Hello BOYZ!
Jacoby Ellsbury has been a disappointment this year until fairly recently. I thought surely he would perform like 2009, maybe close to 2011 since he is in a contract year and his agent Boras will be looking for something over $125,000,000 long term. The guys has great gifts, but his year has been subpar by any measure. Lately he's been heating up...and then some dummy made the fatal mistake of motivating Ells by hitting him. STUPID!
http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story...stolen-base-record-five-philadelphia-phillies
PHILADELPHIA -- Jacoby Ellsbury, modern art collector?
In a manner of speaking, yes. A highly specialized form, but one for which Ellsbury doesn't have to worry about outbidding anybody. You can be Warren Buffett rich and have no chance of lining your walls with the personalized pieces Ellsbury is assembling.
The Philadelphia Phillies, in a gesture made up in equal parts of graciousness and respect, added to Ellsbury's collection Thursday night, giving him a 15-inch square white canvas bag, filled with soft material, to match the two he already has at home.
The bag has a name: a major league base. Ellsbury was given one by the Red Sox when he broke Tommy Harper's club record of 54 stolen bases in 2009. The Sox gave him another after he stole his majors-leading 70th base that same season. And Thursday night, the Phillies gave him a third, in recognition of the club-record five bases he stole in Citizens Bank Park during Boston's 9-2 win over the home team. This one he didn't have to steal; it was a gift.
"Pretty neat," he said. "Nice of them."
And yes, Ellsbury said, it's suitable for hanging.
"You can cut off the bottom and stick it on the wall," said Ellsbury, indicating that's what was done with the first two.
Power wash them first?
"Leave 'em dirty," Ellsbury said. "As they are."
Ellsbury reached base on his first five trips Thursday night and came within a whisker of his fourth hit on his sixth plate appearance, a lunge by Phillies rookie second baseman Cesar Hernandez sufficient to collar his ground ball in the ninth.
He led off the game with a single, took third on a base hit by Daniel Nava and scored on an infield out by Dustin Pedroia. He walked and stole second in the second, singled and stole second in the fourth, then was hit in the back by a chest-high pitch in the sixth, for which he obviously took some umbrage, stealing second and third in the span of a four-pitch walk to Nava.
Ellsbury admitted as much, though he said he didn't know whether Phillies pitcher Jeremy Horst, who drew a warning issued to both teams, had deliberate intent in his heart.
"I had a different opinion," Farrell said. "If it was that blatant ... "
He left the sentence unfinished, the rest of the thought being, Miller should have given Horst the heave. "I can't say it was intentional," Farrell said, "but baseball etiquette allows it to play out."
But Farrell obviously loved how Ellsbury added injury to Philly's insult.
"I think he responded to a hit by pitch the way you should," Farrell said. "Consecutive steals of second and third. He responded in a good way."
Ellsbury then singled in the eighth, stole second and took third on a throwing error by Phillies catcher Erik Kratz.
"Usually when I get to three or four, the game gets out of hand and I have to shut down the run game," Ellsbury said. "It was nice be able to get a fifth one."
continued...
If Ellsbury stays motivated and hot it's a much improved lineup.
Rivera:
What happened to the god of the cutter the other night? Not only did he fail to hold, he blew the game with extreme ineptitude. He gave up 3 hits, 2 runs, and didn't even get 1 lousy out. This is not the stuff legends are made of. The Yankees had better hope it's a fluke with Robertson, and Sabathia also failing recently, among others.
New York fans???
"Pride and Guts":
The Yankees lost four straight to the then 18-29 Mets, scoring a bare 7 runs in those four games. Peeeeuuuuuuuu! Bad enough they got swept, but one would expect with both New York City teams playing each other the teams could draw from the total population. Yet no matter what stadium they played at there were plenty of empty seats each game with an average of about 37,000 attending. Where is New York pride? If Lester and Sabathia can't sell out a game tonight it's hopeless.
Sox Rising, Yankees Falling.
http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/27800/sox-rising-yankees-falling-for-now
PHILADELPHIA -- Takeaways from a night on which Jacoby Ellsbury went home with a new record and a souvenir to commemorate it, Franklin Morales stuck his first win in his back pocket and the Boston Red Sox headed up the Jersey Turnpike to face the suddenly reeling New York Yankees, losers of a season-high five straight, including four to the crosstown (and heretofore harmless) New York Mets:
"That doesn't mean they're not going to play against us," said Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who warmed up for the weekend with two RBI doubles, missed a home run by no more than a foot and threw out an attempted base-stealer, the only catcher to do so on the night Ellsbury stole a club-record five bases.
"I always get pumped up to play those guys," he said. "What does Pap say -- if you want to be the best, you got to beat the best?"
At least Jonathan Papelbon, who had saved Philadelphia Phillies wins each of the previous two nights, was limited to just being quoted. The Sox jumped on the Phillies with four in the first, expanded their lead with solo home runs by Jonny Gomes and David Ortiz, then tacked on three more in the eighth, rendering Papelbon no more useful than the Phillie Phanatic.
"The Yankees have been at the top of the division a long time," Saltalamacchia said. "I'm looking forward to going in there for a good series. Looking forward to playing the chess match."
The Sox and Yankees haven't played since the first three games of the season, when the Sox won two out of three despite missing Ortiz and pinning their hopes on a rookie with one full year of pro experience, Jackie Bradley Jr. The Yankees, meanwhile, have been playing short-handed all season, though two missing regulars, Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis, are due to return Friday night.
Before the season started, New York injuries and Boston's extreme makeover had the smart money speculating that the Bombers and Sox would be bringing up the rear of the division. What would Gomes have said in March if someone had told him Sox-Yanks would rank 1-2 entering June?
"You nailed it," Gomes said. "I think we talked about it in spring: The AL East was going to be a five-team crapshoot. We've seen it in the past -- big teams, big payrolls, big everything, go into the season and not work out, and then there's the other side of it. The AL East is the Beast.
"I didn't think there was going to be a five-way tie for first."
Gomes, a newcomer to the rivalry, likes the added cachet that comes with it but says no one should read too much into what takes place.
"I don't think who wins these three games or who wins the series tells anything," he said.
But he saluted the Yankees for persevering under daunting circumstances.
"It's awesome, it really is," he said. "I think it says a lot about their secondary players. I think their manager [Joe Girardi], it says a lot about the ship he runs and the organization.
"It doesn't matter who they run out there, they're expected to win. It comes from the past there and definitely Joe Girardi. Just because all their guys are banged up, I don't think they're going to lay down. And granted maybe they're secondary players now, but you're talking Vernon Wells, [Brennan] Boesch, Lyle Overbay. These aren't no-names. These aren't Triple-A call-ups. These guys have track records, too."
Gomes has a point, although of the three guys with "track records" he cites, Overbay and Boesch were other people's discards this spring, while Wells was a consensus choice as the most-overpaid player in the game.
Still, the Yanks are coming, with Tex and Youk back in the fold. Derek Jeter remains a speck on the horizon (All-Star break, perhaps?) and Alex Rodriguez is a salvage job with a very uncertain outcome.
The Sox used two emergency starters against the Phillies this week, Alfredo Aceves on Monday and Morales on Thursday, and those are the two games they won in the four they split with the Phils. Aceves gave the Sox six innings and allowed just a run, and Morales, after giving up a two-run home run in the first to Delmon Young, tacked on four scoreless innings before giving way to a four-man bullpen shuttle that put up four more zeroes.
You can't overstate the value of being able to call on guys like that who deliver that caliber of performance. Bobby Valentine used Zach Stewart for two emergency starts last season: He went 0-2 with a 22.24 ERA and lasted a total of 5⅔ innings. Yes, Allen Webster was knocked around in an emergency start earlier this season, but Webster, Morales and Aceves offer depth that was lacking last season.
What difference does defense make in a game decided by seven runs? Plenty. A key play Thursday night was the double play turned by Stephen Drew and Dustin Pedroia on Erik Kratz with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth, when it was still a two-run game.
"A huge play," Sox manager John Farrell said. "It wasn't a hard-hit ball. Stephen gave him a firm feed, and Pedey [Pedroia] hangs in tough with [Kevin] Frandsen right down his throat. A momentum shift."
Ellsbury's souvenir? The Phillies gave him a base to commemorate his five steals. "Very nice of them," he said.
BTW: While I don't put credibility in public opinion polls, it is fun to see the poll on this website favors the Sox winning the division with 81%. It doesn't mean anything except to indicate the fortunes of the teams lately. Still, right now it looks like the Sox may well exceed my assessment of winning 85-87 games. It not even June yet and the Sox are already about halfway to their win total for all of last year. If they win half their games the next month they will be close to 50 wins.
Bravo,
Merlot
Jacoby Ellsbury has been a disappointment this year until fairly recently. I thought surely he would perform like 2009, maybe close to 2011 since he is in a contract year and his agent Boras will be looking for something over $125,000,000 long term. The guys has great gifts, but his year has been subpar by any measure. Lately he's been heating up...and then some dummy made the fatal mistake of motivating Ells by hitting him. STUPID!
http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story...stolen-base-record-five-philadelphia-phillies
PHILADELPHIA -- Jacoby Ellsbury, modern art collector?
In a manner of speaking, yes. A highly specialized form, but one for which Ellsbury doesn't have to worry about outbidding anybody. You can be Warren Buffett rich and have no chance of lining your walls with the personalized pieces Ellsbury is assembling.
The Philadelphia Phillies, in a gesture made up in equal parts of graciousness and respect, added to Ellsbury's collection Thursday night, giving him a 15-inch square white canvas bag, filled with soft material, to match the two he already has at home.
The bag has a name: a major league base. Ellsbury was given one by the Red Sox when he broke Tommy Harper's club record of 54 stolen bases in 2009. The Sox gave him another after he stole his majors-leading 70th base that same season. And Thursday night, the Phillies gave him a third, in recognition of the club-record five bases he stole in Citizens Bank Park during Boston's 9-2 win over the home team. This one he didn't have to steal; it was a gift.
"Pretty neat," he said. "Nice of them."
And yes, Ellsbury said, it's suitable for hanging.
"You can cut off the bottom and stick it on the wall," said Ellsbury, indicating that's what was done with the first two.
Power wash them first?
"Leave 'em dirty," Ellsbury said. "As they are."
Ellsbury reached base on his first five trips Thursday night and came within a whisker of his fourth hit on his sixth plate appearance, a lunge by Phillies rookie second baseman Cesar Hernandez sufficient to collar his ground ball in the ninth.
He led off the game with a single, took third on a base hit by Daniel Nava and scored on an infield out by Dustin Pedroia. He walked and stole second in the second, singled and stole second in the fourth, then was hit in the back by a chest-high pitch in the sixth, for which he obviously took some umbrage, stealing second and third in the span of a four-pitch walk to Nava.
Ellsbury admitted as much, though he said he didn't know whether Phillies pitcher Jeremy Horst, who drew a warning issued to both teams, had deliberate intent in his heart.
"I had a different opinion," Farrell said. "If it was that blatant ... "
He left the sentence unfinished, the rest of the thought being, Miller should have given Horst the heave. "I can't say it was intentional," Farrell said, "but baseball etiquette allows it to play out."
But Farrell obviously loved how Ellsbury added injury to Philly's insult.
"I think he responded to a hit by pitch the way you should," Farrell said. "Consecutive steals of second and third. He responded in a good way."
Ellsbury then singled in the eighth, stole second and took third on a throwing error by Phillies catcher Erik Kratz.
"Usually when I get to three or four, the game gets out of hand and I have to shut down the run game," Ellsbury said. "It was nice be able to get a fifth one."
continued...
If Ellsbury stays motivated and hot it's a much improved lineup.
Rivera:
What happened to the god of the cutter the other night? Not only did he fail to hold, he blew the game with extreme ineptitude. He gave up 3 hits, 2 runs, and didn't even get 1 lousy out. This is not the stuff legends are made of. The Yankees had better hope it's a fluke with Robertson, and Sabathia also failing recently, among others.
New York fans???
"Pride and Guts":
The Yankees lost four straight to the then 18-29 Mets, scoring a bare 7 runs in those four games. Peeeeuuuuuuuu! Bad enough they got swept, but one would expect with both New York City teams playing each other the teams could draw from the total population. Yet no matter what stadium they played at there were plenty of empty seats each game with an average of about 37,000 attending. Where is New York pride? If Lester and Sabathia can't sell out a game tonight it's hopeless.
Sox Rising, Yankees Falling.
http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/27800/sox-rising-yankees-falling-for-now
PHILADELPHIA -- Takeaways from a night on which Jacoby Ellsbury went home with a new record and a souvenir to commemorate it, Franklin Morales stuck his first win in his back pocket and the Boston Red Sox headed up the Jersey Turnpike to face the suddenly reeling New York Yankees, losers of a season-high five straight, including four to the crosstown (and heretofore harmless) New York Mets:
"That doesn't mean they're not going to play against us," said Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who warmed up for the weekend with two RBI doubles, missed a home run by no more than a foot and threw out an attempted base-stealer, the only catcher to do so on the night Ellsbury stole a club-record five bases.
"I always get pumped up to play those guys," he said. "What does Pap say -- if you want to be the best, you got to beat the best?"
At least Jonathan Papelbon, who had saved Philadelphia Phillies wins each of the previous two nights, was limited to just being quoted. The Sox jumped on the Phillies with four in the first, expanded their lead with solo home runs by Jonny Gomes and David Ortiz, then tacked on three more in the eighth, rendering Papelbon no more useful than the Phillie Phanatic.
"The Yankees have been at the top of the division a long time," Saltalamacchia said. "I'm looking forward to going in there for a good series. Looking forward to playing the chess match."
The Sox and Yankees haven't played since the first three games of the season, when the Sox won two out of three despite missing Ortiz and pinning their hopes on a rookie with one full year of pro experience, Jackie Bradley Jr. The Yankees, meanwhile, have been playing short-handed all season, though two missing regulars, Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis, are due to return Friday night.
Before the season started, New York injuries and Boston's extreme makeover had the smart money speculating that the Bombers and Sox would be bringing up the rear of the division. What would Gomes have said in March if someone had told him Sox-Yanks would rank 1-2 entering June?
"You nailed it," Gomes said. "I think we talked about it in spring: The AL East was going to be a five-team crapshoot. We've seen it in the past -- big teams, big payrolls, big everything, go into the season and not work out, and then there's the other side of it. The AL East is the Beast.
"I didn't think there was going to be a five-way tie for first."
Gomes, a newcomer to the rivalry, likes the added cachet that comes with it but says no one should read too much into what takes place.
"I don't think who wins these three games or who wins the series tells anything," he said.
But he saluted the Yankees for persevering under daunting circumstances.
"It's awesome, it really is," he said. "I think it says a lot about their secondary players. I think their manager [Joe Girardi], it says a lot about the ship he runs and the organization.
"It doesn't matter who they run out there, they're expected to win. It comes from the past there and definitely Joe Girardi. Just because all their guys are banged up, I don't think they're going to lay down. And granted maybe they're secondary players now, but you're talking Vernon Wells, [Brennan] Boesch, Lyle Overbay. These aren't no-names. These aren't Triple-A call-ups. These guys have track records, too."
Gomes has a point, although of the three guys with "track records" he cites, Overbay and Boesch were other people's discards this spring, while Wells was a consensus choice as the most-overpaid player in the game.
Still, the Yanks are coming, with Tex and Youk back in the fold. Derek Jeter remains a speck on the horizon (All-Star break, perhaps?) and Alex Rodriguez is a salvage job with a very uncertain outcome.
The Sox used two emergency starters against the Phillies this week, Alfredo Aceves on Monday and Morales on Thursday, and those are the two games they won in the four they split with the Phils. Aceves gave the Sox six innings and allowed just a run, and Morales, after giving up a two-run home run in the first to Delmon Young, tacked on four scoreless innings before giving way to a four-man bullpen shuttle that put up four more zeroes.
You can't overstate the value of being able to call on guys like that who deliver that caliber of performance. Bobby Valentine used Zach Stewart for two emergency starts last season: He went 0-2 with a 22.24 ERA and lasted a total of 5⅔ innings. Yes, Allen Webster was knocked around in an emergency start earlier this season, but Webster, Morales and Aceves offer depth that was lacking last season.
What difference does defense make in a game decided by seven runs? Plenty. A key play Thursday night was the double play turned by Stephen Drew and Dustin Pedroia on Erik Kratz with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth, when it was still a two-run game.
"A huge play," Sox manager John Farrell said. "It wasn't a hard-hit ball. Stephen gave him a firm feed, and Pedey [Pedroia] hangs in tough with [Kevin] Frandsen right down his throat. A momentum shift."
Ellsbury's souvenir? The Phillies gave him a base to commemorate his five steals. "Very nice of them," he said.
BTW: While I don't put credibility in public opinion polls, it is fun to see the poll on this website favors the Sox winning the division with 81%. It doesn't mean anything except to indicate the fortunes of the teams lately. Still, right now it looks like the Sox may well exceed my assessment of winning 85-87 games. It not even June yet and the Sox are already about halfway to their win total for all of last year. If they win half their games the next month they will be close to 50 wins.
Bravo,
Merlot
