In defense of Javier Lopez

There's absolutely no excuse for botching the play the way Lopez did last night in the bottom of the ninth.  I mean, I know second string Little Leaguers that would have caught that feed from Youkilis.  However, that game was not lost solely on a fielding error by the unfortunate Mr. Lopez.

Remember the third inning, when Lugo got a nearly perfect throw from Youkilis while covering second, and a clean catch would probably have meant an inning ending double play?  Well, E6 dropped it, and instead of being out of the inning, Ben Francisco took Sox starter Brad Penny deep for a three-run homer.  Alright, so Julio just needs to shake the cobwebs off, right? He can't be that bad... but wait.  

Lugo, seemingly determined to make Sox fans forget the two hits he notched last night, made a nearly unforgivable mistake: he ignored a center fielder calling for the ball.  The rules of fly ball catching are simple: the shortstop has priority over the infielders, the center fielder over the other outfielders, and the center fielder over the shortstop.  Lugo, perhaps thinking that a spectacular running catch in short center field would endear him to the fans who have previously disparaged his performance, ran out into Jacoby Ellsbury's territory and tried to make the play.  Now, had he made the catch, it wouldn't matter, but he didn't.  Instead, Ellsbury goes into a slide, seemingly hoping to avoid a collision with Lugo, and Lugo, of course, misses the ball, which bounces off Ellsbury and into left field... I'm just assuming the inimitable Jason Bay returned it to the infield, because I was too busy screaming profanities at my television to notice.

Lugo had this to say: "It's going to take me a little while to get back.  I'm not 100 percent right now. I haven't played for a long time, and I'm going to be off a little bit. I don't have my skills put together. It's going to take me a little while to get back in playing shape and for my knee to feel good and be 100 percent."  Oh, okay.  But if Lugo's not 100%, what is he doing back with the big club? Isn't the purpose of a rehab assignment to get the player back to his full potential!?!? Whew. Deep breaths...

Not that this was a one man show: the Sox made other errors last night, including one on a throw from Mike Lowell, usually an exemplary fielder, throwing over Pedroia's head (cue the "Pedroia is short" joke).  Penny gave up seven runs in 2 2/3 innings, though only four were earned.  

Obviously, Lopez's drop of the Kevin Youkilis feed that would have meant extra innings was the most visible sign of defeat, since, technically, it was the play during which the winning run was scored.  However, it's important to remember that even if Lopez had made the play, there's no guarantee that the Sox would have won in the extra frames.  I'm a bit of a Lopez apologist, and I'll admit that it's partially because he generally seems like such a good guy (also, slightly hilarious, see his comments in this video).  But I genuinely believe that Lopez has something to offer this team: at this time last year, Sox fans were doubting the effectiveness of Manny Delcarmen, and to this point this season, MDC has not surrendered an earned run.  I have faith that Lopez will pick it up, and really, he pitched a scoreless ninth, except for his own error that allowed an unearned run.

An unfortunate way to end the eleven game winning streak, to be sure, but in the wise words of Kevin Youkilis, "You don't like losing, but we're playing good ball.  There's too many games to sit around and mope.  Just go home, get some rest, and get back at it again." And really, if anyone has the right to dismiss this loss, it's the man who had two of his throws turned into errors instead of outs.

I imagine his thoughts as this picture was taken closely mirror the words we see Pedroia use after he strikes out... But that's just a guess.

Caption me this!

This picture (courtesy of espn.go.com) depicts David Ortiz congratulating Jason Bay on his 9th inning, 3 run blast, providing the winning margin for the Sox, who had been held scoreless until that point by Cleveland starter Cliff Lee.  This is what I like to imagine them saying:

Ortiz: How come you can hit home runs and I can't?!

Bay:  Shucks, Papi, you'll get one soon, I just know it.

Oritz: Oh, you got some Canadian voodoo that predicts home runs?

Bay: Errrr... something like that.

Ortiz: Sweet, dude. Oh, nice hit. *walks away*

Bay: *shakes head in disbelief; thanks god Papi didn't eat him*

HA! Sports Illustrated is Silly

So, as a college student, a daily trip to the mailbox is a must.  Normally I don't receive anything more than the usual campus memos about library hours, meetings, and lectures, and the occasional takeout place advertisement.  However, today I got a package from my mom, which confused me, as she hadn't told me she was sending one, and I'll be home in two weeks anyway.

When I opened the envelope and saw that she had sent me the Sports Illustrated (my subscription gets delivered to my house) baseball preview issue, I'll admit to being pretty excited.  Even though I could have read it online on April 6th, when it was published, I hadn't, so I decided to leaf through it and see how their predictions were panning out so far.

I barely got past the first page.  Ben Reiter wrote the page on the Yankees, who SI predicts will win the AL East with a 97-65 record (one ahead of the Sox, who supposedly win the Wild Card).  Halfway through his gushing (nauseating) take on the Yankees is a sentence that made me choke (oh, that's A*Rod's job? Right.): "[New York's] success will spring from its rotation-which is second to none."  

I understand that this was written before the season started, but right now, New York's rotation is second to a lot of people's.  Their team ERA is 6.24.  Ours is 4.18.  Heck, the Kansas City Royals have a sub-4 ERA.  No American League team is pitching worse than New York so far.  All of those expensive pieces? Not panning out just yet.  However, I'll admit that the season is long, and we all know that CC Sabathia at least will work out of the current funk he's in.  If AJ Burnett can stay healthy, he should do well too... though that's  big "if" with his track record.

But really, Sports Illustrated, that was quite the proclamation...

Ohhh, I see now, Sabathia's pitching poorly due to the SI cover jinx...

An Open Apology to Jacoby Ellsbury (sort of)

Alright, I know that I've been pretty hard on Ellsbury in this space, but I fell like my reasoning was legitimate.  After that amazing 2007 callup and Postseason performance, Ellsbury turned in 2008 statistics that were decidedly mediocre.  I understand that the sample size from 2007 was very small, and it was inevitable that his numbers would fall off a bit.  Fair enough, but what got to me was all of the talk this Spring Training that AL pitchers had adjusted to him last year, and now he was making adjustments of his own.

Wait. What?  These discussions drove me crazy.  It seemed like Ellsbury (and Dave Magadan, the Sox hitting coach) had either A) only just realized that pitchers were exposing the giant hole in his swing on the inside of the plate, or B) had realized it last year, but... what?  Were waiting to fix it until now?  Were thinking that pitchers would say "Aw, shucks, we gave the rookie a hard time, let's tone it down."?  Whichever it was it annoyed the hell out of me, because I could have told Ellsbury last May that pitchers were attacking him on the inside half of the plate and he'd better adjust.

However, I have never disparaged Jacoby's defense.  There should be at least one Gold Glove in his future, but I won't guarantee one, because we all know how ridiculously fickle the voters for those awards can be: oftentimes, the best defender doesn't win (see Crisp, Coco, circa 2007).  I understand that Ellsbury is a valuable piece of the outfield: a young (cheap) player who can move around to all three spots and think nothing of it: the man has a 1.000 fielding percentage in every spot out there.  Yes, that's correct, Ellsbury has never made an error at the big league level, and, due to his speed, his range is above-average.

But my major gripe with him has always been the easy fan adoration he receives, especially from the female population (this phenomenon of adoring a below-average yet attractive player irks me to no end; it's part of the reason the rest of us female fans have to rattle off Manny Delcarmen's ERA and WHIP to be taken seriously).  I'll admit that if I'd been allowed to skip a week of high school in 2007 and attend the Postseason games or the victory parade, I might have been one of those girls with a sign proposing marriage to Jacoby Ellsbury.  (My first choice would've been Dustin Pedroia, but he's married.  I'm no home-wrecker.)  He seemed like everything Red Sox Nation hoped for: young, fast, hitting for average and power, and with a great glove to boot.  He looked like the real deal, and maybe he still can be, but after a disappointing 2008, I vowed to stay off the Ellsbury bandwagon until he proved worthy.

Well, yesterday (and really, over the entire homestand), Ellsbury reminded us all why we're lucky to have him patrolling center field at Fenway (and it's not because he's like, so dreamy).  Ellsbury has game changing speed, and he's finally getting on base enough to use it (in 40 ABs this homestand, he reached 21 times).  And by now everyone has seen the gutsy/amazing/ridiculous steal of home in last night's game, so I won't recap here, but you get the gist.  Now, Ellsbury is still young, so I'm going to reserve judgement for a little longer so I can gauge consistency.  I'll let you know when I'm a card carrying member of the Jacoby bandwagon though... and if he keeps up his current level of production it might be soon.

I will never be this girl.  However, I'm considering the purchase of an Ellsbury shirt.  A real one, NOT a pink one.

Quote of the Day

This one is, of course, from yesterday, since I doubt any of the players are even awake yet, and it concerns, what else, but Ellsbury's epic steal.

"Jeez, J.D., don't swing."

And who but our friend from the north, Jason Bay, could come up with such a commonplace yet awesome nugget like that?

Bay, who was in the on deck circle at the time of the steal (we can't have two capitalized Steals in Red Sox Nation, that honor will always reside with Dave Roberts), had a better view of Ellsbury's daring move than anyone but Posada, Drew, and Ellsbury himself... I don't really think Pettitte saw him at all, until it was too late.

So there you have it, the Quote of the Day. Tell your friends, it's just like Bay himself: simply straightforward, and wise to the details of the game.  Also, hilarious.

"That was a beautiful not-swing.  Way to take one for the team and not give Ellsbury a concussion!"

6 things I love right now...

1.) A straight steal of home by Jacoby Ellsbury.  Okay, you know how I feel about him, but tonight, he totally earned all of that admiration the fangirls heap on him every time he takes a breath.  I might even consider getting a #46 shirt... maybe when his OBP is up over .350...

2.) Our ridiculously productive farm system.  Beyond the obvious position players (Youk, Pedroia, Lowrie), the farm system has given us quality arms.  Tonight Theo's strategy of "stockpiling" quality arms was on display, starting off with Justin Masterson (you know, the 6'6" sinkerballer that drives a Mini Cooper) and continuing with Hunter Jones and Michael Bowden.  Love it. So much.

3.) The savvy free agent pickups from the offseason.  This one is in the same vein as the last, but I LOVE that Saito can close when Paps (he of the erratic control) is unavailable, having pitched two straight days.

4.) This team knows how to win.  They pull it together during slugfests and nailbiters, can string together plays and create runs (see Ellsbury, above), or, conversely, slug it out with the best of them.  For instance, yesterdays game? Ridiculous.  Thought I was looking at a football score.

5.) Mark Teixeira goes 0-for-4 with a strikeout, all of his outs courtesy of a Red Sox homegrown player.  maybe this is vindictive, but it just feels so good to see him struggle to hit his weight and commit errors (third inning) while Mikey Lowell hits .324 with sparkling defense.  I wonder how much his wife will love New York when they're getting hate mail...

6.) SWEEPING THE YANKEES!!!! (This one should need no explanation)

Agreeing to Disagree: What to do when you befriend the enemy

Yesterday I remembered why it's difficult, as a Sox fan, to befriend Yankees fans.  My Yankee fan friend and I were walking back from dinner pre-game, and I went on an impassioned rant of what I would do to Joba Chamberlain if he threw at Youk again.  She insisted that Joba would never do such a thing.  I stopped dead.  "Au contrair," I told her, then, remembering that I don't speak French, switched back to English.  I carefully documented all of the times Chamberlain has thrown behind and at the Red Sox first baseman, often near his head.  She insisted he wouldn't do it on purpose, and that he really just had control issues.  I quoted Joba's BB/9 as on the good side.  "He just gets nervous in big games," she claimed.  I scoffed.  We agreed to disagree.

Usually, the two of us have no problems discussing baseball together.  However, this weekend marks the first time since we met that our teams will be facing each other in something besides Spring Training.  I tried to see this issue from her perspective, and decided that if it was someone on the Sox headhunting, say, Robinson Cano, I'd probably behave the same way.  And neither of us really knows whether Joba throws at Youk on purpose (he didn't yesterday, so who knows?), because the only person who really knows is Chamberlain himself.  And since we can't ever really know, we'll have to let it go.

I'm sure we'll find something else to talk about...

Like this guy, and the fact that he's barely hitting his weight.

Best Tweet of last night, RT from abcdude: Since Joba Chamberlain can't get by on his looks, at least he's smart. And a safe driver. 

Inspired.