The Diceman Cometh

Wake.
He's like Ol' Man River; jes keeps rollin' along.

have knucks will travel...

cy beckett was his usual dominant self last night -- 7 innings, 6 hits, 1 run, no waks, 8 K's.
youk crushed another one last night -- his 4th in 4 games @ detroit.
the lead is 3.5...

dice, now 6-0, pitched 7 strong, giving up 6 hits, 2 runs, only 3 walks, 7 K's.
oki & pap took care of their respective innings.
4 of the 6 sawk runs were of the solo-dinger variety -- lowell, youk, crisp & lowrie (1st career tater).

tonight wake will attempt to quiet the pink bats...

interleague play has bean berry, berry good to the sawx.
we swept milw over the weekend.
dice is now 7-0 after a 6.2 inning, 7 hit, 2 unearned run, no walk 6 K performance on saturday.

but that pales in comparison to what jon lester did last night to the royals...



the kid threw a frickin' no-no!

86 of his 130 pitches were strikes, including 19/28 first-pitches.
he walked 2, strucK out 9, one reched on an error.
he becomes the first sawx lefty to throw one since 1956.
varitek becomes the first catcher to ever catch 4 no-no's (nomo, lowe, buchholz were the others).
jacoby made the obligatory defensive gem -- a diving catch in shallow center in the 4th inning...

I think that speaks a lot for Varitek...not to take away from what Lester did, which was awesome. He's been so inconsistent, hopefully he can stay strong over the whole season.

the bullpen (2.2 innings, 2 hits) came through for masterson (6.1 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 3 walks, 5 K's) this time.
it's only a matter of time ('09?) before he joins the rotation.

the lead is 1 game, the win streak is 5.
NYY? last place, 4-game losing streak

another walk-fest (6), but dice (8-0) benifited from the g-salamis struck by lowell & drew.
the sawx, riding a 7-gamer, now have the best record in the bigs (31-19).
hopefully the momentum carries over on the road (OAK, SEA, BAL)...

I was eight rows behind the third base dugout yesterday. Wow did those seats suck. Watching two grand slams was insane....

i think they said it was the first time they had hit two @ home in 30 years...

Yup, 1984 last time at home, last time two grand slams were hit in a game was in '03.

One of the girls I was with was about to get up and get a drink as JD Drew was walking to the plate. I told her she wasn't f'n going anywhere...

yeah, crappy seats.
you can't even tell if tito is chewing tobacco or bubblegum...

That's pretty close to where we sat last September. And, no, I don't want the gum stuck to the bottom of the seat back, but thanks for asking.

Sad News:
Lester's father reportedly has cancer.

it sounds like they've caught it in time...

not much to write about lately.
they've been strugga-ling mighta-lee on this trip.
dice-K left early last night with shoulder fatigue.
lugo got tossed for arguing a check-swing call -- from shortstop!
never saw that happen before.

the only highlight last night was manny clubbing his 499th...

Manny being Manny hit his 500th homer last night in Camden Yards!

What a hit it was, a 410 foot solo to right center...sweet!

he is a baaaaaaad mang...

Gotta love Pedroia's fielding at second.

ayuh, he's a friggin' vacuum cleaner out there.
between him & youk, very few grounders reach the outfield...

ouch.
looks like Manny'll be DH for a month while papi's wrist sheath heals.
(surgery unlikely)...