Of course Gutierrez is starting. First pitch at 8:21.8:20 Finally here.
8:25 Youkilis crushes a ball out to left, and we are off to an excellent start.
That was not an "inside" fastball. That was an atrocious pitch.
8:29 How about you just play a single into a double, Kenny. Great.
8:30 And Gutierrez guns Ramirez at the plate, on a play that was not particularly close.
8:36 After a Sizemore leadoff double (which I missed), Asdrubal lines one to right, almost too hard, as Sizemore has to stop at third.
Pronk up.
8:39 Hafner bounces into a 6-6-3 DP, Sizemore scores. Well that rally was short lived.
8:40 Victor singles. Even if they only get one run, this is much more promising than G1's first inning, where Beckett struck out the side.
Oh and Garko is not at .444 with two out in the series. Or the playoffs. Or something. Whatever.
8:43 Garko strikes out on another nasty curveball. 1-1 after 1.
8:47 I keep getting IMs from "MLB", first telling me to watch the game, and now telling me that it's 1-1 after 1.
I just blocked "MLB".
8:49 That pitch was inside. That's OK. The umps are basically just guessing, at this point.
8:50 People keep coming to this site from here.
And the 2-2 was clearly strike. What a joke the umpiring has been the whole postseason. C.C. hits Varitek with the 3-2.
8:52 Coco Crisp only has 3 RBIs in his last 14 games? That completely changes my opinion of him as a hitter.
Coco goes down looking on 97 at the knees, right over the heart of the plate.
8:55 Lugo pops out harmlessly. 33 pitches for CC through 2. But I'm not all that worried about pitch counts, with all the off days they can use the bullpen early if need be.
8:59 Peralta looks real comfortable up there against Beckett's curve.
9:00 Apparently this was unclear, but that last comment was very much sarcastic. Peralta goes down on, well, a curve.
9:05 Apparently, Schaefer is live-blogging in the comments.
9:06 Showing Gutierrez take his lead twice on the same screen is really unnecessary.
9:07 "And the top of the order is coming up for Boston....(four second pause) in the third."
No idea what inning it is.
9:10 After the first two innings, this much is clear- the umpires and announcers are going to be in peak form all night.
9:14 Pedroia lines the eighth pitch (and sixth straight FB) of the AB into right for a leadoff single.
9:16
Right.
9:16 Two of the least athletic people in baseball, C.C. Sabathia and Jhonny Peralta, manage to somehow turn at 1-6-3 DP.
9:20 This Manny montage is absurd. I think I actually dislike him at this point.
9:21 That was a home run. Do the right thing, umps. Continue to screw this up.
9:23 All aspects of the current situation are completely absurd.
9:25 "David Ortiz scores from first, and Manny ends up at first."
That may have been the most insightful thing Tim McCarver has ever said.
9:26 Well, that was good, I guess?
2-1 Sox, mid 3.
9:29 Okay, somewhat back to normalcy. Top of the lineup for the Tribe, Sizemore goes down swinging.
9:31 STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS STUPID QUOTE.
9:32 Travis Hafner "produced a run".
Yes, that is exactly how I'd describe his last AB. Very "productive".
9:33 95mph FB, 96mph FB, 79mph completely unhittable CB.
Decent sequence to Hafner, I'd say.
9:36 Man, I'm excited about their chat with Carl Willis. I bet he's going to tell me a bunch of really insightful stuff that wasn't painfully obvious already.
Kielty singles to right. Beckett looks great, C.C. looks...OK, I guess.
9:38 Don't worry about it, I only need to see the game in 1/4 of the screen. Definitely worth it, to watch Carl Willis talk.
9:39 Varitek singles to left, on a ball that *might* have been a DP if Asdrubal was playing short.
9:41 Coco fails in his attempt to bunt, then Francona lets him swing away with two strikes, and he promptly strikes out.
I would quote the number of times McCarver has screwed up in the last fifteen seconds, but I just don't have time.
And Lugo hits into a DP. Alright! Victor-Garko-Peralta coming up.
9:44 "From the Mrs., on McCarver: "Dude, why do you even bother opening your mouth?"" -Brian
9:47 They're not touching Beckett right now. Two out, Peralta up.
9:49 48 pitches for Beckett through four. Doubt we'll be seeing anyone except him and Papelbon tonight, if the Sox hold this lead.
9:50 For the record, hitting the yellow line is *not* a home run.
9:57 "And they're not gonna walk him."
This is surprising? With a 3-2 count? Of course they're not gonna walk him.
9:59 Well, they did walk him, but quite unintentionally. Two on, two out for Lowell.
10:02 Lowell lines one down the LF line, foul by inches. That was almost really bad. Down 3 against Beckett is a bad place to be.
10:03 Sabathia hits Lowell with a FB that glances off his jersey on the 1-2 pitch.
10:06 Good, I thought he was gonna walk him there. Sabathia escapes. 87 pitches after five; hopefully they can get him through one more and then turn it over to Lewis.
10:10 Don't drop the bat, Kenny. Don't be Manny.
And he pops out the 3-1 pitch.
Why the hell are the benches clearing?
10:12 Okay, it might be because Kenny and Beckett were yelling at each other about Kenny dropping his after the 3-0 strike. But still, does everybody really need to rush onto the field because of this?
That 1-1 pitch was...a ball?
10:15 Yeah, Josh Beckett is a lot better than Franklin Gutierrez. That 3-2 pitch was filthy, 97 tailing back over the plate.
He does look a little wild this inning, however. Maybe a run in the 6th with the top of the order?
10:18 Gave up on this inning too soon, apparently. Runners on the corners, two down for Asdrubal, who had looked good tonight (as Joe Buck helpfully points out).
10:19 Personally, I have actually never noticed the "look in the eyes of Asdrubal Cabrera".
10:20 Well, Asdrubal never really had a chance, as he goes down on three pitches. 67 pitches, 46 strikes, 7 Ks for Beckett thru 5.
10:27 CC up to 102 pitches. Hopefully they can just get one more out from him, and then turn it over to the 'pen.
10:28 Sabathia looked good this inning, but it's true that Julio Lugo was involved.
Hafner-Victor-Garko coming up for the Indians. This would be the time to push a couple across.
10:33 Beckett's curveball is frustrating to root against. Hafner is the eighth strikeout victim of the night.
10:39 Well, it's looking like it'll be Beckett for 8, and then Papelbon for the ninth. The Indians still have a shot, but they really have to hold it at 2-1. C.C. back out fore the 7th; is someone ready in the pen?
Pedroia leads off the 7th with a double. I did not have time to question bringing CC back out (which seems completely unnecessary), but I did.
10:42 Betancourt and Mastny warming. Mastny? Where's Lewis?
10:43 Grady definitely misjudged that ball; he wasn't sprinting to the ball, it looked like he was going to have it easily.
3-1. Ortiz-Ramirez-Lowell up. But good job keeping CC in to start this inning with 102 pitches. Really.
10:49 Ortiz flies one to right and Kenny...catches it with his wrist, I guess. Youkilis scores easily from third. 4-1.
But that's fine. Beckett has looked terrible all night, it'll be easily to get a couple off him. And who's their closer? I don't even know.
10:52 Betancourt should just stand there with his hands up after that K of Manny.
10:59 Peralta grounds out to Lowell to lead off the 7th.
Sorry, I'm not terribly enthusiastic at this point, I just don't see this ending well. Hopefully I'm proven wrong.
11:03 Well, maybe we've found something Josh Beckett isn't good at. He lets an easy comebacker go right between his legs. One on, one out, for Gutierrez.
This would all be very exciting if it was 2-1. Thanks, Mr. Wedge.
11:05 The umpiring continues to be a joke. 2-1 to Gutierrez was clearly a strike.
But it doesn't matter, as he has no interest in on getting on base, and weakly flies out to center.
I like how they actually have this stat: "Manny Ramirez, 390' RBI Single in 3rd".
11:08 Blake strikes out. The Indians' 5-9 hitters are now 1/14 with 6 Ks and a walk. Beckett up to 96 pitches; they probably bring him out for the 8th but have somebody ready.
11:13 Eric Wedge apparently remembered that Rafael Perez is in his bullpen. He hadn't pitched since G2.
11:18 Did they seriously just try to tie in the Red Sox bullpen with their new "Great American Band" (or whatever) show?
Varitek flies out. One on, one out for Coco.
11:19 Well, nothing is going right tonight. An easy comebacker to Perez that should have been a 1-6-3 DP, but he throws it in the dirt to Peralta, who can't pick it, and they don't even get an out.
At least Lugo is up now.
11:22 Well, Lugo obviously can't hit, but that was a pretty nice bunt. Raffy gets pulled, leaving the bases loaded and one out. He didn't exactly pitched poorly though- a walk, an error (by him), and a bunt. Wedge won't realize this and probably won't use him the rest of the series.
11:25 I would love to know why Tom Mastny is in right now rather than Jensen Lewis.
And as I'm typing that, he throws one to the backstop. Okay, that's totally Victor's fault. Straight up missed it.
11:33 7-2, two outs, Manny up.
Sorry, I gave up when Wedge brought Mastny in. He clearly did as well.
11:36 And Lewis Ks Manny to "end the threat".
7-1, mid 8.
11:54 Saturday, Brian. Saturday. Remember, they only play every other day. Which is really wonderful.
11:57 Papelbon in for the 9th. Victor, Garko, Peralta.
12:08 I have no idea, hoody. I'm barely even watching anymore.
Two on, two out for Gutierrez.
12:10 Gutierrez flies out to the warning track in right-center, and that'll do it. 7-1 finals.
Another brilliant performance by Beckett- 8IP, 5H, 1R, 1BB, 11Ks. That's it for him in this series though, unless he comes back in relief on two days rest in game seven. Thanks, Tito.
Schilling vs. Carmona on Saturday night. Hope to see you then.
71 comments:
Someone on XM earlier today said that this could be a two-hour game if everything goes right. I wonder if I could get odds on that, because there's no way in hell.
Firefox + Tab Mix Plus = perfect live blog browser. I froze two tabs, the site and the comments so I couldn't accidentally browse away or close them. And I set the site to automatically reload every couple of minutes.
I have to do 0 work.
Kielty sounds about as uptight as you can get. Hopefully that bodes well.
Or maybe I'm reading just a bit too much into things.
Took ya this long to get that procedure down? I had you beat by 3 games.
Yoooook. Fvck.
Maybe that will wake him up, like in football getting smacked in the mouth on the first play?
I'm grasping for straws here.
maybe if manny lost his helmet sooner he woulda been safe.... aerodynamics and whatnot
I'm so glad that wasn't Trot in right, because it's a 2-0 game with a man on base still if it is.
Hate to say this after five batters, but CC doesn't have it tonight. I'm almost ready to call for Laffey, but I know that's a typical Cleveland overreaction.
bad work Casey Blake. ur a dick
Wow, that was an excuse-me double if ever there was one.
"On the corner at the knees...unhittable."
I'm no expert, but I think either Fox Trax or Tim McCarver needs to be programmed better. That pitch was shown as being up in the middle of the zone and well off the plate.
Never been so happy to see a GIDP.
Damn, forgot to get the line on "Cleveland Rocks". There's 1.
Turns out Cleveland Rocks. Further, this Nachos Del Grande commercial make me furious. Absolutely everything about it.
"He's not falling behind, going right at people."
2-0 count immediately
OK, so we've had balls called strikes and vice versa within about five pitches. I don't know what to think anymore.
Call the Plain Dealer - the ump called a strike a strike. Shock.
Franklin Guitierrez in limited playing time has more dents in this series than most.
Of course that puts him near the top at Dents/9Innings, a statistic usually dominated by relief pitchers.
"nothing to lose" implies that the Red Sox have already given up on the series. If so, Beckett throwing at people's heads makes him seem like an evil bastard.
"That's part of the game" - This is news to us? HBP is a statistic that I think everybody's familiar with. In fact when I was four and playing a baseball game on my NES, the first thing I did was figure out what happens when you peg someone with a pitch.
"Loosen guys up if they're going well or going poorly." So if they're doing poorly against you keep him doing poorly, but if he's doing well it makes him SWITCH to poorly. How does this work? Further, has Guitierrez EVER hit against Beckett? If so, was it just one game? What the fuck.
The only reason this comment isn't longer is I can't remember anything else from that non-sensical McCarver diatribe.
"Pitchers don't put it where they want it all the time" - Tim McCarver.
This idea is new and terrifying to me. I thought all walks were intentional to spite their fans, all home runs allowed were simply the hitter out-smarting the pitcher, and all HBPs were malicious attempts at murder with a deadly weapon - after all, it is part of the game.
They also keep saying the game was yesterday. This is starting to get annoying.
CC really settled in that inning. That may or may not have anything to do with the fact he faced the bottom of the order.
But besides that, he still looks not great. Much like Joe and Tim
Why would you worry about somebody going 3-17 with some hard hit balls at people? Was anybody worried?
Further, where were those 1-1 and 2-1 pitches? Sabathia's left-handed. Those had to cross the plate.
Further, as a White Sox fan, it bothers me that I STILL get this upset when the Indians are getting screwed by bad calls.
"Complicated time" - What public relations problem do they have? And how are expiring contracts a "private relations problem"?
There aren't that many "problems" at all. They have a shit-ton of options, all of them seem to be good.
THE YANKEES ARE ELIMINATED THEY ARE AS RELEVANT AS THE KANSAS CITY ROYALS - STOP
What the hell is going on? Where they going to commercial there because they thought it was the third out?
Me, about five minutes ago: "I'm not too optimistic about a double play. CC isn't a ground ball pitcher as much as Westbrook and Byrd are."
The Mrs.: "Don't worry, everyone's a ground ball pitcher."
Five minutes later, the Mrs.: "What did I fvckin' tell you????"
I think I'll defer henceforth.
How the fuck did that ball carry that far?
What does Manny being at first base have to do with anything, Tim? You say it's the whole point, but...
Oh and by the way, you still can't have instant replay in baseball. Skip Bayliss have never furnished me with a reason for this, but he seems to sure of himself, he must be right.
I hope that ends up being a break for us, because that was clearly a home run.
They absolutely have to take advantage of this.
Unless you guys are experts in ballistics, Joe and Tim, how does the carom effect anything?
Further, that is absolutely NOT the longest single in the history of baseball.
FURTHER, what the hell was Manny doing?
Oh my god. It's the 3rd inning and my brain's going to explode.
This series, and more specifically this game is getting increasingly difficult to watch.
Now they're agreeing that the umps got the call right?!?!?
Time to go jump off a building.
Why is no one talking about Hafner struggling. I don't remember a hit from him except that home run in game one. He looks like he's in mid season form. As in, this midseason, when he was sucking.
Copy/pasting the Indians ground rule as posted on the SomethingAwful Forums:
"Fair batted ball that travels over the yellow line on top of the outfield wall (on the fly): HOME RUN."
That's for that painfully obvious "we need to kill 15 more seconds" question Joe.
See, the thing with that art direction choice is that - as a deaf American - I can only understand what Carl Willis is saying when I can see his lips move.
From the Mrs., on McCarver: "Dude, why do you even bother opening your mouth?"
Couldn't say it better.
OK, I'll pry the egg off my face now.
The reason for that is also because the 3rd baseman is shifted so far he's playing shortstop.
"This isn't because of mechanics, it's only about this next pitch." - Buck.
Trying to create melodrama here is unnecessary. Especially when you're lying about this. Mechanics may very well be involved with the next pitch. Hopefully they are.
Baseball is a game of inches.
Well, this looks familiar.
OK, the Sawx have now left at least four runs on the basepaths. I doubt CC will be back for the sixth, so now's the time to do something. (Easy for me to say, though...)
Actually...I take that back. Tek-Crisp-Lugo coming up probably does mean that CC will be back for the 6th. Good call, VW.
Beckett misses with three fastballs. Perhaps he won't be invincible anymore...?
I wonder if Kenny's not just screwing with Beckett's head here.
Kenny being Manny.
Am I being a hypocrite for criticizing Buck and McCarver at this point? I always jump on them for saying stupid, obvious things, or flat wrong things. But, at this point, it's so stupid and obvious that they will say things stupid and obvious - am I my own McCarver?
That was a Jhonnyish play by Lugo.
My god, this is a rookie? Hitting in the playoffs?
IS THAT EVEN ALLOWED, JOE BUCK!?
Now would be a helluva time for Hafner to prove that he is not, in fact, cryogenically frozen in a Big Boy somewhere in outer space.
He could throw that curveball all night and pitch a perfect game. No joke.
I'm glad they had a picture of Beckett's back. Otherwise when they say his back hurts, I wouldn't know what they were talking about. What am I, a doctor?
CC is still out? What the hell is going on?
"Youkilis has a double - er, a triple." -Tim
Are you even watching the fvckin' game?!
Maybe he can Mastny them?
This would be a fantastic time for that.
"You would think Sabathia would stay in to face the lefty."
This isn't any lefty, Joe. This is David Ortiz. Sabathia just allowed two rockets into left and is at 112 pitches and hasn't looked particularly sharp all night.
So why would "You" think that at all? Do you have a reason at all?
Eric Wedge blows.
Joe Buck has commented on the quality of a lot of swings that yielded foul balls tonight. Does Joe Buck have any hitting background? Is there any reason we should trust his judgement on this?
Nice catch, Jhonny.
Well, that was really frustrating. We could be in a commercial right now.
Well...hopefully they got all the crap out of their system tonight, and there won't be any left to leave at Fenway on Saturday.
When it rains, it freakin' pours, doesn't it?
Well, it's been real, it's been fun, but it ain't been real fun.
See ya tomorrow.
Well, I mean, I'll probably read the blog at some point tomorrow. Yeah, that's what I meant. :)
Good work, as always.
did papi just hug beckett?
I suppose it could rain on Saturday, leaving Beckett available to pitch Game 7 on Three Days Rest.
Just to..y'know, give you something to be worried about. Silly Francona.
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