MVN - Most Valuable Network

7/4: Happy Fourth

Prev. Gm:

Boston Red Sox (51-37) @ New York Yankees (45-41) Josh Beckett (7-5, 3.65) @ Darrell Rasner (4-6, 4.42) 1:05 PM EDT | The Toilet (Bronx, NY) TV: NESN RADIO: WRKO 680, SBN 1150

mharney5791

Are the Red Sox Cuckoo for Coco?

Prior to last night’s impressive shutout victory over the Yankees, the Red Sox had lost five consecutive games, their longest skid of the season. Each of those five defeats had something in common — something other than an utter lack of clutch and miserable meltdowns from formerly reliable relievers. It took copious amounts of root beer and a post-game chat with Evan for me to realize it, but those five games were the same five games for which Coco Crisp was suspended.

The Red Sox defeated the Houston Astros last Friday, and Coco was in the lineup. They silenced the Yankees last night, and Coco was in the lineup. They lost the five games in between those two victories, and Coco was not in the lineup — or the dugout, for that matter.

Coco Crisp is batting a fairly pedestrian .270/.313/.434 this season, with five homers, 22 RBIs, and a dozen stolen bases. In all likelihood, his presence in the lineup would not have been the remedy to the Sox’s failures with runners on base the past several days. After all, Coco’s line with runners in scoring position plummets down to .222/.260/.311, and sinks even farther when there are two outs (.217/.250/.304). Yet, even though Coco’s offensive contributions are seemingly mediocre, the Sox appear to be a much better team when he’s on the field.

Need evidence? The Red Sox are a terrific 42-23 this season in the 65 games in which Coco has appeared. They are a horrific 9-14 in the 23 contests he has not partaken in, whether due to injury, suspension, or rest. And the trend is even more extreme in the month-and-change that Big Papi has been shelved. Since June 1st, the Red Sox are 17-6 when Coco appears in the game, and 0-7 otherwise. Believe it or not, the Red Sox have not won a game without Coco’s participation in more than a month.

That, inevitably, begs the question: does Coco’s impact on the Red Sox go far beyond the numbers? Or, in other words, is Coco really so important to this team that they can’t win without him?

My gut feeling on this is that it’s a complete — albeit incredibly weird — coincidence. It seems very unlikely that Coco — who is three fielding runs above average and zero batting runs above average this season, according to Baseball Prospectus — could have that significant an impact on the team. But, then again, it seems equally, if not more, unlikely that a team could go an entire month without winning a game sans one of its players, unless that player is quite important to the team.

I’m sure we can all agree that the Sox would not be 0-88 this season if Theo had shipped Coco out during the winter. But, after unexpectedly stumbling on the aforementioned numbers after I realized the apparent correlation between Coco’s suspension and the Sox’s skid, I couldn’t help but wonder if there’s something Coco contributes that we can’t see with our naked eyes.

So, I ask you, my fellow Fire Branders: is this completely coincidental, or unbelievably Coco-licious?

—Daniel Rathman

BOS 7, NYY 0: Lester hurls gem

Jon Lester gave the Boston bullpen no chance to blow game 1 of the series vs the New York Yankees.

Lester pitched a complete game shutout striking out 8 and only allowed five hits.

Boston scored in the first, second, fourth, fifth, and eighth for the win.

Star of the Game: Lester’s performance

For whatever reason seven out of the nine Yankee hitters swung at a first pitched delivered from Lester and it worked to his advantage pitching the shutout.  Lester was in command of the strike zone throughout in the win.

Next Game: Beckett

You would hope to think Josh Beckett could have a similar performance today.

7/3: Out of the frying pan into the fire

Prev. Gm:

Boston Red Sox (50-37) @ New York Yankees (45-40) Jon Lester (6-3, 3.48) @ Andy Pettitte (9-5, 3.98) 7:05 PM EDT | The Toilet (Bronx, NY) TV: NESN RADIO: WRKO 680, SBN 1150

Tonight’s pitching matchup is Jon Lester vs. Andy Pettitte; lefty vs. lefty, young up-and-comer vs. established veteran, chemotherapy vs. HGH. If the Red Sox are serious about winning the division, now would be an excellent time for them to demonstrate their resolve. — Tessie’s Dad


TB 7, BOS 6: Way to blow it

With a 4-1 lead headed into the bottom of the seventh inning the slumping Red Sox let up six runs en route to their third consecutive loss against Tampa and their sixth loss at the Trop (0-6).

Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen both allowed six runs in the seventh inning.

Goat of the Game:  So, hitting and running with Jason Varitek and Mike Lowell — right.

We all know Terry Francona can be scrutinized for his moves but what in the world was that last night.

Next Game: Series against Yankees

Just split this series for the love of god.

**** In response to a recent post made by a Firebrand fan or Rays fan — I do not believe that the pitching staff of the Rays will continue to hold.  Remember they have never been here before and I feel that down the stretch their arms will be over exposed.  Evan Longoria will be figured out if the Rays are still in a playoff race.  But, ultimately I feel that the arms will waver down the stretch and the Red Sox will have the opposite happen for them.

Alex Cora points to where Varitek's swing has gone - jaycoxfilm

2008 June: Making do without Big Papi

A 16-11 swing has left the Sox in second place to start July, behind the surprising Tampa Bay Rays. Today comes the hated, the vaunted meek New York Yankees. Let’s kick butt and take names! Let’s take a glance back at the month that was… To the Fire Branders: who on this table do you think will not be on the July month to month, and why? Who will be on the August table? Why? Click “read more” to check out the Month to Month… Read the rest of this entry »

MVN

Fireside Chats #14: Where we talk to Frank more about the Rays than the Yankees

Boston Red Sox podcast for MVN Radio Episode 14 where we talk to Frank more about the Rays than the Yankees and it looked like the Red Sox would avoid the sweep.

Episode #14
Hosts: Paul Testa, Tim Daloisio
Guests: Frank Santorelli, Yankee Aficionado (aka Cranky Franky the Yankee)

“You would have to say the low point of the season right now for the Red Sox” - Don Orsillo, 7/2/08 following the Rays completion of the sweep in Tampa.

The Rays are more than for real and instead of previewing the Sox/Yankees four game set over the July 4th weekend, Tim, Paul, and Frank talk a lot about Tampa.

I can’t lie, the tenor of the show was much more upbeat when it looked like the Red Sox would salvage the last game of the series.

All that and more on Episode #14 of Fireside Chats at MVN!

A few odds and ends:

• Call in a voice mail to be played on the air…just dial 360-450-MVN3 and mention that this is in response to Fireside Chats!
• Become a Fireside Chats fan on Facebook.
• Listen, subscribe to us on iTunes, review the show, tell your friends, spread the word. (This will launch iTunes)
• Own a Zune or anything else that doesn’t start with “i”? The raw RSS feed can be can be accessed here if you want to subscribe via any other feed reader or podcast player.
• Email any questions/comments to be read on the air to redsoxnation [at] gmail.com.

Thanks for listening!

Sandoval (4) beat Thurston's (6) new team - Larry Coor

SOX ON DECK: Pawsox lose on 2-out, 2-strike bunt in bottom 9th

Want to know how to cool off the Pawtucket Red Sox?

Pull a play out of your left ear — which is exactly what Syracuse’s Danny Sandoval did Wednesday night as the Chiefs edged the International League’s best team, 6-5, at McCoy Stadium.

Eric Hull (1-3) retired the first two batters in the ninth inning of a 6-6 game but walked Wayne Lydon, who promptly stole second  — on a pitchout — and zipped to third on a throwing error by catcher Dusty Brown.

Hull got ahead of Sandoval, 1-and-2, but Sandoval dropped a perfect bunt down the third base line and easily beat it out for a hit that scored Lydon with the winning run.

“When you’ve got somebody that goes out and drops a two-strike, two-out bunt for an RBI single I tip my hat,” said manager Ron Johnson. “Sandoval’s a very good hitter. And you know what? That’s a heckuva play.”

Thanks to Sandoval’s play, the PawSox lost for only the fourth time in their last 21 games.

“When I was (managing) in A ball I used to talk about that a lot to Shane Halter, who was my shortstop.” said Johnson. “He could really bunt. I used to tell him ‘If you really look at it a two-out, two-strike bunt and you look at percentages and say I’m a .300 hitter which means you’re successful. Then if you break it down into percentage of solid contact … think about it that’s an actual time if you bunt the ball fair, what’s the other team going to do?’ ‘’

Sandoval’s play also wasted a solid relief effort by Miguel Asencio who worked four innings and limited Syracuse to one hit and one unearned run while issuing zero walks and fanning two.

Meanwhile, Edgar Martinez, who’s replaced the injured Kyle Snyder in Pawtucket’s rotation, stepped on the mound with a 2-0 record plus a 1.82 ERA in five starts. But Martinez couldn’t find home plate with a GPS since he walked three and continually pitched behind in counts.

Martinez lasted three innings plus two batters and was yanked with Syracuse leading 4-1.

The Chiefs scored three runs off Martinez in the second on three hits (including a two-run single by  Lydon) and two walks.

Eric Kratz led the Syracuse fourth by drilling a home run over the berm in left-center.

Johnson replaced Martinez with Asencio after Chip Cannon walked and Asencio retired the Chiefs in order.

“He was fine, physically,” Johnson said of Martinez. “This guy’s done such a great job for us in that spot-starting role and tonight he just didn’t have it. It wasn’t velocity or the quality of his pitches. But he was having trouble from the start repeating his pitches with command.

“You could see it. He showed me enough poise and stuff — throwing 94 — that I was like I’m going to send him back out in the fourth to see if he could get that feel. But at the same time, you’ve got a young starter in terms of experience. When he went back in the fourth and gave up the home run and walked Cannon and was out of the zone on all of his pitches, it was like we’re going to shut him down.”

Pawtucket trotted out the heavy lumber in the fourth and clubbed Bill Murphy for three runs which tied the game at 4-4.

Keith Ginter led with a single and easily scored on Brown’s triple.

Chad Spann, who was hitting a paltry .157 (8-51) in his last 14 games, smoked a two-run homer over the left-field berm for only his second dinger of the season.

The PawSox grabbed their first lead of the game in the fifth on singles by Bobby Kielty and Chris Carter and Brown’s sacrifice fly. But Syracuse tied it 5-5 in the sixth thanks to an rare error by shortstop Jed Lowrie.

Kevin Melillo was on second with two outs when Pedro Lopez hit a routine grounder to Lowrie. But Lowrie’s high throw to first pulled Spann off the bag and an alert Melillo scored all the way from second.

EXTRA BASES: A franchise-record five players will represent Pawtucket in the Triple-A All-Star Game on July 16 at Louisville …The quintet of International League All-Stars from Pawtucket includes right-hander Charlie Zink, second baseman Joe Thurston and outfielders Jeff Bailey, Chris Carter and Jonathan Van Every … Zink is having a career year with an 8-2 record plus a 2.63 ERA in 17 starts … Thurston currently leads the I.L. in batting (.324) and hits (100) … Bailey is tied for the league lead with 67 runs scored and is second in slugging percentage (.602) … Carter is fourth in the I.L. in hits (92) and is tied for fourth with 35 extra-base hits … Van Every in June  hit .313 with 12 home runs and 24 RBI … He’s also the top defensive outfielder - statistically - in the league with zero errors in 215 total chances.

Three members of the Portland Sea Dogs were voted to play in the Eastern League All-Star Game on July 16 at Manchester, outfielders Bubba Bell and Jeff Corsaletti plus right-hander Michael Bowden … Bell is hitting .300 with a team-leading 12 home runs and 41 RBI … Corsaletti is hitting .298 and ranks third in the league with 51 runs scored … Bowden is 7-4 with a 2.48 ERA and ranks second in the league with 89 strikeouts.

Lowrie was 0-for-5 which snapped his 11-game hitting streak … Bailey was 1-for-5 and remained mired in a slump during which he’s batting .125 (5-for-40).

7/2: Salvage The Finale

Prev. Gm:

Boston Red Sox (50-36) @ Tampa Bay Rays (51-32) Daisuke Matsuzaka (9-1, 3.21) @ Scott Kazmir (7-3, 2.28) 7:05 PM EDT | Tropicana Field (St. Petersburg, FL) TV: NESN/ESPN RADIO: WRKO 680, SBN 1150

GAME NOTES:
- Kazmir’s last five starts: 30 IP, 24 H, 11 BB, 34 K, 12 ER, jump in ERA from 1.40 to 2.28.
- Kazmir at home this season: 36.1 IP, 19 H, 15 BB, 39 K, 1.24 ERA
- Kazmir vs. Red Sox in his career: 105.1 IP, 86 H, 51 BB, 123 K, 2.82 ERA

I’m still not concerned. It’s early July and the lead is only 2.5 games. 3.5 would make me slightly more nervous, especially with Tampa’s dominance at home and 1-2-3 punch in their rotation. Beating Kazmir is no small task. Hopefully the bats can finally come alive tonight and back up Matsuzaka early. Otherwise, the Sox will head to New York on a five-game losing streak and Tampa holding all of the confidence and momentum.