Destination Red Sox Nation is our look at how the minor league teams of the Boston Red Sox fare each night. Game story links and links to team stats and league standings are after the jump.
The Red Sox have 4 of their minor league teams in the playoffs. The Pawtucket Red Sox, Portland Sea Dogs, Lancaster JetHawks and Lowell Spinners have all clinched playoff berths.
Monday, September 8th @ 7:05 PM
RHP Edwin Jackson (11-9, 4.07) vs LHP Jon Lester (13-5, 3.57)
TV: NESN, MLB.tv
Radio: Red Sox Radio Network, MLB Game Day Audio
Tuesday, September 9th @ 7:05 PM
LHP Scott Kazmir (11-6, 2.99) vs RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (16-2, 2.88)
TV: NESN, MLB.tv
Radio: Red Sox Radio Network, MLB Game Day Audio
Wednesday, September 10th @ 7:05 PM
RHP Andy Sonnanstine (13-7, 4.66) vs RHP Josh Beckett (12-9, 4.20)
TV: NESN/ESPN, MLB.tv
Radio: Red Sox Radio Network, MLB Game Day Audio
Paul Byrd gave the Boston Red Sox 6 2/3 scoreless innings as they went on to beat the Texas Rangers 7-2 in front of 28,644 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The win for the Red Sox coupled with the Tampa Bay Rays loss this afternoon moves them to 1.5 games with the Rays coming for a big 3-game set.
The Red Sox also now lead the wild card by 6.5 games over the Minnesota Twins, 8 games over the Toronto Blue Jays and 8.5 games over the New York Yankees, who are now in the 4th place in the AL East.
Paul Byrd picked up his fourth win in 5 tries in a Red Sox uniform.
Byrd was solid as he gave up just 3 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4 on 102 pitches. He is now 4-1 in a Red Sox uniform. Javier Lopez struck out the only batter he faced while Manny Delcarmen gave up 1 run on 2 hits while fanning the side in his inning of work. Chris Smith worked 1/3 of an inning, allowing a run on a walk. Jonathan Papelbon worked the final 2/3 innings giving up 2 hits and allowed the inherited runner from Smith to score.
David Ortiz led the Red Sox with 2 RBI on 2 hits including his first home run in 20 games. Coco Crisp added 2 hits to go along with a walk, 2 runs scored and a stolen base while Jason Bay added 2 hits including a solo home run. All of the starting nine for the Red Sox had a hit in the game.
The Red Sox got on the scoreboard in the 2nd inning off of Rangers starter Brandon McCarthy.
McCarthy had actually gotten the first two outs of the inning before Jason Varitek singled. He came into score when Alex Cora tripled and Cora came across the plate on a Coco single to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead. Jacoby Ellsbury worked walk but McCarthy got Dustin Pedroia to ground into a fielder’s choice.
The only bad inning Byrd had was in the bottom of the 3rd.
The Result
It was a long offseason and I was glad it was over until Tom Brady hurt his knee in the first quarter when he was hit by Kansas City lineman Bernard Pollard in a play eerily reminiscent of Vince Wilfork’s run in last season with Buffalo QB J.P. Losman. But in the absence of their true team leader the New England Patriots defense went into it’s patented bend but don’t break mode and escaped with a hard fought 17-10 win over the Kansas City Chiefs at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro on Sunday afternoon.
Matt Cassel came in and on his first drive they almost had a safety against them on the first two plays but on 3rd and 11 from npot quite his own 1 yard line he went 51 yards to Randy Moss and it seemed to give him and the offensive unit confidence. I think the hardest thing to remember about this guy is that prior to today, in his fourth NFL season, he hasn’t played in real live, meaningful game conditions since high school. And while Josh McDaniels and Bill Belichick may have “dumbed” down the playbook with Cassel in there it wasn’t that apparent if that were the case especially with the bomb to Moss.
One thing I learned today about Matt Cassel is the guy isn’t as bad as every made him out to be. Granted he is not Brady but if he has to play for a few weeks they won’t be in bad shape. The kid is a gamer, he is confident in his ability and it appears that Belichick and the staff have a good feel for him. Face it if they didn’t think he could do the job he wouldn’t be here.
The offense didn’t play that bad in Brady’s absence, the defense made the plays when they needed to and the special teams executed some nice plays with the kick off return by Ellis Hobbs, some nice punts and punt/kick off coverage.
Hopefully it all gets better from here on out.
Scoring Plays
| CHIEFS | 0 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 10 |
| PATRIOTS | 0 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 17 |
1st Quarter
2nd Quarter
NE – Cassel 10 yard pass to Moss (Gostkowski PAT)3rd Quarter
4th Quarter
Offensive Player of the Game
It was a hard choice but I am going with Sammy Morris. He had 51 yards rushing on 10 carries, caught 5 passes for 34 yards and had a TD.
Defensive Player of the Game
Another tough choice but it’s Ellis Hobbs. He may not have had the most tackles but he had four tackles, 1 sack and a pick and when you add that to his 51 yard KOR and the fact he played decent coverage all day against a bigger receiver he had a good day.
Turning Point(s) of the Game
It really could have been the Brady injury but the two biggest plays of the day were Cassel’s bomb to Moss and the goal line stand on 1st goal from the five in the final two minutes.
New England Patriots QB Tom Brady was hit on the left knee throwing a pass in the first quarter and was helped off the field and limped to the locker room.
Patriots report his return as questionable with :21 seconds left in 1st quarter.
Matt Cassel has taken over at quarterback.
Patriots said entering 4th quarter Brady would not return
After a tough loss last night, the Boston Red Sox look to Paul Byrd to get them in position to win this series against the Texas Rangers. A win would be nice for the Red Sox because it would keep them at least 2.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays who come to the Fens for a 3-game set starting tomorrow.
83-58
1. Jacoby Ellsbury, RF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Kevin Youkilis, 3B
5. Jason Bay, LF
6. Sean Casey, 1B
7. Jason Varitek, C
8. Alex Cora, SS
9. Coco Crisp, CF
– Paul Byrd, SP
70-73
1. Joaquin Arias, 2B
2. Ramon Vazquez, SS
3. Michael Young, DH
4. Josh Hamilton, CF
5. Marlon Byrd, LF
6. Hank Blalock, 1B
7. Nelson Cruz, RF
8. Chris Davis, 3B
9. Taylor Teagarden, C
– Brandon McCarthy, SP
And here is how the hitters have fared against tonight’s starting pitchers.
With the UConn Huskies football team weathering the storm yesterday afternoon, we have a plethora of UConn football links for you this morning along with some men’s and women’s basketball ones as well.
Chip Malafronte of the New Haven Register has his game story here and his postgame notes here.
Neill Ostrout of the Connecticut Post has his postgame notes here.
John Silver of the Journal Enquirer has his game story here and his postgame notes here.
Ed Daigneault of the Republican-American says Temple head coach Al Golden wasn’t happy with the officiating again. And you can see his game story here.
Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant has his weekly Sunday column here which talks about the game yesterday.
Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant has his game story here and his postgame notes here. He also looks at what went right and wrong for the Huskies here.
Chuck Banning of the New London Day has his game story here along with postgame notes here.
Brian Bennett of ESPN.com says the Big East stunk yesterday.
Men’s basketball recruit Tobias Harris enjoyed his visit to the UConn campus.
David Gillett has an interview with Kemba Walker and also profiles the role players for the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team.
John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant caught up with UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma last week.
The UConn men’s soccer team will play Boston University tonight after being rained out by Tropical Storm Hanna.
The UConn women’s soccer team beat Yale 2-1 in double overtime on Friday night.
Tim Wakefield would like to forget what happened last night.
Before we get going here this morning, let’s just try and forget that the Tim Wakefield had a bad night. Unfortunately though, I don’t think the local media will be doing that in their articles this morning.
It was a bad night for Wakefield and the Boston Red Sox. Just when it seemed like Wake was going to have a good night, things took a sudden turn for the worse. Whether he lost confidence in Kevin Cash who had trouble catching the knuckleball last night or just lost confidence in the knuckleball itself, he seemed to change his approach and tried the aim the ball instead of just throwing it and letting it do it’s dances.
We’ve all seen Wakefield at his best and now at his worst. It’s amazing how fast things can change with the knuckleball considering the fact that he retired the first 5 Texas Ranger hitters on just 12 pitches.
“I’m not going to make any excuses. I just couldn’t find the strike zone,” said Wakefield, who was tagged with seven earned runs. “When I did [throw strikes], they hit balls in the hole. One of those days you’d like to forget.
“I felt great,” Wakefield said. “Physically great, mentally great. Just the inning unfolded so fast. I was trying to get somebody to pop up or hit a grounder or something and it just didn’t happen.”
“I have no answers for it. Don’t know. I wish I did.”
David Aardsma and J.D. Drew are close to returning to the team.
The Rangers found answers in the win last night.
The Red Sox sellout streak will become one-of-a-kind tomorrow night.
The Rangers are having their worst season in attendance since 1994.
The Red Sox spent their afternoon watching the Jays beat the Rays.
Getting everyone healthy bodes well for the Red Sox.
For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.
And if you must see what the enemy papers are saying you can check out Dallas Morning News and Star-Telegram websites.
The New England Patriots 2008 season kicks off in a few hours as they host the Kansas Chiefs. Finally no more talk about last year, no more talked about a bad preseason, no more spygate, no more Mercury Morris. As Hank Williams Junior says “Are you ready for some football?” Time to get back to work on adding to the collection. Continue reading
Destination Red Sox Nation is our look at how the minor league teams of the Boston Red Sox fare each night. Game story links and links to team stats and league standings are after the jump.
The Red Sox have 4 of their minor league teams in the playoffs. The Pawtucket Red Sox, Portland Sea Dogs, Lancaster JetHawks and Lowell Spinners have all clinched playoff berths.
The future is bright for the Red Sox minor league system.