The Red Sox took 2 of 3 from the Astros over the weekend. It could have been a sweep, but the Sox blew Friday night's game. And they almost blew the rubber game on Sunday.
Hanley Ramirez (who didn't know the count at one point during Friday's loss, and stood at home plate after taking ball 4 until the umpire told him he'd walked) hit a 2-run homer on Sunday that won the game. (seriously though, how does a hitter not know the count, especially since there are big green and red lights in left field telling you how many balls and strikes there are?)
Ramirez's homerun came after Alexi Ogando surrendered the lead by allowing 3 runs off a pair of homers in the 7th. For some reason John Farrell didn't take Ogando out, even though this year he has struggled when throwing 25+ pitches (12.1 IP, 12 H, 7 ER in outings of 25+ pitches). Junichi Tazawa was evidently available, as he came in to pitch the 8th. So I really don't know why Farrell left Ogando in, or didn't have someone warming up.
David Ortiz was on base when Hanley homered. He drew a walk. Apart from that his afternoon was quite horrible. He struck out with 2 on and no outs in the 3rd. In the 5th he grounded out with runners on the corners. He's hitting .155 with runners in scoring position this year and that's inexcusable.
Ortiz was playing first base, which thankfully meant Mike Napoli was not in the lineup. Shane Victorino did go 0 for 3 as a heartfelt tribute to Napoli.
Hanley Ramirez had the big hit, but the working class hero of the game was Ryan Hanigan, who hit 3 singles, knocked in 2 runs, and walked.
Eduardo Rodriguez was okay. He held the Astros to 1 run, but his rising pitch count limited him to 5 innings. He struck out 8.
The bullpen is an issue. When every other part of a team struggled, sometimes it's hard to notice a bad bullpen. Now that the bullpen has leads to protect, we're starting to see how vulnerable and shallow it truly is. On Friday night the Sox were tied 8-8 in the 10th inning and were forced to send Noe Ramirez to the mound to make his Major League debut. He gave up 4 runs. This was after Breslow struggled, which was after Masterson made a horrible start.
I'm not dwelling on the negative. The Sox are 6 games out in the AL East. They just took 2 of 3 from a good Houston team. It would be a shame if this last ditch effort to fight for a playoff spot were undermined by a shaky bullpen, a manager who makes bad decisions, hitters who forget what the count is, fielders who forget how many outs there are, and baserunners who don't know when to steal and when not to.
If you want the division, you can't go down to Houston and lose 2 of 3 to the last place Astros. You have to win that series. Even if it's ugly. Even if it's more dramatic and difficult than it should be, it is crucial to leave Houston with more Ws than Ls. And the Red Sox managed to do that. Ugly Ws count as much as immaculate Ws.
Stephen Drew and Jonny Gomes each had big hits, which is becoming a trend. Drew's 3-run homer in the 9th put the Sox ahead, whiles Gomes hit a 2-run shot in the 7th put the Sox within striking distance.
However, the hero of the game was Junichi Tazawa, who pitched 2 perfect innings in relief of Dempster. Tazawa only needed 17 pitches and struck out 2. He prevented the Astros from padding their lead and put Gomes and Drew in position to be the heroes. Tazawa earned his 5th win of the season.
Tazawa and Koji Uehara have saved this bullpen, and also saved this team. Speaking of saves, Uehara recorded his 11th by striking out the side in the 9th. I love how many strikes he throws. In 19 pitches, he threw 16 strikes. Tazawa and Uehara have each made over 50 appearances and each thrown over 50 innings.
The Sox head north to Kansas City, where the Royals are over .500 (58-53) and only 4.5 games out of a playoff spot. The Royals have a better record than the Yankees. Just thought I'd mention that. And even though it's August, it won't be 1,000 degrees in Kansas City. Highs in the 80s.
Jon Lester faces Bruce Chen tonight. Chen has mostly been used as a reliever this season, although he is 4-0, and he is a lefty, and the Sox have struggled against lefties. Jon Lester needs to do his job. He doesn't need to dazzle, just do his job.
The 9th inning was the only scoreless frame in this game. And this game was a good example of the Red Sox being good enough offensively to win a regular season game against lackluster opposition. It was also a good example of why the Sox needed to trade for Peavy. They needed depth at starting pitcher. Badly.
Steven Wright lasted an inning, then Brandon Workman labored through 4.2 innings. The Sox scored runs off Houston's horrible pitchers. Ellsbury hit a pair of homers, and Jonny Gomes hit a 3-run shot in the 6th. Ryan Lavarnway hit a 2-run double in the 5th to put the Sox ahead 8-7. In other words, he scored the 2-point conversion that put the Sox ahead.
This was a horrible 4 hour game. It was an abomination. Nobody should be all that proud of it, not even David Ortiz, who went 4 for 4.
The important thing is the Sox won. They got bad pitching but their opponent's bad pitching was worse. The Sox were the least worst team on the field. And that works in August, but it won't in October.
That's why the Sox got Peavy. That's why they need Buchholz to grow a pair and show up. That's why they should have acquired a mediocre reliever to pitch 3 non-consequential innings a week. Just to give the overtaxed and undertalented bullpen a breather.
Dempster faces Jarred Cosart tonight. Cosart is a 23-year old righty with 4 career starts to his name. He's done well in those starts, but he does tend to walk batters. A patient Sox lineup should exploit him.
And all Dempster has to do is keep Houston to a touchdown or less.
The U.S. Judicial System does not determine innocence. It determines guilt, or insufficient proof of guilt. That's why when people are acquitted, they're declared "not guilty" instead of "innocent." The court is essentially saying that it hasn't found you guilty, so you're free to go.
It does NOT declare people to be innocent, at least not until you get into the Appeals process.
Proving innocence is difficult because it's nearly impossible to prove a negative. Think how hard it would be to prove that you've never done something.
I've never eaten rhubarb. But proving that is difficult because it's a negative statement. I'd have to get witnesses from every meal I've ever consumed to say they've never seen me eat it, samples of my bowel movements to show it's never been in my system, and then I'd have to prove somehow that I never snacked on it by myself.
So when people say that Roger Clemens has been "proven innocent," then back that argument up by pointing out how high an authority the U.S. Judicial System is, I get a little pissed. Because it's the wrong word.
The court did not declare Clemens innocent. Being deemed "not guilty" is not proof of innocence. The prosecution failed to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. There is a difference.
I think Clemens took PEDs. Jose Canseco says Clemens demonstrated an intricate knowledge of PEDs. Brian McNamee said he gave PEDs to Clemens. And Andy Pettitte testified that Clemens admitted to him that he took HGH.
Pettitte retracted his statements, but I don't think it's mere coincidence that he did so once the heat was off him. Andy Pettitte has repeatedly lied about his own HGH use, at first claiming only 2-4 doses and only during 2002, then later admitted to doing some in 2004.
When Pettitte was under pressure, he named Clemens. When the pressure eased off and Pettitte was no longer afraid of consequences, he recanted his Clemens story.
The story was Clemens told Pettitte about taking HGH. Clemens claimed that he told Pettitte about his wife taking HGH. But earlier in Clemens' testimony, Clemens claims his wife never took HGH. So, which is it?
Maybe Pettitte, under pressure to save his own skin, was compelled to name names, even if those people were innocent. But then why name one of his best friends?
In the end, it doesn't matter much. There is no absolute proof that Clemens' career was artificially extended by PEDs. That lack of proof was why he was acquitted.
But I know what my gut tells me. I see more than just smoke. I see scorched earth, burnt wood, an ashy haze, and a number of people saying "there was a fire here."
Clemens might get into the Hall of Fame. And I don't care. The Hall of Fame is already full of scumbags. Ty Cobb was a racist who probably killed a guy. Charles Comiskey was a cheap, money-grubbing bastard. Joe DiMaggio was a jerk. Babe Ruth was a glutton, an alcoholic, and a horrible father. What damage could be done by including Clemens?
I don't know why we get so emotional about who is in the baseball Hall of Fame and who isn't. Maybe it's because when we're kids, we learn about the great players. And the words "Hall of Famer" are the athletic equivalent of "Saint."
So put Clemens in the Hall. Give him a brass face on a plaque with some numbers and words on it. I know those final 4 Cy Youngs are meaningless. I know his final 150 wins were thanks to HGH. I know he's scum, he's a sociopath, he's not the best pitcher of his generation or any other generation. He's artificial.
But if you're going to put him in, don't say it's because he's been "proven innocent." I heard Peter Gammons say that on NESN yesterday and it's a complete misunderstanding of how our system works.
Roger Clemens hasn't been proven to be anything. So maybe voters should give him the benefit of the doubt and vote him in. As I said, I don't care.
And as much as these clowns repeat the wrong word, I for one know that he isn't innocent. I see no proof of innocence. Only a haze of guilt. You can't convict someone on a haze, but there is no way he's been "proven innocent."
Roger Clemens was found not guilty in his perjury trial. And I don't care. I didn't need or want the Federal Government to punish Clemens. I didn't need or want the Government involved involved in the steroid issue at all. Although it did give Congress less time to screw up the country.
It would have been hilarious for Roger Clemens to go to jail. He did lie to Congress when he denied using PEDs. And that's inexcusable. As much as I disagree with Congress poking their noses into sports, that doesn't give Clemens the right to lie to them.
Clemens is a scumbag. And a fraud. That's his punishment for taking PEDs, and it's well deserved.
His rebirth in Toronto was due to his violating the rules. All the adulation, all the ESPN ball-washing he got from 1997 to 2007 was ill-gotten. He's paying for that now as his reputation is tarnished, his Cy Youngs are tainted, and his Hall of Fame credentials are questionable.
Clemens was great in the late 80's and early 90's. He won three Cy Young Awards with the Sox. He also won an MVP. But he started to slide, both on the mound and in terms of his physical shape. In 1993 he was 11-14 with a 4.46 ERA. In strike-shortened 1994, he was 9-7. He was 10-5 in '95, then 10-13 in '96. The Rocket seemed out of gas. Or maybe it was too heavy to take off.
Dan Duquette famously said Clemens was in "the twilight of his career."
He signed with the Blue Jays in 1996. He seemed motivated to make Duquette eat his words. We all thought that Clemens' much improved physical shape was a result of this motivation. Little did we know.
Clemens won the Cy Young twice in Toronto. He was traded to the Yankees. He won the World Series there in '99 and 2000. Then he won another Cy Young in 2001. He was 38 years old, and was in much better shape than he was at 28. We all thought it was due to his extreme training regimen.
He had another career rebirth in Houston. He won his 7th Cy Young with the Astros. He was 41. He pitched until he was 44.
Steroids and PEDs do more than just help players build raw muscle-mass. They help the body recover from injury. Which allows an athlete to train harder and spend less time recovering.
In some ways, steroids can help a pitcher more than a hitter. Throwing 100 pitches is a form of injury. And it typically takes 4 days to recover from it. A pitcher on steroids will be able to recover more quickly and more strongly than normal. Especially an older pitcher.
Steroids make exercise easy. I once had to take them for my eyes, and found myself on an exercise bike for 90 minutes at a time, close to 20 miles. And I wouldn't even feel tired. I'd have to tell myself to stop. It was a breeze.
I can't even imagine the effect of steroids and PEDs specifically designed to enhance athletic training.
It's probably a good thing Clemens didn't wind up in jail over this. As much as I dislike the bastard, I never wanted him in prison for cheating, even for lying about cheating. Maybe for having an affair with a 15 year old country music singer, but not for this.
