Despite the wins, neither the Sox nor the Phils contingency of this blog is happy right now.
Cole Hamels and three other relievers nursed a 3-2 lead into the 9th inning, but Brad Lidge coughed up yet another one. In his fourth blown save of the season, he gave up a single to Robinson Cano. Pinch-runner Ramiro Pena stole second and scored on a single by Melky Cabrera, who later stole second. Miraculously, Lidge survived the inning without yielding a game-ending run. His ERA remains at 9.15.
We listened to most of the game's ending in the car after celebrating a belated birthday for a little Red Sox fan. (How has one year passed already?) We got home in time to see Clay Condrey finish his second inning, improving to 4-0 in the 4-3 win. Yankee killer Carlos Ruiz doubled in the winning run. He was 3-4 with a walk today, finishing a pretty good series - 6-8 in two games with his first home run and stolen base of the season.
But the Phillies have to figure out Brad Lidge fast. Replace him with any decent closer, and they would have swept this series. Christine said he has to swap roles with Ryan Madson until he regains his effectiveness. I don't even want him pitching the 8th inning. You wonder what will happen first - Madson starts getting save chances, Lidge admits he's injured or Lidge just suddenly fixes himself. I appreciate and haven't forgotten Lidge's 2008, but I don't think the last option is likely.
Red Sox: A 12-5 win today prevented a Mets sweep of the Red Sox. The lopsided score allowed the Red Sox to finish up with B-list closer Takashi Saito instead of Jonathan Papelbon. I'm not complaining.
If I had time to update the blog this morning, the headline for Saturday's game would have been "Papelbon apes Lidge, then goes ape----." Remember how I said the Red Sox and Phillies sometimes eerily mirror each other? Papelbon had to prove my point on Saturday. The same day Brad Lidge blew a 4-2 lead against the Yankees, Papelbon blew a 2-1 lead against the Mets - on a little Green Monster pop by backup catcher Omir Santos. It was initially ruled a double, but instant replay showed the ball clearly hit the top of the Monster.
Cue a SoxandPhils quote from Charlie Manuel:
I saw Papelbon go through the heart of the Tampa Bay Rays order the other night and he blows the save against the Mets backup catcher yesterday. But Brad’s stuff is good. He just needs to get them out one more time.
Lidge, however, doesn't blow his cool like Papelbon did in the bottom of the 9th Saturday. He felt the Red Sox got hosed on a call at second base and actually left the dugout to protest. I never saw that before. We're kind of surprised there's no talk of suspension.
Josh Beckett pitched a real nice game, giving up just one unearned run in eight innings with five hits, one walk and five strikeouts.
Today's game was all offense, which was needed to withstand a rare poor outing by Tim Wakefield (five runs in six innings). The bottom four (J.D Drew, Mike Lowell, George Kottares and Nick Green) combined to go 12-15. Every starter had a hit, run and reached base twice. Every starter except David Ortiz, who went 0-5 and is back under the Mendoza line. Cue the "Sox may drop Ortiz in lineup" speculation.
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