The crowd watching the game at Donohue's in Watertown was upset. The commenters on the Boston Globe website this morning are going out of their minds about the umps. How could C.B. Bucknor blow two calls at first base? He was killing the Sox out there! He was out of position! He's one of the worst umps in the game - how did he get assigned to this series?
Folks, it's not C.B. Bucknor who killed the Red Sox last night. It was John Lackey. Say what you want about the tubby righty, but he pitched 7 1/3 innings of stellar baseball. Despite not having overpowering stuff, Lackey kept the hitters off balance and induced a number of ground ball outs. The Sox lineup managed four hits and a walk, and David Ortiz went down swinging three times. That's not going to get the job done. Blame the bats, not the officiating crew.
It's not like these bad calls did anything but drive up Lester's pitch count, which hardly mattered, as Lester has the gas to throw well over 100 pitches whenever he wants; he blew away Mathis after the first bad call and calmly got three straight outs after the second one.
The offense is going to have to step it up tonight against Jered "Future Hot Garbage All-Star" Weaver (trust me, this kid's career is gonna go south just like his brother's). The southern Californians (well, at least those who care about baseball) love this kid and he's rewarded the fans with a very good season (16 wins, 3.73 ERA). He's been much better at home than on the road against Boston (7.06 ERA in four Fenway starts) so he's fortunate to be taking the hill tonight in Anaheim.
But the question is not so much Weaver as it is the Red Sox bats. When Ortiz and Bay aren't hitting, there's a huge hole in the middle of that lineup. Although I'm glad Victor Martinez will catch Beckett tonight, he needs the people behind him to hit, as well. And here's hoping Beckett doesn't bomb without his "personal catcher." This will be a good one, folks.
It's not like these bad calls did anything but drive up Lester's pitch count, which hardly mattered, as Lester has the gas to throw well over 100 pitches whenever he wants; he blew away Mathis after the first bad call and calmly got three straight outs after the second one.
The offense is going to have to step it up tonight against Jered "Future Hot Garbage All-Star" Weaver (trust me, this kid's career is gonna go south just like his brother's). The southern Californians (well, at least those who care about baseball) love this kid and he's rewarded the fans with a very good season (16 wins, 3.73 ERA). He's been much better at home than on the road against Boston (7.06 ERA in four Fenway starts) so he's fortunate to be taking the hill tonight in Anaheim.
But the question is not so much Weaver as it is the Red Sox bats. When Ortiz and Bay aren't hitting, there's a huge hole in the middle of that lineup. Although I'm glad Victor Martinez will catch Beckett tonight, he needs the people behind him to hit, as well. And here's hoping Beckett doesn't bomb without his "personal catcher." This will be a good one, folks.
Tune into GameTime after the Sox-Angels game tonight for post-game reactions and a rundown of all the playoff action from both leagues.
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