April 29, 2008
Duel in Fenway
Jon Lester and Roy Halladay are locked in a great pitching duel. The Jays have managed just one hit against the Red Sox lefty, although he's walked four batters. Halladay allowed just two hits, and that's it. All three hits were singles, and the teams go to the bottom of the eighth scoreless.
Update: Papelbon pitches the ninth for the Red Sox. He strikes out the first two batters, then Rolen hits a long double to the gap in left. That brings up Wells, who nearly takes off Jon's head with a line drive. Pedroia somehow stops the ball and throws Wells out at first, ending the inning and saving a run. Still no score.
Update: With two out in the ninth, Ortiz walks, Manny singles him to second, and Youkilis hits a single to center. With Big Papi running, there's a chance of a play at the plate, but Wells bobbles the ball and the Red Sox win 1-0. Halladay gets his fourth complete game in a row, but also his third loss in a row.
Posted by David Pinto at
09:09 PM
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Doc was Doc tonight... and all I could think of was the world of hurt the blogosphere would unleash on Wells if he actually choked there and wasn't purely robbed.
Well he just bobbled the game winning hit when he could have easily thrown Ortiz out at the plate.
Why wasn't Ortiz replaced with a pinch runner?
I'd like to hear why Francona didn't run for Ortiz. When he's on first, OK. But when he's on second, you gotta run for him. Throw a pitcher out there if you're worried about a short bench with Drew leaving early.
When was the last time a pitcher suffered three consecutive complete game losses?
Francona said after the game that he didn't run for Ortiz because he had only two position players left on the bench (Lowrie and catcher Cash) and he was concerned that Pedroia may have had to leave the game after jamming his shoulder on his diving stop in the 9th.
For the DH spot, though, why not let somebody like Buchholz (who has good speed) run in that situation? Should the DH spot come up again, you could always insert Cash (cringe) to hit.
Then Wells fields it comes up throwing and Bucholz hurts himself at the plate trying to score. Wells was obviously panicked by Ortiz awesome speed leading to him misplaying the ball - it all works
...I really don't think there was a play at the plate with no bobble.
The bobble cost a second and Ortiz was past the plate running at 3/4 speed.
Ortiz was just finished crossing the 3B bag when the ball reached Wells. Francona got away with a bad move there.
He'd have been out by 10 feet