Jeter

“Wright” Stuff: Team USA Knocks Off Puerto Rico

/ Sara / Leave a comment

Team USA finally manages a defeat of Puerto Rico and makes it to the World Baseball Classic semi-finals on the back of Mets 3B David Wright.

It was a wild one last night, and one of the best baseball games I’ve seen in a while. Of course, it has only been spring training, but still, this was phenomenal.

Puerto Rico drew the first blood with a solo dinger off of Ted Lilly in the second, but Team USA responded with
two runs of their own, including a huge slide and bad throw that
brought David Wright home on a Brian McCann sac-fly. Kevin Youkilis
added to the lead with a solo tater off of Jonathan Sanchez with two outs in the third.

But Puerto Rico wasn’t going anywhere. A two run shot by Carlos Delgado in the fourth (also off of Ted Lilly) evened things up 3-3.

In the sixth, an Alex Rios single with two men on put Puerto Rico up 4-3. They built on teat lead the top of the ninth, when Ramon Vasquez hit one that got by Derek Jeter, allowing the man on second to score and putting Puerto Rico up 5-3 with half a frame left for team USA to stave off elimination.

Shane Victorino led off the bottom of the ninth with a single off of his Phillies teammate JC Romero, followed by a single from Brian Roberts. A line-out by Derek Jeter moved Victorino to third. Roberts stole second, and Jimmy Rollins walked to load the bases.

Puerto
Rico brought in Fernando Cabrera to relieve Romero and face Kevin
Youkilis, their two run lead in danger of disappearing. Cabrera walked
Youkilis on 5 pitches, leaving the Americans down by one run.

Mets
3b David Wright stepped up to the plate, and on the 2-1 pitch, he hit a
bloop double to the right corner, bringing home two runs and keeping
the Americans in the WBC. 

It
was quite a game, and if you missed it, you missed the best baseball
game since the Red Sox ALCS game 5 comeback last season.

The Americans will move on while Puerto Rico returns to spring training. Regardless of how things go from here, Team USA has already outshone the 2006 team. But with players like Wright, Rollins, Victorino, Jeter, and Youkilis (among many, many others) its hard to see them giving up now.

Team USA will play Venezuela, who they split a series with in Toronto, to see who will will Pool 2 tonight (March 18th) at 7 PM eastern. If you haven’t been watching the WBC, tune in now, because things are getting very interesting.

Just A Quick Blurb/Rant

/ Sara / Leave a comment

    So I’m sitting here, refreshing my google news (sorted by date) on Jason Varitek. No word yet, and its just killing me. This is beyond ridiculous! Tek needs to take the contract, if only for my sanity and team morale. Yes, all you nay-sayers, team morale will plummet like the stock market after Obama’s election.
  
     Plus, our little pitchers need someone experienced on the backstop, and they would all be very sad to see Tek go.

    I know, I know, I’ve already said all this a million times, but its just so annoying! I mean, the Yankees have spent half a billion dollars on talent this year, so despite A-Rod’s obsession with Jeter, they’ll be competitive. Again. Are you telling me that we can’t spend a measly $5 million to bring back the gritty soul of the team? Seriously!

    Okay, that ends my rant. I’ll post again the minute I hear any news of Tek, one way or the other.

Dice-K and Dustin: The Road Warriors

/ Sara / 1 Comment

Okay. Dice-K wasn’t dicey. At least until the 8th. That was a switch. And the Sox are looking good on the road, I mean, its against the Mariners, but still. I’ll take what I can get. 

072308_dicek329__1216791268_2657.jpgSome really good things happened yesterday:

1. Dice-K went 7 1/3 and only let in 2 runs towards the end there…not too bad
2. Okajima looked good. It was like a flashback to last year, maybe he’s out of his slump?
3. Paps notched save #30. That’s the third year in a row he’s had a least 30 saves in a season. 
    And its only July. We’ve got a lot more baseball to play.
4. Tek had another hit. Do we dare to hope?
5. Mikey had a good day swinging the bat, possibly signifying that he’s coming out of his little mini-slump
6. Jacoby Ellsbury looked good. I mean, he didn’t have a great night for a lead-off man, but he looked good.
7. Manny and Dustin extended their game hit-streaks to 11 and 23, respectively.
8. This afternoon’s game will hopefully be the last one we play this season without Papi, who returns for Friday’s home stand against the Yanks.
9. JD Drew homered. That’s always a good thing.
10. The Rays lost. Actually, the Rays got spanked. Good stuff.

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So now that we’ve discussed the  10 good things that happened last night, lets talk about something magical. I  was watching the game, and there were a couple of balls hit to third, and I remember thinking: “okay, good, we got that out.” when in fact Mikey had barely begun to field the ball. The duo of Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis is the most comforting corner combination ever. They are both tremendous defensive players, and sometimes I feel like any ball hit to them is an automatic out. And obviously Dustin Pedroia is up there too, they’re all golden glove candidates (again in Mikey and Youk’s case) in my book. That should have been your All-Star infield: Youk, Pedroia, Jeter, Mikey. (A-Rod is WAY overrated. I mean, at least Jeter is good and a class-act, but A-Rod…eh. not so much.)

Clay B. is starting for the Sox this afternoon (what a weird time for a game, not that I’m complaining, because I’ve been up late every night this week watching the late night games. I mean, I know its a 1:40 game in Seattle, but 4:40 is just a bizarre time to start a game ) hopefully this start will be better than the last few, especially since the Sox are up against Felix Hernandez, which is quite scary (especially for righties).

What do we need?

We need a quality outing from Buchholz, good, clutch bats from the boys, and I want to see Paps out there in the 9th. And a Rays loss wouldn’t hurt either 🙂

Go Sox!!

So Good, So Good, So Good

/ Sara / Leave a comment

Before we begin, I’d like to take a moment of silence for the city of Seattle. I can’t imagine what they’re going through.

…

…

…

Done. Okay. On to baseball! It’s always a good day when we beat the Yankees. When we beat the Yankees with a Jon Lester complete game shut out? Lets just say the Rays series stings a bit less (no pun intended) And Tek got a hit. Yay! All is right in my world tonight, and I can start praying for a Tampa Bay meltdown…probably not going to happen, but hey, its something we can hope for.

Congrats to Dustin Pedroia (or, D.P. as we lovingly call him) on extending his hitting streak to 11 games. J.D. was Mr. June…could Dustin be  Mr. July?  Don’t know. We also find out how many of the boys will be taking the field for the All-Star game. Probably a lot. And Tito gets to run the show. I feel like this is just torture for the Yankees, and its sadistic, but I love watching them get tortured.

And who doesn’t love Lester? I mean, how can you not? He’s one of those players who you have a grudging respect for even if you hate their team (like my relationship with Jeter. Respect him. Great player. I’d love him if he played for anyone else, but I can’t hate him. He’s too much of a class act.) Lester is one of those guys that you just have to love. I think this is Lester’s year. I mean, he’s got the no-no, two complete game shut-outs…could we add a ring to this to top it all off? I think so.

Here’s to Beckett and the Fourth of July! Happy Independence Day, y’all! (What, I may like the Sox, but I’m still a southerner) Shouldn’t we automatically win on the 4th since Boston was like, huge in winning this whole Independence thing? Ya know, Paul Revere, Boston Tea Party, Boston Massacre…isn’t there some karma from that or something?

And I’ll leave you with a few thoughts.

–Burn Notice is a great show. Check it out! (It has the line: “Guns make you stupid. But Duct tape? Duct tape makes you smart.”)

-Jacoby Ellsbury is like the Speedy Gonzales of Baseball. No joke.

-One of the issues facing the Sox at the end of the year is Jason Varitek’s free agency. Normally, I am against falling in love with a player and thus not letting them go when it’s time, but removing Tek is like taking away the soul of the team, a great defensive player, and an almost coach. How stupid would you have to be to trade the Captain? The guy who manages games better than any other catcher in the league? (Note: I fully believe the Sox will re-sign Tek, but this is just me getting out my two cent)

-A sweep of the Yanks would be great. Really, really, really great.

One final thing: this is from March, but it’s too funny to pass up. Look up “Mike Lowell’s Dancing With the All-Stars”. This isi from March
but it still makes me laugh. There should be four videos that go along
with these three pictures, along with mentions of Nutrisystem, being
turned on, and the ownership of a particular shirt.

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So good, so good, so good.