CLOSED!! ? The Official 2006 Sports Thread ? CLOSED!!

Talk about a total collapse last night ! Johnson was not on his game at all, A-Rod with a pair of errors, added on top of the offense getting shut down after the 1st inning. Beckett really locked it down after his early struggles and with a strong outing by the bats the Sox won in NY 14-3!!! Hopefully the boys are able to continue the power surge tonight with Schilling on the mound against Mussina.

 

An absolute battle last night in the Bronx. Matsui goes down with a broken wrist, a lot of back and forth offense with little to show for it, then the Sox bats get the hits at the right time and come home winning 2 of 3 in NY .

 

Thank god for the poor throw/dropped ball by the Yankees in the 7th inning. The Sox offense was so fustrating to watch last night. It seemed like every inning they either had the bases loaded or men on 2nd and 3rd and they couldn't even get a flyball to get a run in.

Not sure what the problem is with the offense. I just hope when Coco returns in the next week or so that it helps right what is wrong.

 

The Sox need to be more consistent all around if they are going to fix their problems with runners LoB. They have great options to lead-off and their 2-4 guys are great (aside from some recent slumps by Ortiz and Manny), but with the exception of Loretta and Lowell's occasion power bursts the rest of the lineup can be frustrating.

 

For anyone out there who cares, The Patriots held a press conference this morning and Doug Flutie announced his retirement.

 

Yup, Natick's own Doug Flutie has retired after 21 professional seasons, 12 in the NFL, during which he won 3 CFL Grey Cups and was named that league's Player of the Year 6 times. Of course, he's better known around here for what he did as a Boston College Eagle, throwing one of the college game's most memorable passes in the Orange Bowl on Thanksgiving weekend in 1984 en route to winning that year's Heisman Trophy. Flutie will join ABC and ESPN as a college football analyst.

In other Patriots off-season news, the team announced the signing of two more rookie free agents: RB Patrick Cobbs out of North Texas, and WR Jakari Wallace, who was a teammate with top draft pick Laurence Maroney @ Minnesota. Both players were signed as a result of a tryout held at this past weekend's rookie mini-camp. Also, according to a report by the Herald's Michael Felger, the Patriots are now taking more than a passive interest in cornerback Ty Law, as he was scheduled to undergo a physical exam last Friday as part of a free agent visit. The Pats have plenty of salary cap space with which to sign the five-time Pro Bowler, however, the $10M in first-year money that Law is reportedly asking for may be more than the Patriots would be willing to pay him.

 

Last night was practically a career game for Josh Beckett. He was solid on the mound, going 7+ innings (despite giving up a couple of homers and 4 runs, 3 earned, total) in getting the win in Philadelphia, but Beckett also had a day at the plate, going 2/4 with an RBI single in the 6th inning as part of the rally that put the Sox ahead for good, and a solo homer the following inning. The Red Sox look for the interleague series sweep today as Lenny DiNardo goes against Cory Lidle.

In other Red Sox news, David Wells is scheduled to make a rehab start today with the PawSox in Scranton, PA.

 

That was a great day for Beckett! This is what makes interleague play interesting. When you have a guy like Beckett, who used to play in the National League, come to an American League team he can really contribute something to the series that a lifelong AL pitcher can't bring to the table. Unfortunately the Sox couldn't pull off the sweep yesterday as the pitching staff got ruffed up in the loss. Too bad since the Mets came back from behind to beat the Yankees yesterday, would have been nice to have a 2.5 game lead over the bombers heading into their series.

Ty Law's agent has officially confirmed that Law has taken a physical for the Pats but has not mentioned anything about the contract talks between the two parties. Hopefully there is an announcement soon!

 

Even though Keith Foulke made it interesting last night , the Sox pulled away with the 9-5 win over the Yankees. An all around team effort by just about everyone in the lineup.

The Comic Relief of the night came when Jerry and Don were talking about Schilling taking his notes and then explaining them to Ortiz. Rem-Dog then mentioned a game last year when Schilling was going over his notes with Trot Nixon and Manny was sitting on the other side of Curt in plain view of the camera waving his hands saying "all set... no thanks". Trot could see what Manny was doing but fought hard not to burst out laughing, although you could see him crack a couple of times .

 

Well last nights game was not as kind to the Sox as they drop game 2 7-5 . HR's by Damon and A-Rod, missed scoring opportunities, and a rough night for both Wakefield AND Mirabelli were the problems the Sox had to deal with. Tonight is the finale with Clement going against Johnson.

 

Mirabelli was brutal last night. Both offensively and defensively. And for those of you curious, in 15 games for San Diego, Josh Bard is batting .364 with 3 HRs and 10 RBIs. Oh, and he hasn't allowed a past ball.

 

I missed the game last night ! I heard that it was a struggle for both teams. Neither starting pitcher had a good game, it just so happened that the Sox bats were struggling a little more than the Yankees' bats were. Big Papi had a night to forget as his bat was silent, most notably in the 8th with the bases loaded. With the loss the Sox drop this series and the Yankees pull up to .5 game behind the Sox in the AL East.

 

Matt Clement stinks. It's as simple as that. The bottom half of the Yankees lineup was AAA calibre at best and the offense gave him a 2-0 lead right out of the gate. After he blew that one out of his O-ring they clawed back and gave him another lead going into the 5th that he gave right back to the Yankees. Did Papi have a bad night? yup, probably his worst as a Sox but Clement was more at fault for this one. Here's hoping that Tito continues his 'tweaking' 'of the rotation the rest of the season, making sure Clement never faces the Yankees again.

 

With a 6-4 win tonight at Fenway against Tampa Bay, Curt Schilling earned career victory #200, only the fourth pitcher (along with Lefty Grove, Ferguson Jenkins, and Luis Tiant) to pick up #200 in a Red Sox uniform. Schilling gave up 8 hits and the 4 Tampa Bay runs, but didn't walk anyone & struck out 7 over 7 innings in the win.

 

Congrats to Schilling on his career achievement !!!

Overall it was a good holiday weekend for the Sox, with the exception of yesterdays loss against the Blue Jays . Clement was terrible again and despite a great effort by the offense to tie the game the bullpen couldn't hold it together. Then B.J. Ryan sealed the deal for Toronto in the 9th. Also, with David Wells on the DL after taking the liners to his knee, Abe Alvarez will be called up to fill his spot in the rotation next time around.

 

My thought's on last night's game? Just refer to my post from 5/25 and replace all of the Yankee references with the Blue Jays. And yes, Matt Clement still stinks!

 

For those who hoped Clemens was going to come back to Boston and finish his career as a Red Sox, your dream is kaput. Newsday is reporting that Clemens has signed a 1 year contract with the Astros that will pay him approx. $3.5M a month . He's expected to be ready around July 1st meaning he could earn around $10.5M for the remainder of the season.

 

Actually Mike there is still hope. Both the Astros and Clemens have denied that any such deal has been made. Personally I think that if he is going to come back it will come down to either Houston or Boston. Texas just can't give Clemens the home-town treatment that Houston can give him and even though he finally won a World Series in NY I think finishing your career where it started is more appealing to Roger. If I had to pick one... I think he's going to return to Houston. He's already got enough personal achievements, except for one. I may be mistaken but he still hasn't played in a game at the major league level with his son. So far their only playing time together was during simulated games and team workouts.

 

They're all liars! Liars I tell you!!

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2464315



Nice performance by Clemen, er I mean Beckett last night You think the Boston pitching staff could figure out at some point they might as well just intentionally walk Vernon Wells? Hello?!? Earth to FranCOMA! He has 15 HRs on the season and 8 of them are off the Sox...in only 9 games!!!

Now they'll be trotting a AA pitcher out there tonight for the finale. Sniff, sniff. I think I smell a sweep coming on

 

Oh well... It's too bad he signed with the Astors but it's what he wants. The next big question is will he really retire after this season or will he put everyone through this all over again?

 

Red Sox announced today that Willy Mo will undergo surgery to repair a broken bone in his wrist. He will be out for about 2 months.

 

Got some Pats news. Today they traded 4th year receiver Bethel Johnson to the Saints for DL Jonathan Sullivan, the no. 6 overall pick in 2003.

 

Baseball's amateur draft began today, and the Red Sox had 2 consecutive picks, their own (#27) and the Yankees' pick (#28) as compensation for Johnny Damon, in the first round. With the first pick, they took righty centerfielder Jason Place out of Wren High School in South Carolina. According to the MLB.com scouting report, Place has the power, speed, and arm strength to make him an enticing corner outfield candidate.

The next pick was right-handed pitcher Daniel Bard out of the University of North Carolina. The book on Bard is that he has a plus fastball (topping out @ 97 MPH), but a less-effective breaking ball, and command has been a problem for him at times. I project Bard to be a reliever unless he improves his breaking ball and comes up with a third or even a fourth pitch.

 

In Patriots news, ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli reports that they have signed backup offensive lineman Russ Hochstein to a two-year, $1.8M extension. Hochstein was the starting center late last season in place of the injured Dan Koppen.

 

The Sox had an additional 'sandwich' pick (#40) as compensation for Damon. With it they took LHP Kristofer Johnson from Wichita St. They also had pick #44 from losing Bill Meuller to the Dodgers. With that pick they drafted a HS pitcher Caleb Clay.