Lester, Lester, Lester, Lester, Lester

Nick Wass/AP Photo

Red Sox 6, Orioles 3

Is it possible to clone Lester and have him pitch every night? Basically, he's the only guy I trust right now. He was solid tonight-7 innings, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 SO.

I know that Delcarmen is young and we have to be patient and blah, blah, blah BUT gosh darnit, I'm so sick of him giving up runs. Or in tonights case, giving up two walks and not getting the third out. He's another guy I don't trust.

Offensively I love everybody, even Tek (who homered tonight) and especially Lowrie. Is there any way we can keep Lugo on the DL for the rest of the season? Please?

Matsuzaka v. Cabrera

Oh, The Places You Won't Go

Winslow Townson/AP Photo

Blue Jays 15, Red Sox 4
Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 1

Well, it's been a busy weekend so I haven't had too much time to blog. In fact the next couple a weeks are a bit hectic so I'll do the best I can. I'm moving to a new neighborhood in San Francisco so I'm painting and packing and not having a lot of free time to do important things like listen to Sox games.

Today was just one of those days. Beckett and the bull pen had nothing and that was that. Unfortunately, the Twins keep on winning and are now only .5 games behind in the wild card standings. Sox really have to get it together in these last few weeks if they want to play in October.

I'm hoping the medicine the Sox need is a series with Baltimore.

Lester v. Guthrie

To The Limit

So I saw the "To The Limit" film on August 9th and I came home and went to gootube to post this trailer of the film and it never showed up on my blog. And then it suddenly appeared a week later! What is the deal with that? Is gootube so pre-occupied with pulling pirated Olympic video that they can't keep up with anything else?

The actual film couldn't decide on what story they wanted to tell - the breaking of the nose record, the impulse to climb, the relationship between the brothers - it ended up just being a big mess. Plus they interviewed both Chongo and Dean Potter but didn't title them - so if you're not a climber you had no idea who they are.

Anyway, the trailer to the film is actually way better than the film so enjoy.

To the Limit trailer

Huber Brothers attempt of The Nose in Yosemite Valley

Sox Sweep

Steven Senne/SP Photo

Red Sox 10, Rangers 0

I wish every game was like this one. 9 runs in the first inning, Dice-k magnificent with 5 SO, Papi homers, I can go on and on.

Both Delcarmen and Timlin were awesome. Funny how Delcarmen is hot and cold. Someday he will be consistent - I hope we can hang on to him long enough to see it.

Tomorrow night I'm going to see the A's play the White Sox with Lefty the ex-Jew at the Coliseum. Looking forward to seeing Orlando Cabrera.

Byrd v. Halladay

Sox Mangle Rangers

Michael Dwyer/AP Photo

Red Sox 8, Rangers 4

Lester is 11-4 - he is having such a great year and I couldn't be happier. Our bull pen sucked again tonight except for Masterson. I love Masterson - he's so happy! He just digs life.

Devil Rays won so we are still three games back. Yanks lost AGAIN! They are 9 games out. Sox lead wild card race but the Twinkies are 2.5 games behind.

Matsuzaka v. Hunter

Everyone's Hands Have Blisters

Michael Dwyer/AP Photo

Red Sox 19, Rangers 17

I would have LOVED to have been at this game. A wild ride for sure.

Zink's line looks awful but I heard from MW that he was actually pretty good. But 11 hits and 8 ER in 4.1 innings? I guess Feldman wasn't much better.

Pedroia was 5 for 6! Papi 3 for 4! Everyone must love these games to pad the stats.

The bull pen was suckola tonight except for Oki and Paps. Delcarmen is up to his usual tricks and I guess Aardsma hasn't fully recovered.

More Manny being Manny today.

The ninth inning was about to start and left field was empty. Manny Ramirez was missing.

Here we go again.

Let’s see, there’s no Green Monster for him to hide in at Dodger Stadium— so where in the world was Manny now?

In the dugout, several Dodgers peered down the tunnel toward their clubhouse as Monday night’s game against Philadelphia was held up. They looked as though they didn’t know whether to laugh, scream or simply shake their heads.

Then, finally, the enigmatic slugger reappeared and jogged swiftly out to his position, dreadlocks dangling and a wry half-smile on his face.

“I just went to the bathroom,” Ramirez said with a chuckle after Los Angeles’ 8-6 victory. “All the guys said, ‘Hey, we play nine in here.”’

This time, there was a plausible explanation—sort of—for Ramirez’s brief but conspicuous absence: He thought he had been pulled from the game.

Dodgers manager Joe Torre explained that there was some miscommunication between he and Ramirez, acquired from Boston at the July 31 trade deadline.

After Ramirez was forced out at the plate in the eighth inning, Torre pointed to him from a distance as a way of congratulating the slugger for his single. But Ramirez thought that meant he was being taken out of the game for defense, so he headed up the tunnel.

Just another curious moment for one of baseball’s most baffling characters.

“When he came out, his jersey was half undone,” teammate Jeff Kent said with a smirk. “So if he was going to the bathroom, he takes his jersey off to do it.”

Lester v. Mendoza

Sox Dunk Danks

Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo

Red Sox 5, White Sox 1

I try to attend a lot of yoga classes and we talk often about not living your life in fear but in wisdom. That's great and all but when your team is going through 6 innings of a no-no it's hard not to have a lot of fear.

But my Yoga teacher was right, as usual, Youk broke up the no-no with a broken bat single in the seventh. The wheels fell off the cart for the White Sox as we scored 5 runs to win the game. Jed Lowrie still rocks my world - two-run double in the ninth. Lugo who?

Oh, and Beckett? Another beauty.

What's the best part about tomorrow? Charlie Zink finally gets his Red Sox debut! You may remember back in June, the New York Times introduced us to Charlie Zink and his knuckleball.

Zink was decent out of the bullpen that season with Class A Augusta and with Sarasota of the Class A Advanced Florida State League. He threw the knuckleball a few times in games before he got to camp, where his trainer asked to see the pitch. The trainer’s shattered sunglasses were the punch line to that story.

“And that was it,” Zink said. “I was done being a regular pitcher.”

Since then, Zink has taken closer care of the nails on his right hand than most men care to admit. He uses a protective gel on the nail of his index finger, because that one rubs against the ball. He grows the nail on his middle finger long so he can dig it into the ball. He calls it a “one nail and one knuckle” grip, which is what he thought he had seen Wakefield do on television all those years earlier. Wakefield actually uses two fingertips.

“It’s really weird,” Zink said. “I haven’t seen anybody else with this grip.”

The grip is different, but the outcome is usually the same: a crazy, dancing strike that just as easily befuddles batters as it does catchers. But the Red Sox have told Zink’s agent that Jason Varitek is slated to catch four of every five games, with Kevin Cash on staff primarily to catch Wakefield.

“It’s frustrating to know that because of what I do, I can only replace one guy up there,” Zink said. “And he’s doing pretty well.”

Well now Wake is on the DL so Zink gets his shot.

Zink v. Feldman