Second, after going to Friday and Saturday’s games in Anaheim, let me congratulate Red Sox Nation on another great showing. I would have loved to have been there today with my girl Cool J and her Owls, but my little guys had a date with Peter Cottontail.
OK, so I’ve been quiet so far about my boys wearing the Red Sox (sometimes) and their fearless leader Tito Francona.
So in today’s 5-4 loss to the Angels, can anyone tell me why you bring in Okajima to face Vlad? OK, so everyone’s favorite whipping boy (which I don’t understand) Delcarmen had a rough go of it in the 7th, but I have seen enough Angel’s games and enough of Vlad to know that if you do not have an overpowering fastball, he sits DEAD RED and waits for a fastball. I have all the respect in the world for Okajima, but what he doesn’t have is an overpowering fastball. Delcarmen should have come out to face just Vlad, this is a better match up.
Tito got away with one in the 6th when with Delcarmen warm and fresh, he left Beckett and his 95+ pitches in the face Rivera after walking Napoli. He looked gassed and with a runner on 3rd in a one run game and your pitcher around the 100 pitch mark on a warm SoCal day this early in the season, I make the switch. It worked, but I still think it was the wrong call.
Some quick observations:
– After a power surge the last two games, we have to hope that the hitting gets contagious, because if our 1-2-3 hitters don’t start producing, it could be a rough April.
– I though Penny looked good in his start on Saturday. Take away that first walk that might have been because of first start jitters and he looked just great. There weren’t too many balls hit very hard off of him. If he stays healthy, Wake could be looking for relief work when Smoltzy is ready unless Tito decides to go to a 6-man rotation.
– I’m still blaming the loss on Friday to the lack of a travel day to go across the country. Are you kidding me, who wrote that schedule? Monday, Wednesday and Thursday with Tuesday as the off day when you have a game 3 time zones away on Friday? Even if they had not had the rain out, it still would have been wrong. I guess we should be thankful that Thursday was a day game.
A few pictures included:
My boy Logan, with Papelbon’s warm-up ball from Saturday before he went in during the 8th inning
Cool J with the Papelbon ball after my L-Dog gave it to her out of the kindness of his heart, what a gesture.
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