Yanks Lose ALCS, 3 Games to 2

Photos: Jose Altuve's Gem Mint 10 rookie card, from my collection.

Yanks lose 4-0 and go home as the Houston Astros move on to the World Series. So despite Judge's 50+ homers, a high-powered offense, and getting past the heavily-favored Indians, the Yanks go home. What. A Damn. Shame.

Boston 11-4; 2 GA of NY

Photo: Movie poster for Major League, from its Wikipedia page.

It's been awhile since the Sox played a game, and even longer since I posted about it.  Hopefully Boston will play today--Saturday, 4.20.13--as the city needs the distraction and celebration.  It'll be a soggy Fenway, unfortunately, if they play.  Speaking of rain, I got rained out of Fenway last Friday, and my next game, on the 23rd, looks like rain, too.  Thanks...

--It's odd and sad to see Terry Francona in a Cleveland Indians uniform.

--About 9,000 people, on average, watched each of the three games at Cleveland's Progressive Field, ex-Jacob's Field, ex-Municipal Stadium.  That's pathetic.  The Red Sox's AAA team, the Pawtucket Red Sox, draw more than that at its McCoy Stadium on a nice summer day.

--I don't miss Mike Aviles.  And didn't he go to Toronto in the deal for John Farrell, the Sox manager?

--Nick Swisher doesn't look right in a Cleveland Indians uniform, either.

--The Indians team right now--and its attendance at the park--is exactly like the Indians in the movie Major League.  Watching the series was like watching the movie.

--I wouldn't pay to watch the Indians play, either, but I would pay to see some of the Indians play, and some of the players on any visiting team.

--Mike Napoli can motor for a big, stocky guy.

--The Sox are playing Billy Beane ball: Don't swing for the fences; work the count; make the pitcher throw a lot of pitches; wear out the starting pitcher; get into the bullpen; hit singles and doubles; draw walks; keep the line moving.  Just like 2003, 2004 and 2007.  And not at all like last year.

--The Sox defense is the most steady I've seen it, at least since 2007, and maybe better than 2003 and 2004.  Maybe the best, day by day, since I've been watching.  And I've been watching since Ned Martin and Bob Montgomery, if you know what I'm sayin'.

--I'll say it again: Lester and Buchholz are pitching with rhythm, efficiency and confidence, and they're both 3-0 with ERAs hovering near 1.00.

--And Lester is keeping his fastball down and not trying to blow everyone away with high heat he doesn't have, a la Josh Beckett.  (Though, truth be told, Beckett's pitching very well, so far, for the Dodgers this year, with a 3.26 ERA and a 1.1 WHIP.  But he hasn't won a game yet, which leads me to say--)

--This year's team is a perfect example of addition by subtraction.  Yes, the guaranteed money to these guys is gone, too, but so are Bobby Valentine, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, and all of the obnoxiousness and ridiculousness.  Any team without these guys is bound to get better.

--Couldn't the Sox management have done all that and kept Francona to begin with?  (Though I do like John Farrell.)

--I'm changing my tune.  (Get used to that.)  With Ortiz due back, it's right that the Sox send down Jackie Bradley, Jr. and keep Mike Carp, who's hitting well, especially considering his lack of playing time.  Bradley needs to get himself straightened out.  His time will come again.

--Speaking of that, I don't like that sometimes these things are called "demotions," as in "Bradley was demoted to Pawtucket."  Iglesias was hitting over .400 when he was "demoted." Can't we just report it as "sent," as in "To make room for Ortiz, Bradley was sent to Pawtucket?"  It's not just semantics; sometimes it's inaccurate, as in the Iglesias example.

--Jamie Erdahl and Jenny Dell are wonderful, but they're not Heidi Watney.  Who's sort of wasted in MLB Network's Quick Pitch, I might add.

--If you're interested, my thoughts about the marathon massacre and its aftermath will soon be on my regular blog, here.

--And my review of the movie 42 will be on that site, and on this one, as well.

Pressing--Indians 8, Sox 4

--I can't imagine what the team is going through here.  It's 5 in a row now--and the Rays have lost 5 in a row as well--and I was right yesterday: It really will be a race between the PawSox and the BoSox to win their first game of the year.

--I've been on some bad teams in my playing days (ALL my teams really have been bad teams; no correlation to the fact I was on them, of course.), but the difference is that we knew we were terrible, and we didn't exactly expect to win most of our games.  But the Sox were picked to win the World Series by most experts, for God's sake.  There's still time to do so, of course, but they need to win a game now before they play the Yanks.  If you can't beat the Indians, how can you beat the Yankees?

--You can't hit 2 batters and walk another one, down by one late in the game, and expect to win.  Ever.

--The Sox lead the majors in homers allowed.  That won't get it done.

--Before today's game, the Sox as a team were hitting below .200.  That won't do it, either.

--Lester has to show he's the ace by stopping this losing streak.  That's what an ace does.

--No Sox pitcher, starters or relievers, have impressed overall yet.

--The Sox pitchers have the highest ERA in all of MLB.

--I don't think Youk purposely dropped the ball at third.  Bad call by the ump.

--Speaking of which, the homeplate ump. made about 20 lousy ball/strike calls tonight.  Even when he reversed his own call, how do you not see the ball drop and roll at the plate?

--Something annoys me about Jade McCarthy and I don't know what it is.  Though this may be just the losing streak talking.

--Bonds not taking the stand in his own defense is a no-brainer.  Someone that unlikable should never take the stand.  Period.  That was his lawyer throwing the personality white flag.

--Prediction: Bonds guilty on all remaining counts, or almost all of them.  And no jail time.

--Clemens is next.  Though not as unlikable as Bonds, his lawyers have to worry about his arrogance as well.  Fans around here will never forget when Clemens complained to the media in the late 80s about having to carry his own bags across the airport.

--You STILL cannot keep Bonds and Clemens out of the Hall--especially Bonds.  There's just something wrong with keeping the all-time hits leader and the all-time homerun leader out of the Hall.  What else does everyone but the most serious fan go to the park to see?  And Clemens is the Bonds of pitching.  Can't keep him out either.  You can keep them out until their last year of eligibility, but I don't like that, either.  Then it becomes more about the voting writers than about the players, or anything else.  And the writers as pariahs doesn't sit well with me, either.  Many of them aren't exactly saints, as well.  Keep the morality bloodhounds away from the voting process.

--There might be parity in terms of talent across MLB, but not when it comes to attendance.  Remember how the Rays and Braves didn't draw well, in a good economy, when both teams were in the playoffs?  Now, in a bad economy, I worry.  Have you seen the sparse crowds during the highlights across all of MLB?  About 6,500 in Cleveland tonight; I'll be in a Triple-A ballpark tomorrow night with over 9,000 others.  That's sad.  I've seen low numbers in most of the home games shown this week.

Game 4--Cleveland 3, Sox 1

--Losing to the Indians is a problem.  The pitching staff looked like hell against the White Sox, which besides their 3-5 hitters, aren't exactly a worry.  Their guy did well tonight, but I didn't see the whole game, so I can't say if he pitched well, or they hit badly.  Or both.  But you can't get your butt kicked against the Rangers, which is bad, but understandable, and then lose to the Indians, which is a very unbalanced team, 3-1.

--So let me say this about all those pickup truck ads during ballgames: The automakers know that 95% of all truckbuyers do not haul large trees, or spin around all the time in the mud, or drive hellbent through the forest, or carry large dirtbikes, off-road vehicles, or large numbers of cinderblocks, or dirty the truck up by splashing in the primordial ooze.  Enough of this male chest-beating and fake bravado.  Silly.

--Only 9,000 and change at Progressive Field tonight.  There'll be more than that at Opening Night at McCoy Stadium Thursday, which, for those who don't know, is the Red Sox Triple-A club.  There'll be about 9,500 people there, maybe more, and I'll be one of them.

--Speaking of that, a shout out to my friend, who's driving me there and back, and going very much out of his way to do so.

--Looks like Dr. Ting was not exactly on the level.  I'd say you heard it here first, but I can't take credit for stating the obvious.

--What are people thinking when they pay $75 a piece for tickets to the Charlie Sheen thing in Detroit?  The word is that he just ranted, mostly unintelligibly, and then his housemates came out on stage, at which point people booed him tremendously, he responded badly, he walked off the stage and the lights came on.  I mean, what were they expecting, exactly?

--You heard it here that the tour gets cancelled before he gets to Foxwoods.

--I didn't think they'd lose 4 in a row all year.

--Dice-K needs to impress.  And win.

--The Pawsox might get a win before the BoSox do--and their season starts a week later.

--I still say that the Rays losing three in a row to the Orioles, at home, is even worse.  The Orioles aren't the best team in the league, and the Sox aren't the worst.  It's still early.

--I know, I keep having to repeat that, too.

--Josh Tomlin 1, Josh Beckett 0.

--The Sox play the Yanks in a few days.  They're not ready, to say the least.

--Watch, they'll sweep the Yanks at Fenway.  That's baseball.