An Ovation Is In Order: DRays-Sox Gamer VIII

Following the remarkable performance by Tim Wakefield last night, Jon Lester makes his return to the mound at Fenway for the first time in over a year tonight as the Red Sox face Scott Kazmir and the SatanFish.  Lester has not recorded a decision in his last three starts after winning his season debut, his most recent appearance a short outing against the Halos eventually won by the Sox.

Lineups follow, comment away.

Tampa Bay
A. Iwamura 3b	.286
C. Crawford lf	.314
B.J. Upton cf	.321
C. Pena 1b	.265
D. Young rf	.296
B. Harris 2b	.294
J. Gomes dh	.265
J. Wilson ss	.278
J. Paul c	.184
S. Kazmir sp	3.58
Boston
J. Lugo ss	.238
D. Pedroia 2b	.326
D. Ortiz dh	.316
M. Ramirez lf	.291
M. Lowell 3b	.311
K. Youkilis 1b	.300
J. Varitek c	.265
C. Crisp cf	.273
W. Pena rf	.221
J. Lester	6.43

Comments

[Dionysus]

Wow.. Where is everyone?

[Dionysus]

Manny out tryign to stretch a single for out number three. Idiot. David was alreayd safe at third. Now instead of corners with two outs for Mike "RBI" Lowell, th einnign is over.

Vomit

[Atheose]

Sorry, I was cooking. Lester looking solid so far.

Oh, and Karstens for the Yankees gets knocked out of the game after 3.0 innings pitched. O's up 6-0.

[Atheose]

Youk singles in the 4th... he hit the ball too hard though. Would have been a double otherwise.

[Dionysus]

Lester got into a little trouble last inning thanks mostly to Carl Crawford, who is one of those real good players playign for a bad team.

I'd feel more confident if we weren't facing Scott "Sox Killer" Kazmir.

[Dionysus]

Tek Ks. I hate Kazmir. One on and two down, 1-0 Rays.

Come on guys.. if you cant get runs at leats hurry kazmir out of the game!

[Dionysus]

Coco Ks. 71 pitches through 4 for him. 69 for Lester.

If we can JUUUUST give him SOME trouble next inning we may be able to get him out by the 6th

[Atheose]

Johnny Gomes smokes a ball to left field, but it's right at Manny. Whew. 1 out in the 5th.

[Hudson]

Here we go again... Yet another high-quality start by the rotation... put in jeopardy by the offense. WTF?

[attackgerbil]

That was a nice running basket catch by Coco.

[FenSheaParkway]

Scott Kazmir will follow me to my grave and heckle the mourners. Geez, I hate that guy. Is it too late in the game to ask the Sox to really knock the snot out of him for once?

[Atheose]

Another hard hit ball, but Coco makes it look easy. An easy ground ball ends the inning.

Also, Daniel Cabrera has only allowed 1 hit in 4 innings to the Yankees. About damn time their offense got cold.

[Hudson]

With Lester at 82 pitches after 4-and-2/3rds innings, the probability of a Gagne appearance tonight seems to be rising rapidly.

[Dionysus]

1-2-3 inning from Lester.

Come on guys... I'd liek abunch of runs, but I'll even settle for one and the starter being knocked out.

[Atheose]

Attackgerbil, thanks for the compliment :-) Always nice to bridge the gap between enemy teams. Though I'm assuming you're watching the Sox because the Yanks are, well... yeah.

[Dionysus]

Dont say awful awful things Hudson

[Dionysus]

I imagien gerbil's flipping. If I had MLBtv I would.

Know thy enemy.

[Dionysus]

Flipping back and forth that is...

[Atheose]

We haven't seen Tavarez in a while... I imagine he'll be the one eating up an inning or two.

[Dionysus]

Wily pops up but at least he didnt do it on the first pitch. 5 more pitches taken away from Scott. If Lugo and Pedroia can drain him a bit.. well I'll settle for that

[Dionysus]

Delcarmen could get an inning or twoo as well.

I cant wiat until the roster expands and we can call Javier back up alogn with Ellsbury

[Atheose]

Kazmir has struck out half the hitters, 7 K's after 14 outs. I'm REALLY going to hate when this kid is a Yankee.

[Dionysus]

Lugo Ks.. 5 more pitches.

[Atheose]

Pedroia gets a ground-ball single. Come on guys, 2-out rally time!

[Dionysus]

I agree Atheose. Hopefully we cna get Santana in retaliation.

[no sleep til brooklyn SF]

This is aggravating. When can he get out of the game?

[Dionysus]

DAMMIT DAVID?! First pitch? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?

SCREW THIS!!! SCREW IT!

[Dionysus]

84 pitches for Kazmir. One or two more innigns for him at this rate.

[FenSheaParkway]

"I'm REALLY going to hate when this kid is a Yankee."

Speaking of awful things to say. Yikes.

[Dionysus]

Remidn em why we got Gange instead of Dye?

[Dionysus]

I think so far Im most mad at Manny for gettign tossed otu at 2nd so far in this game.

That innnign could have been alot different

Papi gets secodn place in suck for swinging at the first ptich

[Dionysus]

Quick inning for Lester. 91 pitches now. If it were anyone else Id sayhe has another inning left in him.

[Atheose]

Well I've heard that Steinbrenner loves Kazmir. Since he lives down in Tampa he probably sees them a lot, so it wouldn't surprise me.

Lester is through 6, 91 pitches. Hopefully he can get some run support and go out for the 7th.

[Kris SF]

Yanks down 8-0 in the 6th, O's been playing well. I guess when you see Gagne, it builds your confidence a little.

[Dionysus]

The Yanks are hemmorraging runs now. 8-0 Os. Yanks havent gone a single inning since the first without giving upa t least 1 run

[Dionysus]

Fin Manny. Dont help us. Dont even build his pitch count you jerk.

[Kris SF]

By the way, I rely on you guys to know what happens in the sox game. I live in NYC so I ony get YES with Michael Kay, shoot me in the face. Tejada just got drilled.

[FenSheaParkway]

The ground-out trifecta! At least Jon's matching almost pitch-for-pitch. Some runs, please?

And that wouldn't surprise me at all about Steinbrenner (or at least someone on the Yankees) digging Kazmir. One of the NY teams has to know he's good. Now excuse me while I go stick my fingers in an egg beater.

[Dionysus]

Et tu, Mikey?

[Kris SF]

By the way has Kazmir ever pitched poorly against the Sox? EVER? Why wouldn't Stenibrenner give this guy as much money as he wanted?

[Atheose]

Look on the bright side: the Orioles have the bases loaded with 0 outs, and Aubrey Huff is up. A home run here would give him TWO grand slams in the same game!

[Dionysus]

Gameday Kris. GameDay rules. I live in pennsylvania.

Youk Ks but at least has a semblance of an at bat. 95 pitchs for Kaz

[Atheose]

Holy potatoes, Lester makes a great jumping catch to rob a base hit. Come on guys, get this kid some run support.

[Kris SF]

Thanks who ever recommended gameday. 9-0 yanks. kinda like that right now. about time someone beat up on them lets go sox score something.

[Hudson]

Lester allows just three Rays to reach base in 7 innings, and the Sox are losing? Argh.

[Dionysus]

BULLPEN! ITS THE D-RAY BULLPEN! THANK GOD!

[Atheose]

A Devil Ray reliever! Thank you jesus!

Let the onslaught begin.

[Kris SF]

Dionysus and Atheose you better be knocking on some wood

[Hudson]

Tek leads off with his second walk of the day. Nice. Now, capitalize!

[Atheose]

Varitek draws a lead-off walk. Woohoo!

Sorry Kris, don't worry... the mediocrity of the Tampa bullpen is a universal constant. No amount of talk could jinx the runs that will inevitably be scored here on out.

[Hudson]

Coco attempts a bunt, nothing doing, strike one.

[Dionysus]

Tek draws a walk. Coco bunts foul, but has a good idea. Get the man in scorign position

[Hudson]

Now he bunts Tek over to 2nd, 1 gone. JDre batting for WPen.

[Atheose]

Coco lays down a bunt but 'Tek is thrown out at first. At least we have a speed-demon on base now. Drew pinch-hitting for Wiffy-Mo. Thank goodness.

Come on guys, let's get Lester the win. He's done for the night, we need to do it here.

[Dionysus]

Coco bunts liek sh*t and Tek is out at second.

Drew in for Pena. Thank God.

11-0 Orioles in New York

[Kris SF]

Is tek out? Gamecast says CoCo bunted and Tek is out.

[Hudson]

Drew GIDPs. Inning over. Going to scream.

[Kris SF]

Double play. Thanks for the relief pitcher BS before.

[Dionysus]

*cries*

[Hudson]

MDC pitching. Assuming a hold (!), the Sox have six outs to get at least one run. It really shouldn't be this hard.

[Kris SF]

Gagne time? If he comes in Some needs to take a dump in a bag, drop it off a Tito's house, light it, and ring the doorbell.

[Hudson]

Have any statheads worked up numbers on whether the sac bunt with a runner on 1st and no outs is really worth trying? How often does it lead either to an out, or fails to produce the expected easy score from 2nd?

(Note: Unclear why Gameday initially said Coco's sac was successful.)

[Kris SF]

So how many runs is Tampa going to score this inning?

[Hudson]

Gomes with a leadoff single. Wonderful.

[Kris SF]

followed up with a walk

[Atheose]

Walk to Wilson, who is batting .247. Josh Paul bats .179 so we had better get him out here. Come on Delcarmen.

[Atheose]

They sacrifice both men over, 2 RISP with 1 out. We need a strikeout.

[Hudson]

A walk makes it 1st and 2nd, no outs... Sac bunt moves the runners over.

[Hudson]

Phew, Manny grabs it in shallow left, 2 gone with the two RISP still. IBB to Crawford loads 'em up for Upton (who actually has a higher BA that Carl).

[Atheose]

Whew, fly ball leaves the runners where they are. Tito finally learns how to IBB, putting Crawford on 1st.

[Kris SF]

Well here it is, Crawford INT walk, basesloaded 2 out, upton up

[Atheose]

Crawford is batting .491 in August. Scary stuff.

Come on Timlin.

[Hudson]

Timlin in. I don't feel better.

[Kris SF]

TIMLIN BE BIG HERE OLD BUDDY!

[no sleep til brooklyn SF]

All he needs is one lousy out, can he get it?

[Atheose]

0-2 count, come on Timlin. Finish him.

[Hudson]

Timlin... ... ...

... ... ... ...

... ... ...

... ...

...

GETS THE K!

[Kris SF]

F'ing yEA TIMLIN! Millar just went deep 12-0 O's

[Atheose]

YEAH TIMLIN!

That out was HUGE. Come on offense, show your goddamn face.

[no sleep til brooklyn SF]

HE GETS IT!!

Please score runs.

Please.

Like 2 would be great.

[FenSheaParkway]

Machine Gunnery Sergeant Timlin pulls it off!

[Kris SF]

COME ON TOP OF THE ORDER!

[Atheose]

//Machine Gunnery Sergeant Timlin pulls it off!//

Ahahahaha, perfect description. I can see Timlin laying down some covering fire while 2,000 Vietcong storm the base.

[Hudson]

C'mon, Sox, this Dan Wheeler guy was *born* to cough up one-run leads.

[no sleep til brooklyn SF]

I have to kill Lugo now, brb.

[Atheose]

Oh SHIT. Oh god no. PLEASE no.

Gagne is warming up.

[Kris SF]

2 down, this game is over. Sox don't score late. They haven't in over a month.

[Hudson]

Two gone. Jeebus.

[Atheose]

Papi grounds out. Gagne heading towards the mound, with a "I hope I don't fuck it up" look on his face.

Aren't closers supposed to be, you know, CONFIDENT? Not peeing their pants?

[Hudson]

Papi out. Oh joy. Ain't lookin' good. Is Gagne really coming in?

[Kris SF]

The Yanks are going to get killed, and its going to be for nothing as we're going to lose to D-rays. SO pathetic. So incredible pathetic. As a wise man once said "We got no runs on one hit? One hit? All we got was one god damn hit?"

[Hudson]

Gag-me starts off with three straight balls, works the count back full, then gets the K.

This is nerve-wracking to say the least.

[Kris SF]

Gagnes in, well atleast he cant blow the lead

[Hudson]

Gag-me gets a second K. If he gets a third I might start spelling his name correctly.

[FenSheaParkway]

"Gagnes in, well atleast he cant blow the lead"

Your gallows humor made me laugh long enough to stop putting this noose together. How ironic.

Seriously, if we destined to lose tonight, I'm sort of jealous of that 12-0 drubbing going on in New York. 1-0 is just ghoulish.

[Hudson]

Uhhh, a two-out double by Harris.

[Kris SF]

of course Gagne doesn't let in run. That SOB

[Hudson]

Gag-e gets the count to 1-2... And there's strike #3. Thank you, Eric Gagne, 10 more appearances like this one and all will be forgiven.

[Atheose]

Holy crap, Gagne struck out the side!

I'm willing to forget the Oriole series if he continues to dominate from here on out.

[Hudson]

If the Sox can't beat the Devil Rays when their pitches hold TB to 1 run over 9... What happens when we play New York?