Worried yet? These are the type of losses that haunt me. An outstanding start from Arroyo, a couple of big homeruns against a former Cy Young winner (one of those a ridiculous shot by Manny over the light tower that The Gammons estimated at 480-500 feet) and the bullpen comes in and pisses it all away. And when we get a chance to tie or win it in the ninth, we look to…Ramon Vasquez? Remember we used to have a pretty good pinch hitter named Doug Mirabelli for situations like this? As much as I’ve liked the 2005 “now with more anger” Terry Francona, letting Vasquez hit was just plain stupid. Alan Embree only needed 5 pitches in the 8th to tie the game, then Foulke came in in the 9th and was not effective. Again.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay was putting a quick stop to the Yankee’s one game winning streak. And doing it in style against Randy Johnson. Makes you wonder if they’ll get George out of his rubber room to address the media again. Worked so well last time. About as good as winning 19-8.
I was again at Great American Ballpark watching the Cubs-Reds game. After giving up three 300-plus-foot outs in the first, Prior settled in to shut down the Reds. Patterson’s leaping catch to rob Junior of a homerun was the number 1 web gem, and I saw it live. Nomar’s first two at-bats were one pitch each, pop-ups to the infield. Next was a strikeout, followed by a weak flare to first, and in his last at-bat, a would-be double play where he reached on an error. Oh, and a throwing error in the field. I don’t miss him at all.
I’ve decided that as nice as Great American is, the “extra” stuff between innings grates on your nerves after a while. Kiss Cam, mascot races on the big screen, the shell game and lots of bad music. Please don’t ever do this crap at Fenway. The one bright spot is Amy Schneider who does the fan interviews. I couldn’t find a decent picture of her, but she’s easy on the eyes.
Back to the Sox, we get Wells tonight against the AL East leading Baltimore Orioles. I expect another good game from the big man, and continued success at the plate. The O’s can hit and they had our number last year. This ain’t last year.
