Posted by Henry on October 30, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Anyone who followed Dice-K’s mediocre September, and compared his sub-six-inning post season starts to Jon Lester’s single appearance could wonder if the Red Sox really needed him. From August 16 through September 22, they could have just as well pitched Julian Tavarez. Maybe they could have saved eight million.
And maybe they could have sat out the playoffs. The importance of Matsuzaka wasn’t just his sterling first half statistics, but the fact that those statistics didn’t accrue to the Yankees. With Matsuzaka, the Yankees easily win five more games. Take a look at their first half and you see multiple losses by guys like Danks and DeSalvo, not to mention Igawa. Different story with Matsuzaka.
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Posted by Henry on October 22, 2007 at 1:49 pm
I didn’t watch the A.L.C.S. game seven last night against the Indians. We’re working on getting Giacomo to sleep throught the night and by 8:00 PM I was exhausted. I put on the radio long enough to hear the lineups then staggered off to bed.
This morning I still didn’t know who had won. I rode my bike to work in a happy state of uncertainty. Like anticipating an undefeated season for the Patriots, the odds against don’t undercut the thought of success.
The cat that wasn’t turned out to be Josh Becket in the bullpen:
“He was like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs out there,” [Mike] Timlin said of Beckett. “He didn’t know what to do or when to throw. But he found a way to keep himself occupied.”
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Posted by Henry on October 18, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Just read in the New York Times that this year’s Red Sox A.L.C.S. roster has only 7 members from the team that beat the Yankees in 2004.
They are Jason Varitek, Doug Mirabelli, Manny Ramírez, David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield and Mike Timlin. “Kevin Youkilis was not on the 2004 A.L.C.S. roster but was on the roster in the other two rounds.”
That’s really surprising. It feels like the same team, but it isn’t — especially in the starting pitching.
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