What's French for "12th Straight Division Title?"
Oh my god, Tito. OH MY GOD.
Oh my god. Oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god.
Must-win game for the Sox. MUST-WIN. Gotta have it. The Bombers have closed to within 3.5 games in the division, the closest it's been since Christmas, and they're hosting the creampuff Orioles. You're in Canada, and you need to get a W.
Jon Lester, the comeback kid, gives you his third quality start of the month, outpitching A.J. Burnett, and you've got a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the eighth. And then what do you do?
You yank Manny Delcarmen, who'd thrown all of three pitches on the evening, to put in Eric Gagne.
That's the formerly steroid-swilling Eric-with-a-C, rec specs by Michael Kors, hair by whatever pillow he woke up on that morning, relief pitcher in name only, Gagne as in Simon. The man who hasn't protected a meaningful lead since Aug. 8; the dude who blew up later that month, was booed at Fenway in a manner only J.D. Drew and Derek Jeter can relate to, was out hurt through Sept. 11. The big shot who gave up a run to the D-Rays in his return, but tossed a couple of scoreless innings in a pair of losses to the Yankees.
So, clearly everything is fine.
I do mind yanking Delcarmen last night, but not nearly as much as I mind what followed. After getting a pair of hard-earned outs, the French-Canadian slob in question walked Frank Thomas. No biggie there -- Thomas has the best eye in baseball, and anything he touches might well end up an extra-base hit. Fine. Then he gives up a single to Aaron Hill, and walks Fat Matt Stairs.
Okay. Now, we're in the type of situation where you might consider making a change. You could see Papelbon enter here. You could see Hideki Okajima come in. You could make a case that Dennis Eckersley in the NESN studio is a better option than Gagne in this situation. I'm making that argument as we speak.
In any case, Gagne walks in the tying run, handing out a free pass to Gregg Zaun and tying the score at 2-2. Fuck. Well, you think to yourself, it could've been worse -- at least someone else will have a chance to get out of it.
But no. But no. Oh my god.
Tito leaves Gagne in to face pinch-hitter Russ Adams, who ends Hector Luna's evening. Adams quite predictably doubles home two runs with a bomb to center field, and even a homer from Julio Lugo off Burnett in the top half of the ninth isn't enough to rally your boys from behind. Let's hope Lugo didn't take that out on anyone later that night.
(Nice tie in that photo, by the way.)
And now the divisional lead is at 2.5 games, and there's nobody to blame but yourself. Sweet mercy, that's awful. No points to Toronto manager John Gibbons, mind you, for letting the injury-laden Burnett throw 124 pitches into the ninth inning of a completely meaningless game, but still. That's two thus far, Shooter.
Now you're relying on no-hit hero Clay Buchholz, making his third major league start, to stop the bleeding tonight while Andy Pettitte goes head-to-head with the legendary Brian Burres in the Bronx; you're praying for Doc Halladay and the Jays to give their all in the weekend series against New York; you've got no room to work with against the Rays in Tampa.
Still, there are more embarrassing things than being swept by the Blue Jays. (See also: "How to Make Wily Mo Pena and Ronnie Belliard Look Good in 25 Easy Steps"). I need to disappear for a while.
Oh my god. Oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god.
Must-win game for the Sox. MUST-WIN. Gotta have it. The Bombers have closed to within 3.5 games in the division, the closest it's been since Christmas, and they're hosting the creampuff Orioles. You're in Canada, and you need to get a W.Jon Lester, the comeback kid, gives you his third quality start of the month, outpitching A.J. Burnett, and you've got a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the eighth. And then what do you do?
You yank Manny Delcarmen, who'd thrown all of three pitches on the evening, to put in Eric Gagne.
That's the formerly steroid-swilling Eric-with-a-C, rec specs by Michael Kors, hair by whatever pillow he woke up on that morning, relief pitcher in name only, Gagne as in Simon. The man who hasn't protected a meaningful lead since Aug. 8; the dude who blew up later that month, was booed at Fenway in a manner only J.D. Drew and Derek Jeter can relate to, was out hurt through Sept. 11. The big shot who gave up a run to the D-Rays in his return, but tossed a couple of scoreless innings in a pair of losses to the Yankees.
So, clearly everything is fine.I do mind yanking Delcarmen last night, but not nearly as much as I mind what followed. After getting a pair of hard-earned outs, the French-Canadian slob in question walked Frank Thomas. No biggie there -- Thomas has the best eye in baseball, and anything he touches might well end up an extra-base hit. Fine. Then he gives up a single to Aaron Hill, and walks Fat Matt Stairs.
Okay. Now, we're in the type of situation where you might consider making a change. You could see Papelbon enter here. You could see Hideki Okajima come in. You could make a case that Dennis Eckersley in the NESN studio is a better option than Gagne in this situation. I'm making that argument as we speak.
In any case, Gagne walks in the tying run, handing out a free pass to Gregg Zaun and tying the score at 2-2. Fuck. Well, you think to yourself, it could've been worse -- at least someone else will have a chance to get out of it.
But no. But no. Oh my god.
Tito leaves Gagne in to face pinch-hitter Russ Adams, who ends Hector Luna's evening. Adams quite predictably doubles home two runs with a bomb to center field, and even a homer from Julio Lugo off Burnett in the top half of the ninth isn't enough to rally your boys from behind. Let's hope Lugo didn't take that out on anyone later that night.
(Nice tie in that photo, by the way.)And now the divisional lead is at 2.5 games, and there's nobody to blame but yourself. Sweet mercy, that's awful. No points to Toronto manager John Gibbons, mind you, for letting the injury-laden Burnett throw 124 pitches into the ninth inning of a completely meaningless game, but still. That's two thus far, Shooter.
Now you're relying on no-hit hero Clay Buchholz, making his third major league start, to stop the bleeding tonight while Andy Pettitte goes head-to-head with the legendary Brian Burres in the Bronx; you're praying for Doc Halladay and the Jays to give their all in the weekend series against New York; you've got no room to work with against the Rays in Tampa.
Still, there are more embarrassing things than being swept by the Blue Jays. (See also: "How to Make Wily Mo Pena and Ronnie Belliard Look Good in 25 Easy Steps"). I need to disappear for a while.
posted by Cheddar Ben at 12:01 AM
5 Comments:
Ronnie Belliard's prepping to name his kid "Shea" too.
He's aiming to be known as the guy that knocked down Shea Stadium.
Maybe you should stop worrying about Tito's bullpen management and start worrying about your own starting pitching. The Mets are DRIPPING. Are ya worried yet?
im glad you mentioned the burnett thing. same thing last week against the yankees. he threw 125, 117, 130 in june and then was out until august. now hes gone 114, 120, 124 in meaningless games this month. just more evidence for the "pitch counts are stupid, pitchers are too babied, when i was in the game i threw 300 innings" camp to ignore, i guess.
dude, are you a mets fan? our team's lead has dropped from 7 last Thursday to 1 1/2. I know this site is about Yankee hating, too, but focus on your own team first. This is trash.
Stay true to the orange and blue.
Dude, I totally didn't believe that my post was trash, but then you rhymed "true" with "orange and blue" at the end of your comment there ... and I saw it all. 'Preciate it.
... in other news, apparently Papelbon is no better at retiring Russ Adams than Gagne. C'est la vie.
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