Ugh

Now, the Red Sox bullpen is somewhat decimated right now, but I have to say that we need to rethink what is happening here. Remember Boof Bonser? Yeah. He had his first game last night and let's just say it was not impressive. The game was against Cleveland, we were down 3-0 in the 8th. Bonser failed to get any outs after four batters, was taken out and replaced by Nelson, we gave up a grand slam, and God only knows what else. When the carnage was over, Sox were down 11-0. That's right. Our bullpen gave up 8 runs.

Ugh.

Our bullpen has not been the strong point this year by a long shot.

Good people:
Manny Delcarmen (but he was recently pulled with a possible injury)
Daniel Bard
Jonathan Papelbon (who is on leave for family reasons)

Bad people:
Everyone else that has been involved in this revolving door bullpen.

Now thinking back to last season, the Yankees had a horrid bullpen (minus, of course, Rivera), and managed to get it together. So here's hoping.

Incidentally, Justin Masterson had a great game yesterday for the Indians. Much credit needs to go to him for the shut out -- he pitched the entire game.

Also, I heard rumors that the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. It's June 10 and finally hockey is over.

Contrary to what you might believe from earlier posts, nobody gets any nickels

The Red Sox lost today, meaning that they are done for the season, losing in 3 straight games. My loyalties now fall to the Twins (beat the Yankees!) and failing that, the Angels (beat the Yankees!).

My no-win World Series would be the Yankees vs. the Phillies. Not as bad as a Manningbowl. But still not great.

Oh, and Papelbon was the one who blew it, which seems like a great description of our unpredictability and streakiness (in a bad way) this season. Even our (usually) dependable guys just didn't seem to have it.

Crazed Yankees vs. Red Sox series

So Friday night turned out to be one of those nail-biting extra inning games, which Youkilis won in the bottom of the 11th with a walk-off homer. Phew! Oh, and Papelbon did show up (and didn't do so well, but at least allowed no runs. Phew!).

Yesterday the Yankees had a 6-0 lead which they then blew, losing the game 16-11. There was a grand slam. It was insanity. Fabulous game, even if it was very, very long.

One game remains in the series tonight at 8pm. Then we are back to boring.

Oh, and my new concept, Yankeeerwerbungschadenfreude, is being presented in its full glory this season. The term roughly means, 'taking joy in the failure of expensive acquisitions by the Yankees.' See, for instance, Teixiera in Friday night's game.

Anyone know where Papelbon is?

It's the top of the ninth, Yankees are leading 4-2, and Javier Lopez just loaded the bases with walks and hitting people with pitches.

And he's still in there pitching.

Here I was, thinking we had a middle bullpen. Wrong.

Update: so we made it through the inning thanks to a double play at home plate and Cabrera popping out via foul ball. In other words: thank you, Jason Varitek.

Red Sox after 5: meh

Greetings from the basement of the AL East. Sure, after yesterday we've had to share that basement with Tampa, but we are still in there. Oh the irony of Tampa and Boston being in the basement. Oh the irony.

Anyway, what I have seen thus far of the Red Sox has not been all that impressive. Starting pitchers are not quite there yet. Papelbon last night managed to load the bases in the 9th inning before finally delivering a save (and he gave up a homerun in that inning, bringing the Angels to within 1 run). I hope that he is just getting off to a slow start and/or having the worst slump of the season now and getting it over with. I saw him pitch at Fort Myers (where I believe he also gave up a homerun) and he hasn't quite looked like himself yet in my eyes.

Baseball, of course, is a super long season and there are still plenty of games to go. Hopefully the Red Sox will pick it up, though.

Papelbon calls Manny Ramirez 'like cancer'

And not just once. He said it multiple times, in fact, during an interview with Esquire.

He also praised the player they got for Ramirez, Jason Bay, calling him a great guy who will even play with broken knees. I'm not sure that anyone should really be playing any sport with broken knees, but perhaps that is why I am not a professional athlete.