Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 17, 2007
Road Reversal

The Angels pitched backwards today. In general, LAnaheim is a poor road team, but John Lackey's ERA gets better away from Anaheim this season. He was lit up in game one. Tonight, Ervin Santana, who entered with an 8.79 road ERA pitched a great 6 1/3 innings, striking out five and walking none as he allowed just one run. The Angels lead 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth, and both Lackey and Beckett fail to win number 16.

Update: The Red Sox come back against Shields and Rodriguez in the 8th, scoring four runs. Shields gave up two walks and a hit while getting one out, then Rodriguez gave up back-to-back doubles to Ortiz and Ramirez to finish the scoring. The Sox go to the top of the eighth with a one-run lead.

Update: Gagne comes in to get the save in the ninth and blows it, allowing the Angels three runs. It's interesting, since Papelbon was used this afternoon, brought into a game with a three-run lead and two on in the eighth. He wasn't facing a good hitter as Mathis was scheduled and Izturis hit. Coming into the ninth with a one run lead is actually a tougher save situation. So they use Jon in a relatively easy situation and win the game, but use Gagne in the tougher situation lose the lead.

Update: K-Rod finishes the game for the win. He struck out Youkilis for the second out, but the umpire missed the foul tip, which is clear on the replay. Both Francona and Kevin were tossed after that.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:39 PM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Manny must read this site - a couple days after getting bashed as a poor clutch hitter, he delivers what looks to be the game winning rbi against one of the better closers in the game. Go figure.

Posted by: Bryan Packard at August 17, 2007 09:57 PM

Well, somebody point Gagne over here then!

Ugh. I want to support Tito's decisions, and Gagne as a new member of the team, but jeez. The Sox probably have an 8 or 9 game lead without that trade right now...

Tough to swallow.

As for today's usage, I feel like Francona felt like the Sox needed to win that early game and the matchup for the evening favored a blowout. If he brought Gagne in game 1 and lost, he'd be crucified for saving PApelbon.

Going forward however, Gagne clearly needs to be working with a net. he should be coming in with the bigger lead, and given a shorter leash.

Posted by: Mr Furious at August 18, 2007 12:39 AM

Umm, evident the wash?

Posted by: glennrwordman at August 18, 2007 12:03 PM
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