Because of other commitments and general business, I was just recently able to tune into the evening’s baseball - and I find myself pleasantly surprised and enthused by what’s going on with the Boston/New York game.
We started in the bottom of the sixth, and now I’m watching Pedro do the best he can to blow a seven-run lead.
It’s 8-3 now and the bottom of the seventh, with one out. Pedro looks bad. He loses it in the clutch, and if I were a Boston fan right now, I’d be headed to the liquor cabinet to try and find some way to medicate the pain and the tightness in my chest.
His pitch selection is awful. He’s trying to keep the ball down in the zone, but it’s forcing him to make a lot of mistake pitches.
Lofton just stole second - nice try on the throwout, but you’re not going to catch that man, I don’t care how old he is.
Now that was a man’s pitch. Nice, high fastball to strike out Olerud. One more out - if they can get through this seventh, they should be in good shape. Pedro just needs to maintain his composure - he’s not exactly the most clutch pitcher in the entire league.
2210 - Varitek just headed to the mound to talk down Pedro, methinks.
2211 - Yeesh - 96 mph low ball. Nice try.
NICE movement on the sinker. One more strike, man. Go for it.
Pedro needs to cut his hair. He looks like a poodle.
Boston’s lucky that Nixon was in a good position to get a jump on that ball - and that the bat didn’t get just a tiny little more of that ball to launch it out of the park. Another stupid pitch by Pedro, though - he’s not taking advantage of moments where he’s ahead in the count like he should. Throwing balls to hit like that one isn’t going to get him anywhere but hated and reviled by Boston fans.
Eighth inning, 8-3 Red Sox.
What a hit. Wow - Bellhorn just smacked that pitch right into the foul pole fence like it was his mortal enemy. 9-3 Sox.
Pop-up foul for an out. Wasted at bat.
Ortiz is up. You idiot! Wait for the good pitches! Bad swing at a pitch down at the knees. And whiff on a changeup for strike two. Pop-up for the out. I think Jeter made the catch with his back to home plate just to look smooth - ’cause he’s like that. He’s good, but he is a little full of himself.
Youch - tough first pitch to Varitek. Good take on the second ball in the dirt, but bad eye on the third pitch up at the eyeballs. Foul-off on the next. Joe is talking about the fact that the Yankees don’t often blow saves like this one. Pop-out for the end of the half-inning.
Top of the order is due up for the Yanks - I don’t think they could be in a better situation. It seems to be questionable whether they are going to keep Pedro in or switch to Timlin for the 8th and the 9th - I would hope they’d go ahead and go with Timlin, though I’m not all that up on the handedness of the upcoming batters or the pitchers involved.
I wish I had my broadband back - I could just look these kinds of things up when I wanted to know the information.
I sure hope they have the riot police ready to go when this game wraps up - I wouldn’t want to be one of the Sox players after this one is over (if they hold on). The reaction is going to be interesting, to say the least.
Jeter is up. And you’re not going to fool him with two pitches in the exact same location. And now Timlin’s way behind in the count, 3-0. Taken strike right down the middle - of course. Standard 3-0 pitch. Took strike two - a little surprising. Money ball time - ground-out to third, and a closer throw than I could have predicted.
2226 - Timlin is getting behind in the count again - this seems to be a staple of Boston pitching. Now he’s behind 3-1. Nice pitch on the outside of the plate to even up the count. Hittable, but not easily. And a whiff on the next pitch, which was very hittable, but had a good speed change and caught him off-guard.
Sheffield is up, and Amanda just reminded me for the thousandth time that she doesn’t like him - because he screwed over the Brewers, apparently. She doesn’t like him just like Cheez doesn’t like Gary Gaetti. AND TIMLIN’S AHEAD IN THE COUNT! WHAT A CONCEPT!
Another ground-out, and the Red Sox are three outs away. Sure does look to me like they’re going to do this. I wish I had seen the offensive explosion that created this very nice lead for them. It’s nice to see the Sox making history in this way - and perhaps fulfilling the dream Series I was looking forward to this year.
Nixon is behind now. 1-2. Dirt ball to even it up. Check swing to fill the count. Lead-off base hit for the half-inning.
Mint-keh-vich, my homeboy with the great name, hits a shallow outfield base hit to put two on with no outs, which is a great position when you’re already up by six runs in the top of the ninth inning. I’d love to see a double-steal here. Sacrifice fly to advance the runner from second to third; good solid hit into deep center.
Cabrera is up. Strike one on a ball down the pike - anything but a strikeout would be great here, with runners at the corners. Strike two, also swinging, which is not a good indicator. Fouled away a really high pitch - he’s going to go down with any kind of good pitch selection here, because the coaching staff seems to have removed his safeties. Tried to test him with another high ball. Fouled off a low ball, but the next pitch is a great looking sacrifice to bring in the insurance runner to make it 10-3 and 2 outs.
Rivera-time, but it’s too little too late.
Amanda is flipping quickly through the Tivo’d dog show we grabbed off Animal Planet for Joshua. Some weird looking dogs on there.
Damon’s up. And that’s it for the Sox.
Three outs. Three outs away from defeating the Death Star of baseball.
Matsui smacks one into the wall for an outfield single - is this guy the nemesis of this Boston team, or what? One on, no out.
Bernie Williams is up. Inside ball - looked somewhat close to me, but he crowds the plate so that I can’t really tell. One more ball, one more strike. Another ball to put Timlin behind the count enough to matter. Inside strike that looks curiously like the first pitch, which was a ball. Fielder’s choice for the first out - chose to get Matsui at second; good choice and no jump on the ball by Matsui to challenge.
Infield fly for out number two by Posada.
One more out - this is really cool.
High ball for the first to Lofton. Way behind right away - three straight balls. Fourth one in a row; brings up Olerud.
It’ll bring up the management to have a little chat with Timlin, as well. Handing it over to another pitcher, I’m not sure until we get back from commercial break.
Embree comes in to pitch to Sierra, pinching for Olerud.
Low ball one, in true Boston pitching staff style. Easy ground out for the final out.
Joe Buck: “The biggest comeback in postseason baseball history.”
Happened pretty much as the clock struck midnight, I’ll say.
And they sure do have the riot gear out tonight, though the fans seem to be somewhat guarded about the reaction there in the stadium. I will assume that the Yankees fans are too stupidly dumbfounded to say anything - either that, or they’re reaching for their guns (yeah, but maybe I’m talking more about Mets fans. Or White Sox fans).
There seem to be a lot of Boston fans at Yankee Stadium tonight.
This is going to be an awesome World Series, and I think Boston has a real chance at winning it all. I’m really looking forward to it.