Red Sox-Rays: Game 3

I gotta tell you, I hate when the announcers refer to Fenway as the "beautiful fenway park." It's likely due to the fact that they sit in the press box and not in the shitty seats at field level. No doubt it is a historic ballpark, but to call it beautiful shows me that the announcers are desperate for a complimentive adjective.

It's game 3 at fenway, with the series tied at 1. Lester vs. garza means a battle of hard throwing youngsters. Unfortunately for me, and the rest of sensible basbeall fans, Lester is pitching for the Red Sox and he is possibly the best pitcher in baseball right now. How the Red Sox keep pulling this off is unbelievable. It is fun to watch though, as much as I hate them.

The afternoon game is probably an advantage for the Rays. During player introductions the crowd seemed unusually quite. Either many were still at work, or they don't serve booze in Boston during the afternoon. Anyway, it was hard to hear a single boo for any of the Rays players and only a few cheers were noticeable when the Sox were introduced.

It looks to be a pretty chilly day is Boston and the wind is blowing slightly in, protecting the pitchers from the wrath of the green monster. If this game is anything like game 2, the fans are in for another great four and a half hours of baseball.

The first inning is pretty simple for both pitchers. Lester gets three outs on 5 pitches, not good for the Rays, getting into the sox bullpen has gotta be their hope. Take lots of pitches, hope for the best, that seems like all you can do with Lester these days.

Garza gives up a one out double off the wall to mister hustle himself, Pedroia. The guy has got it. I don't know what IT is or even how he pulls it off, but he does. Garza strikes out Papi and gets youkilis to ground out to shortstop, two big outs, stranding Pedroia in the first.

A walk, a single, and a wild pitch off Lester in the top of the second give the Rays a big one run lead. lester looks very solid though, I wouldn't expect much more off of him. Garza needs to roll through a few innings so the Rays can get and keep the momentum.

Jason bay gets another playoff hit with one out in the second. Who needs Manny right? Kotsay follows it up with a double, how the Red Sox pull this shit off? Mark Kotsay getting hits in the playoffs for the Red Sox, it's just absurd. Varitek is up with 1 out and runners on second and third. Boy has he had a rough offensive year. The announcer mentioned it briefly, but its got to be hard for the Red Sox to concede his bat for his defense and control behind the plate. Though, you do often hear that he is the heart of the team, and see it with the big C on his uniform. It's not C for catcher, by the way, it's C for Captain. There's Varitek for ya. Striking out in a big situation. Great heater from garza on the inside corner though. Varitek stared at it. You have to put the ball in play in that situation. Varitek just hasn't done the job this year. He probably would fit in perfect with the yankees lineup. Wow, some big ptiches by Garza and he gets out of the trouble with a Cora flyout to center. It's not often you see the Red Sox miss on those opportunities in the playoffs. Hopefully it will come back to bite them in the ass.

After 2 full innings, The Rays lead 1-0.

Ninth hitter Bartlett with a leadoff single. Lester hung a little slider, doesn't look quite a sharp as he has so far in the postseason. My guess is he'll settle down nicely. Iwamura follows it up with a double off the monster, putting Lester in a huge hole heading into the heart of the Rays lineup. Silence grasps the fenway crowd. Lester is lookng very very shaky. It'll be intersting to see him work around his troubles. WOWOWOW. Upton hits a three run shot over the monster, I guess the wind couldn't grab that one. "My guess is he'll settle down nicely." I guess I don't know what I'm talking about. Pena is up now, Im sure he'd love to go back to back, but Lester, even when pitching poorly is so so tough on Lefties. I was right about this one Pena strikes out. I never saw this coming folks. Longoria makes it 5-0 with another bomb over the monster. I've got to assume this is momentum still from Saturday night, or Sunday morning for that matter. Crawford strikes out. Atleast Lester is consistent. Home run, K, home run, K. The inning finally ends with a flyout to center. Surely the sox will leave in Lester. His bad stuff is still better than any long relief the bullpen can offer.

Ellsbury is leading off the the inning. He needs to get a hit to get the sox back in the game. Flies out to right field. He really has no power. Pedroia rips another one off the monster, crawford play it perfectly and holds him to a single. Papi up again with a runner on. I don't think he has ever been less intimidating than he is now. Works a 3-2 count and weakly pops up to short right field. No doubt in my mind he finally got off the roids and lost all his bat speed and power. Youkili strikes out and pouts. I absolutely love it. Sox are getting frustrated early. I wouldn't count them out, it's still very early. And they are the defending World Champons after all.

A slow, high fastball from Lester leads to a leadoff single by Dioner navarro. I'm not going to lie, I'm sitting here watching the game, and I have a huge smile on my face so far. I honestly shouldn't get my hopes up though. I'll only be disappointed 2 hours from now. Lester looks a little better and gets out of the inning pretty easily after the leadoff single.

Garza strikes out Drew on a stright fastball after being behind the count 3-1. He is very sharp today. Weak groundout by Bay on a very nasty curveball from Garza. This is quite enjoyable for the non Red Sox fan right now. Kotsay gets another hit, pushing for a two out rally, though its unlikely with Varitek backing him up. Pops it up, ends any hope at a rally.

Upton gets a leadoff infield single. Pena bunts to beat the shift but Upton over runs second base and gets thrown out by Youkilis on a heads up play. Terrible base running by Upton, hopefully it doesn't cost them later in the game. The Red Sox always seem to get handed little mistakes by their opponents that always seem to make a big difference in the game. Pena steals second followed by a Longoria strikeout. Weak fly ball by Crawford ends the Rays chance to tack on another run. Lester has two straight scoreless innings. Looks a lot better than the first few innings.

Ellsbury is zero for his last twenty. He looks very weak at the plate, absolutely no power. I think they might have to sit him in game 4 and start coco in center and JD in right. He's just not contributing anything to the lineup right now. He has to get on base to make something happen with his feet. Pedroia gets on again, with the first walk by Garza. Two outs with Papi up. Another popup by Big Papi ends the inning. He just doesn't have it anymore. I don't know if they can win without Papi's bat. Five scoreless by Garza. What a clutch performance at Fenway park for a young pitcher. I bet the twins want him back now.

Lester is back out for the 6th, up to 90 pitches now. I was right about him settling down after all. It just happened much too late, 5 runs too late that is. I guess Francona doesn't want to wear out his arm anymore; takes him out with 1 on and two out in the 6th. Sox fans give him a round of applause even with the shitty performance. Clearly they aren't selling any booze at the park today.Paul Byrd takes his place. Byrd gets a soft lineout, ending the top of the 6th. The sox are hoping he can atleast keep them within striking distance.

Garza is very confident in his fastball tonight. So many young pitchers rely on their fastball and when they get off to a good start, they just become even better with confidence. Garza walks Bay with 2 outs, not a bad walk as he has been their best hitter in the playoffs. Garza's over 100 pitches, seems to have lost the strikezone a little. Kotsay works a 3-2 count. Varitek is up next, this may be Garzas last batter no matter what. Kotsay flies out, Garza finishes 6 scoreless innnings. What a performance under pressure and on the road.

I had to miss the rest of the game due to prior obligations. However, as I come back to my computer to see a final score of 9-1 in favor of the Rays I cannot be any happier. I have to go back to something I mentioned earlier about the crowd. Because the game started in the late afternoon during the week, the Fenway crowd was not nearly as rowdy as usual. The Rays jumped on this gift early and completely took the fans out of it for the rest of the game. They're young and very talented and they play and win on emotion. From a spectator's point of view, it's a lot of fun to watch a team enjoy themselves as much as the Rays do.

Well, it's on to game 4 and the Sox need a win to tie it up, and a good performance from Wakefield who hasn't made a start in 2 weeks. It should be interesting, likely high scoring, as I foresee the Sox bats coming alive and the Rays staying hot.