Empyreal Environs

Bill Hall-elujah

As he didn’t have the impact of Adrian Beltre, Victor Martinez, or David Ortiz, Bill Hall’s possible departure from the Red Sox has not been widely discussed. If Boston exercises its club option Hall would be paid $9.25 million in 2011, a price tag that the front office may balk at since it has a cheaper infield option with Jed Lowrie. Hall played every position but first base and catcher, so his versatility will be missed. He pinch ran for Ortiz in the bottom of the eighth, giving him a close-up look at a miracle. With the bases loaded, Kevin Cash worked a walk to push the tying run across home. “And he shall reign for ever and ever!” Because backup catchers have a long shelf life; witness Cash’s line of .133 batting average, .224 on-base percentage, and .150 slugging percentage with the Red Sox. As ineffective as Cash was as a hitter so were A.J. Burnett and Daisuke Matsuzaka as starters. Neither pitcher made it past the sixth inning and both gave up four runs. Burnett surrendered more hits but Matsuzaka relinquished more base on balls. Mix inefficient pitchers with two of the more patient lineups in the majors...

3 October 2010 ∙ 7:39 PM ∙ October 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Cash (Kevin) ∙ Hall (Bill) ∙ Lopez (Felipe) ∙ Matsuzaka ∙ Yankees

It Really is a Marathon

The miles show on Mike Lowell’s face but not in his words. “You know, I’m kind of at a loss for words to kind of explain the emotions I’ve felt over the last five years, with respect to the support and positive response I’ve gotten from Red Sox fans,” said Lowell during the pre-game festivities celebrating his baseball career. “But I think it’s your passion and your knowledge for baseball, I’ll truly miss but I don’t think I’ll ever forget.” Josh Beckett, who came with Lowell in the trade with the Marlins, gave the corner infielder a third base bag. The left field wall echoed fans’ signs and thoughts: “THANK YOU MIKE.” The Red Sox’s marathon season reached Heartbreak Hill. The Red Sox ran it with crutches and the Yankees participated in it like a relay, handing off the baton to deadline acquisitions. While perennial All-Star Lance Berkman hasn’t become a true Yankee yet, adding him to the lineup along with Austin Kearns and Kerry Wood gave the Gothamites proven major league options while Boston’s lineup card closely resembled something Torey Lovullo would draw up in McCoy or Arnie Beyeler puts together at Hadlock. Despite the vast disparity in talent...

3 October 2010 ∙ 5:50 PM ∙ October 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Anderson (Lars) ∙ Hall (Bill) ∙ Lowell (Mike) ∙ Papelbon (Jonathan) ∙ Wood (Kerry) ∙ Yankees

Rest in Pieces

The Yankees guaranteeing themselves a playoff spot this season was inevitable but, like your parents having sex, it’s something that happens but you don’t need to see or hear it. Just please keep it down. Will you guys wait until you get into your bedroom? Appreciate it. Juan Miranda’s tenth-inning bases loaded walk teased from Hideki Okajima was like amateur porn compared to the Red Sox winning the American League East on September 28, 2007. That night was like Amélie (from the movie, not the Boston Globe) imagining climaxes across the arrondissements of Paris; pockets of Red Sox fans in Baltimore and Boston and beyond were simultaneously experiencing exhilaration. A scintilla of that exaltation shimmered briefly in the top of the ninth. Ryan Kalish swiped second and third as Bill Hall battled Mariano Rivera. Hall prevailed by shooting a single up the middle to plate Kalish for the tying run. Inspired by Kalish’s larceny Hall also stole second and third, putting him in position to tag up on pinch hitter Mike Lowell’s sacrifice fly to center for the go-ahead score. Jonathan Papelbon, who had partnered with Daisuke Matsuzaka three years ago to clinch the division, did not replicate his one-two-three...

27 September 2010 ∙ 5:23 PM ∙ September 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Hall (Bill) ∙ Kalish (Ryan) ∙ Miranda (Juan) ∙ Papelbon (Jonathan) ∙ Yankees

Bucking the Trend

Since assuming the helm of the floundering Orioles organization Buck Showalter has reversed the team’s course. Baltimore is 28-17 since August 3. Over the same period the Red Sox are 23-21, but more than a handful of the losses seemed like they should have been wins. The opening game of the this series was one of those eminently winnable games. The local nine tied the game twice. Hot-hitting Victor Martinez starched a single in the bottom of the first to plate Darnell McDonald and knot the run tally 1-1. In the bottom of the sixth the Red Sox had all the fixings for a home-cooked rally: Mike Lowell walked with one out and Jed Lowrie was hit by a pitch to push Lowell into scoring position. Bill Hall blooped in Lowell with a single to right. Lowell was able to reach home on the single because Nick Markakis clumsily tripped and bobbled the ball. Lowrie reached third on the miscue. Markakis’s mistake was countered by Lowrie’s baserunning blunder. On Jason Varitek’s strikeout Matt Wieters fired to shortstop Cesar Izturis to tag Hall, who was part of a failed hit and run. Izturis noticed Lowrie breaking for home and threw back...

21 September 2010 ∙ 6:37 PM ∙ September 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Hall (Bill) ∙ Lowrie (Jed) ∙ Markakis ∙ McDonald (Darnell) ∙ Orioles ∙ Showalter (Buck)

Dazzler in the Downpour

The day may have been a murky day marred by two rain delays but Clay Buchholz’s supreme skill outshone the showers. “Buch-nasty” (as he was dubbed by Mike Cameron) pitched only six innings but that was with a 1 hour, 44 minute delay of first pitch and a 59-minute rain delay called in the top of the third. While he allowed five hits and three bases on balls he struck out seven and didn’t allow any extra base hits. Both relievers, Daniel Bard and Felix Doubront, also stifled the Blue Jays batters, allowing just three baserunners between them. Jose Molina represented the final out of the game but was hit by a pitch with the count 0-2. The Blue Jays catcher seemed to want to make something of it, but if he thinks anyone let alone a rookie would intentionally plunk him in such a situation he needs to book some time with a therapist to discuss his persecution complex. It’s not like the name “Overbay” was on the back of his jersey. Replacing Jacoby Ellsbury in the speed department was David Ortiz. The fleet-footed designated hitter sprinted around the horn while Vernon Wells and Fred Lewis chased after the...

23 August 2010 ∙ 5:30 PM ∙ August 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Blue Jays ∙ Buchholz (Clay) ∙ Cameron (Mike) ∙ Hall (Bill) ∙ Ortiz

Do It All Hall

Bill Hall helped turn both of Boston’s double plays and homered twice into the second deck. The utility man started off the season ice cold; April’s statistics were a disappointing .192 batting average, .364 on-base percentage, and .231 slugging percentage. Thus far in August Hall has .286 batting average and on-base percentage but sports a .629 slugging rate. Nearly everyone in the Red Sox lineup was mashing. Even without Hall’s four RBIs his team would have prevailed. The Blue Jays had no extra base hits and scored their first and only run in the first inning thanks to Travis Snider reaching on Mike Lowell’s error. Snider advanced to second on Yunel Escobar’s sacrifice bunt, got to third on a passed ball to Jose Bautista, and scored on Bautista’s sac fly to right. Clay Buchholz didn’t allow a Toronto batter past second for the rest of the game. His line wasn’t dazzling (8 innings pitched, 5 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts), but being able to get to the eighth without having to use any of the reliable relievers was a boon to the team. Dustin Richardson gave up back-to-back singles in the bottom of the ninth to bottom of...

12 August 2010 ∙ 6:20 PM ∙ August 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Beltre (Adrian) ∙ Blue Jays ∙ Buchholz (Clay) ∙ Hall (Bill) ∙ Richardson (Dustin)

If Man is Five

Then the devil is six, like the six runs in the first inning of the game. And he was in the details, details that home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman missed. Everyone but Dreckman, including Michael Young himself, thought that he struck out. He ran out a dropped foul tip but got to swing again when it was ruled a foul ball. Young singled and the floodgates opened like Somerville on July 10. While Bill Hall made an error at third that resulted in an unearned run in the second, the utility man turned a pair of impressive defensive gems in later innings. He laid out to rob Bengie Molina of a single (for any other batter it would been a double) down the left field line in the fifth. In the next inning Hall turned an impressive double play, beating Elvis Andrus to third after gloving Ian Kinsler’s grounder and firing across the diamond to nail Kinsler at first. Hall also clouted a four-bagger over everything in left in the seventh, a true Monster shot. His solo shot joined J.D. Drew’s fourth-inning dinger as the only runs for the local nine in the game. All game it seemed Boston batters...

16 July 2010 ∙ 7:18 PM ∙ July 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Hall (Bill) ∙ Rangers ∙ Wakefield (Tim)

David is Goliath

For four innings James Shields limited the home hitters to four baserunners but in the fifth inning the Rays starter failed to show proof that his team’s pitching staff has the best earned run average in the American League. Mike Cameron’s gutshot single to his counterpart set the stage, Marco Scutaro’s wall-ball warmed up the crowd, and David Ortiz’s three-run shot over the visitors’ bullpen set the audience into a frenzy. Ortiz nonchalantly tossed his bat after the blast, like he had just swatted a fly and flung away rolled-up newspaper. Shields hunched over, hands on knees as if someone had just thumped him in the diaphragm. He swiped angrily at the dirt as fans battled over the ball and Ortiz rounded third. Evan Longoria refrained from criticizing his teammate’s pitch selection but instead manned his base and pondered why he let a four-year old cut his hair. Pinch hitters infused the shell-shocked Tampa Bay squad with new life in the late innings. Responding to Bill Hall’s two-run homer was Willy Aybar’s two-RBI effort over the left field wall in the eighth. Joe Maddon summoned B.J. Upton to pinch hit with two out and the center fielder showed hustle on...

30 June 2010 ∙ 5:51 PM ∙ June 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Hall (Bill) ∙ Lackey (John) ∙ Ortiz ∙ Rays ∙ Shields (James)

Pedey’s Big Adventure

The middle game of this series turned out to be a tug-o-war of wills between the two lineups. Manny Ramirez led off the second with a single, swiped second, and scored on a single to right by the reanimated corpse of Garret Anderson that Bill Hall failed to stop from skipping past him. Of the myriad positions Hall can field, right field is the spot he has played the least; in 821 games started Hall has a mere 15 starts in right. Add to that novelty the difficult sun field of late afternoon games at Fenway and unsurprisingly Hall had two errors. The second error came in the seventh. Anderson, still powered by some dark art, lifted a ground-rule double to right and scored on Blake DeWitt’s double to right. Hall incorrectly played the carom of DeWitt’s ball, following it too closely as it hugged the curve in the wall rather than allowing the ball to come to him. Anderson scored to cut the home team’s lead to a run and DeWitt made it to the hot corner. Tim Wakefield was in line for the win when Manny Delcarmen took the mound with one out in the seventh. Maybe the...

20 June 2010 ∙ 4:51 PM ∙ June 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Dodgers ∙ Hall (Bill) ∙ Nava (Daniel) ∙ Okajima ∙ Pedroia

To the Victor Goes the Spoils

Victor Martinez used the Oakland pitching staff as his personal batting practice pitchers, going 5-for-5 with four doubles and two runs batted in. In the fifth the backstop doubled off the left field wall and was driven in by Adrian Beltre’s three- run home run off the wall behind the first row of the Monster seats. Martinez’s ground-rule double to the center field bleachers in the sixth broke the 4-4 tie. The Athletics jumped out to a 4-0 lead, a lead that would have seemed insurmountable in April. But the Red Sox offense jolted to life, bailing out their starter. John Lackey pitched a sloppy six innings: 12 hits, 4 earned runs, 2 walks, and 4 strikeouts. Two players, Kurt Suzuki and Bill Hall, knocked in their first triples of the season. Suzuki’s third-inning hit was actually at best a double but was converted to a triple thanks to Darnell McDonald’s ill-advised diving attempt at a spectacular catch in center. Hall’s seventh-inning shot ricocheted high off the deepest part of the left field wall and then caromed over center fielder Rajai Davis’s head into the triangle. Had it been someone with Davis’s speed running the bases instead of Hall it...

1 June 2010 ∙ 10:59 PM ∙ June 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Athletics ∙ Beane (Billy) ∙ Beltre (Adrian) ∙ Hall (Bill) ∙ Martinez (Victor) ∙ Suzuki (Kurt)

Royal Pain

Just as Tim Wakefield was chased from the game in the fourth inning by the pesky Royals Terry Francona was driven from his customary bench by the irksome Kevin Millar. Millar whooped and hollered over the phone to his MLB Network colleagues when Victor Martinez powered a two-run home run into the home team’s bullpen. The four-bagger granted the Red Sox a somewhat comfortable 5-2 lead. But no lead is safe in Fenway, and these days no lead is safe with Wakefield on the mound. Kansas City retaliated with no regard for human life in the top of the fourth, tying the game 5-5 on a wild pitch to Mitch Maier. Maier would take a base on balls to load the diamond and Yuniesky Betancourt improbably knocked the ball over the left field wall for a grand slam. Betancourt, the middle infielder who bats in the eight hole. The shortstop with the .392 career slugging percentage. The slick fielder who had 34 homers since 2005. In such a topsy-turvy game it stands to reason that the Red Sox’s best pitcher was a position player. Bill Hall pitched a perfect frame in the ninth and had one more out than Joe...

29 May 2010 ∙ 4:06 PM ∙ May 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Betancourt (Yuniesky) ∙ Celtics ∙ Hall (Bill) ∙ Millar ∙ Royals ∙ Wakefield (Tim)

Hall’s Well That Ends Well

Clay Buchholz’s first start of the season wasn’t particularly sharp: 5 innings pitched, 7 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), 2 walks, and 1 strikeout. The leadoff batter in each inning reached base so the slim starter was in damage control mode for most of the afternoon. Unlike the home team starter Gil Meche, Buchholz didn’t let his opposition get hits in bunches. The first Royals run crossed the plate when Bill Hall pursued a fly ball too far into the outfield, nearly running into Jacoby Ellsbury. Don’t blame Hall; he just thought it was time for his turn to take left. In the ninth Hall shifted from short to right and Marco Scutaro manned the hole. Hall’s versatility came into play later in the ninth when Ellsbury again crossed paths with an infielder. This time Adrian Beltre ran out hard, chasing Mitch Maier’s pop fly in foul territory while Ellsbury charged in, honing in on the same target. As Ellsbury slid Beltre’s knee hit the left fielder in the rib cage. Ellsbury was removed from the game, J.D. Drew (who was all limbered up thanks to Scutaro’s massage) took over in right, and Hill shifted from right to left. Terry...

11 April 2010 ∙ 7:06 PM ∙ April 2010 Game Comments ∙ Comments: 0
Tags: Buchholz (Clay) ∙ Hall (Bill) ∙ Ortiz ∙ Red Sox debut ∙ Royals