Friday night, I had it all planned out. Stay home, order Thai take out from a brand new place in my town, watch the Red Sox and Yankees while trying to sneak peaks of the Olympics Opening Ceremony. Errr… yeah, it didn’t quite work out that way. I ordered my Thai food at 7pm and was expected to wait 45 minutes. Ok…that’s not so bad. I arrived at the restaurant at 7:45pm. My food came out at 8:20! Completely ruined my plan but at least the food was good – although the two-star heat made my lips numb (I think five stars would kill me.)

Considering what happened between the Red Sox and Yankees on Friday night, I’d like to forget it ever happened. Not a great way to celebrate my birthday, that’s for sure. I knew it was going to be a bad night when the Bronx Bombers put up a three-spot in the first. “Here we go again,” was my first thought. The Sox sort of hacked away at the lead but could never pull ahead, and then Curtis Granderson put the nail in the coffin in the eighth with a grand slam off Mark Melancon.

See? Do you blame me for not wanting to relive that crap? So I missed the first few hours of the Opening Ceremony to watch that. But it’s tough when you share the remote control with a Yankees fan. He wasn’t missing that for all the Olympians in London. Click here for the *gag* box score, courtesy of the Red Sox.

Needless to say, I didn’t have high hopes for Saturday night’s matchup between Jon Lester and CC Sabathia. Especially considering Lester’s major suckage of late. And considering CC scares the bejeezus out of me. But then the Red Sox put up three runs in the first on two singles and two doubles. What the WHAT? I almost passed out from the excitement.

So Jon Lester, just like that, has a three-run lead to work with. Would it be enough? Lester pitched six pretty respectable innings, giving up four runs on four hits and left with a 6-4 lead thanks to a big night by Adrian Gonzalez who knocked in four of the eight runs. But unfortunately, a win was not in the cards for Jon. Vicente Padilla gave up a game-tying two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth to Mark Teixeira. My first thought. Uh oh, here we go again.

Despite the no decision, Lester was happy with his performance and his team.

“I’m real, real pleased with how I threw the ball,” Lester said. “The biggest thing is we needed that game. Guys came back and kept fighting. That was big for us.”

Ninth inning heroics have been few and far between for the Red Sox this season. But last night, that was not the case.

With one out in the top of the ninth, Jacoby Ellsbury drew a walk. Pedro Ciriaco, in the DH role last night, had one of his three hits — a deep triple to center that Curtis Granderson misplayed. Ellsbury scored to put the Sox up by one. Dustin Pedroia followed with a sac fly to score Ciriaco and give Boston some insurance. Pedroia talked about the win after the game.

“I thought we did a good job,” Pedroia said. “It was a great win. We did some little things that were a big part of the ballgame. We played well. We’ve got to build on it and keep going.”

Alfredo Aceves hasn’t had many save opportunities lately but made up for it by getting the Yankees in order to end the game and secure the win. Now that was a fun game to watch. Click here for the scrappy, winning box score, courtesy of the Red Sox.

The Sox and Yanks wrap up this three-game series tonight on ESPN. Felix Doubront faces off against Hiroki Kuroda trying to get himself back on the winning track after struggling in his last outing.

After all that – the offseason drama, the dirty laundry, the vows to do better, the stacked lineup – the Red Sox are officially a mediocre team.  They’re back at .500 heading into the All-Star break after losing to the New York Yankees again last night, 7-3.  With the loss, the Sox dropped three of four to New York, and head into the furlough at 43-43.

Last night, Jon Lester took yet another tough loss, dropping his record to 5-6 on the season.  He allowed two runs in the first inning, via a Mark Teixeira double that scored Derek Jeter, and a double-play ball gone wrong to Sox third baseman Mauro Gomez.  For the fourth time in four games, the Red Sox let the Yankees take an early lead in the first inning.

The Sox scored in the bottom of the first, when upstart and most popular man in Boston Pedro Ciriaco singled, stole second (the throw was on time, but Jeter missed the tag), and scored when Jeter dropped a popup.  PS – Jeter was off last night.  The muffed Ciriaco steal, the dropped pop fly, a few muffed plays at short – I don’t think he’s hurt, but it was just weird to see him off his game like that.

» Continue reading “Red Sox Limp Into Break After Dropping Finale To Yankees”

Earthquake? No big deal.

Hurricane? Missed us, mainly (although in New England, Vermont and Rhode Island were not as lucky – continued thoughts towards the struggles there).

Boston survived two natural disasters this week.  I also survived them, and was mainly blissfully unaware of them, since I was tanning on a beach in Mexico while the weirdest combination of weather phenomenae to hit the Hub in decades raged.  My coworkers tell me that my office building in downtown Boston shook, and that everyone bought bottled water and canned goods that they didn’t use.

But a third force sweeps into Boston tonight, folks – the Yankees.  Batten down the hatches, everyone, and fill your bathtubs with water while you’re at it.  The teams have leapfrogged each other in a fight for first place all season, and with September around the corner and only six season series games remaining (three at Fenway this week, and then three in New York in late September), this series could prove to be a turning point either way.  The Yankees are without the services of Alex Rodriguez, who is nursing a minor thumb injury, and Derek Jeter is apparently day-to-day after fouling a ball off his right knee in Baltimore (he says he feels good and wants to play, but Jeter always says he feels good and wants to play).  The Sox have Ortiz back from the DL, the friendly confines of Fenway Park to play in, and a stretch of perfect weather to pack the park with (unlike Saturday’s nightcap, which I and only a few dozen other brave souls went to).

CC vs. Lackey, tonight, 7:10 start.  CC’s got the stats, but he hasn’t been able to figure out Boston this year.  Lackey’s coming up strong lately, but I still don’t quite trust the guy.