With his 4 strikeouts in today’s outing against the Cincinnati Reds, Pedro Martinez passed the 3,000 strikeout threshold in his career. He is the 15th person in MLB history to achieve this spectacular feat.
Big Papi The Rap King
I was perusing my normal run of blogs this afternoon when I came across this on Red Sox Monster who found it on the Fanhouse.
You can now include Big Papi in the list of athletes who have tried their hand at music. He appears rapping in a video with an artist known as Maclaen.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGZrJqeYvag[/youtube]
Hat tip to Red Sox Monster and the Fan House for the find.
Red Sox Review For August
The Sox finished the fifth month of the season 16-13 losing three games off of their division lead for an overall record of 80-55 .592 and a 5 game lead in the AL East through August. The month started off at home against Baltimore (2-0) as the Sox finished up the four game series with the O’s. Then it was go west young men where the Sox went into Seattle (2-1) and Los Angeles (1-2) before finishing up in Baltimore (1-2) on a down note. The Sox then came home for seven games with Tampa Bay (2-1) and finshed their season series with the Angels (2-2). August was a month of two big road trips and the second trip took the team indoors to Tampa Bay (2-1), to the shores of the Lake Michigan to face the White Sox (4-0) and then to the Big Apple and yet another showdown with the Evil Empire (0-3). Then the Sox finished the month right where they started it, at home against those Baltimore Orioles (0-1). The Sox were 6-4 at home and 10-9 on the road in August.
Manager Terry Francona: Got to give Tito credit for the team basically keeping it together even during the few rough stretches. The Yankees played out of their minds most of the month but the Sox still ended up with a pretty comfortable lead heading into the last 27 games. Grade: B+ (July Grade: B)
Starting Nine:
Short Stop Julio Lugo: Continued improvement in August. He didn’t hit as well as July but did hit .286 with 15 RBI for the month. Only stole 2 bases in 5 attempts. Grade: C+ (July Grade: C+)
First Baseman Kevin Youkilis: Had better power numbers in July with 3 HRs and 17 RBI but still only hit .241 for the month. His overall batting average dropped 14 points from .304 to .290 and he struck out a whopping 28 times. Defensively he is amazing and has yet to commit an error at first base but the bat needs to come around. Grade: C- (July Grade: C-)
Designated Hitter David Ortiz: He hit .311 in August with 8 HRs, 26 RBI with a OBP of .424 and a .631 slugging percentage. Half of his 32 hits were extra base hits. Grade: A (July Grade: B)
Left Fielder Manny Ramirez: had a so-so month hit .264 with 2 HRs and 18 RBI but struck out 23 times. Missed the last three games of the month with a strained oblique and played through most of the month with a sore back. Grade: B- (July Grade: B+)
Right Fielder J.D. Drew: Hit .286 with 1 HR and 6 RBI. The HR was his first since June. Had several key at bats where he barely or didn’t even take the bat off his shoulder including one six pitch at bat that he should have just bought a ticket for because he didn’t participate he just watched. Continues to be a $70 million bust. Thanks Uncle Theo. Grade: F (July Grade: F)
Third Baseman Mike Lowell: This guy is hot. Raised his average 21 points as he hit .393 with 2 HRs and 21 RBI. Grade: A (July Grade: B+)
Catcher/team captain Jason Varitek: Hit only .234 in August with 3 HRs and 13 RBI while striking out 23 times in 77 ABs. Grade: C- (July Grade: C+)
Center Fielder Coco Crisp: Cooled off significantly as he hit .227 he struck out 23 times and only stole 3 bases all month. Continues to provide all world defense in center field. Grade: C (July Grade: B+)
Second Baseman Dustin Pedroia: Serious rookie of the year candidate, hit .346 raising his average to .321 overall. Had 36 hits and struck out only 5 times. Grade: A (July Grade: B+)
Destination Red Sox Nation – 9/3
Red Sox News & Notes – 9/3
Stretch run [38 Pitches]
Flat-out good [Boston Globe]
Orioles Lose Another [Washington Post]
Jacoby’s Field At Fenway [Hartford Courant]
O’s tough run continues [Baltimore Sun]
Young guns right on mark: A day after Clay, Lester impresses [Boston Herald]
Pitching and defense prevail for Boston [Pro Jo]
How low can they go? [Baltimore Sun]
Attempting to play by the rules on Buchholz [Boston Globe]
Stadium workers postpone hunger strike [Baltimore Sun]
A treat with kid gloves: Prospects playing key roles [Boston Herald]
Buchholz Could Help Out In Pen [Hartford Courant]
Buchholz, Ellsbury add confidence, poise to pennant push [Pro Jo]
Managing it all [Boston Globe]
For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, Hartford Courant, Baltimore Sun, and Washington Post websites.
Red Sox vs Blue Jays Pitching Matchups
at 
Monday September 3rd, 7:05 PM
Jesse Litsch, RHP (5-6, 3.40) vs Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP (13-11, 3.88)
Tuesday September 4th, 7:05 PM
Roy Halladay, RHP (14-6, 3.87) vs Josh Beckett, RHP (16-6, 3.29)
Wednesday September 5th, 7:05 PM
Shaun Marcum, RHP (12-5, 3.75) vs Curt Schilling, RHP (8-6, 4.02)
Monday Jog Around the AL & NL East
The Red Sox still need to figure out what to do with Clay Buchholz for the rest of the season.
Josh Willingham has improved in all areas for the Marlins this season.
Jeremy Accardo has been battling fatigue lately for the Blue Jays.
Mets pitcher Aaron Heilman was displaying some affection for his alma mater on Saturday.
The Devil Rays can play spoiler over the last month of the season.
Braves CF Andruw Jones isn’t concerned with his future right now.
Kurt Birkins is excited to get a chance to start for the Orioles tonight.
Jesus Flores is showing he belongs in the big leagues with the Nationals.
Joe Torre is feeling content in the Yankee pinstripes.
Aaron Rowand and Chase Utley have gotten plunked a lot this season for the Phillies.
Tennessee Man Over-Taxed For Rice Creeper
A Tennessee man is claiming that he was over-taxed by Tennessee state officials after he had a rice creeper treat taken from him at a concert.
His reasoning is that he feels officials made a mistake by taxing him on the entire weight of the treat and not just the marijuana in it. The man, William Moak, was given a tax bill of $11,506 including interest and penalties.
For those who don’t know what a rice creeper is, it is a rice krispies treat that also contains the maryjane.
In the state of Tennessee, you can purchase a tax stamp on your illegal drugs just in case something like this happens.
Through the state’s Taxation of Unauthorized Substances Act, people arrested for illegal drug possession are taxed based on the drug’s weight, Street said.
Anyone with illegal drugs can avoid being fined for tax evasion by anonymously buying stamps from the Tennessee Department of Revenue. But possession of the drugs is still against the law.
Instead of being arrested and probably receiving a small fine, the man now has to fight the law that will cost him a lot of money.
So the moral of the story is that if you are in Tennessee and possessing illegal drugs, stop by the Department of Revenue to get your tax stamp.
Youngster’s the Story as Sox Win 3-2
Sorry for the delay folks. I was out at the family lakehouse celebrating my grandmother, mom, dad and uncle’s birthdays. They all fall within nine days of each other.
Typically, events like last night can lead to one of two things, a let down or continued momentum. For the Red Sox it was a case of continued momentum as they got more help from rookies today in their 3-2 win over Baltimore. Jon Lester went 6 strong innings for the Sox and Jacoby Ellsbury had his first MLB home run to go along with a sweet catch in the 5th inning. Another rookie Dustin Pedroia made another outstanding play and also chipped in with 2 hits as well.
The local nine got on the scoreboard in the 1st inning today. Pedroia led off with a single. After an Alex Cora strikeout, David Ortiz worked a walk off of Orioles starter Daniel Cabrera. Mike Lowell then wasted no time extending his hitting streak to 15 games as he a long single off the Green Monster that scored Pedroia easily for the first run on a crisp afternoon in Beantown. Cabrera got out of the inning as he got J.D. Drew to fly out and Kevin Youkilis to strikeout.
Jon Lester got himself into a jam in the fourth, something that happened to him a lot last season. Miguel Tejada and Kevin Millar received free passes from Lester. Aubrey Huff singled to short left-center field to load up the bases for Melvin Mora. Mora was unable to come up with a big hit as he hit a liner to Pedroia at second for the first out of the inning. Ramon Hernandez then hit a fly ball to J.D. Drew in right field. Tejada tagged up on the play but was gunned out at home by a great throw by Drew. That was probably the best thing Drew has done all season with the Sox as it helped Lester escape the jam.
In the Sox half of the 4th inning, Cabrera got the first two outs of the inning. Ellsbury followed up the Youkilis and Brandon Moss outs with his first MLB home run that went into the Sox bullpen. The homer gave the Sox a 2-0 lead.
Pedroia and Ellsbury both flashed their leather in the 5th inning. With one out in the inning, Tike Redman hit a ball up the middle that Pedroia was able to get and throw out the speedy Redman at first. Ellsbury finished off the inning with a diving grab of Jay Payton liner in center field.
The 5th inning brought another run for the Red Sox. Pedroia led off the inning with a double and went to third on a sacrifice by Cora. Instead of facing Big Papi, the Orioles decided to intentionally walk him to face Lowell. The move didn’t pay off as Lowell hit a sacrifice fly making it 3-0 Sox. With Drew at the plate, Big Papi stole second base. Yes Big Papi stole second base. Drew ended up walking but Youk struck out, the second of his four on the day, to end the inning.
Baltimore finally broke through for a run in the 6th inning of off Lester. After Nick Markakis flew out to left on a nice catch by Brandon Moss who slammed into the Green Monster. He would be fine and Ellsbury did a little maintenance work, putting one of the numbers back up on the Monstah. Tejada reached on an infield single and went to second on a Millar single. Lester got Huff to pop out to third but Lester was unable to work out of the jam this time as Mora brought in Tejada with a single. Millar ended up getting thrown out trying to advance to third. Tejada barely had crossed the plate when Millar was thrown out.
Lester came back out for the 7th inning but Ramon Hernandez chased him from the game with a solo home run, cutting the lead to 3-2. Javier Lopez came in and got three outs preventing any further damage.
The Sox were actually held without a hit or baserunner from the 6th inning on as Cabrera and two Orioles relievers were spotless.
Hideki “Darkman” Okajima, just another rookie on the Red Sox, started the 8th inning by giving up a double to Markakis. Darkman got Miggy to ground out to second that moved Markakis over to third. Markakis would be stranded there as Darkman got Millar and Huff to strikeout.
Jonathan Papelbon came in and worked a 1-2-3 inning for his 31st save. Lester got the win as he moved to 3-0 in his time with the Sox this season.
The win coupled with the Yankees loss moved the lead back to 6 games in the AL East. The Toronto Blue Jays now come to town for a 3-game set. The Sox hand the ball off tomorrow to another rookie, Daisuke Matsuzaka, who will be looking to get his 14th win in his first MLB season.
More Video of Clay Buchholz
The way we are covering this Clay Buchholz no-hitter, you’d think the Boston Red Sox had won the World Series. That moment will come in either late October this year or November.
This first video comes way of the man who is always searching Youtube to bring you the latest in Red Sox videos, Dan from Red Sox Monster.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dugs1vbmPwM[/youtube]
Once again, the play that saved the day.
And finally, video of Clay’s press conference.
Enjoy!!