By Flounder on Tue, Oct 13, 2009 2:24 pm
I was there Sunday.
I was sitting there in the front row, section 43, bleachers, with my seven
year old son, his box of popcorn in one hand and a foam finger on the other, with
my cold beer perched between my feet, watching it unfold. As I sat, counting
down the outs, and eventual hours to game four where we'd win again, then fly
back to the west coast for what would undoubtedly be one of the greatest
comebacks in ALDS history, it was all going down the way it was supposed to. When
you're the Red Sox, anything can happen… and does.
But that’s not quite what happened. No, it really didn't go down that way at
all. In fact, as I sat there watching Pap put Hunter on first so he could face
Vlad and try to close out the inning unscathed, I knew what was about to
happen; we were about to get swept…
…and that's what happened.
Boston fans
live and die for their teams and it hurts when the teams lose. It's even
worse when that team gets their ass handed to them, when the hopes of winning are still
so high. Sure, we still have those other
teams but that doesn’t make up for the loss, especially when it's a Red Sox
loss. In the playoffs. Getting swept.
Kudos to the Angels is in order, I guess...
How many days until Spring Training?
By Flounder on Fri, Oct 9, 2009 4:21 pm
Ok, so I was right about their pitching (Lackey had a great game) but I blew it with Hunter. He came through in the clutch but now must die. To that end, I've hired a professional witch doctor who is at this very moment soaking his jersey in chicken blood. I kid you not.
Weaver's jersey is next. Although, it may not be necessary. He had 16 wins, a career high, but wasn't that strong in the homestretch and he's certainly not as big-game tested as Beckett, who comes in with 17 wins and a chip on his shoulder for not getting the game one start. Expect to see him throw hard and fast and have good command over the plate despite not pitching to Varitek. Like I said, he has a chip on his shoulder and something to prove. You could put my grandma (God rest her soul) behind the plate and he'd feel comfortable tonight.
As for the Red Sox bats, that didn't show up last night, you can expect that to change. Bay is poised to get hot, Pedroia is due and I think Big Papi will yet again rise to the occasion and throw down some serious wood tonight. With a bat, of course, I mean, you know what I mean...
Big prediction: Weaver leaves by the fourth inning and it's all down hill from there for the Halos.
By Flounder on Thu, Oct 8, 2009 10:55 am
You bet.
Nevermind their most recent history, the Angels perfected the choke long before and have become consumed by their ghosts. The people of Los Anaheim know this and are eager to cry like a Halloween cat at the first sign of yet another post-season trainwreck. I suspect that Lackey will have a decent game tonight notwithstanding, but I also expect to see Torii "Dogface" Hunter come up short when it counts - like he always does.
According to Mike Scioscia, the Angels manager, as quoted on espn.com, "he doesn't believe there's anything special
about the stark statistics his club has compiled against Boston." "I
don't think there is anything, really, to go back and analyze," said
Scioscia, the first manager to take a team to the playoffs six times in
his first 10 seasons. "It's a whole new set of variables, a whole new
set of matchups. We know what the challenge is.""
And that challenge is to put those demons to rest and actually win more than one game. Good luck shaking that bag of bones off your back, buddy!
By Flounder on Sun, May 18, 2008 11:37 pm
FTW!!!!!!