Disappointment
| Game 100: July 20, 2008 | |||
| Red Sox | 3 | L: Tim Wakefield (6-7) | 57-43, 3 game losing streak |
 Angels |
5 | W: Darren Oliver (3-1) S: Francisco Rodriguez (40) |
60-38, 5 game winning streak |
| Highlights: Darren Oliver isn’t retired yet? The adage that when you’re left-handed and can still get the ball on the black you can pitch in perpetuity was proven by Oliver last night. The same can be said for knuckleballers like Wakefield, but definitely not of the ferocious mechanics of Rodriguez. How this man’s arm remains attached to his body is beyond me, and yet he is on pace to shatter the single season saves record. It is fitting that in such a season that the inventor of the save, Jerome Holtzman, passed away this weekend. He was 82. Numerologic coincidence: Eric Gagne pitched 82 and one-third innings in the three consecutive years where he was a dominating closer, 2002-2004. | |||
But for back-to-back homers propelled by Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter in the second and Manny Delcarmen’s unpropitious propensity towards allowing inherited runners to score the Red Sox may have broken their post-Midsummer Classic slump.
Instead of watching this game I would have preferred three hours or so of people who have met and played with Dustin Pedroia reminiscing about the diminutive middle infielder. Peter Gammons mentioned that Pedroia even got the dour Barry Bonds to laugh; when the slugger reached second base Pedroia said to him, “Sorry about all your records I broke at Arizona State.”
Even Joe Morgan got into the act. He related an anecdote where a Blue Jays catcher told Pedroia that no one on their team knew how to get him out.
“Neither does the rest of the league,” quipped Dustin.
And that was the sum total of enjoyment from what was ultimately one of the most disappointing games of the season thus far.
