It would've been nice to see Wakefield toss a no-hitter. It wouldv'e been the 5th by a Red Sox pitcher in the decade. He's also come pretty close in the past. This was the 4th time he took a no-no into the 8th inning.
But in the grand scheme of things, what matters most is that he went 9 innings. Last night, the bullpen had to give 11 innings to the Sox. Thanks to Wake's outing this afternoon, they got the day off.
It was also nice to see the Sox put together a big inning. Their lengthy 2 out rally in the 8th may have affected Wakefield's no-hitter, but I'll take a 6 run inning any day of the week.
Man of the Game: Ummmm, Tim Wakefield? I'd give him two MOTGs if I could. 9 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts. Honorable mention to Nick Green for his glovework.
The Sox have an off-day before opening a 4 game set with the first place 6-2 Orioles.
For the 32nd time, the Bruins meet the Canadiens in the playoffs. Think about that. 32 seasons have ended for one of these teams, with their rivals jubilantly celebrating in their face. And in this lengthy history between the two, it’s been the Canadiens who have come out on top. 23 of the previous 31 series have ended in Montreal’s favor. Think about that, the Bruins have played 83 seasons, and 23 of those (27.7%) have ended harshly with a Canadiens’ celebration, and thousands of Québécois singing "Ole!" That’s why Bruins fans like myself cannot stand the Habs.
Well, that’s one of the reasons. I’m only 24, so I don’t exactly remember the 1930 Stanley Cup finals, or the stretch from 1984 to 1987 when the Habs beat the Bruins in 4 straight opening round series, winning 12 of 14 games. There’s a deeper source of the hatred between the B’s and Habs.
The Canadiens and Bruins have two very different hockey philosophies. Thuggish players like Cam Neely and Milan Lucic are worshipped by B’s fans, and vilified by Habs’ supporters. Up in Quebec, they adore slick, refined soccer players who can skate, but shy from violence. Bruins fans hate these pesky guys. To summarize: a Bruins fan will go nuts for a big hit, a Canadiens fan will go crazy for a nice pass. Both fanbases and franchises have irreconcilably different perspectives on how hockey should be played. Not only do they loathe how the other plays the game, but they cannot even respect it.
Two verbs are vital to describe Montreal’s preferred style of hockey: To dive, and to turtle. The Canadiens know how much referees are awestruck by their Stanley Cup banners, and their diehard fans, and their haunted rink. They’ll take advantage of this to get their vaunted power play unit on the ice as often as possible. Dive, embellish, exaggerate, flop, whatever it takes.
They’ve also recently started to provoke-then-turtle, a strategy worthy of Sean Avery. A great example of this tactic is about 3:45 into this highlight reel from the Bruins-Canadiens game on April 9th. I recommend watching the entire video to see how entertaining yet brutal this rivalry has become:
But things have become more complex then simply the Big Bad Bruins vs. Le Club de Hockey Canadien. The Bruins have speed to go along with their muscle. They can pass the puck and finish the play with perfect touch. They were 2nd in the NHL in goals scored. Last year, the speed and agility of the Canadiens was enough for them to beat the Bruins in 7 games. This year, the Bruins are both tough and tricky. That’s why they went 5-0-1 against the Canadiens in the regular season, and that’s why they’ll win this series.
The Bruins have the best goalie in Tim Thomas, while Carey Price’s stock has depriciated. The Canadiens cannot outmuscle the B’s. But the B’s have the personnel to keep up with the Habs‘ desired pace. Phil Kessel has lightning speed, 36 goals under his belt, and he’s red-hot; as demonstrated by his hat-trick Sunday evening. The Bruins’ first two lines can skate circles around almost any team in the NHL, unless that team is really big with tough forwards (See: San Jose. Those are two things the Canadiens desperately lack.
What Canadien is going to stop Milan Lucic? Which Hab will tangle with Shawn Thornton in the corner? How many Montreal players will plead for restraining orders against Zdeno Chara once this series is over?
Montreal produces some very pretty girls…
But 20 of the uglier girls will have nothing to do but cry in a few weeks.
This is just becoming more and more painful to watch. Is it time to get worried yet? Because nothing on this team seems to be working. The offense stumbles across two or three runs a night. The starting pitchers - who were supposed to be the strength of the team - struggle through 5 innings. And the relievers seem to have opposing hitters on their fantasy teams or something.
Kevin Youkilis did good, 2 for 4 with a homer and a double. That's pretty much it for positives from this game. Jon Lester now has 11 earned runs in 11 innings pitched. I guess he doesn't want people to have to use calculators to figure out his ERA.
All of his pitches were up in the zone. It was a miracle he put 6 innings in and only got tagged for 6 runs.
Man of the Game: Matt Holliday, he went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and a triple.
Bitch-Goat: Lester: 0.8 Lowell: 0.1 Varitek: 0.1
Daisuke Matsuzaka faces Dana Eveland Tuesday night.
Here's the schedule for the Bruins' Eastern Conference Quarterfinal matchup against the Canadiens.
Thu 4/16 7:00PM - Montreal @ Boston Sat 4/18 8:00PM - Montreal @ Boston Mon 4/20 7:00PM - Boston @ Montreal Wed 4/22 7:00PM - Boston @ Montreal Sat 4/25 7:00PM - Montreal @ Boston* Mon 4/27 TBA - Boston @ Montreal* Wed 4/29 TBA - Montreal @ Boston*
More mediocre starting pitching, more shabby bullpen work making comebacks more difficult, more runners left on base, more stupid mistakes, more misery.
Just a few words about the bench-clearing incident in the 1st. The umpire granted time-out too late. There's little that gets me angrier then when that happens. Other sports have timeout limits, why doesn't baseball implement something similar? At the very least, it will speed the game up.
Bobby Abreu, shut the fuck up and get back in the batter's box. The ball didn't hit you, didn't even come close. Grow up, do your job, and stop making mountains out of molehills. Hitters go nuts when somebody throws inside on them, and I'm sick of it.
Josh Beckett, stay on the goddamned pitcher's mound. You're lucky you didn't get ejected for that. A bit of tension turned into something much more volatile because you too acted like a child.
Back to the game, I don't think the Sox offense will continue to struggle as badly as they have to collect key hits. HOWEVER, David Ortiz and Mike Lowell clearly do not have the same kind of power they once possessed. Pedroia's going to come around and be productive, same with Drew. The runs will come, but not like they came in 2007 or 2006. There won't be many crooked numbers or big innings.
In other words, the pitching is going to have to be much tighter than they've been.
And stupid mistakes need to vanish NOW. JD Drew throws home instead of to the cutoff, Beckett gives up a 2 run single instead of a 1 run single to the next hitter. David Ortiz's caught-stealing, I don't know what happened there, but somebody messed up.
Kevin Youkilis is the Man of the Game. He was 2 for 4 with a homerun and a walk.
The 2-4 Sox go to Oakland for 3 games to face the 2-4 Athletics. More good news: after this series, the Sox won't have another 10 PM start time until May.
After bombing 6-1 in Buffalo the night before, the Bruins turned things around and finished the regular season the right way. Phil Kessel's 2nd career hat-trick sent waves of fear throughout the top 8 Eastern Conference teams as the playoffs loom on the horizon. Michael Ryder scored his 27th of the season, Marc Savard his 25th, and Chuck Kobasew his 21st. David Krejci had an assist, giving him 100 career points. Savard's two assists give him 200 total since joining the Bruins.
The Bruins finished the season with a record of 53-19-10. The 53 wins are tied for the League lead with San Jose. The 116 points are only 1 shy of San Jose's total. The 53 wins and 116 points are the most for a Bruins team since 1972, and we know what happened in 1972...
The Bruins were 2nd in the NHL with 274 goals scored (3.34 per game and most since 1993), and 1st in the NHL with only 196 goals allowed (2.39 goals per game). Their +78 goal differential is their highest since 1984.
The Bruins had the 2nd best home record (29-6-6), and the 2nd best road record (24-12-5).
And now the Bruins have a date with the Montreal Canadiens. By the way, the French word for turtle is la tortue. Komisarek, O'Byrne, they're turtles.
And let's not forget the divers, either. Plekanec, Hamrlik, Komisarek again, Lapierre, Koivu, Kostitsyn, Kostitsyn, Latendresse, et cetera.
No word yet on when the series will start, but the playoffs begin April 15th. A series preview will be coming very shortly.
5th Championship for BU, 3rd under Jack Parker, 9th title for a Boston school.
I was pretty drunk near the end of this game so I'll just let ESPN's highlights do the heavy lifting:
BU's season was, in a word: magical. Down by 2 late in the finals, and they come from behind to beat Miami. Down 4-3 in the 3rd period against Vermont in the semifinals, and they comeback to win it 5-4. With 15 seconds left in regulation, they score the game winner against UNH in the quarterfinals. In the Hockey East Championship game, they beat UMass-Lowell 1-0 thanks to a UML goal that was wrongly disallowed. Down 1-0 to BC in the 3rd period of the Hockey East semis, BU scores 3 times in 45 seconds and wins 3-2. On the last day of the regular season, BU needs Northeastern to lose to 6th place BC in order to claim the regular season title. Northeastern goes down 4-1.
A fortunate season? Yes. But that late-game magic wasn't luck. It was talent, heart, and skill. It was a team that won 35 times, and only lost 5 times. They went 9-2-2 against NCAA tournament teams during the regular season. In January, they won the Denver Cup. In February, they won the Beanpot. In March, they won Hockey East. And in April, they've won the National Championship.
Just a look at the batting averages of the Red Sox not named Kevin after last night's 6-3 loss to the Angels:
George Kottaras - .333 Jason Bay - .250 Rocco Baldelli - .250 Jacoby Ellsbury - .235 Dustin Pedroia - .200 Mike Lowell - .200 Jason Varitek - .167 David Ortiz - .167 JD Drew - .091 Jed Lowrie - .067
I expect most of those averages to increase. Dustin Pedroia is not a .200 hitter, and has been snake-bitten these last 4 games. David Ortiz may have lost a bit of power, but he is no .167 hitter. JD Drew might only play in 91 games, but he'll hit higher than .091. Varitek could very well stay at .167.
Wakefield pitched good enough to win last night. But the offense, and Justin Masterson let him down. At the same time, the game was closer than it seemed. David Ortiz's sac-fly in the 3rd would be a 2 run double against any other center-fielder besides Torii Hunter. Then there was a potential ground ball double play in the 7th that turned into a 2 run single as it snuck through Lowell and Lowrie.
It's not panic time... yet. There really is only room for improvement.
Man of the Game: Jared Weaver - 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 8 K
