barry Bonds didn't need steroids to break Hank Aaron's home-run record, asking ''If steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs don't matter, then why do athletes in all sports take them in the first place? . . . The subject is drugs, which they use because they work. Whether they are staying ahead of the testers or not. You think anybody will ever look at the Tour de France the same way ever again, no matter how many people are on the side of the road? You really think that smart people still believe Lance Armstrong was the only pure one in the race?''
HE'S TALKING TO YOU GUYS: Joe Torre apparently is one of the people Lupica's referring to. (New York Daily News) So is Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post.
NEXT IN LINE: ESPN.com's Rob Neyer lists the six players with the best chance to break Barry Bonds' home-run record.
RADIATED GLORY: Whoever surrenders the next record-breaking homer probably won't be as happy about it as the Nationals' Mike Bacsik, who's reveling in the 15 minutes of fame he received for serving up No. 756. (San Francisco Chronicle)
'SLEEZEBALL TO SLEEZEBALL': That's what the blog Armchairg.com is calling the Bacsik-to-Bonds connection, since it claims Bacsik intentionally grooved one to Bonds to get himself a little publicity. But David Pinto of Baseball Musings thinks that's absurd, and shoots holes in the argument. Al Downing, who threw the pitch that Aaron hit to break Babe Ruth's record, would agree with Pinto. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
LISTEN TO WHAT I SAY, NOT WHAT I DO: Pedro Martinez declared himself satisfied by his first rehab start, even though the results -- three innings, six hits, five runs against Class A competition, with a fastball that topped out at 88 mph -- were far from satisfactory. (New York Daily News)
BIG DEAL: Miguel Tejada isn't bothered by reports that the Orioles placed him on waivers, saying he understands the business of baseball. (Baltimore Sun)
I'M GONE: David Wells says he'll retire if the Padres release him (San Diego Union-Tribune), which is exactly what they're doing. (AP, via projo.com)
QUICKLY: Cubs GM Jim Hendry laughed off rumors that his team was trying to acquire White Sox outfielder Scott Podsednik (Chicago Sun-Times) . . . Craig Monroe is about to lose the center-field job in Detroit (Detroit Free Press) . . . This may be Rondell White's last season (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) . . . The Rockies' Jason Hirsch pitched five innings with a broken leg Tuesday night (espn.com) . . . 48-year-old Julio Franco has been sent to Class A Rome, though the Braves plan to bring him back on Sept. 1 and say he would still be eligible to be placed on the postseason roster (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
OLD FRIENDS: Casey Fossum -- the man the Red Sox wouldn't part with in 2002 in a potential deal for Bartolo Colon -- has been sent to the minors by the Devil Rays (Tampa Tribune) . . . Wilfredo Ledezma has resurfaced in San Diego's starting rotation (San Diego Union-Tribune).
-- ART MARTONE
Posted by Art Martone 
at 6:49 AM | Permalink
