Red Sox Memoirs - Spiderman and The Rocket (1996 - )

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

September 17
Mariners (89-60) @ Red Sox (91-57)
Mariners 4 - Red Sox 5

A very well fought game on both sides. We had an excellent pitcher's duel with Suppan going seven innings and allowing only three runs on four hits without walking anyone, and Randy Johnson allowing only one unearned run on three hits, walking one, and striking out nine. It was the bullpen that coughed it up, however. Bobby Ayala came in for the save in the bottom of the ninth inning and allowed us three runs to tie the game, including allowing the tying run to plate when he threw a wild pitch with a man on third base. He then put two men on in the tenth and allowed Mike Greenwell to hit the walk-off double.

WP - Tom Gordon (2-2)
LP - Bobby Ayala (1-6)
SV - N/A
HR - N/A

September 18
Mariners (89-61) @ Red Sox (92-57)
Mariners 11 - Red Sox 6

Okajima really didn't pitch badly despite making it through only two innings, the defense just let him down, allowing him to give up three unearned runs. The rest of the pitching staff wasn't so solid though, just look at the boxscore:

          BOSTON   ip  h bb hr  r er  k pit    ERA
      H. Okajima  2.0  2  1  1  3  0  1  34   3.74
       B. Shouse  2.0  2  0  0  0  0  1  25   3.38
      M. Stanton  0.2  2  1  0  2  2  0  22   4.52
       T. Gordon  1.1  2  2  0  0  0  1  40   5.23
       M. Maddux  0.2  3  1  0  2  2  1  25   3.38
      S. Belinda  1.1  1  1  1  2  2  3  26   4.34
      H. Slocumb  0.1  3  0  0  2  2  0  18   4.13
         A. Sele  0.2  0  0  0  0  0  1  12  11.68
          TOTALS  9.0 15  6  2 11  8  8 202

Offensively we played pretty well though. Greenwell drove in a couple runs and Trot Nixon hit his 25th double of the season. Jay Buhner really killed us in this game though, going 3-5 with two homers and five RBI's.

WP - Chris Bosio (12-11)
LP - Hideki Okajima (0-2)
SV - N/A
HR - N/A

September 19
Mariners (90-61) @ Red Sox (92-58)
Mariners 4 - Red Sox 2

I think it's time to adjust my pitcher's strategies, because the CPU is becoming way too trigger happy with pulling pitchers from the game. This time it allowed Clemens to go only 4 2/3 innings after he gave up a three run homer to Alex Rodriguez with one out in the fifth. Fortunately though the bullpen was able to provide us with a very solid game and keep us in it. Mike Stanton, Mike Maddux, Brian Shouse, and Heathcliff Slocumb combined to go 5 1/3 innings and give up only one run on six hits. Offensively not much to speak of, Rondell White and Mike Greenwell drove in our only two runs, and Greenwell had a solid game going 2-3 with a walk, a homer, and a double.

WP - Bob Milacki (9-7)
LP - Roger Clemens (20-6)
SV - J.J. Putz (4)
HR - Mike Greenwell (21)

BREAKING NEWS

Another one bites the dust.....again. This time we've got Freddy Sanchez going down for the remainder of the regular season and probably the ALDS and possibly even the ALCS (if we even make it that far) with a chipped knee cap. Tim Naehring will fill in for Sanchez at third base. The injury may not be that bad since Sanchez was hitting for an OPS of .659 in his last ten games, but I'm not too confident Naehring can do any better to be honest.

September 20
Mariners (91-61) @ Red Sox (92-59)
Mariners 9 - Red Sox 2

This is getting bad. We nearly matched them in hits (we had 13, they had 14), but we put up only two runs to their nine. Brad Radke pitched a decent game (5 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 2 K), but Tom Gordon did not at all, as he allowed four runs on five hits and two walks in just an inning of work. One bright spot we can take away from this game is that Naehring was 2-4 with a homer, so hopefully he's remembering how to hit since he'll be playing third for a while with Sanchez out.

WP - Sterling Hitchcock (14-8)
LP - Brad Radke (8-1)
SV - N/A
HR - Tim Naehring (8)

Thoughts: This is really not good. We lose three of four to the Mariners and it pretty much wasn't even close at all. We fall to 6.5 back of the Yankees, basically closing the book on the division since there are only ten games left. But the worse news is that the Angels closed to within 2.5 games of us and they're now the only team that can challenge us for the Wild Card. Luckily our next two series are against the Royals and A's, who are a combined 113-192 this season.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Just fyi guys, I'm gonna try to finish the regular season today, because I probably won't update more than once or twice, if at all this weekend. I'm going home to spend the weekend with my girlfriend so the chances of me actually getting the time/desire to do anything with this over the weekend are slim to none.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

September 21
Red Sox (92-60) @ Royals (58-95)
Red Sox 5 - Royals 4

A fantastic start by Suppan helps us end our losing streak. Suppan allowed just two runs over seven innings while striking out five. Tim Naehring also knocked a couple hits to raise his batting average to .267, while Mike Stanley and Barry Larkin drove in two runs each.

WP - Jeff Suppan (12-5)
LP - Chris Haney (4-17)
SV - Rich Garces (27)
HR - Mike Stanley (20), Mo Vaughn (31)

September 22
Red Sox (93-60) @ Royals (58-96)
Red Sox 1 - Royals 7

Let's see. The whole pitching staff gets rocked (besides Tom Gordon who threw a scoreless inning of relief), the only run we get is on a Trot Nixon solo homer in the seventh, and Kevin Appier makes everyone on the team look like little leaguers. Yep, sounds like a good formula for a big, fat loss. Okajima, Doherty, and Shouse combined to give up seven runs in eight innings while striking out only two, while Appier goes 6 2/3 innings and gives up just one run on seven hits while striking out five. Even when we had opportunities to score runs we just couldn't get them across, which has really been our problem throughout the course of this month-long funk we've been in.

WP - Kevin Appier (9-16)
LP - Hideki Okajima (0-3)
SV - N/A
HR - Trot Nixon (11)

September 23
Red Sox (93-62) @ Royals (59-96)
Red Sox 3 - Royals 6

This is getting really, really bad. We cannot afford to be losing 2 of three games to teams like the Kansas City Royals. Clemens actually pitched a decent game, throwing an eight inning complete game allowing six runs (all were earned but half of them came in his last inning on the mound) on nine hits and five walks, while striking out nine. Stanley had a good game, as he homered and drove in two of our three runs, but the offense was pretty stagnant otherwise.

WP - Jim Converse (3-2)
LP - Roger Clemens (20-7)
SV - Jeff Montgomery (35)
HR - Mike Stanley (21)

Thoughts: I'm really starting to get scared now. I thought the series with the Royals would be the perfect opportunity to put some distance between myself and the Angels, but instead the Angels made up another game on us and are now only 1.5 games back in the Wild Card! The Angels play the Blue Jays and Yankees to close the season, while we play the A's and White Sox. Our schedule is easier (A's and White Sox a combined 138-173 to Toronto and New York's combined 170-142) so we do have that going for us, but we've played so poorly I'm not sure it matters. We're getting hits, but we're not driving in runs, and our pitching is completely unpredictable right now. Even if we do manage to fend off the Angels and make the playoffs, with as poorly as we're playing I doubt we'd make it very far, especially since I believe we'd be playing the Indians in the division series.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Just wondering, do you guys like it better when I highlight names of teams and players in their team color in the posts? I think it looks better and it's probably easier on the eyes.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

September 24
Athletics (56-99) @ Red Sox (93-62)
Athletics 8 - Red Sox 4 (11 innings)

Un-****ing-believeable. We so should have won this game. We managed to tie it in the bottom of the ninth when we were down a run, then in the tenth when they put up a run in the top of the inning we managed to tie it again on Mo Vaughn's second homer of the game, but then the 11th rolled around and everything went to hell. Slocumb came in for the 11th and gave up four effing runs in 2/3 of an inning on four hits and a walk. Mo Vaughn had a good game at the plate, going 2-4 with a walk, two homers, and three RBI's. Aside from him we really couldn't do anything. Of course it didn't help that Tim Hudson was damn near unhittable, allowing just two runs on three hits and four walks over seven innings, while striking out eight batters.

WP - Buddy Groom (5-6)
LP - Heathcliff Slocumb (2-6)
SV - N/A
HR - Mo Vaughn 2 (33)

September 25
Athletics (57-99) @ Red Sox (93-63)
Athletics 1 - Red Sox 11

Holy crap Batman! A win and some offense :O! Seriously though, we needed this, this was a fantastic game by the offense. Nomar reached base in all five of his at bats, going 3-3 with a double and two walks, Rondell and Vaughn each drove in three runs (as well as Vaughn hitting his third homer in the last two games). Stanley was the only one who didn't get a hit, and even then he walked twice and scored. Jeff Suppan also put forth a great pitching performance, as he allowed only one run in seven innings on four hits and two walks, while striking out five. Tom Gordon also pitched two scoreless innings of relief to finish out the game.

BOSTON               ab  h bb  r hr bi  k sb     avg
B. Larkin (SS)        4  3  0  1  0  2  1  0    .329
R. White (CF)         5  3  0  1  0  3  1  0    .310
N. Garciaparra (DH)   3  3  2  1  0  0  0  0    .312
M. Vaughn (1B)        5  1  0  1  1  3  2  0    .312
M. Greenwell (LF)     5  1  0  0  0  1  0  0    .306
M. Stanley (C)        3  0  2  1  0  0  0  0    .263
B. Boone (2B)         5  1  0  2  0  0  1  0    .270
T. Nixon (RF)         3  1  2  2  0  0  0  0    .268
T. Naehring (3B)      4  2  1  2  0  2  1  0    .266
TOTALS               37 15  7 11  1 11  6  0

   2B:  N. Garciaparra (41), M. Greenwell (31), R. White (36)
   HR:  M. Vaughn (34)

          BOSTON   ip  h bb hr  r er  k pit    ERA
       J. Suppan  7.0  4  2  1  1  1  5  98   4.24
       T. Gordon  2.0  0  1  0  0  0  3  42   5.40
          TOTALS  9.0  4  3  1  1  1  8 140

WP - Jeff Suppan (13-5)
LP - Willie Adams (3-10)
SV - N/A
HR - Mo Vaughn (34)

September 26
Athletics (57-100) @ Red Sox (94-63)
Athletics 3 - Red Sox 6

Yes! Another win. We brought Jamie Moyer back from injury early to pitch this game, and he pitched very, very well on his sprained ankle. He allowed only two runs over six innings and struck out five batters to earn the win and help us win two in a row for the first time in way too long. Bret Boone delivered the big hit of the game, hitting a two-run homer in the sixth to give us some breathing room.

WP - Jamie Moyer (13-4)
LP - Ariel Prieto (9-16)
SV - N/A
HR - Barry Larkin (12), Bret Boone (13)

September 27
Athletics (57-101) @ Red Sox (95-63)
Athletics 2 - Red Sox 9

With the help of a fantastic start by Butch Henry we manage to take three of four and all but sew up the Wild Card! Henry went 8 1/3 innings and allowed only two runs on four hits and three walks, while striking out four batters. The offense really helped him out, too. We got homers from four different hitters, and our only runs came off those homers. Nomar hit a three run shot, Rondell hit a two run homer, Boone had a two run homer, and Greenwell had a solo homer.

BOSTON               ab  h bb  r hr bi  k sb     avg
B. Larkin (SS)        5  1  0  1  0  0  0  0    .328
R. White (CF)         4  1  0  2  1  2  0  0    .312
N. Garciaparra (DH)   5  1  0  1  1  3  1  0    .309
M. Vaughn (1B)        5  1  0  1  0  0  2  0    .311
M. Greenwell (LF)     4  3  0  1  1  1  0  0    .309
M. Stanley (C)        3  2  1  1  0  0  1  0    .267
P. Clark (RF)         4  0  0  0  0  0  1  0    .274
B. Boone (2B)         4  2  0  1  1  2  0  0    .272
T. Naehring (3B)      3  1  0  1  0  0  0  0    .265
TOTALS               37 12  1  9  4  8  5  0

   2B:  M. Stanley (28), B. Boone (33), M. Vaughn (29), M. Greenwell (33), T. Naehring (16)
   HR:  N. Garciaparra (22), B. Boone (20), M. Greenwell (22), R. White (29)
   HBP:  R. White, T. Naehring

          BOSTON   ip  h bb hr  r er  k pit    ERA
        B. Henry  8.1  4  3  1  2  2  4 112   4.62
      M. Stanton  0.2  0  0  0  0  0  1  10   4.50
          TOTALS  9.0  4  3  1  2  2  5 122

WP - Butch Henry (8-11)
LP - Mark Mulder (9-13)
SV - N/A
HR - Nomar Garciaparra (22), Bret Boone (14), Mike Greenwell (22), Rondell White (25)

Thoughts: With that last win against the A's we have basically guaranteed ourselves the Wild Card. The Angels sit three games back with three to play, so if we lose out and they win out we would tie. But with them playing the Yankees and us having Clemens, Radke, and Suppan going against the White Sox I'm pretty confident that we'll win at least one, and even if we don't I'm pretty sure they'll lose at least one. I have to say, the play of the offense in that series was integral. Without them suddenly remembering how to hit the ball, we would not be in this position right now.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

September 28
Red Sox (96-63) @ White Sox (83-76)
Red Sox 7 - White Sox 2

WE ARE THE WILD CARD WINNERS!

A good start by Clemens, good relief by Gordon, and a great day of offense helps us tie up the Wild Card and guarantee ourselves a trip to the post-season. Clemens went five innings and allowed only two runs in spite of ten hits, while striking out six. Tom Gordon also pitched brilliantly in relief, throwing four scoreless innings and allowing just a single hit. Offensively we started the game strong, putting five on the board in the first inning starting with a Larkin homer to lead things off, and finished it strong with Mo Vaughn homering in the ninth with Nomar on first base. Now we can rest our guys in the final two regular season games and not worry about making the post season!

BOSTON               ab  h bb  r hr bi  k sb     avg
B. Larkin (SS)        5  2  0  1  1  1  1  0    .329
R. White (CF)         5  1  0  1  0  0  3  0    .311
N. Garciaparra (DH)   5  2  0  2  0  0  1  0    .310
M. Vaughn (1B)        5  3  0  2  1  3  1  0    .314
M. Greenwell (LF)     5  1  0  1  0  1  1  0    .308
M. Stanley (C)        3  1  0  0  0  1  1  0    .267
P. Clark (RF)         4  0  0  0  0  0  1  0    .266
B. Boone (2B)         3  2  1  0  0  1  1  0    .275
T. Naehring (3B)      3  0  1  0  0  0  2  0    .262
TOTALS               38 12  2  7  2  7 12  0

   2B:  M. Stanley (29), M. Vaughn (30), B. Larkin (31), M. Greenwell (34)
   HR:  M. Vaughn (35), B. Larkin (13)
   CS:  B. Boone

          BOSTON   ip  h bb hr  r er  k pit    ERA
      R. Clemens  5.0 10  2  0  2  2  6 125   3.34
       T. Gordon  4.0  1  0  0  0  0  2  54   5.17
          TOTALS  9.0 11  2  0  2  2  8 179

WP - Roger Clemens (21-7)
LP - Wilson Alvarez (13-10)
SV - Tom Gordon (10)
HR - Mo Vaughn (35)

September 29
Red Sox (97-63) @ White Sox (83-77)
Red Sox 6 - White Sox 3

The only ones who are in the regular line up to play in this game were Boone and Naehring, but that didn't stop us from putting up six runs and fifteen hits! Jason Varitek collected the first hits of his career, going 3-4 with two doubles and two RBI's, and the only one who didn't collect a hit in this game was top prospect and lead-off hitter of the game Michael Coleman, who went 0-5 with a strike out. Radke still started the game, and he allowed three runs in seven innings of work, walking two and striking out six.

BOSTON               ab  h bb  r hr bi  k sb     avg
M. Coleman (CF)       5  0  0  0  0  0  1  0    .111
T. O'Leary (LF)       5  2  0  2  1  1  0  0    .224
B. Boone (2B)         5  2  0  0  0  0  1  0    .276
R. Jefferson (1B)     5  2  0  0  0  0  1  0    .167
P. Clark (P)          5  2  0  1  0  1  0  0    .271
K. Mitchell (RF)      4  1  0  1  0  0  0  0    .267
T. Naehring (3B)      4  2  0  1  0  1  1  0    .265
J. Varitek (C)        4  3  0  1  0  2  1  0    .250
T. Rodriguez (SS)     4  1  0  0  0  1  2  0    .250
TOTALS               41 15  0  6  1  6  7  0

   2B:  R. Jefferson (1), J. Varitek 2 (2)
   HR:  T. O'Leary (2)
   CS:  B. Boone

          BOSTON   ip  h bb hr  r er  k pit    ERA
        B. Radke  7.0  8  2  1  3  3  6  97   3.99
      H. Slocumb  1.0  0  1  0  0  0  0  12   4.85
       R. Garces  1.0  0  0  0  0  0  1  12   3.31
          TOTALS  9.0  8  3  1  3  3  7 121

WP - Brad Radke (9-1)
LP - Kevin Tapani (14-10)
SV - Rich Garces (28)
HR - Troy O'Leary (2)

September 30
Red Sox (98-63) @ White Sox (83-78)
Red Sox 4 - White Sox 8

Jeff Suppan got rocked (3 IP, 6 H, BB, 5 ER, 2 K, 52 P), but that's okay, we just wanted to get him some work before the playoffs. We sat everyone but Boone and Naehring again, and this time we got some contributions from other young kids. Mike Coleman went 3-3, and Juan Diaz went 2-4 with a walk and two runs.

WP - Alex Fernandez (15-11)
LP - Jeff Suppan (13-6)
SV - N/A
HR - N/A

Thoughts: Onto the post-season! Not sure who we'll be playing in the ALDS yet, but it looks like it's gonna be the Indians. Before I start the post season I'm gonna do one final update and post all the final standings and leaders and things like that, but that probably won't be until way later tonight or tomorrow night. Wish me luck in the post season!

[ewing6]

Congrats,it's playoff time!!!

[rockiesfan4ever]

Congratz on the Wild Card man

[SrMeowMeow]

Yay! Death to the Red Sox.

[PotatoOfCouch13]

Whew! Cutting it close, but you made it!

And everyone goes through the injury 'domino effect' at some point or another - too bad it happened late in the season for you.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Congrats,it's playoff time!!!

Congratz on the Wild Card man

Thanks!

Yay! Death to the Red Sox.

How 'bout not death to the Red Sox, Oscar?

Whew! Cutting it close, but you made it!

And everyone goes through the injury 'domino effect' at some point or another - too bad it happened late in the season for you.

It seemed to happen to me throughout the season, and then kind of all at once again at the end. But whatever, I'm happy I made it. And we're actually playing pretty well going into the post-season.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

FINAL LEAGUE UPDATE

AMERICAN LEAGUE

STANDINGS - DIVISIONAL

STANDINGS - WILD CARD

OFFENSIVE LEADERS

PITCHING LEADERS

NATIONAL LEAGUE

STANDINGS - DIVISIONAL

STANDINGS - WILD CARD

OFFENSIVE LEADERS

PITCHING LEADERS

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

FINAL NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS

NOTABLE SIGNINGS/RE-SIGNINGS



MILESTONES



TRADES

(TRADE DEADLINE HAS PASSED)

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

FINAL SPIDERMAN AND ROCKET UPDATE
OF 1996

SS/DH Nomar Garciaparra (85/95), 22 years old



Nomar's rookie season was a gigantic success. He started the season off by hitting almost .400 in the first couple months of the season, and then finished the season with the line you see above. He fell just one hit shy of getting 200 hits in his first season in the major leagues, and finished seventh in the AL in hits. Although I'm not sure of the performance of any other rookies besides my own, it's hard to believe that there was anyone who had a better rookie season than Nomar, and he should be the run away American League Rookie of the Year award winner.

SP Roger Clemens (96), 33 years old



Clemens had a fantastic 1996 season. He finished with the most wins hes had since 1990 (also finishing with 21 wins that season) and is bettered only by his 1986 campaign in which he won 24 games. He also finished with the third highest strikeout total of his career, and the most complete games he's had in a season since 1992. He's probably not the leading candidate for AL Cy Young (with the fantastic year Randy Johnson had) but he's still a strong candidate. He finished in the top five in the AL in wins (which he led), strikeouts, ERA, innings pitched (which he also led), opposing batting average, opposing slugging percentage, and opposing OPS.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

FINAL TEAM UPDATE
BEFORE POSTSEASON/OFFSEASON

NOTE 1: Stats with a red box around them are the team leaders.
NOTE 2: If there is a stat with a red box around it but there are players with a higher number in that stat, it means that not all the stats were accumulated with the Red Sox.

BATTING LINEUP


We had an extremely productive offense this season. Five guys with 20+ homers, everyone who started a large number of games but Jeff Frye and Freddy Sanchez had double digit homers. We had fantastic rookie seasons out of Trot Nixon, Nomar, and Freddy Sanchez. Nixon finished at .265/.338/.449/.787 with 11 homers, 54 RBI's, and 101 hits for the season, and Sanchez finished at .300/.325/.414/.739 with two homers and 21 RBI's in 227 AB's. Nomar was on a different planet, however, as far as rookies go, finishing at .310/.353/.505/.858 with 22 homers, 118 RBI's, 199 hits, and 41 doubles for the season. He's got to be the leading AL RoY candidate. Mike Stanley finished with a career high in walks at 75, and Mike Greenwell tied his career high in homers with 22. Mo Vaughn also had a huge season, finishing with 35 homers, 112 RBI's, and a line of .313/.405/.569/.974, putting him in the MVP race.

HITTERS ON DISABLED LIST



PITCHING STAFF


The starting rotation started the season pretty rough, but after some changes and given some time they turned out to be pretty productive. Clemens had a Cy Young-type year (though he probably won't win it since Randy Johnson was on another planet this season), with his 21 wins, 250+ K's, and 3.34 ERA in his 229 innings pitched. We also managed to acquire what looks to be a future ace in Brad Radke, as he went 9-1 with a 3.75 ERA in 105 innings after we traded for him. Suppan had a pretty ERA and win total, but those are a little deceiving and his peripherals don't bear out well. He struck out only 83 in almost 150 innings, allowed 20 homers, and had an opposing batting average of .274. Hopefully some improvement in the defense will help him out though. Butch Henry was the only starter that started and finished the season in the rotation that finished with fewer than ten wins. The bullpen was also solid (though not spectacular). Gordon was a big disappointment, posting an ERA over 5.00 when we were expecting a strong season from him as the closer. Garces did have a good season in the closer role, however, converting 28 of 32 save chances, and striking out 48 in 54 innings.