The Baseball Thread

after lackey and lester were rock-solid, peavy did his part -- complete game three-hittah.
LAD lost a three-game series for the first time since june 14th-16th...

puig...

Mercy! What a throw on the run from RF and dead-on strike at 3rd (?) base. Or was I watching replays of his earlier heroics?

that was from earlier in the year.

they say he often misses the cut-off man, but it's not because of poor fundies -- it's because he doesn't think he needs the cut-off man...

As far as I'm concerned last night was a preview of the World Series match-up.

your rays have a mighty tough schedule to deal with...

...the next 13 in a row against the AL West before Boston comes to town.

I know one thing. They have to pull Hellickson out of the starting rotation.
Perhaps with Matt Moore(14-3) coming back they can.

If the Sox are to win the American League East for the first time since 2007, they're going to have to find a way to play better against the Baltimore Orioles.

The Sox have a winning record against the Rays (10-6), Blue Jays (9-7), and Yankees (7-5) but are 4-6 against the Orioles with a whopping nine games to play starting tonight. That's nearly a third of the games they have left.

Baltimore is 27-19 against the Sox the last three seasons. Their biggest problem is Sox hitters are hitting around .210 against O's pitching. However, the current Sox teams as it's composed now is a lot better team than in the recent past and as well as compared to 3 yrs. ago.

The Orioles are currently 26th in the league in ERA 4.13
I don't think they'll be able to slow down the Sox-Train.

Objective as I am (wink), I tend to agree. O's just don't seem to have what it takes in this part of the season. Whereas Sox relief pitching has stabilized...and SP has improved greatly. They appear to have made up for the loss of #1 SP Buccholz with Peavy. Lester rounding back into form is essential too.

The emotional spark plug in the offense (and defense for that matter) in my mind is Pedroia. When he's on the mark, the rest of the team takes it's cue.

Mike Carp? 000000000000000000000 Mike Carp?

pinch-hitter extraordinaire... who knew?

Last night Pedroia proved your point. Though Carp hit a "clutch" to win the game (jammed, off the handle) Pedroia kept them in the game. Sustained them so to speak.

Though I'm hoping the Rays will prevail I have a grudging admiration for these bearded ruffians.

Man, that hit by Carp had eyes as it flew just out of the reach of the fielder. An ugly hit is still a hit, though. I was watching this game throughout. Lacky looks good. They have assembled a team full of patient decent hitters.

I've watched the Rays and I'd be concerned for the Rays with Rodney as the closer. This hear, he seems to fall apart when the pressure is on. A few times I've seen him wild pitch some runs in. Then there's those 8 blown saves. However, last year... what an awesome year...he was invincible. He needs to straighten out his cap, too...he's alignment is off.

As Rodney goes so goes the season...and that cap!

I wish for the Rays all the success (minus a half a game behind Sox). I like close races. I really like their manager, Maddon. He's an unique individual in a sport full of cookie-cutter personalities.

Madden has the best post game interviews in baseball. He's well-spoken and has baseball savvy up the ying-yang

Yeah, I actually seek out those interviews...being that cable picks up that stuff in my FL cable sports coverage. FWIW, he's the polar opposite of Bobby Valentine.