Category: MLB (Page 387 of 448)

Red Sox 2, Rockies 1
After essentially taking Game 1 of the World Series off, the Colorado Rockies pitching staff showed up for Game 2. The Rockies held Boston to only two runs on six hits and quieted a Red Sox lineup that scored 13 runs in Game 1. Too bad the pitching staff failed to tell the hitters to show up, because other than a Todd Helton RBI ground out in the first inning, the Rockies only mustered one run for the second time in two games.

Curt Shilling followed Josh Beckett’s masterful Game 1 performance with one of his own in Game 2, limiting Colorado to only one run on four hits. Shilling only lasted 5.1 innings, but Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon combined to give up just one hit and no runs while finishing the last 3.2 innings. The limited offense scored by the Sox came in the fourth and fifth innings. Jason Varitek hit a sac fly to center, scoring Mike Lowell to tie the game 1-1 in the fourth, and Lowell doubled in David Ortiz in the fifth, which eventually ended up being the winning run.

There’s only one way Barry Bonds knows how to do things, and that’s to make everything about Barry Bonds. While attending a recent special speaking forum, Bonds was introduced by a host who listed of all his on-field accomplishments. Afterwards, a radio host asked Bonds if he had really accomplished everything the host had listed, to which Barry replied, “I did, and then I got fired. Shame on me, huh?”

Bonds wasn’t finished:

“I told (Giants owner) Peter Magowan, ‘If I’m a part-time player, I’m still better than your full-time player, and it’s a wise idea to keep me,”‘ Bonds said. “We still have time. Things might change.”

Bonds also said that if he were running the franchise, the Giants would have won a World Series by now. They fell five outs short in 2002, and one thing the slugger is still missing on his remarkable resume is a championship ring.

“They’ve been here since 1958,” Bonds said. “We’d win a World Series. I know the game so well. I can see talent. I know exactly what I’d be looking for.”

Is the club any closer to winning it all?

“I can’t answer that. I don’t work there anymore,” Bonds quipped, then howled in laughter. “My philosophy in sports is you don’t break things up. You add to it.”

1. If the Giants bring him back next year as a bench player, he’d complain about not getting enough playing time.

2. If he were running the franchise the Giants would win a WS? Wasn’t he already running the franchise? I mean, he might have well been with all of his absurd demands and special privileges, not to mention the fact that GM Brian Sabean had to build the team around him for years.

3. The Giants don’t have a core group of players to add to, Barry. Besides the pitching staff, they need a complete upheaval and they can’t rebuild with a part-time player with creaky knees and a slowing bat commanding $16 mil a year.

It’s over Barry. Let the Giants break away from all the distractions and daily grind of trying to make you happy.

Red Sox 13, Rockies 1
Thanks to a seven-run fifth inning and another classic pitching performance by Josh Beckett, Boston steamrolled Colorado 13-1 in Game 1 of the World Series. Dustin Pedroia led off bottom of the first inning with a solo shot over the Green Monster in left field and the Red Sox never looked back. They collected 13 runs on 17 hits, and had three players finish with three-hit performances at the plate (David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Julio Lugo). Throw in another masterful performance by Josh Beckett (7.0 innings, 6 hits, 1 ER) and the Rockies never had a chance.

So the question (at least for Colorado) now becomes: Was the layoff between the NLCS to the WS too much? With how hot the Rockies were entering the series, I would say yes, the layoff killed them. When a team gets on a roll, the worse possible thing that could happen is any kind of a layoff, not to mention one that carries on past a week. It’s like in football when an offense is in rhythm and marching down the field, the last thing it wants is for the defense to call a time out. However, this is also the World Series – this is it, folks. Layoff or no layoff 13-1 is a massacre. Hopefully for general baseball fans, the Rockies can make a series out of this and keep it interesting.

The Red Sox have a payroll that totals $89 million more than their World Series counterparts, the Rockies. So why aren’t baseball fans criticizing Boston the way they do the Yankees for, “buying their team”? Are we as fans applying a double standard in the case of the Red Sox? I tackle that argument in my latest column for Bullz-Eye.com.

Red Sox 11, Indians 2
Thanks to some key pitching, a scoring outburst in the eighth and a little Dustin Pedroia, the Red Sox are returning to the World Series just three years after winning the title in 2004.

In Game 7 of the ALCS, Boston took a 3-0 lead after three innings of play, but Cleveland rallied to score one run in both the fourth and fifth innings. In the top of the seventh, the Tribe squandered a scoring opportunity when Casey Blake grounded into a double play to strand runners at the corners. Making things worse for Cleveland, Blake then booted a Jacoby Ellsbury grounder in the bottom of the seventh, and two batters later Pedroia hit a two-run homer to give Boston a 5-2 lead. The final blow for the Tribe was in the eighth, as relievers Rafael Betancourt and Jensen Lewis combined to give up six runs, allowing the Red Sox to take a commanding 11-2 lead. Nonetheless, it was a trying evening for the Indians, who failed to close out the series after taking a 3-1 lead.

The Red Sox now move on to face the surging Colorado Rockies in the World Series. Game 1 is Wednesday at Boston and will pit Josh Beckett against Jeff Francis.