PRESEASON SPARKS
February 26, 2009
The reality is that Preseason Baseball is some pretty exciting baseball. You get to see your farm at work and (if even for a brief stint) you get to see your vets loosen up and see how far they've come since the previous season. Right now Lester is taking on the Pirates. Something else that I've been looking forward to since the end of last season.
Josh Beckett looked incredible as we all predicted he would. Last season was actually something that happens to all great pitchers. You pitch your heart out season after season and something is bound to get jarred loose. The great thing is that Country worked very hard in the off-season to tighten up the loose areas of his game. We really haven't seen enough yet to determine if he's going to be consistent, but I do have Faith that he's going to be great. Beckett didn't seem to be struggling as much as he did last year with his deliveries. He looked pretty strong and put up two scoreless innings without allowing a single base runner. He threw 22 pitches, 15 for strikes. While Lester is certainly a steady lefty for our team, our Ace seems to be back in action and nothing can be more exciting than seeing that!
Offensively; We were shut down over the first four innings, rallied for six runs in the fifth, Chavez hit a two-run double and Carter hit in a three-run. Something that we've come to love about our boys of summer is their crowning of "Kings of Rally".
Something that has been nagging the back of my mind before the night cap was Josh Bard. I'm sure we all remember his 2006 massacre where he allowed ten passed balls in just five starts. He didn't allow even one single pitch to get past him last night. A few of them weren't able to quite stay in his glove, but he did manage to keep the dropped balls in front of him. This type of thing is to be expected in your first start of preseason action. Still trying to get the kinks worked out before the season starts. It was also nice to see him not trying to jump out at any of the pitches either. Back in '06 he tried to predict the unpredictable (the knuckleball) and jump out at pitches allowing them to pass right by him. He looked more patient and collected behind the dish. It was also good to see Buchholz throw a shutout inning right out of the pen.
Now, Wake is going on his 15th year as a Red Sox. It's definitely going to take a little bit longer for him to loosen up for the season than the rest of the gang (except for maybe Smoltz). My biggest question mark was on the chemistry between Bard and Wake and they seemed to be seeing eye-to-eye for the most part last night. Wake did have an interesting second inning though. That was actually a pretty hideous inning. He allowed seven base runners, five hits, a walk and three runs and I saw a blooper or two coming from the defensive side of things. The only concern I have is the fact that Wake was feeling fatigued in the second inning. Like I said before though, this IS only preseason action. So I'm not THAT concerned yet. Masterson pitched two innings, giving up just one hit and a walk.
As far as our offense is concerned in the Wake start. Dusty P. doubled in his first at-bat. Jeff Bailey delivered two singles, including an RBI single to center field in the fourth inning. Lowrie tripled in the sixth to drive in another run. Everybody looked ready to play. I don't think I've ever seen this much determination going into preseason play. It's very promising and very exciting for me, the fan.
So all-in-all, yesterday wasn't too bad. Even though we dropped that game to the Twins, I was relieved to see Bard calm and collected. He didn't look like a little league catcher trying to catch for a big league pitcher last night. Then to see Country looking fresh and ready for action, great news all-around. I wasn't able to get that personal day that I had scheduled for. I got called in due to others calling out. It's okay though, I had my play-by-play going just like I do now. I am pumped and ready for the season to start!
GO SOX!!
RSM-RLF
SOX IN '09!
-BoSox Hooligan - RSM™
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