Boston Red Sox @ the Anaheim (Los Angeles) Angels: Game 1 ALDS

Bottom of the 9th: The odds the Angels will score +2 to tie the game is 13.23%; the odds they will score +1 with nobody on is 28.24%

The first batter, Mike Napoli just went down on strikes as Red Sox pitcher Jonathan Papelbon just threw him the heat. Gary Matthews just singled to right. Aybar up to the plate, pinch-runner Morales just took 2nd on defensive indifference. Aybar down on strikes. Chone Figgins at the plate, quickly falls 0-2, now 1-2, with Garret Anderson on-deck. Got-em, Papelbon throws a fast-ball to the outside of the plate and Figgins goes down swinging. Game over, Red Sox just received their 10th consecutive win over the Angels: tying the record set by the Oakland A's (of wins by one team over another in the post-season) who defeated the Red Sox 10-consecutive times spanning the years of 1988 through 2003. Boston wins 4-1 to take Game-1!

Top of the 9th:
Adding to Jason Bay's 2-run homer off of a fast-ball offering from John Lackey in the 6th inning (the traded Manny Ramirez hit a solo-home-run, becoming the all-time post-season home run leader with 25 home-runs, for the Dodgers in their win earlier tonight over the Cubs) Jed Lowrie got on base and then was brought in by a right-field single from the bat of Jacoby Ellsbury (for his 5th time on base tonight). Pedroia is up and Ellsbury steals his second bag of the evening (this kid is on fire-go get his rookie card if you don't have it already). Pedroia grounds out to Scott Shields the pitcher. After being blanked all-night, Big Papi extended his post-season hit streak to 12 games by ripping a single up the middle off of Shields. Angels bring in Arrendondo to end the inning.

Bottom of the 8th:
Boston's Justin Masterson got through the meat of the Angels' line-up: getting Tex (Teixeira) to fly-out to center. Vlady Guerro singled to left and was followed by Tori Hunter's single to right, but as the ball dropped just out of Youk's reach, Vlady rounded 2nd heading to 3rd, not considering that Kevin Youkilis has a couple of Golden Gloves and was thrown out by Youk at third by about 10-feet. Last at bat for the Angels was Hendrick, who hit into a fielder's choice, Lowrie tossed out Hunter at second for the final out in the 8th inning.

The Red Sox will play the Angels again on Friday night with Dice-K taking the mound for Boston.

Red Sox Win The World Series!!!

If there was ever a year since 1776 that it was great to be a Bostonian, this is the year! Well that is for Boston’s sports fans anyway: Boston College is ranked second in the nation in college football. The Patriots are embarrassing every team they play and even my beloved Celtics (who’ve been laughed at since the early 90’s) present a positive outlook (with a charming nick-name-the PGA Tour) for the coming season. And of course, there’s also our beloved Boston who Red Sox won the 103rd World Series last night, sweeping the Colorado Rockies in four games: Game 1: Red Sox won 13-1 @ Fenway. Game 2: Red Sox won 2-1 @ Fenway. Game 3: Red Sox won 10-5 in Denver. Game 4: Red Sox won 4-3 in Denver.

They say Boston’s 2004 World Series win (the first in 80+ years) was for the older fans of the team who’d waited patiently, last night Terry Francona and the Sox won one for won one for the Red Sox Nation (from the Dominican Republic to Japan to right here in the States).
Hats off to the World Series Champs and the World Series MVP, Boston’s third-baseman, Mike Lowell! Let’s not talk about it right now, but I don’t see how you can give up the team RBI leader, World Series MVP. Then again, this is a business and it would appear that Bill James’ protégé Theo Epstein is onto something.

Btw, I love what Dan Shaughnessy wrote in the Globe today: “If you go to a high school graduation in New England in the Year 2026, you will hear a lot of Jacobys, Dustins, Jonathans, and Hidekis when they call the roll.”-I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Red Sox win Game 1 of the ALDS

There is a reason Josh Beckett is the only twenty-game winner in the American League and he showed it tonight, allowing just four hits in his complete game shut-out against the Anaheim Angels in Game 1 of the ALDS. After giving up a hit in the first, Beckett retired 19-straight, blast you Vlady! This is Beckett's coming out season and he hasn't thrown this well since four years ago when he showed the Yankees that fanning isn't just something that gets rid of the vapors down in Florida.

Most Citadel guys will tell you that the name John Lackey will strike fear in any cadet's heart (he gave the Bushido 120-tours, no cuts, no amnesty), but alas, there was no Assistant Commandant Army Colonel on the mound for Anaheim and the Red Sox didn't fear this Lackey-they just treated him like the definition in the dictionary. The Cincinnati Kid, Kevin Youkilis smacked a 92-mph pitch from Lackey deep in the first for a solo-home run. Big Papi followed with a two-run shot in the third inning. After Lackey walked Manny Ramirez and then he advanced to second-base on a wild pitch, Mike Lowell did what he does best with a RISP (Runner-in-scoring-position) he hit a single up the middle to knock in Manny.

For the record:
(Stat: Lowell is currently leading the Red Sox with 120 RBIs) I hate to think about it now, but I hope Theo brings Mike back next season. Also, Boon was at the game tonight, I'll edit in a picture from him as soon as I get them.

Game Two:
Matsuzaka, aka: Dice-K (15-12, 4.40 ERA) will face off against the Angels' Escobar (18-7, 3.40 ERA) on Friday for game two, in the best of five, of the ALDS.
Posted by The Bushido

Remembering the darkest day in Red Sox history

As a Red Sox fan, one know's heart-break: numerous times of being so close to winning the big game only to fall on their face and this year is no different as the Bombers continue to gain on the AL-leaders, Boston continues to slide. But in life as in baseball, and Boston nothing pulls on the heart-strings as much as when the good die young or when a youngster full of hope for the future is side-lined with a major injury, cut short from their attaining their full-potential. The darkest day the Red Sox Nation had was 40-years ago today, when Red Sox slugger Tony C's career was finished by what retrosheet.org refers to as "The Beaning". (Photo credits: Boston Dirt Dogs)

At age 21, Tony Conigliario was the youngest player in the American League to reach 100-home-runs, leading the AL in 1965 with 32 home-runs and tapped for the All-Star team in 1967. Anthony Richard Conigliario was a home-grown talent, born in Revere, Mass and reared in East Boston; the local kid who made it put rumps in the seats at Fenway ending a previous (dwindling) 9,000 attendance average. The Red Sox signed Tony C at the age of 17 for $20,000 and their investment paid off in droves as the Red Sox Nation tuned in and came to the games.

Fitting For A Greek Tragedy
The Red Sox hosted the California Angels at Fenway on August 18, 1967 facing the Angels' pitcher Jack Hamilton who was known as an aggressive pitcher who would throw inside on batters to brush them off the plate. Besides the aggressive nature of Hamilton, he was also known to throw the spit-ball, viewed as somewhat of an under-handed pitch and out-lawed in today's game.

In the bottom of the fourth-inning, with two outs, Tony C came to the plate. The first offering from Hamilton was high and inside, brushing Tony C back from the plate. As if it was fore-shadowing to the tragedy that was about to take place, someone threw a smoke-bomb onto the field. With the smoke lingering across the in-field, Hamilton's next pitch came in on Conigliario hitting the young 22-year old below the left eye, shattering his cheek bones and the orbital-bones around the eye socket, an injury that darkened Conigliario's vision later ending his career and darkened that sad day at Fenway.
Posted by The Bushido

Dice-K and Bedard Riding For The Bushido Braves!

I joined a Fantasy Baseball League this year and one of my first draft picks was the newly acquired (keeping with my Red Sox loyalty) and much hyped pitcher from Japan Daisuke Matsuzaka, aka "Dice-K". I have to say, he's lived up to the hype setting a new record by a Red Sox pitcher with 159 strike-outs. After Curt Schilling went down with injuries near the All-Star break, I picked up Eric Bedard from Baltimore. I was a bit hesitant at first because the O's had just fired their manager and weren't doing so hot. But once again, my instincts proved correct as Bedard is a strike-out machine! Photo credits of Andrew "Dice-K" from Moyamedia.com)

Breakdown:
Matsuzaka --- Bedard
13-8 --- W/L --- 12-4
3.59 --- ERA --- 3.11
159 --- K's --- 199
.240 --- Opp. BA --- .212

Stats as of August 11, 2007
Posted by The Bushido

David Ortiz (Big Papi) does the tomahawk chop!

In case you missed this from last night's game (Braves hosting the Red Sox in Atlanta), Red Sox hitter David Ortiz, did a tomahawk chop, in jest, as he was being filmed in the dug-out. Andruw Jones struck out at the end of the video, going 0-4 for the game.



Credits: Clip taken on Sony-Ericsson W300i, from original airing of game on ESPN, courtesy of the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig.