AL east - season thread

[rich1uk]

first series of the season between the two and despite being very very early it could be a big one for the redsox

having been swept in both series so far they really need a good weekend, i am not suggesting they would be out of it if they have a bad weekend, it is way to early for any knee jerk reactions like that, but they wont want to fall too far behind early and the longer the remain winless the more pressure they will be under.

one good thing for the redsox is they are going to be facing the back of the yankees rotation

yankees have had a good start at 4-2 but really should have swept the twins but blew a 4-0 lead in game 2. probably best sign for the yankees is that their big players have made good starts at the plate and russell martin looks like he is the player he was before his injury.

lets hope for a good weekend and for the redsox to remain winless

[HHealer]

At last! Some 'home cookin' for the Sox.
Now the season can begin. Dare I say a 'sweep'? Probably not. But I will go 2 wins. Lackey needs to be big tonight to get the ball rolling, but he's 6-8 with a 4.43 ERA V. NYY in the last ten years.

[calamity jane]

This is a huge series for the Red Sox. After their shocking start, the Fenway Faithful will be expecting a much better performance from the team.

I'm in town tomorrow for the Bruins game, but once that's over, I'll be finding a bar so I can watch the last few innings of the baseball.

And my commute home from work is about to get much worse for the next few months.

[rich1uk]

who would have thought that both the redsox and the rays would both be winless after the first week of the season

[HHealer]

"Well I love that Dirty Water, Boston your my home".
Off the mark. Lets go Sox.

[HHealer]

Lackey is lucky to get the win, Bullpen great, bats come alive. Youk and Crawford look like their pressing for that one big hit, overthinking it and not conecting, but no problem they will heat up in time..... Now if the starters can just get it together (except Lester) we might look like the team we are supposed to be.

[rich1uk]

couple of really dodgy starts from phil hughes now

hasn't got thru the 3rd inning yet

[Dave.]

Guys, the chatbox is open to chat about today's game and other sporting events!

https://www.606v2.com/chatbox/index.forum

[Gaelic-Warrior]

9-4 to us in the last game with a few great homers over the monster. Hoping to wrap up this series with a win tonight.

[HHealer]

I was not very confident with Beckett on the mound tonight but he stepped up. 2 hits, 1 walk, 10 K's, 0 runs. Glad to be proved wrong!
Sox left a lot of guys on (16) hope Crawford goes on a big streak soon. He was 0 for 5 tonight, now batting .132 for the young season. Looking for a good week now V. Rays and Jays.

[rich1uk]

impressive from beckett last night

redsox fans will be hoping thats the start of a good season for him and not just a one-off

[calamity jane]

Thank god for tonight's rain out! What a terrible start to the season. The Red Sox are now 2-9 - the worst record in the AL.

The local TV station is assuring fans that there's no need to panic just yet, as the Twins won the World Series in 1991 after a 2-9 start.

[Gaelic-Warrior]

Boston now bottom and we are joint top with the orioles and in with a chance to go top tonight. Aye! That AL East table sure is looking pretty good right now (satisfaction smiley).

[rich1uk]

i changed the title of this thread , thought we could use it to discuss the yankees games as the season goes on rather than start a new thread all the time

another good looking series coming up this weekend with the rangers in town

no josh hamilton for the rangers as well so hopefully a good time to play them

[rich1uk]

really frustrating game last night

nova give up one big innings in the 5th but apart from that we kept the rangers quiet

almost every innings we got guys on base and looked like we could get back into the game but shot ourselves in the foot with double plays , 6 times we grounded into a double play, thats basically 6 free outs for the rangers

got to give some credit to the pitching for getting the ground balls but still think we blew the game last night , we out hit the rangers 9-4 but lose the game 5-3 , very frustrating

[Gaelic-Warrior]

Sounds like a much better game tonight on MLB gameday. We're outhitting rangers by 6-4 with a 3-0 lead in the 8th inns. A two run homer from tex in the first and hit an RBI in the 3rd.

Other scores from AL East clubs so far-
Orioles 0-0 Cleveland top 1st
Boston 4-1 Blue Jays top 6th

[Luke]

Boston are 4-1 up against the Blue jays.

And unfortunatly the Orioles are 4-1 down to the Indians.

This could be 6 losses on the trot, and there have been 2 hammerings in there
(13-1 v the Rangers, 8-2 v the Indians last night). And things are going back to
usual for the Orioles, Can't see much changing over the next 4 serises either, as
the next 3 are at home to the Twins, Yankees & Red soxs, and then go to the
White soxs.

Pleas god, is really to much to ask for a 500 or better season.

[calamity jane]

Woooooo! The Red Sox have won one. World Series here we come!

[Luke]

The Orioles lose 8-3.

Think that shelves my hopes for the World series for this year.


OR a play off place,

OR a top half finnish,

OR a 500 season.

God i need a drink or 10.

[Gaelic-Warrior]

Final score last night, 5-2 for the yanks with a half inns to spare, that'll take us to 8-5 at the top. Andrus and Young hit RBI's for Texas in the 8th but it wasn't enough as Robinson Cano denied Texas with a 2 run homer. The Rangers were unable to put anything up in the top of the 9th. Freddy Garcia was impressive on the mound too.

[rich1uk]

changed the title again seeing we were getting interlopers from the rest of the AL east here ;-)

was very impressed with garcia last night , showed how valuable experience can be , i am still a little worried about our rotation , the hughes situation is weird , makes you wonder what sort of off-season/spring training he had if hes talking about his arm being dead and having to spend time doing strengthening exercises

[calamity jane]

'ere! who are you calling an interloper??

And another win for the Red Sox over the Blue Jays. Good performance from John Lester. Three-run homer from Jacoby Ellsbury. Things are beginning to look a little bit better now.

[Dave.]

The highlight of that was hearing Our Colin talking about the Blue Jays.

Colin Murray would make a great host of 5 Live Baseball.

[Luke]

The highlight of that was hearing Our Colin talking about the Blue Jays.

Colin Murray would make a great host of 5 Live Baseball.

Couldn't agree more with you Dave, sounded very knowledgable, and would
much prefer him to Nat Coombes, who i Just don't rate.

Good day for the Yankees so far, With the Blue Jays losing 8-1 to the Red Soxs,
Baltimore losing 4-2 to the indians and the Rays losing 4-2 to the twins.

The table so far (with the Yankees still to play),

Yankees 8-5
Blue Jays 7-8
Orioles 6-8
Rays 6-9
Red Soxs 4-10

Closing up nicely in the middle, games over next couple of days are-
MON
Game 4 - Blue Jays @ Red Soxs
Game 1 - Twins @ Orioles
" - White Soxs @ Rays

TUES
Game 1 - Red Soxs @ A's
" - Yankees @ Blue Jays
Game 2 - Twins @ Orioles
" - White Soxs @ Rays

[rich1uk]

'ere! who are you calling an interloper??

And another win for the Red Sox over the Blue Jays. Good performance from John Lester. Three-run homer from Jacoby Ellsbury. Things are beginning to look a little bit better now.

just teasing jane :-)


yeah good win for the redsox , lester showing his true stuff and the offense putting up some runs

i knew they redsox were too good to keep losing

one can only hope tho ;-)

[calamity jane]

The table so far (with the Yankees still to play),

Yankees 8-5
Blue Jays 7-8
Orioles 6-8
Rays 6-9
Red Soxs 4-10

That table still looks upside down to me

[Luke]

The table so far (with the Yankees still to play),

Yankees 8-5
Blue Jays 7-8
Orioles 6-8
Rays 6-9
Red Soxs 4-10

That table still looks upside down to me

I Know the feeling Jane, at the end of most seasons i think the same.

[rich1uk]

tight 6-5 win for the yankees after being behind most of the game

3 more HRs to take them to 27 for the season , the most ever after 14 games , one interesting stat from the coverage is that 63% of the runs the yankees have scored so far have been via HRs , the league average is 32%. dont know whether to be worried by that or not as surely they cant keep this pace up of 2 HRs per game.

CC must be wondering what hes got to do to get a win, hes still 0-1 after 4 starts but has an era of only 2.88

i know this is stating the obvious but mariano rivera is just beyond words. hes now 7 for 7 in save opportunities on the season and hasn't given up a run yet. for a guy that basically only throws one pitch its just amazing that he keeps rolling.

[Luke]

Sounds like a good win for the Yankee's.

Just looking at that table again and 2 things strike me as odd.

1st - Boston being bottom, though i suspect it won't be for long,
by about next friday the way the orioles are droping.

2nd - Apart from the Yankee's every other side has a losing record

[Luke]

So ater a bad shift at work i came home to find :

That the Red Soxs beat the Blue Jays 9-1, sending the Red Soxs to 5-10, and Toronto
to 7-9.By the way, congratulations Jane, the Red Soxs charge towards the play offs
beginning to gather pace i see.
The Rays gain a great victory by beatin the White Soxs 5-0, taking the Rays to a 7-9
record.

But the most suprising result was the Orioles suprising lose to the Twins 5-3,
holding up the Orioles 500 season charge, and sending them spinning to a 6-9 record.

Now i'm sure that alot of you are scratching your heads at that suprise result, and
wondering just how are the great Orioles going to get to 500. the answer is that
i have no bloody idea, i just which that the players did, and could they find it soon
PLEASE.

[rich1uk]

yeah boston starting to look as good as they were predicted to be

scoring lots of runs and not conceding many

i know its early but still think the yankees are a starting pitcher light and they will need to address that sooner rather than later imo. think we could see rafael soriano traded for a big-name starter at some point. we also have good strength in dpeth at catcher with montero, romine and sanchez waiting in the wings. with russell martin proving to be a success so far i could see us offer up either montero or romine and look to sanchez as the long term catcher.

[rich1uk]

mariano is human after all

bad game to lose tonight , yankees looked in control throughout and when rivera comes in with a 2 run lead in the 9th its usually game over

on the plus side AJ burnett looked sharp , hopefully he can keep it up

[Gaelic-Warrior]

Expecting a win against baltimore tonight. Strange circumstanses going into this one- despite three rainouts and playing fewer away games than anyone else in MLB we still remain top of the AL East, and we're still the only club not to suffer a back-to-back defeat.

The stats appear to be on our side for this one with Robinson Cano currently having a great time at the plate and has got hits in his last 14 games against the orioles. The Yanks have also hit more homers than anyone else in the majors and we have more games where we've hit multiple home-runs.

Looking pretty good so far......

[Dave.]

Fix the pen, and all will be fine.

Ethier extended his hitting streak to 20 games!

Yours,

National League Guest.

[Gaelic-Warrior]

Fix the pen, and all will be fine.

Ethier extended his hitting streak to 20 games!

Yours,

National League Guest.

Hey Rich1uk, we've got another interloper.
Looks like you'll have to change the thread title.... again!

[rich1uk]

dave is ok , the dodgers did give us russell martin after all ;-)


good win tonight , plenty of runs and CC looked real sharp on the mound , even brett gardner hit a homerun

another 5 homeruns takes us to 35 already for the season, one interesting stat from last nights coverage on YES , the yankees have the top 4 home-run hitters in all of mlb based on at bats

[rich1uk]

al east table starting to look more like you would expect it to , redsox and rays on a good run and bluejays and orioles struggling to keep up good starts , and the yankees on top of course

i think i have jinxed mariano tho , since the post i made the other day about how incredible he is , he has blown 2 saves

[HHealer]

Good week for the Red Sox, 1 game under .500 now, fantastic pitching, 8-1 since last Saturday with wins over Jays, A's and Angles. They outscored the Angels 20-5 in a four game sweep. Now we can look forward to games this week against the O's(3) away and Marriners(3) home.

[rich1uk]

frustrating night last night

we get one of the best starts we have seen from AJ for the last 2 years and the offence cant get any runs to back him up. only had two innings where we looked threatening and both times we shot ourself in the foot with double plays

the more i see rafael soriano the more i am convinced he wont be with the yankees long. i dont know if he was like this when he was with the rays but he just gives off this air of complete dis-interest. he pitched the top of the ninth last night and the score was still 1-0. first man he faced hit a infield popup, that basically landed on the back of the pitcher's mound. soriano made no attempt to go for the ball, just pointed in the air assuming jeter would make the play, but the ball landed too far away for jeter to get to and soriano was the only person who could have got to it. that guy came around to score which meant we were 2 runs down in the bottom of the 9th instead of just one.

i really do not like seeing players not even try. if i had been girardi i would have pulled him out of the game immediately tbh.

[HHealer]

first man he faced hit a infield popup, that basically landed on the back of the pitcher's mound. soriano made no attempt to go for the ball, just pointed in the air assuming jeter would make the play, but the ball landed too far away for jeter to get to and soriano was the only person who could have got to it. that guy came around to score which meant we were 2 runs down in the bottom of the 9th instead of just one.

i really do not like seeing players not even try. if i had been girardi i would have pulled him out of the game immediately tbh.

The 'non-attempt' on the pop up will earn him a ticket out of the Bronx, indeed. Especialy when you have a team that needs Starting Pitchers. He should have known the infield would be playing deep behind him, so to expect Jeter, whose range is limited enough these days, to come and get it was a real sign of 'I dont really care where it falls'. He has already p#@%ed off the NY press for refusing to speak to them following a blown save 2 weeks ago, (Only in NY would the media be offended by not getting an interview right after the game, talk about oversized ego's, but anyway) Now they will go to town on this guy no doubt, I'd expect the NY Post to make him out to be Satan himself by the Summer!

[Dave.]

What is it with closers and bullpens this year?

[rich1uk]

HH , if it was only just that play i would maybe give him the benefit of the doubt , but as i mentioned he just doesn't look interested when he comes in to pitch

dont know if he was like that with the rays or not tho

i did say a week or so ago that he would be traded for a starting pitcher sooner rather than later , maybe texas will be on the lookout for a closer and they really have good depth of starters

[calamity jane]

Hmm, just catching up on the Red Sox while I'm waiting for the Bruins game to start the third period, and it's not looking good for the Sox. Bottom of the 5th and they're 3-1 down to the Orioles.

[Luke]

Not really sure what to make of the Orioles this month/season. At
times been goood, but mostly rubbish. The pitching has been average
and not getting enough runs is hurting us, while giving up so many.
We are pretty much where i expected us to, but not as far off as i expected.

Next month could shape our season, as we have home series against
the Ray's,Mariners,Yankee's,Nationals. While being away to Ray's,
Red Soxs, Royals, A's. If we could get few wins out of these it could
set usup for agood season. Lose most and we coulld be worse than
last year ( when we finnished 37 games behind)

[rich1uk]

another bad night for soriano last night , blows the lead and we go down 3-2

he really will be public enemy #1 for yankees fans now

[Dave.]

Here's the deal.

Give us Soriano.

We give you Broxton.

Fair enough?

[rich1uk]

think i would prefer kershaw ;-)

[Luke]

So after Baltimore's rather suprising 2-1 seris win against the Red Soxs, cosidering
the 2 teams recent form (sorry Jane, i'll buy you at least one drink, to help you
commiserate), the table after the 1st month looks like this-

New York Yankees 14-8
Tampa Bay Rays 13-11
Toronto Blue Jays 12-13
Boston Red Soxs 11-13
Baltimore Orioles 10-13

The middle is beginning to look increasingly crowded,and who knows might
actually be a competative league involving all teams (what an optamist i am)
Though the fact that the Yankee's with 3 games, Baltimore with 2 games, and the
Red Soxs and the Rays with 1 game in hand over Toronto,could make it even more
intresting.

The next series for the east teams are
4 Games - Orioles @ White Soxs
3 games - Red Soxs v Mariners
3 games - Rays v Angels
3 games - Yankees v Blue Jays

Good luck to everyones tems in these series.

[calamity jane]

Hey, I'll take that drink now please TigerRobins You're right though, the league is certainly looking as if it could be quite competitive for once. Should make things rather exciting which can't be a bad thing.

Still not really caught up yet with what's happening in the baseball seeing as my Bruins have somehow made it to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and they're taking up all my attention.

[Luke]

Right Jane,i'll get you that drink now then,should i send it? As for the
league, i just hope we stay close to June.

Oh and good luck to the Bruins, don't think you win it but who knows.

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