Red Sox Lose Game 1 ALDS

[Clay Dreslough]

Only the Red Sox could lose last night's game the way the did.

Pedro has a bad inning, but leaves with the lead. And like clockwork, the bullpen flushes his win down the toilet.

The new twist that Grady Little brings to the table is cramming a ton of bad managerial moves into one game:

1. Taking Todd Walker out for defensive reasons. In a one-run game, is it more likely that your second baseman will make an error in the 9th, or that the game will go into extra innings and you'll need the guy that already has 4 hits?

2. Letting Kim throw his slider. Nobody was getting anywhere near his fastball, and he was doing a good job of spotting it at the knees. His slider led to a walk and a hit batter.

3. Taking Kim out. As I said above, nobody was hitting his fastball. Throw it in there, at the knees, 98 MPH, with downward action, and see if Durazo can knock in the tying run.

4. Letting Chavez steal third. I'm sure they didn't mean to "let him" steal third, but they didn't exactly stop him. The idea that a runner on 3rd is no more dangerous than a runner on 2nd with two outs is preposterous, but that seems to be the strategy they were following.

5. Walking Terrence Long to pitch to Ramon Hernandez. With Long batting, a hit wins the game. With Hernandez batting, a hit or a walk wins the game. Long batted .245 this year. Hernandez has a .331 On-Base Percentage. Pretty simple math, IMHO.

The ONLY logic for walking Long is if you want to create the force at home, at which point the infield would have been playing in, which alas they clearly were not.

In case you think hindsight is 20/20, I was screaming about these moves as they happened.

One orthodox move Grady should get some credit for: batting Walker third. That's something you don't see everyday. And leaving Pedro in to pitch through the 7th was the right move, but it wasn't exactly brain surgery.

Also, what it just me, or was there a pretty tiny strike zone last night? It seems like B.H. Kim was throwing crotch-high fastballs and not getting the call.

Arrrgghh!

Clay

[Josh K.]

Clay,
Although I am normally a Tigers fan, since my team is obviously not playing anymore, I have adopted the Red Sox to route for. I must say that I agree wholeheartedly with you Clay. Im not sure what the local media is saying, but if the Sox don't come back and win the series, they should be calling for Little's head.

And, no, it was not just you, the strike zone last night was tiny.

Josh

[cardfanstl]

Heh, I not a fan of either team, but I did stay up last night and watched the game, just because it was a great game...

I don't know about taking Kim out or not... He had that look on his face, like here we go again (remember the last time he was closing in the playoffs? Hint: it wasn't 2002 as my Cards knocked out the D-Backs in 3 straight and none of them off of Kim).

But what I remember most about the game was Harden throwing that pitch to the backstop... I was afraid he was going to pull an Ankiel.

But Clay, I do remember thinking when they were walking Long, "What the....? Who is batting behind him? Who could be worse?"

And yes, that strike zone was tiny. Foulke had one guy (I forget who) struck out 2 or 3 times, but ended up walking him because of it... At least it appeared to go both ways...

Just my random thoughts on the game.
cardfanstl

[Clay Dreslough]

Originally posted by cardfanstl
And yes, that strike zone was tiny. Foulke had one guy (I forget who) struck out 2 or 3 times, but ended up walking him because of it... At least it appeared to go both ways...

Just my random thoughts on the game.
cardfanstl

Yes. It did appear to go both ways. Might have been a 1-0 game with a normal strike zone...

[IronMonkey]

Ditto on the strike zone. And yes it seemed to go both ways
but it also seemed to move around. For most of the game,
it was low and seemed to be getting lower. In the extra innings
it seemed to move up. I think it threw Pedro off a bit
as he was clearly getting frustrated. Anyone notice that
toward the end of the game, the batters seemed afraid
to swing? It was like they had no idea if the pitch was
a strike or not.

I jumped out of my chair when they took Kim out. He
OWNED the previous batter. His fastball looked as good
or better than anything else that had crossed the plate
that night.

I'm also pissed at the total lack of spirit the Sox showed. Tied
game and the Soxs look like their dog died. In the other
bullpen, the A's are having the time of their life, win
or lose.

[Clay Dreslough]

Sox just won game four, 5-4, to take it back to Oakland.

I'm STILL thinking Grady needs to lose his job.

Burkett was throwing batting practice up there, and it didn't take a professional baseball game designer to notice.

Miller and Morgan even mentioned at the start of the game that they were only looking for 3 or 4 inning from Burkett, so after 3 innings in which the Sox were exquisitely lucky to only allow one run, I'm screaming at the TV to take Burkett out.

Wakefield pitched well, and Williamson was lights out. Would have been nice to have those two guys in the game earlier, and probably win the thing 5-1.

Clay

[IronMonkey]

Agreed. Burkett was toast at the beginning of the 5th
inning. I was really surprised they didn't take him out
right then. After all, that's the beauty of having a
knuckleballer like Wakefield on the roster. He can go
a couple of innings every night if you need.

In any case, great game with an ending suitable for
an action novel. After the bizarre game last night,
it was almost like "Of course the sleeping heart
of the lineup woke up and score the winning runs."