The Annual Red Sox Pilgrimage

Finally, catching up on the events of the last two weeks.

Yep, last week it was time for the annual trek to Oakland to see the Red Sox come to down to play the A's. And a big 4-game series it was: Both teams about 4 games behind their division leaders, and the Red Sox with a 1-game lead on the A's for the wild card lead. We managed to get excellent seats through Debbi's company, and on Monday we anticipated a matchup of aces: Pedro Martinez for the Red Sox vs. Tim Hudson for the home team. With a set of 4 first-row seats, I invited my Red Sox friends Rob and CJ to come.

Debbi, CJ and I carpooled to the Coliseum, and traffic was very light, so we got there about an hour and a half before game time - plenty of time to see all kinds of batting practice. Around 6:30 I went out to meet up with Rob, who was coming from the city via BART, and when we came in we split up to get food.

Well, I got back to the seats to find our seats mobbed by fans. Our seats, you see, were right in front of the visitors' bullpen pitching mound, and it turns out that Sox star shortstop Nomar Garciaparra goes there about half an hour before the game to sign autographs (below). What a zoo! I muscled my way in with my food (and the aid of a security guard) and got a good look at Nomar before he headed off. Debbi and CJ observed that Nomar just goes around taking items and signing them, not really making eye contact with anyone. By most accounts Nomar seems pretty friendly to the fans, but I guess one has to find ways of dealing with the rush as best one can. He's only human, after all.

Pedro warmed up, but I didn't get many good photos of him because the pitching coach was standing between us most of the time. The photo to the right is of Pedro leaving for the dugout after warming up.

For Red Sox fans, the game was not much. Pedro didn't really have it, allowing 2 runs in 5 innings (though with 7 strikeouts), and the bullpen allowed a couple more, as the Red Sox lost, 4-0.

The highlight of the game was on the A's side, where Hudson pitched a 2-hit complete-game shutout, needing only 93 pitches to retire the Red Sox, and even more dominating performance than Giant Jerome Williams' taming of the A's on 96 pitches in June. Only star hitters Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez managed hits against Hudson, and Garciaparra added a lone walk, but that was it. After the game, Rob said, "I think that's the best pitching performance I've ever seen."

Yeah, I'd say so. And even more impressive in some ways than Hudson's division-clinching victory in 2000.

Wednesday's game was just me and Debbi. The Red Sox had also lost Tuesday's game, and had lost the wild card lead to the A's, needing to win the last two to split the series. Derek Lowe (left), having a disappointing season (though not very surprisingly, perhaps), was starting for the Red Sox, vs. lefty Mark Mulder for the A's.

Lowe's an interesting pitcher. He came up with Seattle a few years back, but never had the stamina to be a starter. He was part of arguably the best trade the Red Sox have ever made (sending relief pitcher Heathcliff Slocumb to Seattle for Lowe and catcher Jason Varitek), but still had trouble as a starter, so the Sox made him their closer, and he was great. He was also overworked, so he faltered after a couple of years as a relief pitcher. The regime change in Boston (when GM Dan Duquette was fired) also ended up with Lowe moving back to the rotation, where he was stellar in 2002. He's the most extreme groundball pitcher in the Major Leagues, with an uncanny rate of about 75% of the balls put in play against him being on the ground.

He's also, apropos of nothing statistical, in my opinion one of the most handsome men in the Majors. And damned tall. He's a striking presence on the field.

This game also started disappointingly, with the A's scoring single runs in each of the first two innings. Then the Red Sox loaded the bases with one out in the third, and I commented, "Boy, it will be really lame if they can't score at least one run from this", with Nomar and Manny due up. Well, Nomar made an out, but Manny drew a walk for the Sox' first run of the game. Then Kevin Millar singled for two more runs, and it was off to the races.

Mulder wasn't really fooling the Sox, and the fact that the meat of the Sox' order were right-handed was just gravy. Ramirez homered in the 7th to drive him from the game, Millar homered against the next pitcher, and the Sox won 7-3.

Our section had a lot more A's fans than usual, and I heard a few people talking about how they were in the middle of Red Sox fans. On the other hand, we could all agree that the Yankees suck (and there was a little cheering all around because the Royals pounded the Yorkies into the dirt that evening). There were also quite a few hecklers in the section, especially of the Sox relievers warming up.

We also got to see Byung-Hyun Kim, the pride of South Korea (and at age 24 already the owner of one World Series ring, with the Diamondbacks in 2001) warm up. That's him to the right. Lots of Asian fans came down to our section to see and photograph Kim before he went into the game, which was pretty neat. But he was also the subject of lots of heckling, especially from a couple of A's and Giants fans.

After Kim went into the game, one of said hecklers was bugging the Sox bullpen catcher for a ball. In one of the rare instances of a player making eye contact with a fan this week, the catcher looked at the fan, shook his head, and made mouth gestures with his hand. "Nope, you're talking too much. No ball for you." Okay, maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious!

We went home happy despite the rather nondescript game, and the Sox won the next day to finish the series as they started: With a one-game lead in the wild card. Not bad for the first piece of a brutal west coast road trip.

And that's my Red Sox exposure until next year. Sigh. Curse this unbalanced schedule!