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Home » June 2006 Game CommentsJune 2006 » Aquit

Aquit

Game 67: June 18, 2006
Red Sox (39-28), 10
Braves (30-40), 7
H: Manny Delcarmen (3)
BS, W: Rudy Seanez (1 , 2-0)
S: Jonathan Papelbon (22)
H, L: Macay McBride (1, 1-1)
BS: Chad Paronto (1)

I couldn’t tell if Joe Morgan was being a color analyst or pimping his new book, Why Coco Crisp Should Leadoff and Other Baseball Anachronisms. Hopefully Fire Joe Morgan is working on a new entry for last night’s game. There was more than enough material, from lauding John Smoltz’s bunt attempt in the sixth to get the second out to criticizing David Ortiz for allegedly not getting out of the way of a pitch in the eighth. The slow motion replay clearly showed Ortiz trying to evade Mike Remlinger’s pitch. Hold on a second, that wasn’t slow motion? Hard to tell with Remlinger pitching.

Ortiz gave his team the early lead by depositing the first pitch he saw into the center field stands. The sometime first baseman must have shared his insight into Smoltz’s pitching because Manny Ramirez duplicated the feat in the fourth inning after getting ahead in the count 2-0. Ramirez’s power clout tied the score as the Braves managed to scratch two runs in the third by stringing together singles and productive outs (you know, what Morgan calls good old-fashioned baseball). The Boston left fielder also tied Carl Yastrzemski in career homers with 452.

In the sixth inning when Jason Varitek grounded into a double play with the bases juiced and no outs but still plating Ortiz for the lead, Morgan did not go so far as to call the play as a productive two outs. He was probably tempted to but was too put off by the Red Sox uniform.

Alex Gonzalez and Trot Nixon turned in the defensive plays of the evening. With Marcus Giles on first in the third, Gonzalez broke to the bag to cover second the instant Edgar Renteria made contact. Gonzalez then changed course, crawling back to get the ball that was barreling towards the hole to gun Renteria down. Nixon saved extra base hits in the seventh by running full-bore to make a sliding snatch of Scott Thorman’s line drive towards shallow right field.

The seventh had started out promisingly enough with Manny Delcarmen’s strikeout of Renteria and Nixon’s catch. But Terry Francona impatiently pulled Delcarmen after the young pitcher gave up a single to Andruw Jones. Javier Lopez promptly walked Brian McCann, the only batter he faced. Francona summoned Rudy Seanez, relying on his veteran canniness to get the final out. But Jeff Francoeur, with his .263 OBP and five walks to his name, launched a three-run homer to take the lead on the first pitch. He even took a bow at his fans’ behest.

Surprisingly, it was only Seanez’s first blown save. Make no mistake, however: he is one of the reasons Jonathan Papelbon has had so many save opportunities. When Papelbon accepts his Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, and/or Relief Pitcher of the Year awards, a shout out should go to his mates in the bullpen.

The Red Sox offense bailed Seanez out with a scoring frenzy in the eighth inning with eleven of their batters seeing time at the dish. Ortiz and Ramirez’s back-to-back whiff made the Boston retort all the more stirring. With two out, the visitors scored six runs, which was two more runs than Atlanta had scored in the previous two games. Pinch hitters Mike Lowell and Alex Cora marshaled three RBIs, Lowell with a line drive double that found the gap between right and center and Cora with a lined single up the middle. Kevin Youkilis jacked a two-run homer, which of course to Morgan was further proof that he shouldn’t be leading off. In the ninth, Crisp singled to drive in Nixon and then stole second base. Case closed, eh Morgan?

Red Sox nation citizenship runs deep: Chad Paronto, the Braves pitcher who blew the lead, was born in Haverhill, New Hampshire and attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Thanks, Chad, for helping your real team secure the series sweep.

Note: “Aquit” means “one” in Wampanoag, a language of the indigenous people who originally inhabited the eastern part of what is now known as Massachusetts. It is a relative of the Algonquin language and is being revitalized through the efforts of the Aquinnah Cultural Center.

Comments

Perfect insight, Joanna. The game was three games....innings one through six, and then seven and two thirds of the eighth, and then, Paps, with sanity. I, like you, enjoyed Pap's time.

Joe M. is ridiculous. Great ball player, a joke as a commentator. How about his noting how much more prolific the Sox offense will be once Coco takes back his leadoff spot from Youkilis? (Youk: .318 avg, .432 obp, .519 slg, .950 ops; Coco .268 avg, .311 obp .375 slg.) I love Coco and all, but come on ...

Also, can the Sox please call up any random member of the Lowell Spinners to take the roster spot of Rudy Seanez???

Sometimes I think that the option of having my grandmother pitch instead of Seanez would be a super fantastic idea.

Seanez is maddeningly inconsistent. In the game against the Nationals last night he struck out two and didn't allow any runs. Rudy is like a box of chocolates.

Sure, if some of the chocolates were filled with caramel, and others were filled with garbage.

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