I was in attendance last night for the Red Sox 11 inning loss to the A's in Oakland. It was a tough game for the team after playing three long games against the Yankees in Boston and then flying out last Sunday night to get to Oakland for Monday's game. Heck, Papelbon and Okajima were both unavailable and 4 of the Sox regular starters were AWOL from the starting lineup (Varitek, Lowell, Crisp & Lugo), so the fact that after 9 innings, the game was tied 4-4, it seemed like a little bit of a miracle. This was magnified by the fact that the starters were Oakland ace and AL ERA leader Dan Haren vs. AL Weirdness leader Julian Tavarez. A few observations from the game:
1 - Julian Tavarez is a perfectly serviceable 5th starter - he did a good job at getting ahead of many hitters, but couldn't put them away, especially pesky Mark Ellis.
2 - Brendan Donnelly looked pretty sharp for a while ... Joel Piniero, on the other hand, did not.
3 - J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo look completely lost at the plate - they swung at garbage last night - what is their deal?
4 - Wily Mo went from goat to almost hero, trading some fielding gaffes for a big (I mean HUGE) HR and the tying single in the 9th. He'll get better if he can get more playing time.
5 - The A's really have no bullpen.
------
And hey, here are two more TIG Reviews
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
No comments:
Post a Comment