AL Wild Card: A's vs. Royals

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I'm sure I'm far from the only Red Sox fan rooting for Jon Lester to lead the A's to a Wild Card win over the Royals tonight. But hoping for victory from one of Red Sox Nation's most mourned 2014 departures isn't the only reason to back Oakland over Kansas City.

The starter for the Royals is James Shields.

Yes, this James Shields:

(Interestingly enough, former Ray/A/Red Sox and current A Jonny Gomes is also involved in this fight)

And the presumable center field starter for the A's? None other than Shield's long-lost brawling partner (and former Red Sox), Coco Crisp.

Now, I won't go so far as to suggest that a Brawl 2.0 between the Crisp and Shields would be ideal, but it would lend even more drama to the win-or-go-home Wild Card game.

Given the choice between former (and hated) Ray James Shields and perennial Red Sox killer Billy Butler, and the horde of former Red Sox playing for the A's, and the choice is clear. Perhaps it makes us mercenaries, and it certainly makes us bandwagoners, but today, Red Sox Nation may as well be A's Nation.

Basebrawl at the Fens

So if you somehow missed what happened last night, the bottom of the eighth inning featured some fireworks, though the Fourth was over on Monday.  It started when Orioles pitcher Kevin Gregg hurled a few pitches in tight to David Ortiz - one coming so close that Papi took a few steps toward the mound, brandishing his bat at the O's righthander.

With the count at 3-0, Ortiz took a hack at the next pitch, which he popped up toward shallow right field.  Big Papi, obviously disgusted, began to jog slowly toward first base, when Gregg decided to take this opportunity to teach the Sox slugger about "baseball ethics," shouting and geturing at him to run out the play.

Needless to sat, Big Papi took exception to this, and charged the mound, just missing Gregg's face with a vicious uppercut before the benches (and bullpens) cleared and Demarlo Hale restrained him.  Papi, Gregg, Jarrod Saltalamacchia (from the bullpen), and Baltimore relief pitcher Jim Johnson (also from the pen) were all ejected for their roles in the scrum.

I know it's not exactly professional to reveal my glee at baseball fights, but I just LOVE the way it causes teams to come together.  Remember in 2004? There are a lot of people who credit Tek stuffing his glove in A*Rod's face as the catalyst that turned that season around for good.  And don't even pretend you weren't impressed with Coco Crisp's Matrix-impression against James Shields in 2008.

After the game, Papi's teammates certainly had his back, though Gregg and the O's uttered their share of tough talking.  Josh Beckett took the opportunity to express his confidence in the Red Sox's productive lineup: "Maybe they saw something they didn't like or whatever. But if it's just because we scored eight runs in the first inning and they start throwing at our ... guys, it's going to be a long year."

Hell. Yes. There's a lot more baseball to be played, and I am beyond excited to see this season to the end.

Photo of the Day

As teams all over MLB had their photo shoots for programs, commercials, and the like, there were bound to be a few goofballs in the bunch. Old friend Coco Crisp, now with the A's after an injury-marred season in Kansas City, is on the left, and Padres pitcher Heath Bell is on the right.

If you're looking for some Red Sox shenanigans, check out this video of our boys making some bloopers. I have to say, the part when Mikey Lowell opines, "It's not meant to be," made me a little sad, but good old Pedey comes through again with a laugh at the end.

There can be only ONE...

So, I was on Twitter last night while I watched the game, and I had an epiphany.  Cyn at Toeing the Rubber asked "Who broke Josh Beckett?"  And it came to me.  Now, I have to give credit to Texy over at Center Field for this post, without which I never would have figured out Josh's problems.

Obviously, as I said on Twitter, "The pitching gods are mad that he tried to clone himself in Lester... There can only be ONE Josh Beckett." Now, without that insightful post from Center Field, I might not have noticed the alarming rate at which Lester is transforming from Beckett's protege to some sort of creepy clone of the man with the soul patch, but it all fits together now.  Obviously, some higher power of baseball is upset... I can only imagine that if Lester were right-handed like Beckett is, the top 40% of our rotation would have already been struck by lightning.  Or maybe a plague of locusts.

I mean, think about it: the two were already similar, just by virtue of both being tall, fireballing badasses who were drafted straight out of high school.  Now, Beckett seems to have made it his mission to make Lester his carbon copy (this would be more awesome if either of them were pitching better).  I say enough is enough.  Obviously, someone is upset at this travesty.  Only Josh Beckett is allowed to talk of "executing pitches" like it's the be-all, end-all.  Only Josh Beckett is allowed to go on crazy hunting trips with Mike Timlin (in all fairness, I don't know if this has technically ever occurred).  And only Josh Beckett can pull of the awkward soul-patch, under the chin goatee thing (seriously Lester, this is a bad look).

I also decided that Beckett is allergic to Tropicana Field... I mean, I know it makes me want to vomit.  So all we have to do to get the vintage Beckett back (beyond getting the heck out of Tampa) is get someone to slap some sense into Lester and give him the advice that every fifth grader needs: "Just be yourself.  I promise we'll still love you."  Once we have two distinct pitchers at the top of the rotation, I'm confident the pitching gods will lift the plague they've put on the Boston starters (all those under the age of forty, that is).  I'm not religious, but if the pitching gods want a sacrifice, I'm offering Matt Garza: we'll ask Coco Crisp to fight him in a steel cage match... everyone knows that Coco owns Tampa Bay pitching, at least in fist fights.

Can someone explain how Lester is listed as three inches shorter than Beckett?

Looking on the bright side...?

Six good, or at least vaguely humorous, notes related to the Sox loss today:

1.) I could easily become a fan of new Sox reliever Ramon Ramirez.  You know, the guy we got from Kansas City in return for the center fielder who hits them game winning home runs.  Though Ramirez didn't win us the game, he kept that outcome within the realm of possibility by bailing out Delcarmen with a 1-6-3 double play in the eighth.  Ramirez pitched 1 1/3 innings and allowed one hit and no runs.

2.) NESN needs to be careful about its cameras following Dustin Pedroia after he makes an out at the plate.  Yesterday, the home viewers clearly watched him mouth, "Fuck you, ump! Piece of shit! What the fuck?!" directly after he struck out in the eighth.  Perhaps thinking they might avoid such antics today, the cameraman decided to avoid the close up directly after the out, and waited to show the feisty second baseman until he was safely back in the dugout.  Fail.  Pedroia dropped the most vehement f-bomb I've ever [not] heard, as soon as the camera closed in on him.  Watch out Red Sox Nation, or the FCC might be closing down our game feed.

3.) How ridiculous is Kevin Youkilis?  The Goatee went 3-for-4 with a walk today, improving to 8-for-11 in three games.  That is a .727 average.  I know that Youk has to come back to earth eventually, but he sure is fun to watch in the meantime.  The only bad thing about Youk's day was the timing of his hits... if he could have moved one to the ninth-the only time he was retired all game-the outcome might have been different.

4.) Jason Bay hit an RBI triple.  Any triple is rare, and I was thrilled for Bay, but to be honest, my favorite three-bagger of all time had to be David Ortiz chugging around the bases near the end of last season.

5.) In sort-of related news, I was watching the first half of the game on ESPN Gamecast in my Constitutional Law class, and when Matsuzaka gave up the first homerun, the guy next to me looked over and sighed.  When he gave up the second, I swore.  My Sox fan neighbor looked over and pulled a Pedroia, only the sound wasn't muted in class.  I'm pretty sure the Professor thought we were upset about the case we were briefing.

6.) This video.