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Game 43: May 23, 2009 Mets3W: Pedro Feliciano (1-1)S: J.J. Putz (2)23-19, 2 game winning streak Red Sox2BS, L: Jonathan Papelbon (1, 0-1)25-18, 2 game losing streak Highlights: Alex Cora was interviewed by Heidi Watney in her “Opposite Field” segment. He misses Boston, you can tell. When asked about how he likes playing for the Mets, there was a long pause. Then he went for the standard “this is a great team, we’re contenders” soundbite before mentioning that in New York the fans and media get on you quicker than in Boston. Cora characterized his time with the Red Sox as “my best three years I ever had in baseball” and that he missed Dustin Pedroia’s smack talk. In preparation for the knuckleballer today, Cora said the strategy is to go out tonight and have some drinks. Probably with some of his former AL teammates. If it had been J.J. Putz or Francisco Rodriguez who blew the game for the Mets, the back page of the Gotham tabloid would have been worse than what it was for Jonathan Papelbon. The Boston Herald only screeched “Gone Baby Gone” in 200-point font. “K-Fraud,” “J.J.=Just Junk,” and “Just a Putz” are some of...
Game 139: September 3, 2008 Orioles 4 BS: Rocky Cherry (2)L: Jim Miller (0-1) 63-76, 6 game losing streak Red Sox 5 W: Justin Masterson (5-4) 82-57, 3 game winning streak Highlights: The Orioles love to provide Red Sox fans with memorable games. There’s Hideo Nomo’s no-hitter on April 4, 2001, the wild card-clinching game on September 25, 2003, the remarkable Mother’s Day comeback game on May 13, 2007, and Clay Buchholz’s no-no on September 1 later that year. Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched competent innings, but his teammates staged a comeback (morikaesu in Japanese) too late for him to secure his 17th victory. Yesterday the Red Sox notched another late-inning victory against the ill-fated Orioles. The Boston bats seemed to be sleepwalking through six innings. The crowd of 37,373 responded to the lackluster effort with equally tepid acknowledgment of the goings-on on the field; they seemed like they would rather be sitting in a 6 by 8 cubicle in front of a LCD monitor that sucks out the soul of any who gaze into it.That’s where I was. I would have gladly traded places with any of them, even the guy in Section 23, Row 2, Seat 17.I had Joe...
Game 9: April 9, 2008 Tigers 7 W: Jeremy Bonderman (1-1)H: Bobby Seay (1)H: Francis Beltran (1) 1-7, 1 game winning streak Red Sox 2 L: Jon Lester (1-1) 4-5, 1 game losing streak Highlights: It had to happen sometime, but unfortunately it happened to the Red Sox. The Tigers garnered their first victory of the season, allowing the 1988 Orioles to continue to hold the record for the worst start to a major league season with 21 straight losses. To add to the indignity, Mike Lowell was placed on the 15-day disabled list for a sprained left thumb, an injury that occurred on the first play of the game. Lowell tumbled after a grounder off the bat of Ivan Rodriguez but still managed to throw out the runner and stay on the field until the end of the top of the second. The Red Sox brain trust was further depleted when Alex Cora, while practicing to take over at the hot corner, felt a twinge in his elbow. Jed Lowrie was called up to fill the vacancy. Rather than stew about Edgar Renteria’s post-Boston resurgence or the two homers that Marcus Thames and and Carlos Guillen managed to...
Game 35: May 12, 2007 Orioles 4 L: Jon Leicester (0-1) 18-19, 1 game losing streak5-6-1 series record Red Sox 13 BS, W: Javier Lopez (1, 1-0)H: Hideki Okajima (9) 24-11, 1 game winning streak9-2-2 series record Highlights: Okajima shutdown the Orioles lineup in his one and two-thirds innings of work. Julio Lugo went 4-for-5 with with one RBI, although he was picked off in the first inning after lining a single into left. One could blame it on Chris Guccione, however; he waited until the fifth to call Steve Trachsel on his balky pitch delivery. This game went from a nail-biter to a laughter in short order. The offensive Orioles pitching staff saw that nearly every Red Sox starter had an RBI to his name. Everyone, that is, except Dustin Pedroia. What can a rookie do when The Smartest Player in Baseball (trademarked by Jerry Remy) Alex Cora is nipping at your, well, in Pedroia’s case, torso. Cora continued to ignore the fact that he is Cora whenever he pinch hits. He came to the dish with runners at second and third, two out, and the score 5-4 in his team’s favor thanks to Coco Crisp breaking the...
Game 25: May 1, 2007 ∙ 10 innings Athletics 5 W: Justin Duchscherer (2-1)S: Huston Street (7) 13-13, 1 game winning streak3-5-1 series record Red Sox 4 H: Hideki Okajima (6)BS: Jonathan Papelbon (1) 16-9, 1 game losing streak6-2-1 series record Highlights: The Red Sox lose their first extra innings game of the season and Papelbon blew his first save of 2007. On the bright side, Okajima continued to devastate hitters; he sat the heart of the order in the eighth on 17 pitches. In the eighth, Manny Ramirez lined a single to center field for his 1,000 hit as a Red Sox player. The pitch was thrown by old friend Alan Embree. Alex Cora pinch hit in the ninth and was intentionally walked for the 29th time in his career according to Baseball Reference Play Index. It was a reunion night of sorts. Lenny DiNardo (available from the bullpen but didn’t make an appearance), Justin Duchscherer (drafted by Boston in 1996), Alan Embree, and Todd Walker were there and I went to the game with Andrew of 12eight. He’s not really the Mysterious Baseball Hermit as GYS names him but rather the Enigmatic Semi-Social Baseball Aficionado. Emerging from...
Game 24: April 29, 2007 Red Sox 7 W: Julian Tavarez (1-2)H: Hideki Okajima (5)S: Jonathan Papelbon (8) 16-8, 1 game winning streak6-2-1 series record Yankees 4 L: Chien-Ming Wang (0-2) 9-14, 1 game losing streak2-6-1 series record Highlights: Alex Cora, who had never had a hit in Yankee Stadium, laced a two-run homer in the fifth for the lead. Tavarez notched his first win of the season; a fifth starter besting the Yankees’ ace of the moment demonstrated how this season is unfolding for the Bronx Bromides. Joe Torre was getting advice on his resume from Larry Bowa, Joe Kerrigan, and Tony Pena. For example, what do you do if no one from your previous position will act as your reference? The first inning, the first pitch he glimpsed, the first swing he took, David Ortiz knew the nanosecond the ball left his bat that he hit a home run. Manny Ramirez, Alex Cora, and the designated hitter made a triple decker hero sandwich on Sunday. The Yankees showed signs of life in the third inning from an source as unlikely as Cora. Doug Mientkiewicz smacked his second home run of the season with Jorge Posada and Robinson...
Surprise Me, Trebek! Curt Schilling is a deeply religious man but his faith does not preclude him from understanding that stem cell research is perhaps the only way to defeat maladies like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a disease that afflicted his mother. Schilling did stump for George Bush in 2004 following the Red Sox’s victory, but did try to convince the president to support funding for this unnecessarily controversial science. Faith wasn’t enough to lead Schilling to victory over his Celebrity Jeopardy! challengers, however. In the episode broadcast on November 9, Schilling lost to Doug Savant and Jane Kaczmarek. He did raise $25,000 for Curt’s Pitch for ALS and the Shade Foundation. Sports Science Sometimes an Oxymoron On October 27 the Cardinals broke the string of senior circuit failures in the Fall Classic. Red Sox draftee and All-Star shortstop David Eckstein garnered the World Series MVP honor and former Red Sox pitcher via deadline deal Jeff Suppan managed not to embarrass himself. Both Eckstein and Suppan were both opponents of Missouri’s Amendment 2, which they claimed would enable human cloning. The initiative did allow for somatic cell nuclear transfer, an essential part of stem cell production where a DNA from a...
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Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library’s Sports Temples of Boston.