Cursed To First - Sox and Pats forever.

Los LOBos back up Beckett in the end

"Hi. I'm Josh Beckett, and I'll be serving you your own asses on a platter tonight."

First, and foremost, let me breathe a HUGE sigh of relief for Kevin Youkilis, whose X-Rays are apparently negative after he fouled a ball off his left shin in the first inning last night, and was taken out of the game.

NESN kept showing the trainers in the dugout peeling back Youk's sock to reveal an ugly purple welt on his leg, near where the shin bone meets the ankle. When it happened, it had looked so much like the foul off the instep that downed Pedroia last year that I told Youk half-jokingly through my television, "Don't be pulling a Pedey here." When he didn't return to the field, I yelled, "I didn't mean it!!"

And thus began an, er, adventurous night.

Notes on Red Sox Opening Day

Here are the results of the last seven Opening Days, at home and away, according to the Baseball Almanac:

2004 - Road Opener 04/04/04 @BAL -- L 7-2;  Home Opener 04/09/04 vs. TOR L 10-5 
2005 - Road Opener 04/03/05 @NYY -- L 1-0; Home Opener 04/11/05 vs. NYY W 8-1
2006 - Road Opener 04/03/06 @TEX -- W 7-3; Home Opener 04/11/06 vs. TOR W 5-3
2007 - Road Opener 04/02/07 @KC  -- L 7-1;   Home Opener 04/10/07 vs. SEA W 14-3
2008 - Road Opener 03/25/08 @OAK -- W 6-5; Home Opener 04/08/08 vs. DET W 5-0
2009 - Home Opener 04/07/09 vs.TB -- W 5-3; Road Opener 04/11/06 @ LAA L 6-3
2010 - Home Opener 04/04/10 vs. NYY -- W 9-7; Road Opener 04/11/06 @KC L 4-3

I mention this because there appears to have been some panic floating about, at least on Twitter, about today's loss and various players' performances. Looking at these numbers, it seems that if there's any pattern, it's that the Red Sox tend to split their home and road openers, and (shocka!) they tend to win at home (this is also how the team has been built since time immemorial).

There have been two years that the Red Sox won the road opener. Neither of those years (2006 and 2008) was a World Series year. In their World Series years, the Red Sox lost their road openers, and in '04 they lost their home opener, too.

Ultimately, there's no correlation between Opening Day results and full-season results, but just keep that little factoid in mind.

And look. I get it. When I was a novice fan, I thought panic in the streets was the way I showed my intensity and dedication and enthusiasm for the game. I thought if I didn't break things whenever they lost, it looked like I didn't care. Now I realize, it just made me look like a n00b. Which is exactly what anybody making sweeping pronouncements about today's game looks like to me now.

Passion and intensity, for me, have come to mean deepening knowledge and understanding of what's going on in the game, dedication in the form of strict game watching / attendance throughout the season, and going down with an injury-riddled ship (*cough2010cough*) if need be.

None of this requires hysteria, denial, generalization, complete lack of perspective, or breathless phone calls to talk radio. Just sayin'.

So. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I also do not wish to suggest that there isn't room for both praise and criticism after our first real look at the team.

I'm with Amalie

My question to you would be: What other choice did the Red Sox have? With Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, and Mike Cameron all done for the year, the Sox had to use younger guys for most of the season, from guys like Daniel Nava to Ryan Kalish to Jed Lowrie. Would you rather have had more of Bill Hall or Darnell McDonald in center field in the last couple of months? Or would you rather have seen Kalish there?

Sure, part of the reason that some of the younger guys (Kalish, Josh Reddick, Lars Anderson, Lowrie) have played more has been that the Red Sox would like to get at least a sense of how they'll perform in the majors. But the Red Sox also understand that September (and spring training) are the worst times of the year to judge players. In many ways, the Red Sox didn't have a choice. For example, with Scutaro ailing, they had to move him to second base and Lowrie was the logical choice to play at shortstop in his place. Perhaps the only place you could quibble with their usage is with Anderson over Lowell at first base. But, again, Lowell is also dealing with multiple injuries that have cut into the time he can spend on the field.

I think there was realism in the way the Red Sox treated the end of the season, but I am also not exactly sure how they could have significantly altered their player choices down the stretch to keep themselves closer to the Yankees. Ask Amalie, Boston.com, 9-28-2010

This team played with such grit and tenacity that I can't help but think about what they might have accomplished this season with even Pedroia and Youkilis still in the lineup, let alone all the other guys they lost.

In the end, the injury list was too long. As a guy in a gray hoodie has been known to say, it is what it is. But this season still came down to the very last week, and I think that's saying a lot, given the circumstances.

Even leaving aside all the players they lost earlier this season, the ones who are still on the field might not be there with a healthier club around them. Look at what Marco Scutaro has been playing through. Mike Lowell is a hobbling shadow of his former self -- I look at his upcoming retirement with as much relief for him as sadness that he'll be gone. I lost track of the number of times I was sure V-Mart was finally going to come out of a game as he grimaced with pain on the field, but he didn't. That guy caught big league fastballs with a cast on his thumb under his glove last month and still found time for light-hearted slapper fights with Adrian Beltre to make sure we all stayed entertained.

Terry Francona kept this team motivated even as their chances dwindled to nothing -- I'm surprised he could remember everybody's name with the number of players that have been through that clubhouse this season, and somehow he's kept them pulling together and putting up a fight in the toughest division in baseball.

And you're lying if you say you thought at any point before August that David Ortiz could be finishing the year with 30 homers and 100 RBI. No, I'm sorry, you just are. But he did.

Sunday, they came within moments of sweeping the Yankees and actually keeping things in limbo in the East untill the very last days of the season. Even tonight, things came down to the very last play. For all the drama over those who've failed to earn True Dirt Dog Status this year, there have been plenty of players quietly playing through pain and under pressure, as we insist they must. Do we feel this is so obvious and simple a thing to do that it does not deserve acknowledgement, given how we punish the ones who fail to live up to this standard? Is it really so naive and simple-minded also to appreciate what the players who've been left have actually accomplished?

I haven't seen anyone make more than a high-level argument about what exactly is meant by the Red Sox "giving up" down the stretch. Nobody I've seen commenting to this effect in the last two days has named names in terms of who the Red Sox should've gotten and what they'd be willing to give up in return, or specifically how the lineup or rotation or bullpen should've been managed differently -- there have been little but general statements about how they should've "done more." But what?

That's All, Folks?

Yes, a miracle may still happen. An utterly improbable collapse and / or comeback may yet occur. But it's officially time to put that in the same category as the probability Bigfoot exists or the probability of a child actually growing up to be a professional astronaut. Stranger things have happened, but not usually.

And so, some notes on a tough loss laced with a heavy dose of finality.

** It didn't look like Ryan Kalish had a prayer of reaching that ball, a sinking liner he caught to end the second inning. Even more surprising than the fact that he got there was his somersaulting follow-through, tucking his glove arm and shoulder safely under himself, rather than falling hard on his shoulder joint as we've seen Ellsbury do on occasion. Not only did he execute a perfect tuck-and-roll, but he also popped back up and landed on his feet in one fluid motion.

I was agape. Remy called it the catch of the year, and I agree.

** Early on in the game, excitable Rays starter Matt Garza looked like he was telling himsef out loud to calm down, gesturing as if he was literally crushing something down, muttering and grimacing between pitches.

In the top of the fourth, Garza thought Mike Lowell swung twice when it was obvious that Lowell took a step forward but held up the bat. Not even close. But Garza protested theatrically, which is how he seemingly does everything, to the point of screaming at the umpires after Lowell eventually flied out harmlessly to end the inning. Even his own catcher looked like he was trying to tell him Lowell hadn't swung, and it looked as if Garza brushed it off.

My God, he is annoying. Like, fingernails on a chalkboard annoying. Of course, Josh Beckett has his moments, and I've seen Jon Lester be needlessly snotty at times, but after tonight I can't think of any of their behavior that rivals Garza's constant twitching and kvetching on the field. It's obviously worked for him to some extent, but good Lord.

** V-Mart finally got his revenge for a blown call on a caught-stealing at second in the bottom of that inning, gunning down Evan Longoria at second. Am I the only one who looks at Longoria and sees Dennis from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? I can't be, can I?

** Buchholz also became visibly frustrated with the umpire in the bottom of the fifth after some borderline calls. Not to quite the same shoulder-shrugging, neck-rolling extent as Garza, but it was there. The unusual part of it was that the Rays hitter at the time, Dan Johnson, also seemed baffed at the strike zone. Eventually Buch got a called strike three that was very questionably on the outside corner.

He walked back up on the mound, his back to the umpire, rolling his eyes. But Buch bore down and made short work of the next batter, too. No shouted recriminations as he left the field.

** In the top of the seventh, it was Mike Lowell's turn to fume over a checked-swing attempt that was ruled strike three. He flipped his bat, drawing points in his direction from the third base umpire and a protracted conference with the home plate umpire, though Lowell was not actually tossed. I don't think either Garza or Lowell was correct in their assessment of the umpires' calls, but I do wonder if these altercations are the result of general, mounting frustration with umpires in the league this year.

** Buch's curveball of old made an appearance or two tonight, dropping in for called strikes. His changeup dropped off the table. All of this was set off by a fastball that hovered in the 94 range and showed late movement.

He'll probably always be wiry and thin by most standards, but he's begun to fill out at least some, got that show hair, as Kevin Millar would say, and developed a kind of quiet swagger, less bombastic than Beckett and less fussy than Lester, but with a dagger-eyed game face that's a thrill to behold. He's the complete package this year. A joy to watch perform.

** VMart and Papi were like clockwork tonight. In the top of the fourth, a V-Mart single and a Papi double put runners at second and third for the Sox, and a sac fly from Beltre produced the game's first run. V-Mart and Ortiz once again assumed their positions on base in the top of the sixth with a single and a walk respectively.

In the sixth, Garza received a mound visit from Hickey after falling behind Beltre 2-0. It looked like they were getting to him. But Beltre then proceeded to ground into a double play as Don Orsillo's sinking tone voiced our collective disappointment. The pressure-cooker of a 1-0 game continued.

The Red Sox stranded another baserunner after a bloop single by Kalish in the top of the seventh. Bill Hall whiffed to kill that rally.

Buch held the line until the seventh, and it was arguably Buch himself that ruined the gem, when he threw away a pickoff attempt to first and Pena scampered to third, the first Rays runner of the game to reach and pass second base.

JD Drew also chose to catch a foul popup that inning, which JD's touch turned into a sacrifice fly, tying the game at 1. That'll be grist for the mill tomorrow. But you can't forget the LOB that had come before.

** I could've fast forwarded or checked my text messages, since I was well behind in the DVR by the time the eighth inning rolled around. I'd heard the new text chime twice and assumed one of the two teams had scored another run, and then I'd gotten the usual notification of a final score. But which way had it gone?

I could've peeked. But I didn't. Because if it wasn't in favor of the Red Sox, I decided I didn't want to know just yet. I knew if they lost this game it would be time to start making peace with disappointment, but I wanted to put that off until it was absolutely necessary.

And then V-Mart stepped to the plate, and knocked a towering bomb into the stands behind right center field. 2-1 Red Sox.

** I was wrong about the subsequent text notification being the final score, too. With Daniel Bard still warming in the bottom of the eighth, Buch faced BJ Upton, and Upton unceremoniously tied the game again with a leadoff home run.

I don't second-guess decisions by Fancona as much as some people do, but I think it was pretty reasonable to assume Buch was cooked after that seventh inning. Bard has been lights out. I suppose Francona might've been hoping Buch had one more inning in him so Bard could close things out, but he'll be under a microscope for that one. Though it was also because of that troublesome curveball for Buchholz again, hanging over the plate this time.

** The LOB loomed large again as Bard finished out a one-two-three ninth and the game headed into extras. A bad feeling stirred in the pit of my stomach. The Red Sox are 2-6 in extras this year on the road, 5-9 overall. The Rays, 6-5 (stats per NESN, Edes). The moment Upton's homer left the park, it felt like it was all over but the shouting.

The Sox had their best chance in the top of the tenth with V-Mart on base once again and Papi up. Papi took a questionable called strike, then whiffed his way into an 0-2 hole. Randy Choate threw outside, ball one, inside, ball two. Then Papi flied out. Scott Atchison was coming in for the bottom of the tenth. Okajima was warming behind him. That sinking feeling got worse.

Just get it over with, I thought. Just get it over with. And then Dan Johnson finally obliged.

** It didn't come easy to the Rays. The Red Sox fought like hell, and came very close to giving us a barn-burner tomorrow. But in the end, it seems increasingly clear the pessimists among us will probably be vindicated. No doubt there will be calls from some corners tomorrow to fire the [ETA: second-] winningest manager in Red Sox history* for his strange bullpen decisions tonight. What's left of Jacoby Ellsbury's effigy may yet be burned in the streets.

But none of it was that simple. Not for the whole season, and not during this game.

______________
* And the other guy certainly isn't walking through that door.

Monday Morning Red Sox Blues

Fickle?!? US??? The hell you say!!

I almost feel like I shouldn't blog right now -- it's better to suppress the urge to rant-blog more often than not, I've found. But at the moment, most of what I have in my head about baseball, especially Red Sox baseball, comes in rant form.

Yes, the idea of the Sox making the playoffs this year is increasingly looking like a pipe dream, especially after two crushing disappointments in Texas. But it's more the reaction to that I've been suppressing a rant about than that fact itself. Specifically, the response that has singled Jacoby Ellsbury out as a scapegoat and continues to hammer him now that he looks to be headed to the DL again. 

Since I'm a woman, and therefore it's incumbent upon me to dispel the assumptions of the Rob Dibbles of the world, I want to state up front that I do not have a crush on Jacoby Ellsbury. He is not my favorite player on the team. I can even see a kind of awkwardness about him, an A-Rodishness that's tough to put my finger on, when he speaks in interviews. I don't find him particularly compelling either way, except as a leadoff hitter and baserunner. There, he makes my jaw drop every time. In that way, I have a similar relationship to him that I did to Johnny Damon: I'm glad he's on the team, I understand why he's a favorite, but he's not mine.

That said, I find myself at a loss whenever I consider the aspersions cast on him this year. It just makes no sense to me. After all, if one player can truly be expected to answer for his team's losing season, why not pick on Jonathan Papelbon? He has six blown saves this year, and the Red Sox sit 6.0 games back of the Yankees today. I'm not saying it would be right, but based on the same logic, why isn't it his name we read in the papers every day? 

The other thing that has never made sense to me -- and probably never will -- is the number of people paid to sit on their behinds and discuss sports who seem so absolutely certain that Ellsbury could and should be playing right now. His hitting over a handful of rehab games in Pawtucket is what some have cited as an example of his readiness, even though it's been clear he's not up to the Major League level since he's been back. Others seem to have appointed themselves the internal counsel for teammates in the Red Sox clubhouse, taking famous crank Kevin Youkilis's offhand comment about Ellsbury's trip to Arizona and asserting that teammates have also had it with him.

If that's the case, though, I doubt it's because they think he should be playing with broken ribs. Maybe some question his decision to go to API earlier this year and feel he should've stuck with the team. But I've seen nothing from his teammates, directly quoted or anonymously attributed, that insinuates they think he's not that hurt and should be playing.

Of course, the press in the clubhouse will often be told things, or overhear things, that for various reasons they can't report or attribute directly. But ultimately, those reporters also have to answer the question, when it comes to their audience, of "so what?"  And when it comes to that, you just can't tell me Ellsbury is the only, or even the biggest, problem with this team this season. It makes absolutely no sense to suggest that the earlier return of one injury-compromised player (believe me, folks, he's still playing hurt, regardless of how much time "off" he's taken) would be the key to turning the season around. That's why it's a freakin' team sport.

See, there I go, getting angry and ranty. But really, when I read the venom about Ellsbury, I often have to double-check that the site I'm on really is about the Red Sox, for Red Sox fans, because more often than not I find myself wondering, "whose side are you on?" Did you not see what happened to him, each time it happened? The kick in the ribcage, the diving catch in center, another collision this most recent time? It's been out there plain to see -- in every instance when he was going hard down a baseline or after a ball -- regardless of whether the original diagnoses and timetable "line up". Yeah, they probably don't line up. Mistakes were obviously made. It's weird, I'll give you that. But I still don't get how it adds up to doubting whether the time on the DL this season has really been necessary, or laying the struggles of the team this season at his feet, or why all this is in any way necessary to a deeper appreciation of the Red Sox.

Ellsbury's treatment this year also doesn't make sense when you look at the injuries his teammates have suffered which haven't gotten nearly the frat-boy blowback. Baseball players go on the DL with blisters, for Pete's sake. How come Jacoby "took himself out" of the game in Texas, but Jed Lowrie "was taken" out with heat exhaustion? See, I don't doubt he really had it, but "heat exhaustion" seems like exactly the kind of condition that would inspire scorn and doubt among the same people hounding Ellsbury, particularly since Lowrie has already spent more time than Jacoby on the DL. And yet I didn't see much reaction at all. Come on, I mean, Youkilis just has a little tweaked muscle in his hand. Why the hell can't he play through that? And 60 days on the DL for Beckett with a stiff back? How was that necessary?

Oh, that's different, you say? How? No, really. How? How is it people can acknowledge their lack of expertise and withhold judgment when it comes to the injuries of everyone else on the team, no matter how apparently minor, but when it comes to Ellsbury, suddenly everyone's a crime scene investigator and licensed radiologist with an intimate knowledge of rib injuries and their healing time?

This has been a frustrating season. There is the urge to cast about for someone or something to blame. That's precisely what makes it so supremely aggravating -- there really isn't any one person to lay this on, though some are obviously trying like hell with Jacoby. But even if this season's biting reportage has been warranted and relevant, at this point, with the playoff picture fading fast, what does it accomplish?

For one thing, clearly if being called out by the chattering classes was going to get Ellsbury back on the field sooner, it would've happened by now. 

And for another, given the state of things at this point in 2010, barring a miracle, we should be looking ahead to 2011, and thinking long term. A healthy Ellsbury, as Bleacher Report pointed out in a brilliant essay on this same subject, "add[s] another .005+ average points and a few more RBI's to the 2-5 hitters, as well as a few more ticks in the win column. He is that good."

So if you're someone who exists in the sphere of (ostensibly) support surrounding the Red Sox, especially if you're a fan who generally wants the team to do well, next year if not this one, why would you want to run Jacoby out of town for not playing (more) through broken ribs? Why would you not want him, at full health, back on the team as soon as possible, even if that's next year's Spring Training? Why would it be worth giving up his potential future contributions to the team at 100% because he hasn't played at 30%, 40%, 50%?

And yet Allan at Joy of Sox wrote this weekend, in seriousness, "I really wonder if he will play again this season. (And if so, has he played his last game in a Red Sox uniform?)"

I don't think Allan was saying that should be what happens. But I have no doubt there are some who would be content to see Ellsbury traded or even released based on what they think they know about his injury this year. They're entitled to that opinion, of course, but it's one thing to have a difference of opinion on what happened. For the hysteria and suspicion to rise to the point of actually altering the makeup of the team, and not for the better, would be quite another.

Suffice to say, if Ellsbury is not on the team next year because of this crap...my knee jerk reaction, at least, when I read that part of Allan's post, was to think that such a turn of events would have me seriously re-evaluating my participation in all of this. Yes, I'm taking it that seriously. If what I can expect as a Red Sox fan is to have my enthusiasm for the team parlayed by the cynical into this kind of pointless witch hunt, all to denigrate the character and potentially alter the career of a supremely talented player who has, after all, done nothing wrong...my knee-jerk, if admittedly improbable, reaction is to want to withdraw that participation. I don't want to be a part of that kind of historically entrenched, but nonetheless distasteful behavior, and have been laboring under the delusion (apparently) that championships would dispel it. It's disheartening, to say the least, to see it continue, and now without any real suffering to justify it.

If Allan is correct in asking that question, in other words, to me that means we are on the brink, as a "Nation", of cutting off our nose to spite our face when it comes to Jacoby Ellsbury. And I, for one, want absolutely no part of it. I, for one, don't want to spend another season wondering, whose side are we on?

Failure to Capitalize

If there's one thing to be glad about with another loss tonight, it's that it cannot possibly be blamed on the fact that Jacoby Ellsbury was not in the lineup. And no, as it turned out, even with "all that prep time," Ellsbury did not return with a magical golden ticket to a winning streak, hidden away in his pocket the whole time. Unless we want to move into another whole realm of irrationality by asserting his play tonight was also a purposeful act of petulance.

Me, I'd rather move on to other, likelier factors in the continually diminishing odds of the Sox making the playoffs this year, namely: an underachieving record against bad teams like Cleveland, especially when compared to the Yankees and Rays, and the third-base coach that's directly affected at least eight games by sending runners into outs at the plate, six of which were lost by the Sox by a run or in extra innings. Just for starters.

Or then there's the always mystifying Jon Lester, who had another strange up-and-down evening in a strange up-and-down season, marked by multiple injury visits from Terry Francona before he was finally pulled with over 100 pitches in the top of the sixth. Lester had worked red-faced and dripping sweat the whole start, to the point where even his hat brim was soaked from where he'd grabbed it nervously between pitches, and he would keep up an oddly echoing pattern with the objectively less talented Justin Masterson from inning to inning. Both pitchers made groundouts on the right-hand side of the field, and mainly gave up base hits up the left field line. When they missed, they missed outside, despite their opposite-handedness and regardless of whether they were throwing to left-handed or right-handed hitters.

In the third inning, Lester had seemed to be bending and flexing his left leg just slightly. That was the only indication I caught -- so quick I wasn't sure if it was real or if I was exaggerating things -- of any physical problem for Lester tonight before Francona, the trainer and Kevin Cash suddenly headed out to examine him on the mound in the top of the fifth. He had a brief discussion with Francona, while appearing to stretch his left calf, threw a warmup pitch, and Francona exited again -- but Scott Atchison began warming in the pen.

Francona again came rushing out after the first pitch of the top of the sixth, to the shock and disgust of Lester, whose only word as Francona approached was a stone-faced, "No." But his next pitch was hit by Jayson Nix off the Fisk pole for a home run. After Andy Marte followed by singling to left, Francona came hobbling out of the dugout for a third time, and this time he would take Lester back with him.

The moody left-hander spent the next few innings glowering out of the dugout, alone on the bench with his thousand-yard stare.

Was it the oppressive humidity, and thus the sweating and possibly dehydration leading to a cramp that threw Lester off? The fact that this was his first start as a new father, and 'home' to the team is not really 'home' to him? Lester's home / road splits, as I recall, are in favor of the road this year as a general pattern -- why is that?

Meanwhile, the Sox lineup made Masterson throw a lot of pitches, but the story for the Boston offense tonight was a familiar one -- the failure to capitalize with men on base. Not to mention Masterson, otherwise struggling mightily, playing the Sox tough again. It's probably just familiarity. I imagine if you come up with a club and watch the lineup 162 games a season for a few years, you learn their tendencies.

But that's not to say the Sox hitters covered themselves in glory, either. When Papi finally got the Sox on the board with a solo homer leading off the bottom of the sixth, it had been 14 innings since they had scored on Masterson, and that was to be the end of Boston's scoring for the night. The next few innings were the kind of bullpen torchfest we've seen all too often this season, turning quickly into a blowout once Lester was lifted. And now the best the Sox can hope for is a series split with another mediocre opponent.

________________

P.S. My view of Adrian Beltre has changed as of this week. It used to be he was sort of a blank slate to me. Now, after seeing him go house on V-Mart for touching his head in the dugout and looking, as a coworker who attended the game put it, "like he was going to rip off someone's head and dump down their neck" during last night's beanball scuffle, not to mention the fact that he's broken two of our outfielders' ribs with his knee this season...I have come to realize, Beltre's a bad mofo. Possibly a Timlin-esque level of batshit, too, what with the whole head-touching issue, which is intriguing. Now, when he's shown on NESN's cameras, I prepare for riveting television to ensue.

...Or Not.

Once again, "it could be worse" proves to be the proverbial famous last words. I wrote that last night because even though the Sox had lost a frustrating game by a single run to a bad team (again, some more), at least we had not had to watch the "flower of our farm system" get his leg bent backwards.

The injury Cleveland catcher Carlos Santana suffered reminded me of Joe Theisman's famous gruesome injury at the hands of Lawrence Taylor, or of Willis McGehee's nasty leg-mangling in the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State. At least we were not watching the few survivors of a trade deadline sell-off play out the string in the hopes of a youth revival, I reasoned, only to see the crown jewel of our prospects laid out in the dirt, writhing in agony.

Then I saw this: 

And this: 

Okay, I'm frustrated. Officially. Uncle. You got me. I am downright pissed off. The one thing I'd been holding onto all season was Youk. Good old, reliable, unhurt Youk. Always in the lineup. Sure, he'd get pegged with the ball now and then, as is his wont, but there he'd be, obsessively practicing his swing on the top step, out on the on-deck circle, and then in the batter's box, as steady in that routine as a cuckoo emerging from a clock, but maintaining an element of mystery by coming through with key hits and making fascinating changes to his facial hair. Many's the time I've thought to myself this season, At least we still have Youk.

And now this. Just when the others are coming back. Argh.

Admittedly I'm in a cranky mood already, baseball-wise, because while I was watching last night's demolition derby live and in high-definition, tonight I was reading elated Tweets saying the game had seen the best moment of the season with Mike Lowell's return and subsequent Monster shot, while I was far, far away from any remote chance of watching. Then, I heard Feisty Beckett made an appearance*. And where was I? Catatonically making a lengthy drive down I-95.

But...at least they won this time. And I can catch the highlights, then move on to hoping Ellsbury is actually going to be activated tomorrow, so maybe we can finally stop the insanity over his injury saga. At this point I care less about who's right or wrong than I care about the whole thing being over. 

__________________

* Tonight's Beckett and Youkilis storylines came together in heartstring-tugging fashion as the dust settled on the shouting match. In the dugout, Youk patted Beckett on the belly with his bandaged hand, shooing him back down the steps when his ejection was handed down from the umpires.

Sunrise, Sunset: Trade deadline claims its victims while the Sox keep coming back

Photo by Kelly O'Connor

Imagine being Jeremy Hermida today. You've just recently come off the DL after suffering a rib injury and a down season, and the next thing you know, you're driving away from the park on deadline day, with your name still penciled in on the lineup cards in the clubhouse behind you.

Here's where the usual platitudes are summoned: it's a business, not personal, etc. And I'm excited for the potential Ryan Kalish brings after tearing up the minor leagues this year. It's always a treat to see a young player's first big-league hit, especially when it comes in his first at bat. Kalish will clearly have to get used to playing the Monster, but that will come with time, and he could certainly have done worse than to get his first Major League RBI and score his first Major League run a few innings later.

I don't think it's arguing against the move to DFA Hermida and call up Kalish, though, to say I feel badly for Hermida on a personal level. He did his best for the Sox and behaved himself. I hope he finds a landing place soon. 

Meanwhile, the only person I feel worse for? Mikey Lowell.

Otherwise, the moves by the Red Sox at the trade deadline today were distinctly nuts and bolts -- trading Ramon Ramirez to the Giants for right-handed relieving prospect Daniel Turpen and dealing prospects plus cash to the Rangers for Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who was immediately optioned to Pawtucket.

The question was raised about what this move might signal about VMart, but if it's a signal about anything, in my opinion it's about the likelihood of old, tired, broken Jason Varitek retaining a spot on our roster for many more seasons. I think Salty is meant to hold down / back up the catching position at Pawtucket while the more promising prospects are called up to the big club, but that's just my armchair theory.

For better or for worse, there were no big moves on a day the Sox looked like they were about to drop their second of as many games against the Tigers, after Friday night's big letdown following the seeming resurgence in Anaheim. As it turns out, they didn't -- slowly but surely they chipped away at Detroit's bullpen until finally, on his second at-bat with the bases loaded, David Ortiz delivered a bases-clearing double to walk off with the win.

A lot of people seemed to see Friday night's game as a microcosm of 2010, with a rally falling just short. I don't know how you can know what the 2010 season in microcosm looks like until you see the end of the 2010 season, but maybe that's just me. I'm not a naturally optimistic person by any means, but I am nowhere near ready to quit on this team. Until they are mathematically eliminated, I don't think you can count out the heart that's seen them remain players during this injury-riddled period.

The microcosm is the eye of the beholder, too: for me, both of these games, though each had a different outcome, were good examples of the attitude that has me keeping the faith about this year's team -- they may be beaten, but they hardly ever seem to be mentally out of it. They keep grinding, keep coming at you, keep making opponents work no matter how far behind they get. Between the talent they have waiting in the wings and the fact that they never stop fighting, I don't see how people can be so sure they'll ultimately fall short.

With reinforcements like Kalish, and bullpen help from lefty minor league callup Dustin Richardson (who also made an appearance today in the 7th inning), as well as Felix Doubront, who will be heading to the 'pen from his spot starter's role, not to mention Jacoby Ellsbury playing in Pawtucket and Dustin Pedroia chomping at the bit to get back, it's still way too early to make predictions for this season. And if they don't end up making it in the end, it's because too many people got hurt (including the Sox' reported trade target, David DeJesus), and couldn't get back in time--not because of the moves the team made or didn't make in an obviously tepid market at the deadline.

A few innings through failing eyelids

NESN made kind of a big deal last night about how John Lackey was received, but I didn't hear much beyond the kind of mixed reception I'd heard for Manny at Fenway. Apparently Chone Figgins was well-received when he returned, and he went to another team in their division, so it's not as if they boo indiscriminately there. It's pretty obvious this is something of a Johnny Damon equivalent for Orange County. And Boston fans booed the hell outta Damon the first time he came back, regardless of his World Series contributions in the past.

It makes sense. They hate the Red Sox. I can deal. I can even understand why. (Though I draw the line at the whole "East Coast bias" thing, and I disavow any and all conspiracy theories.)

***

Jeremy Hermida! Mike Cameron!  And V-Mart, glorious V-Mart!  It's like Christmas!

***

I saw Jacoby interviewed by Heidi on Red Sox Report before the game got started. He seems to be rehabbing down in the Gulf Coast League. There is, I hate to say, something vaguely A-Rod-ish about Ellsbury when he talks. I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's just a similar speech pattern.

But then they showed him running the bases, and that uncomfortable thought was easily swept back under the rug. He obviously wasn't even going 100%, but Jesus, that kid can just fly.

***

Yay, they won, and stuff (I'm convinced it's because my dad is at the games right now on his annual baseball trip, and is acting as a good luck charm). Great to see Jed Lowrie contributing, too. He really does seem to be the sweetest person -- I remember him being so touchingly excited when people recognized him at Fan Appreciation Day, and last night he made sure to politely greet both home plate umpire and catcher before digging in for his first at-bat. He's the kind of person I want to see do well.

***

Right now, I really just miss the Red Sox. I miss the hell out of Dustin Pedroia. I miss Ellsbury's speed on the field. I miss seeing Varitek every so often. And most of all, I miss coming home from work and getting dinner started while the pregame show is on. I miss sitting down and filling those primetime hours with the Red Sox. They need to come home, already.

Ellsbury is Double-Broken

May 23:

Today:

The Red Sox now know why Jacoby Ellsbury had recurring pain during his brief stint back from the disabled list. The center fielder, who flew to Southern California and was examined by the renowned Dr. Lewis Yocum on Wednesday, has a different fracture in his left ribs than the one that initially put him out of commission on April 11.

The second injury was likely sustained on May 23, just Ellsbury's second game back from the disabled list, when he made a diving catch in the bottom of the seventh inning in Philadelphia against Raul Ibanez. Ellsbury played one more game after that diving stop before he had to shut it down again.

I'd like to dispense with any "Ellsbury is soft" nonsense immediately, please.

NFL players, who have been known to play with broken fingers, separated shoulders, and concussions, are sometimes sidelined for substantial chunks of a season with rib fractures, because the pain and risk of re-injury are so great, and because there is no treatment like a cast, splint or surgery that can move healing along faster.

Here's another example. From 2001-08, Tom Brady started 128 consecutive regular season and playoff games for the Patriots, the third longest all-time streak for an NFL quarterback. He's won Super Bowls with a separated shoulder and a screwed-up knee. He played through half a season and two postseason games with a mofo sports hernia* (*Warning: guys may experience sympathy pains) in 2005 -- the same injury that put another NFL QB, Donovan McNabb, out of commission and on the operating table before the regular season was over that same year.

He may have a pretty-boy image (admittedly at least partially of his own creation, due to some very ill-advised pictures with goats), but he's actually one of the toughest quarterbacks ever to play the game.

And last year Brady still raised eyebrows when it was revealed he was playing through broken ribs -- "What's a bit terrifying for the Patriots is that the ribs have been broken all season long; it helps explains why he's been unable to hit his full stride much of the season," quoth the article I just linked.

Even for one of the toughest NFL quarterbacks ever, broken ribs are a "terrifying" injury to have, and it hampered him significantly. As an NFL fan, hearing of these discussions about Jacoby just make me shake my head -- I can't believe that given a sport where players go on the 15-day DL with blisters and sit out games or series with muscle strains or pulls, people would suggest a player is 'soft' when he has multiple freakin' bone fractures in his rib cage.