Schilling Strong As Sox Move Closer To AL East Pennant

Manny Ramirez returns

Curt Schilling was on the hill tonight for the Red Sox and he gave them six strong innings as the Sox held up their end in the AL East race as they beat the A’s 7-3. The win drops the magic number in the AL East to 3 games as the Yankees lost 7-6 to the Devil Rays on a Dioner Navarro walk-off home run. The lead is now 3 games as well.

The win wasn’t the only thing the Sox won tonight as Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis both returned to the playing field tonight. Manny started the game in left field and was batting second. He went 1 for 2 with a walk and a run scored. Youk pinch-hit for Hinske in the 5th and stayed at first base. He was 0 for 2.

After Schilling got Shannon Stewart to ground out to start the game, he left a fastball out over the plate that Daric Barton planted in the seats in right for a solo home run. Nick Swisher followed that up with a ground out. Schilling ended the 1st with strikeout of Jack Cust.

Chad Gaudin made the start tonight for the A’s and struggled at times with his command. The Sox got to him for a run in their half of the 1st. Dustin Pedroia led off with a fly out. Manny, after a nice ovation, laced a single the opposite way. David Ortiz worked a walk. Mike Lowell brought in Manny with a double off the Green Monstah to tie the game at one. Gaudin then got J.D. Drew to strikeout but walked Jason Varitek to load up the bases for Jacoby Ellsbury. Jacoby was unable to bring in anyone as he grounded out to Barton at first.

Schilling was cruising along. He was hitting all his spots, getting some calls. He allowed a single to Dan Johnson in the 2nd, a single to Barton in the 3rd, a Cust single in the 4th and Kurt Suzuki in the 5th. After the Cust single, he struck out the next three batters he faced. They all went down looking.

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NASCAR Changing Beers

Coors Light logo

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet. NASCAR and Budweiser. Things you know that go together.

Since 1998, Budweiser has been the official beer of NASCAR. Starting in 2008, Coors Light will become the official beer of NASCAR. To me that just doesn’t sound right.

The Coors Brewing Company deal with NASCAR allows them to use the NASCAR logo in advertising and promotions. It also calls for a name change for the Bud Pole, which goes to person who qualifies first at each race. Coors Light Pole doesn’t sound right at all.

Coors Light had been the sponsor of the #40 car driven by David Stremme and owned by Chip Gnassi. Coors Light decided to end that sponsorship costing Stremme his ride.

“The company has a proven track record as a strong brand marketer, and we’re looking forward to a mutually beneficial partnership that excites our fans and helps bring NASCAR to new levels of popularity,” Steve Phelps, NASCAR’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

It’s going to be hard to get all the NASCAR fans to switch beers. It’s bad enough they can’t root for the Bud #8 car anymore and now they have listen to people pitch Coors Light instead of Budweiser.

Manny Returns Tonight, Bats Second

According to the Associated Press Manny Ramirez will return to the Boston Red Sox line up tonight after a 24-game absence. Ramirez, who was out with a strained oblique, will bat 2nd for only the 6th time in his career.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona says that move will get Ramirez an extra at bat during the game.

Ramirez is hitting .292 with 20 HRs and 86 RBI. It is expected that he will be replaced after two or three at bats by Jacoby Ellsbury.

Ramirez was injured batting against the Yankees in New York on August 28th . In his absence the Red Sox AL East lead went from a seven-game lead over the second-place Yankees to two games. In the 24 games without him they were 12-12.

In other big pre-game news, it was announced that first baseman Kevin Youkilis will return tomorrow. Youkilis has missed 7 games since being hit on the wrist on Spetember 15th by the Yankees Chien-Ming Wang.

Hold or Fold

The Rivalry

One week left to decide to the American League East title. The Red Sox find themselves in the driver’s seat with a two game edge over the Yankees with 6 to play.

So are the Sox going to hold onto the lead or are they going to fold like a house of cards?

In 1978, the Sox took over first place on May 24^th and by July 17^th led Milwaukee by 8.5 games and the Yanks were 14 games behind. They still had a 9 game lead over New York as late as August 13^th before they collapsed under the weight of injuries and mounting pressure by the Yankees. They actually fell behind New York by 3.5 games on September 16th. Down the stretch of the final week or so the team won numerous games while the Yankees struggled to hold on to the division. As you know the teams ended up tied and met in a one game playoff to decide who won the AL East.

This year the Sox largest advantage over the nearest competition was 10 games, they had a 14.5 game over the Yankees who had fallen down the standings and at one point looked done. While the Yanks had continued to produce runs the starting pitching was awful.

But slowly the Yankees righted the ship and showed the rest of the league why you can never ever count them out.

At the all-star break on July 9th the Red Sox held a 9.5 game lead over the New Yorker’s who were battling just to stay at .500 for the season.

Red Sox 53-34 .609

Yankees 43-43 .500 9.5

Funny thing is for as much as the average Red Sox fan wants to say they have blown the division lead the fact of the matter is that they Sox have played at a .562 clip since the break. Right now there are only 5 teams out of 30 who are ABOVE .562 for the season. Only the Indians, Angels, Red Sox, Yankees and Diamondbacks have done it and Arizona is barely holding on to stay above that percentage.

The Yankees are the team who made this a race, playing a sizzling .671 since mid-July. I don’t think anyone, even the Yankees themselves, ever imagined they could keep up this pace for two and half months.

Difference since break

Yankees 47-23 .671

Red Sox 39-30 .562 7.5

They have won 47 of the 70 games in the second half after winning only 43 of 86 prior to the break.

Currently the Sox are in first place, exactly where they have been since April 18^th. So who does that put the pressure on? The team that is in front or the one that is doing the chasing?

Current 9/24

Red Sox 92-64 .590

Yankees 90-66 .577 2.0

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In The Red Zone – 9/25

logo

It was good to see the Patriots shake off the cobwebs they had in the opening period against Buffalo. For a while there it looked like the team was sleep walking. Something woke them up and then the Bills had no answers for what is turning into a devastating offense.

Does anyone ever recall the Patriots challenging two plays in game before, much less a half or within 11 seconds of each other? The Patriots lost both challenges and two time outs. I guess if you’re going to lose time outs it’s better to lose them in the first half rather than the second half of a close game. But on the other side he was out of challeges for the rest of the game. Maybe he knew it was a matter of time before they blew Buffalo out of the building.

Here’s Bill Belichick’s take on challenging a call:

“First of all, it needs to be what you consider to be an important play in the game,” he began. “Obviously the more important the play is, the more likely I’d be to throw it, regardless of how convincing the evidence was. “And second of all, how good you feel about what evidence you have to work with. I would say the more important the play, the less certain I would be about the evidence or view of the play.”

“Sometimes,” he continued, “You’re just hoping you get a good view of it. The more sure you are of the replay, the more sure you are of the evidence that will overturn the play, then, I would say, the less important the play would need to be. I think those things, for me, work in inverse proportions.”

The Pats have thrown the red flag three times this year and have lost all the three challenges. This season there have been 47 challenges league wide and 12 have been over turned for a 25.5% sucess rate. Last season the success rate of reversals was 45.1% as 107 of 237 challenges were over turned.

Head coach Bill Belichick’s Monday press conference can be found here.

While fans and the media appear ecstatic over the Patriots roaring start to the season, the big guy doesn’t necessarily see the same things. Belichick wants to see the team stop someone in the red zone.

“We haven’t stopped anybody yet, so it starts with me,” Belichick said. “We can’t let them in the end zone every time they cross the 20-yard line. It’s just ridiculous.”

“I don’t think right now is really a good time to evaluate where any team is,” Belichick said. “We need to get better at the things that we’re not doing as well on and, if we don’t, I think it will hurt us in the long run.”

Six times prior to his year the Patriots have started 3-0. Four times they failed to make the playoffs.

the NEW and IMPROVED Randy Moss is a hot with the kids As was noted in the game recap Randy Moss gave a young fan in the front row the ball after his second TD the leaping, stretching grab of the 45-yard bomb from Tom Brady.

You can read a great story about Moss giving the ball up by checking this link out. I want to say it was fantastic work by the ProJo to get the story. Nice shot by the photographer Glenn Osmundson and nice leg work by the reporter Shalise Manza Young to get the story and a interview with the family of Patriots fans from Rye, NY.

It’s safe to say Randy Moss has a few new fans for life.

You Gotta Love The Wiz

Joba Chamberlain and the boys:

the wiz

Interesting choice that the vets chose to make him the cowardly lion.

Joba the Hut

I think I would have gone with the obvious Star Wars theme. Poor guys had to fly to Tampa like that and then go to dinner dressed in character. I guess there was no room service allowed last night.

Red Sox News & Notes – 9/25

London Bridge is falling down

Last off day for the regular season took place on Monday for the Sox. Bobby Kielty joined his injured teammates Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis at the Fens for some batting practice. No word on whether or not the injured two will play. Good news as the lead is up to two games as the Yanks lost yesterday. The magic number for the AL East is 5 games. The Sox are still in a battle with the Indians and Angels for the best record in the American League. The Oakland A’s are in town for a brief two game set but before both teams arrive at the Fens, let’s take a look at the headlines from the Boston media on this Indian summer morning in New England.

New tools for job [Boston Globe]

Sox Try To Stay Healthy In Pennant Race [Hartford Courant]

Managerâ€™s one of a kind [Boston Herald]

Sox may not have all the answers [Pro Jo]

In the season’s last week, they need to stay on top of things [Boston Globe]

Lynn: Ellsbury has familiar look [Boston Herald]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, and Hartford Courant websites.