Fenway Forum

C.C. Sabathia certainly didn’t look like a Cy Young candidate tonight - getting chased out of the game in less than 5 innings.  As good as Josh Beckett was - and he was good - the amazing part of the Sox win was the offense.  Every member of the Boston lineup hit safely - and more amazingly Manny and Big Papi got on base all 10 times they came to the plate.  Each had 2 hits, 5 walks between the 2 and Ortiz was hit by a pitch - and this all started with C.C. Sabathia - the pitcher most think will win the 2007 Cy Young award.  So - only 7 more to until the Sox xan hoist another World Champions banner above Fenway.

Frank from Gloucester is retiring from calling WEEI according to the Gloucester Daily Times.  Love him or hate him he has always been good for a laugh.

You can listen to the audio here.

Maybe the vacation was needed by Manny this year. With the intentional walk to David Ortiz - the usual Mr. October for the Sox - Manny made them pay by killing a pitch from K-Rod. Although the start wasn’t great for Dice-K - the bullpen was on top of there game and didn’t allow any runs. Great game all around. The Sox move to 2-0 - the Yankees lose because of there bullpen to move to 0-2 against Cleveland. A good night for Red Sox fans.

I meant to post something like this earlier - but I’ve been slacking. For those out there who don’t live in New England and don’t get to watch the games locally - here is some video of the celebration after the Red Sox clinched the division.

…of the Fenway park theme bedroom (around 1:30) - I’m going to have to talk to my wife.

Josh Beckett was amazing tonight - demonstrating why he should be the Cy Young winner for 2007.  It was nice to see the Sox hitting early and get some run support for Beckett - it looks like the offense is heating up at the right time.  It turns out this was Josh Beckett’s 2nd consecutive postseason shutout and his 3rd in his career - with 2 others during the regular season.  The last pitcher to pitch consecutive postseason shutouts was Curt Schilling.

Listening to all the talking heads on TV/radio it seems most think the series and pitching matchups favor the Sox.  With some key Angels nursing wounds and there history against Boston in the regular and postseason it would a seem the Sox are favored with good reason this time around and got off to a good start tonight.

About time Manny gets back in the lineup - but it sounds like Terry will take it easy on him - asking him to only play part of the game.  Playing a whole game after a month off would be too much to ask.

…and a magic number of 5.  With the division lead at 2 thanks to the Blue Jays beating the Yankees yesterday the next week should be interesting - nothing like keeping it tight to the end.  I know the Sox have already clinched a playoff spot - whether the division or widlcard - but I feel it will be a huge letdown if they don’t win the division.  As of today the Yankees need 1 more win to guarantee a spot in the postseason - and with there next 6 games against losing teams they should be able to make that happen. 

If I were a Yankees fan I would feel pretty confident about my teams chances to win the division with the schedule the Yankees and Red Sox have over the next week.  The Yankees will face Tampa Bay and Baltimore each for 3.  The Sox face Oakland for 2 and then Minnesota for 4.  The nice thing about the Red Sox schedule is they are all at Fenway the Yankees play there last 6 on the road.

I don’t really think there is any reason to panic about making it to the post-season - the Red Sox will clinch the wildcard with 4 more wins.  However, I didn’t think I would be talking about the wildcard a couple of months ago when the lead was 12 in the AL division.  It will be painful if the Sox drop to 2nd in the East and need the wildcard to get into the post-season - but as of today I would say its a possibility.   The Red Sox pitching is hurting (in particular the bullpen), and Manny, Coco Crisp and Kevin Youkilis are missing due to injury and the Yankees offense is on fire.

I’m not sure whats happened to the ‘best bullpen in baseball’ - earlier in the year the bullpen was the envy of the majors - now they’re being hit around like batting practice.  The Sox picked up Gagne at the trade deadline to add some depth to the bullpen and take some of the pressure off of Okajima which hasn’t happened.  I think Gagne has actually put more pressure on Okajima to perform and at this point in the season he just appears tired.

Where the hell is Manny?  He has been taking batting practice since last week but is still MIA - and according to NESN tonight there is no return date in sight.  Supposedly Manny feels the pain when running not so much when hitting - why not put him in at DH and have Ortiz fill in at first for Youkilis?  I’m beginning to wonder whether this is Manny’s annual late season vacation.

At least we can look forward to Clat Buchholz pitching tomorrow - hopefully he can get something started.

Josh Beckett proved this afternoon why he should be the Cy Young winner for 2007 - pitching 7 innings with 7 K’s allowing 3 hits and 1 run (a home run). Chien-Ming Wang on the other hand pitched just over 5 innings allowing 9 hits and 5 runs.

Looks to me like Josh Beckett = 2007 Cy Young Winner.