Tagged: Josh Beckett

I think my Tulo shirt is good luck o.o

I am freaking out

Two wins in a night, I’m pumped for this. It seems every time I wear my Tulowitzki shirt, my teams have awesome wins. Maybe I should buy 6 more of those shirts so I can wear them everyday. People would start to get curious at work. Probably shouldn’t do that.

I don’t know if you guys remember my story of that huge Sox winning streak, and how I refused to wear anything other than a Sox shirt (although I DO have 5 Sox shirts, different shirts mind you). That’d be way too hard with only one shirt for the Rox.

Anyway… lets get down to buisness

Boston: Look Who’s Back!

paps91.jpgI don’t know what you thought when Papelbon came in with the bases loaded in the 8th but I wasn’t exactly relaxing. Okajima had a rare terrible inning, giving up runs and loading the bases. Papelbon had other ideas.

Papelbon comes in and gets a 1-2-3 for him. To be fair, Ellsbury made a terrific diving catch in shallow center unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Then again, its Ellsbury, why am I surprised?

9th Inning and what do you know: ANOTHER 1-2-3 FROM PAPS. I’m astounded. So
astounded I may have to wear my Papelbon jersey even though it’s like 90 degrees outside.

Guess what we can do folks? We can take the rays out of the race for good this season.  Oh yeah, that’s no joke. I’m hoping for this.

If only we could take out Texas in the process.

TONIGHT…. Beckett. I hope for October Beckett, mostly because the current Beckett is not amusing me. The Current Beckett, who I shall dub FailBeckett, is seriously not helping me. He is giving me cardiac arrest during games because of his pitching, and he is killing my fantasy baseball stats. Not cool man.

Colorado: Wildcard? Anyone?

Gonzales91.jpg

Holy crap. I mean holy crap in the best sense.

So above, we see Mr. Gonzales.
Yes.
Hello there Carlos.
Are you ok?
Are you done dropping steak knives on your hand?
You are?
Ok good. Lets get back to the game.

Carlos was back in within a few innings. Two run jack. Yeah I think he’s still got it.
(He’s on my fantasy team for the final stretch, he better still have it)

Helton followed up later with his own dinger. No, not the stupid purple dinosaur mascot.

Carlos had the more impressive one. It didn’t float. It was a PURE LINE DRIVE to the upper deck in right. That’s power folks. No disputing

De La Rosa scared the hell out me for about. ONE INNING.
He gave up two runs and i proceeded to sweat profusely.
Then the inning ended and De La Rosa got slapped in the head by someone. Probably Apodaca or Tracy.
For the next 5 innings he held the Mets to ONE HIT.
Brilliant.
That’s recovery. That’s calming down. Every pitcher should be able to do that.

TONIGHT… Jiminez, the crazy power ace. Two duels with Lincecum in his last two starts, Did awesomely in both but only won one of them. He should have some fun with this Mets lineup.

ANYWAY:

In other news… I root for the Phils this week, with the exception of the one game Zito starts. I hope the Giants lose AFTER Zito exits because he’s on my fantasy roster.

Cole Hamels pitched up a storm, two hitting the giants and putting the Rockies up one game. Nice. I expect more of this brilliance until you play Colorado. Then slump, I’ll be superhappy.

Lets see some butt kicking tonight. I’ve got my TV and PC set up next to each other and you bet I’ll be watching both games at the same time.

Three hours of Anthropology today is going to make my brain explode,
-Mike

VISUAL CHANGES!

Yeah, you may have noticed some visual flair all up in my blog.

You gots ta get up in there.
I’m never talking like that again. *vomits*
Ok, so new logo, new coverage, new me.
Ryan didn’t seem like he was gung-ho for posting (I think its because the cubs died halfway through the first half)
So here I am. Being killed by school and I think…
Well damn, I should do this all by myself.
After all. Watching two baseball games a night is the leading cause of me not getting anything done! I might as well add to that uselessness by posting nightly on two teams as well! Yipee!
In all seriousness: Lets talk about the upcoming series and why they are both extremely important for the respective teams.
Sox V. Rays:
Lets lead off with this:
Tampa beat the living daylights out of Justin Verlander. That bothers me.
Boston isn’t traditionally good against Tampa… at least not this year. This series is a big build or bust type thing. Red Sox win this and it can serve as a catalyst to completely destroy the other teams (*hint* Yankees *hint*). If they lose, they usually end up slumping. The bats are alive, the pitching rotation seems fine (save for Beckett) and the pen got better.
Hope for the series:
1) Josh Beckett doesn’t stay down. I expect a good start. I’m going to start him on my fantasy team because I believe in Beckett. I don’t have the exact same Phiten necklace he has for nothin’!
2) Clay gets better as things get crazier. Maybe its the playoff chase that has him excited but he looks like he wants to win now.
3) Alex Gonzales? This guy is pretty good. He’s hitting well and playing defense like a pro. (Sorry Nick Green, you know I cherish your defense too)
4) V-Mart. Big man with the big bat.
5) Billy Wagner. If things look like they did in Toronto, this beast is going to eat some souls when he pitches.
ANYWAY. LETS CONTINUE!
Rockies v Mets
A slumping mets team injury ridden could possibly be the best thing for the Rox right now. They just found their swing, and should they keep it, this will serve as a nice wildcard boost. On the other hand, the Giants are forced to face the Phillies, who are looking pretty good.
The Rockies have a slightly nicer schedule at this point in time, while the Giants have 2 series against LA, 2 against Arizona, and 1 more against us. I expect them crushed.
Also, I wish Brad Penny great misfortune in SF. His loss is Colorado’s gain. 
Don’t say I didn’t warn you SF…
More on these games as they happen tomorrow
I’m now working my job in TWO (yes two) schools instead of one.
One of the schools is 15 minutes from the other. Oh well. 
On the plus side, they are both quite awesome.
Also. My TV died on me. Had to get a rental or I’d miss the Rox games. The Sox stuff I can get on my PC because its out of market (MLB.tv for the win) but Rox is local, so I don’t get it.
EARLY CLASSES ARE TOO EARLY!,
-Mike

Julio Lugo, Beards, and Random Relief  Selections

Beckettfail

Before I go into the easily visible reasons why we lost. I’m going to discuss the less visible reason.

I mentioned this before. Nobody seems to listen. JULIO LUGO IS BAD MOJO!
We are now 0-2 for games Lugo has started. I don’t agree with Lugo’s anti-win magic.

The other less visible reason is this: Josh Beckett clearly does not have enough facial hair. Last night was a battle of the beards and Matt Garza’s beard was obviously much stronger in the end. Josh, you need to grow out that patch into a full beard. Get us some wins buddy.

Finally: Weird that my superstitions have been justified. I mentioned earlier that I was wearing Sox shirts during every win on the win streak. One day I had to wear my Braves shirt to coach, but the Sox/Twins game was rained out. I continued wearing the shirts until I ran out one day. That was when we lost our streak. Yesterday, I had to wear my Braves shirt again for coaching, and Sox lost again. I think i really need to make sure I’m wearing Sox shirts every day. I’m gettin some more for insurance… forshure…

On to my anaylsis of the game:

Matt Garza

Ok, this man majorly factored into the loss. He was clearly having a good day as he demolished most of the hitters. You can’t blame all the hitters for having a bad day. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a batter hitting a perfect pitch, there is only a pitcher making a mistake and a batter waiting for that mistake. I tip my hat to you Garza, you pitched very well.

Josh Beckett

Ewww Beckett. BAD day, very bad day. I know this isn’t the normal Beckett. We saw you in the first game on opening day. Where is that Beckett? I’m assuming the same person who stole Lester has now stolen Beckett. Someone needs to catch this jerk. My confusion is Beckett’s 8 strikeouts, which prevented me from taking a serious hit from his performance in this game. How do you manage to strike out 8 and give up 7 earned runs? Thats a major pitching fluctuation. Weird… I’ll have to see what happens the next time Beckett takes the mound.

George Kottaras

I’m not saying this is your fault Kottaras, but I have a feeling you shouldn’t be calling Beckett. Its just a hunch of mine and I don’t entirely have evidence of this. Its very likely that your game calling skills pale in comparison to Varitek. You’ve done decently with Lester though, so we’ll see where you are next time you call a pitcher besides Wakefield.

Javier “White Flag” Lopez

Why did I increase the font size on this one? Its like Tito doesn’t seem to hear his fans crying when Lopez comes out. Someone needs to tell him… NOW.
Only Javier Lopez can give up:
5 ER off 4 Hits in… wait for it….
0.1 Innings
Why is this kid still in the pen?
It feels like Tito is in an abusive relationship with Lopez. He keeps hurting us but Tito keeps putting him up there to give up runs and fail horribly.
I understand that we were behind, and you don’t want to waste your more valuable pen guys, but I’d honestly rather have you put in Van Every for another third of an inning than have Javier Lopez make Tampa’s lead bigger…

Jonathan Van Every

Ok, this really says something about Javier Lopez. Van Every came in for two thirds of an inning and achieved two outs on one hit and no earned runs. Lopez couldn’t even do that and he’s supposed to be a pitcher! Van Every hasn’t pitched since high school!
Either way, good job rookie. Clearly you have multiple uses. Please don’t take the mound again. I feel like you’re accidently becoming a copy of Nick Swisher.

Jacoby!

Thank you Mr. Ellsbury. You saved us from total embarassment of being no-hit and Matt Garza getting a perfect game. You are the tiny light of hope here. Everyone had a bad game but hell, at least you got a hit!

My AL Roundup will be delayed until tonight, so you’re gonna get it later… be patient, finals week is taking its toll on me.

Tonight, we get to see Masterson, our savoir of this whole disabled list problem.
Lets get some quality innings out of your pitching Masterson!
Lets kill those aquatic creatures! I’ll have some stingray soup ready for everyone! Its on the house.

Wearing his Boston shirt,
-Mike