Back in First

Photo: Reddick between Ortiz and Pedroia, celebrating his 10th inning, game-winning hit.  Matt Stone, Boston Herald

Four days' fever of over 101 degrees, plus the moving and such (and a little writing), have kept me away, but I thought it was time to add a little perspective:

--You've heard that baseball is a game of inches; this series showed this.  Last night, Rivera made two mistakes: he left a ball up to Scutaro (double) and another to Pedroia (SF).  That's it.  The Sox finally played small ball when it mattered, which is not easy against Mo.  Pedroia's sacrifice fly was just as impressive as Scutaro's double.  Mo usually Ks the batter or makes him ground out (with a drawn-in infield, that's usually bad) in that situation.  The Sox had missed better chances to score all game--and all series.  Anyway, that's it.  Two pitches slightly up.  Despite a Top-5 sports reporter's column, games now have almost no bearing in October.  Mo will not be fazed then by this.  CC?  Maybe a little bit more.

--Having said that, it is amazing that Sabathia is 10-2 against the rest of the majors, with an ERA barely above 2, and 0-4 against Boston with an ERA about 7.  I repeat, though: This will matter only a little bit in October.

--The Sox 10-2 record against the Yanks is also inexplicable.  But there are 7 regular season games yet between these two.  If the Yanks win them all, we're having the exact opposite conversation in October.

--Here's to hoping that Reddick plays when J.D. returns.  In fact, I'd prefer Reddick in right in the postseason as well.  Maybe a platoon?  How's Reddick hitting against lefties, anyway?  Well, he's 9-23, .331, over 1.000 OPS against lefties, according to Baseball-Reference.com.  How about we leave him in against both for awhile?  He's being platooned against lefties; I don't see that (outside of stroking a veterans ego).

--The Yankees starting pitching staff is either seriously overachieving, or coming into its own.  Nova and other unknowns have 9, 10 wins.  The proof will be in October.

--Speaking of October, the Sox/Yanks have a 9+ game lead in the wild card race.  What race?

--I hope I can land a playoff ticket.  Last playoff game I saw was the Sox 7-run comeback against the Rays in 2008.  Went with my Dad; glad I did.  It was his last game.

--Speaking of starting pitching, Beckett and Lester are gonna hafta be Johnson and Schilling in order for the Sox to go anywhere in the playoffs.

--The Yanks are even more lost, with CC and who knows.  Nova, I guess.  Outside of those guys, Girardi pulls the starter and hopes for great relief like he got on Friday night.  Every game.  Or the offense will have to pound the other team into submission.

--By the way, I ran into some Action Packed (that's the brand name) football cards from 1993-1995.  Includes a Marshall Faulk rookie card (worth $10), and some Montanas, Elways, Marinos, Bledsoes, and other HOFers and stars.  All great shape; no wear or tear, corners sharp.  It's all worth over $42, but I'll let it go for $20; I'm moving and don't feel like dealing with more cards (I have literally thousands already).  Drop me an email at sb {at} stevenbelanger {dot} com if you're interested.

Camden Yards Pics

I took 'em during my two-day excursion, so I might as well show 'em.  Notice Rick Dempsey, Eutaw Street, the warehouse that had once shown those huge numbers for Ripken, and the clock tower and castle tower.  Good stuff.  Click on 'em to make 'em bigger.  Here they are:

Two Days in Baltimore

Photo 1: Oriole Park at Camden Yards, on 7.20.2011, at 1:36 pm.  100 degrees.  With the famous warehouse in the background.

Photo 2: Same.  Look at the seats.  Does this look like 35,000 fans to you?  (Click on the pic, if necessary, to see it better.)  Read below.
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Well, actually, it was more like 24 hours, and, despite the two Sox/Orioles games I saw there this week, those 24 hours can best be described in one word:

HOT.  And I do mean HOT.  VERY HOT.  I'm talkin' 100 degrees.  My friend and I were extremely thankful that we sat beneath an overhang, and we felt honestly terrible for those who had to sit in the sun all day.

Camden Yards was beautiful, as always.  I like the area; easy to move around in.  Looks like the greenage wants to take over, or maybe it just seems that way because everything's so laid out.  I'm from RI, so that's new for me.

The people were very friendly, as usual, and laid-back.  Maybe too much so--they think nothing of standing up and talking during the game, even important at-bats.  At Fenway they would've been insulted and showered with beer.  Fenway's known for lots of movement, but these two days in Baltimore--with half the crowd--was the worst movement and people blocking the action that I have ever seen.  Maybe it was the heat.  Speaking of the attendance, it was lower than I'm used to, even in terms of the number of Sox fans going to Fenway South.  Maybe because it was in the middle of the week.  Orioles fans seemed more numerous than before, but maybe that was because of the lack of Sox fans, and the usual empty seats.  The Orioles scoreboard showed about 35,000 for each game; I assure you it was closer to 22,000 for each.  I've not before seen such blatant lying like that in terms of attendance figures.

As for the games:

Game 1 was just blah for the Sox.  They fielded and batted like they were exhausted, which they probably were.  I've only played ball for a short time, and at the end I was playing two doubleheaders--four games--on the weekends.  (This is when I played Vintage League ball--no gloves!)  Those last two games, and especially that very last game, I played like I was sleepwalking.  You try not to, but that's a lot of baseball in wool uniforms in 95 degree weather.  The Sox in game one played like that.  They'd won the night before, and they'd win the next day, but in the middle they were coasting.  You hate to say that as a fan--and as a paying fan who'd driven 7 hours from RI--but as a former player, you understand.  I explained above about four games in two days; that in no way compares to a 162-game season with a lot of traveling.  Probably the Sox would've been better off playing their bench, but that would've looked very bad indeed.

Game Two was much better, as the Orioles this time played like sleepwalkers.  They had one potential inning, when they had the bases loaded with one out, but Tatum, their catcher, hit into a double-play, and that was it.  Miller looked much better than Weiland, who's probably not ready for the bigs.  Granted Miller is an established pro with a few teams, but he still just looked overall better, though you could argue that Weiland might have better stuff.  But Miller knows how to use what he has.  You'd swear as an athlete-wannabe that you could get off the couch and get a hit off him, but that's the point: He's pro enough to slip out of problems.  Weiland still walks too many; Miller does, too--he walked the bases loaded in the inning explained above--but he can wiggle his way out.  He's essentially a .500 pitcher with junkball stuff who'll give up more hits than innings pitched, but that's essentially what a good 5th pitcher is.

Adrian Gonzalez came alive at the plate in these two games, DHing once.  He'd gone 2 for 24 after I bought the picture mentioned in a recent blog. (I bought the one with Ps. 24:7 on it.)  Reddick continued to rake at the plate before he cooled off recently when Francona told him he was the guy in right.  He's come back to life in the last two days against the Mariners at Fenway.  Pedroia was awesome, as usual.  Ortiz served out his suspension all three games in Baltimore, as I'd predicted he would.  It's obvious that he's more needed against the Rays than he is against the Orioles.

Overall, good games, good city, good times and easy driving, and we even got to listen to John Sterling make a fool of himself in the Yanks' win over the Rays (who played dead and are now slipping in the standings), as usual.  Granderson, apparently, is "sorta grandy," and worthy of singing "the Grandy-man can, the Grandy-man can."  How this man makes millions is beyond me.  Sure, he's got the radio numbers, but wouldn't anyone who calls Yankees games have millions of listeners?  And don't even get me started on Susan--"Well, you know, Susan, my dear..."

Please.