Baseball Update

It occurs to me that I've been remiss in recording the baseball games I've been to this year, having only mentioned one. So it's time to rectify that.

We're slowly working our way through tickets I bought from my friend Syd when he moved away and sold off his Athletics season tickets. The set I bought included four Red Sox games, which made me pretty happy.

The first two Sox games were last month, July 24 and 25. The first game featured a premiere pitching match-up of Josh Beckett vs. Barry Zito, but it turned out not to be Zito's night, as he gave up 7 runs in 5 innings, which was all the Sox would need. Beckett gave up 3 runs in the 5th and 6th, and then the bullpen took over. So it was kind of a laffer, much to my friend Bill's chagrin, as he joined me to root for the A's, but there wasn't a lot to root for. I mean, when even Alex Gonzalez (never mind Manny Ramirez or David Ortiz) hit home runs off your pitcher, it's not a good night. Final score: 7-3 Sox.

Debbi joined me for the second Sox game, the next night. This was a more exciting game, despite the Sox' ace, Curt Schilling, going against the A's minor league fill-in, Jason Windsor. Windsor didn't have much, but neither did Schilling; the Sox piled up a 6-1 lead through 5, but the A's came back with 3 in the 5th and 1 in the 7th to narrow it to 6-5. And I looked down at the Sox bullpen and saw Julian Tavarez warming up, and my heart grew cold. But all was well, as the Sox smacked the A's bullpen around for 6 runs in the 8th inning, as Justin Duchscherer loaded the bases, and then was replaced by Brad Halsey. Halsey is a control artist, but he promptly walked the first batter he faced (Trot Nixon) and then gave up a bases-clearing double to Jason Varitek. Now that's bullpen support - not! So now it was safe for Julian Tavarez to come in, and the Sox won again, 13-5.

Then we had another game that same week, on Friday the 28th, this time the A's were hosting the Blue Jays. Debbi came along again as the Jays' Shawn Marcum (who?) faced Esteban Loaiza (otherwise known as "the guy I'm glad I didn't draft for my fantasy team this year). This was not a great game, as neither pitcher was on their game, but the offense didn't do a lot, either. Both starters melted down in the 5th and 6th innings, but Loaiza melted down a little faster (or didn't get replaced soon enough) and the Jays won 4-3.

Yet again, I mused how much more fun it is to see my own team playing rather than some other team. I like the A's, but give me the Red Sox and I'm a happy boy.

At the Toronto game Debbi and I were sitting in the section which won free tickets to a future A's game. They handed out the tix, and lo and behold they were for a game I already had tickets to - last night's game against the Mariners. I tried to give the tickets away, but found no takers - possibly because they were crappy outfield seats, and the game was far from sold out anyway. On the other hand, they did come with parking passes, so we drove to the game rather than taking BART. Yes, going to a Monday night game against a team that's 10 games out of first place is very different from a Friday night game or a game against the Red Sox or Yankees - not much traffic, and lots of empty seats.

That said, this was a really good game. Barry Zito pitched again, and again he didn't have his best stuff, giving up 7 hits, 2 walks and 4 runs in 5 innings. Jarrod Washburn gave up 8 hits, 0 walks and 3 runs in 5 innings, but really was not that much better. The difference is that there were men on when Zito gave up his two home runs. Then it was off to the bullpens, and George Sherrill gave up a hit to Eric Chavez - the first man he faced - and was replaced by Rafael Soriano. The front of the Mariners pen is excellent in Soriano and J.J. Putz (which is pronounced "Poots", as far as I can tell, but that's not quite as much fun), but Soriano promptly gave up a long ball to Nick Swisher, putting the A's ahead 5-4 for good. Justin Duchscherer came off the disabled list to get the save. This gave the A's a 5-1/2 game lead in the NL West, and dropped the Mariners to 10 games behind them.

The three teams I follow are all having varying degrees of struggles this year.

The Giants are fighting with the last hurrah of Barry Bonds - who has had a career for the ages but may yet be indicted by a federal grand jury for (I think) perjury in the ongoing steroid brou-ha-ha - and are 7-1/2 games out in the NL West. GM Brian Sabean has not done a good job of assembling a strong supporting cast for Bonds, so the team lacks depth, and is probably going to pay the piper when Bonds retires or moves to the American League to become a DH, but guys like Moises Alou and Jason Schmidt feel the grip of age coming on. (Amazingly, I have not been to a Giants game this year.)

The A's are in first place despite having a clutch of injuries: Their ace pitcher, Rich Harden, has missed much of the season and looks like he might never fulfill his great promise. Their shortstop, Bobby Crosby, has likewise been on the DL for chunks of the year, and is also looking like less than he was expected to be. And Milton Bradley missed most of the first half, but has come back very strong in the second half, while Eric Chavez has been nagged by problems with his arms. Nonetheless, their pitching depth and big years from Nick Swisher and Frank Thomas have helped keep them in the race. I doubt they can do much in the playoffs (with Detroit and Chicago looking like world-beaters these days), but they're a good team.

Finally, the Red Sox have had the year of injuries from hell, with Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon, Tim Wakefield, Coco Crisp and many others missing significant time due to injury. Curt Schilling is mostly recovered from his ankle problems which he fought through at the end of 2004, but he's been inconsistent. Josh Beckett wavers between being an ace and getting badly lit up. On the plus side, Manny and Big Papi have been their usual selves, and Mike Lowell has surprised even me (who was relatively bullish on him after his poor 2005) with his performance as a terrific doubles hitter this year. But the Sox failed to make a big deal at the trade deadline, while the Yankees made several good deals, and that puts them in a bad spot heading into the stretch run. They're currently 2 games behind the Yorkies in the AL East, sigh.

Then again, I've always expected that 2005-2007 would be a rebuilding period for the Sox, and after all, they did win it all in 2004. The A's are perpetually rebuilding, and do a pretty good job of it, but they'll have to be pretty clever to figure out how to deal with Barry Zito leaving via free agency after the year (and the Loaiza investment is looking poor right now). Only the Giants look like they're really going to be up the creek in a year or two.

But that still leaves me with plenty of baseball to watch!