For some odd reason during Friday night’s 10-3 win over the Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox skipper Bobby Valentine decided that he was going to play batboy and give his catcher Kelly Shoppach a new bat.
It didn’t work out too well for Shoppach as he struck out during the at-bat.
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HARTFORD, April 27, 2012: Whalers Sports & Entertainment (WSE) announced today the schedule for the Whale’s Eastern Conference Semifinal playoff series, in which the Whale will battle the AHL’s regular-season champions, the Norfolk Admirals.
The first two games of the best-of-seven series will be at Norfolk Scope Arena, this Wednesday, May 2, with faceoff at 7:15 PM, and Friday, May 4, with faceoff at 7:30. The series then switches to the XL Center in Hartford for Games Three and Four, which will be next Sunday, May 6 and Monday, May 7, with faceoff at 7:00 both nights.
If a Game Five is necessary in the series, it will be a Whale home game, but due to scheduling conflicts at the XL Center, it will be played at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, CT on Wednesday, May 9, with faceoff at 7:00. Details on ticketing issues for that game will be announced soon.
“Scheduling is always a challenge this time of year, and happily for Hartford, the XL Center is extra busy this spring with premier events,” WSE president and COO Howard Baldwin, Jr. said. “We have worked hard with our partners at AEG and the XL Center to come up with the best possible schedule for this exciting matchup, and we appreciate them agreeing to have us move Game Five to Bridgeport in order to schedule the series in a way that works best for the teams and our fans.”
Chuck Steedman, XL Center Senior Vice President & General Manager said, “We can’t wait to get the Whale back on the ice for the second round games at the XL Center. We hope that fans will come out in big numbers to support the team as they continue their quest for the Calder Cup. In the event that a home game is played off site, we would encourage fans to cheer even harder so we can continue to host more playoff hockey at the XL Center.”
Games Six and Seven, should they be necessary, would be at Scope Friday, May 11 at 7:30 and Sunday, May 13 at 5:00.
The Whale defeated the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals in a three-game sweep. The Admirals, who finished first overall in the AHL during the regular season with a 55-18-1-2 record for 113 points, ousted the Manchester Monarchs in four games in their quarterfinal series. Norfolk took an AHL-record 28-game winning streak into the postseason, and it reached 29 before a 5-2 loss to the Monarchs in Game Two.
Tickets to Whale home games can be purchased at the Public Power Ticket Office at the XL Center, as well as on-line at www.ctwhale.com and through TicketMaster Charge-by-phone at 1-800-745-3000.
Playoff ticket packages are also available that include tickets to all possible home playoff games. To speak to a Whale account executive about a playoff ticket package, call (860) 728-3366. More information is available at www.ctwhale.com.
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UConn Huskies defensive tackle Kendall Reyes had high hopes of being taken in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft on Thursday night.
Unfortunately for him, it didn’t work out. But on Friday night after 16 picks were announced, Reyes finally heard his name be called.
With 17th pick in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft (49th overall), the San Diego Chargers took Reyes to help bolster their front seven.
It’s the sixth straight year that a member of the UConn football team has been selected. He’s also the fourth second rounder joining Darius Butler, Will Beatty and Cody Brown who were all selected in 2009 during the second round.
In 12 games this past season, Reyes had 46 tackles, including 13.5 tackles for a loss. He also had 4.5 sacks and one fumble recovery which he returned a for a touchdown.
He finished up his UConn career with 142 tackles (31.5 for a loss), 11.5 sacks and two interceptions.
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photo credit: Getty Images
Here’s the release from Boston Red Sox announcing Tim Wakefield Day at Fenway Park.
BOSTON, MA— The Boston Red Sox will honor Tim Wakefield May 15 with ‘Thanks, Wake Day,’ a day when we say, ‘Thanks, Wake’ at Fenway Park. The club plays the Seattle Mariners at special 4:05 p.m. starting time. A pre-game ceremony tribute is expected to begin at approximately 3:30 p.m.
The right-handed knuckleball specialist, who won more games at Fenway Park than any pitcher in history, just completed a 19-year career in Major League Baseball, including 17 years with the Red Sox. He announced his retirement February 17, 2012, at the Red Sox’ new Spring Training site, JetBlue Park at Fenway South in Lee County, Florida.
Wakefield’s Red Sox reached postseason play nine times, and he was part of two momentous World Series Championships, in 2004 and 2007. His selflessness was pivotal in winning the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees.
A champion of charitable efforts in New England and his hometown of Melbourne, Florida, Wakefield was honored as the 2010 recipient of Major League Baseball’s Roberto Clemente Award. In 2011, the Boston chapter of the BBWAA announced the start of an annual Tim Wakefield Community Service Award in his honor.
Wakefield has been actively involved with “Pitching in for Kids,” a non-profit organization dedicated to providing grants to improve the lives of children across New England. He supports Melbourne’s Space Coast Early Intervention Center, a unique non-profit therapeutic pre-school program for children with special needs. He adopted the Center in 1992 when it was struggling financially and faced closure and has helped to raise over $10 million for the organization through his annual Tim Wakefield Celebrity Golf Classic and Memorabilia Auction. Over the last 13 years, his “Wakefield Warriors” program has enabled patients from the Franciscan Hospital for Children and the Jimmy Fund in Boston to visit with him and watch batting practice before all Tuesday home games at Fenway Park. He has also been an active participant of the Red Sox’ annual Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon and served as the organization’s Co-Captain in 2010 and 2011.
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photo credit: AP Photo
After picking up their fourth straight win last night, the Boston Red Sox look to make it five straight tonight in the second game of a four-game set with the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field on south side of the Windy City.
First pitch is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on NESN in the Red Sox television market. If you live in the White Sox television market, you can catch the game on WCIU. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to it on the Red Sox radio network.
Daniel Bard makes his fourth appearance (third start) of 2012 tonight. In his previous three appearances (two starts), Bard is 1-2 with a 4.38 ERA. His lone win of the season came out of the bullpen last Monday against the Twins. Bard made two appearances against the South Siders last year and had no record with a 0.00 ERA (0 ER/3 IP). He’s made eight career appearances against them and is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA (2 ER/8.2 IP). Bard’s made three of those appearances at U.S. Cellular Field where he has no record with a 3.38 ERA (1 ER/2.2 IP).
John Danks will make his fifth start of 2012 for new manager Robin Ventura. In his previous four starts, Danks is 2-2 with a 5.11 ERA. He did not face the Red Sox in 2011 and last faced them in 2010 when he went 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA in two starts. Overall in his career, Danks has made seven career starts against the Red Sox and is 3-4 with a 4.14 ERA. Four of those starts have come at home where he is 1-3 with a 4.84 ERA.
Click on the read more button below to see today’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the overnight and day if you’re on the home page.
Here are today’s lineups:
 8-10 |
 10-9 |
||
| 1. Mike Aviles | SS | 1. Alejandro De Aza | CF |
| 2. Dustin Pedroia | 2B | 2. Alexei Ramirez | SS |
| 3. Adrian Gonzalez | 1B | 3. Adam Dunn | DH |
| 4. Kevin Youkilis | 3B | 4. Paul Konerko | 1B |
| 5. David Ortiz | DH | 5. A.J. Pierzynski | C |
| 6. Cody Ross | RF | 6. Alex Rios | RF |
| 7. Kelly Shoppach | C | 7. Dayan Viciedo | CF |
| 8. Darnell McDonald | LF | 8. Brent Morel | 3B |
| 9. Marlon Byrd | CF | 9. Gordon Beckham | 2B |
| Daniel Bard | SP | John Danks | SP |
And here is how the hitters have fared against today’s starting pitchers:
Notes: After missing most of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Rich Hill has been recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket. To make room on the 25-man roster for Hill, Justin Thomas has been optioned to the PawSox.
REFRESH OR CHECK BACK OFTEN AS MORE LINKS WILL BE ADDED BEFORE GAMETIME IF/WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE AND WILL BE BOLDED
To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click
Red Sox Offense Hitting Stride at Perfect Time As Pitching Staff Still Tries to Find Its Way [Tom Caron – NESN.com]
The loss of Carl Crawford has been a gain for Ryan Sweeney, Red Sox [Clubhouse Insider]
Rich Hill set to be activated from disabled list [Clubhouse Insider]
Box Score Bank: The Big Hurt [CSN New England]
Rehab complete, Hill returns to majors [CSN New England]
Random Red Sox thoughts from Chicago [Extra Bases]
After Joel Ward incident, Darnell McDonald talks about his own run-in with racism [Full Count]
Carl Crawford isn’t aging well [Tony Massarotti – Boston Globe]
Red Sox pitchers making noticeable progress holding runners [Projo Sox Blog]
Rich Hill reinforces beleaguered bullpen [Projo Sox Blog]
Bard looks to push Boston’s winning streak to five [RedSox.com]
Middlebrooks earns Player of Week nod [RedSox.com]
The case of phenoms vs. incumbents [Touching All The Bases]
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Photo credits: AP Photo, Getty Images
Do you know what the difference between mittens and gloves are? Well apparently NESN Boston Red Sox play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo doesn’t.
Fortunately for Orsillo, Jerry Remy does and let’s him know that he’s wrong.
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During the HBO show Entourage whenever Jeremy Piven’s character Ari Gold wanted to settle something, he’d say “Let’s Hug It Out B*tch”.
So after his second straight quality start last night that’s all Boston Red Sox starter Felix Doubront wanted to do with his batterymate Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Instead, awkwardness ensued.
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Look out folks the Boston Red Sox offense is alive and well right now.
Last night the Red Sox were facing Chicago White Sox starter Philip Humber who by the way threw a perfect game in his last start. After one batter, Humber was no longer perfect as he walked Mike Aviles. Two batters later, the chance of a second straight no-hitter went by the wayside when Dustin Pedroia reached on an infield single.
Then a double by Adrian Gonzalez and a single by the white-hot David Ortiz gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead, a lead they would never look back on.
Kevin Youkilis started the season off slow at the plate and even with Will Middlebrooks tearing up Triple-A, there were no whispers about a change. And if there was going to be any talk, Youk’s made sure to keep it quiet. Over the past few games, Youk has been finding his swing and last night it culminated with a grand slam.
For Jarrod Saltalmacchia, it was a little different. He got off to basically the same start as Youk. But with Bobby Valentine being a Ryan Lavarnway guy and Lavarnway hitting pretty well in Triple-A, there were whispers a change could be made. But ever since Saturday’s game against the New York Yankees, Salty has been hitting the cover off the ball. He followed Youk’s grand tater with a solo home run.
Youk would finish the night with three hits to see his average go up to .241. Salty’s two hits raised his average to .261. With the exception of Lars Anderson, who was making his first MLB start in left field, everyone in the Red Sox starting nine had a hit.
Ryan Sweeney continues to thrive in the second spot in the lineup as he added two more hits and is now hitting a robust .383. Even by going 1-for-3, Big Papi sees his average at .420.
You have to wonder if Felix Doubront was wondering about having a big lead and coming out of the game. He was the pitcher of record on Saturday when the Red Sox held a 9-1 lead over the Yankees. He did his part by limiting the White Sox to just three runs over six innings of work to pick up his second straight quality start. But more importantly, despite it being a meaningless statistic, his first win of 2012.
A high pitch count in the 3rd inning probably cost him another inning. Most of that came from him losing a little bit of his mechanics. He was however able to adjust and settle back down.
Doubront throws a nasty sinking two-seam fastball. It happened to be his best pitch of the night. It also was his worst pitch at times. When he located it, he was on. When he couldn’t, like in the 3rd, he was off. But overall, another solid inning from Doubront. If he can just keep his pitch count down and get into the 7th inning, he’ll make things easier for Valentine in regards to going to the bullpen.
Speaking of the bullpen, obviously it’s been much maligned for the early part of this season. There’s been some bright spots at times and obviously some spots where we’d just like to forget what happened.
But what Junichi Tazawa did last night was nothing short of spectacular.
He came in for Doubront and pitched the final three innings of the game, allowing just two hits while striking out four to pick up his first career MLB save. He had great command of his fastball and his secondary pitches were outstanding. Because of that, he was able to keep the White Sox hitters at bay.
Hopefully Tazawa’s great outing rubs off on the other members of the bullpen who are struggling.
Things are definitely clicking for the Red Sox. The offense is on fire, the starting pitching has been decent and the bullpen is up and down. But last night, all three things came together and that’s what the Red Sox need more of.
The offense isn’t going to be able to do the job every night so it’ll be up to the starting pitching and bullpen to get the job done.
That’s just how baseball is.
We’ll be back later with today’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day. So for now, let’s take at look at the overnight links from the media by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.
To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click
Saltalamacchia, Red Sox catching fire [Boston Globe]
Worst case for Crawford is three more months [Boston Globe]
Not what Valentine envisioned [Boston Globe]
Pitching decision due [Boston Globe]
Red Sox batter Phil Humber [Boston Herald]
Bad news for Carl Crawford [Boston Herald]
Valentine and Ventura managing healthy respect [Boston Herald]
Carl Crawford a costly loss [Boston Herald]
Will Middlebrooks on way [Boston Herald]
PawSox trio on path to majors [Boston Herald]
How the Red Sox bullpen can survive without Daniel Bard [Rob Bradford – WEEI.com]
Red Sox crush White Sox, cruise to 10-3 win [CSN New England]
Doubront continues to keep Sox in games [CSN New England]
Bats carry Sox to fourth straight win [CSN New England]
Terry Francona ESPN New York podcast [ESPN Boston]
Rapid reaction: Red Sox 10, White Sox 3 [ESPN Boston]
Video: Bobby V says ‘Salty’s on fire’ [ESPN Boston]
Closing Time: Kevin Youkilis, Jarrod Saltalamacchia key Red Sox latest win [Full Count]
Mother Nature, White Sox were no match for Felix Doubront [Full Count]
Nuggetpalooza: Red hot stat nuggets for the Red (hot) Sox [Full Count]
Red Sox Outfielders Will Need To Carry the Torch As Carl Crawford Recovers From Latest Setback [NESN.com]
Jarrod Saltalamacchia Displays Power Surge, Puts Early Slump Behind Him [NESN.com]
Felix Doubront Is Key to Success of Red Sox Pitching Staff [NESN.com]
Saltalamacchia getting into rhythm at plate [RedSox.com]
Crawford has sprained ulnar collateral ligament [RedSox.com]
For more slices of Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, CSN New England, ESPN Boston, NESN, Providence Journal, RedSox.com and WEEI websites.
And if you must check out the enemy news, be sure to head over to the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune and ESPN Chicago websites.
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photo credit: Getty Images
Apparently I live in a state where the enemy is liked more than the team I like.
For the fourth straight year, the New York Yankees are the preferred team for the residents of the state of Connecticut according to the Quinnipiac Poll. This year the advantage is 43% to 38% over the Boston Red Sox.
As you might expect, the Yankees hold the advantage in Fairfield County, which is closer to New York City. What’s odd to me is that even though the New York Mets are closer to Fairfield County, the Red Sox are the second favorite team there.
While there’s no results in Litchfield County, the Yankees hold the advantage in Middlesex and New Haven Counties as well.
The Red Sox hold the advantage in Hartford County where I live. Honestly, Hartford County and I-84 corridor usually splits Red Sox fans and Yankees fan as it does for the New England Patriots and New York Giants fans.
The Red Sox dominance comes in the counties closest to Massachusetts and Rhode Island. They hold an almost 2-1 advantage over Yankees fans.
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Paw Prints is our daily look at the happenings for the UConn Huskies football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams as well as some of the other sports. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a daily basis. As always, links can be found by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.
Thank you for stopping by and making SOX & Dawgs your home for UConn Huskies news.
To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click
UConn Men’s Basketball links
Low-resource schools granted flexible transition to APR standards [Kevin Duffy – CT Post]
Remaining UConn players want Calhoun to return [CT Post]
Other UConn related links
Baseball. Baseball Visits Louisville for Crucial League Series [UConnHuskies.com]
Softball. Huskies Fall At Home To Intrastate Foe Hartford, 13-7 [UConnHuskies.com]
W. Lacrosse. Huskies Look To Complete Four-Game Winning Streak [UConnHuskies.com]
Malloy Welcomes UConn To Husky Day At Capitol, Then Bashes NCAA [Hartford Courant]
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