Jays 7, Sox 6
Halladay vs. Clement tonight, which should tell you everything you need to know. The Sox led off the game with back-to-back singles from Youkilis and Loretta before Ortiz popped out.
Edgardo Alfonzo is making his Blue Jays debut, playing second base, with Hill moving over to short. Also, Coco Crisp is hitting 8th, which is the right move - I'm just surprised that Francona made the switch so soon.
EDIT: BJ Ryan sends the Sox down 1-2-3 in the 9th to get the win. Tough loss given the comeback from being down 6-0. Van Buren and Delcarmen pitched well, allowing the Sox to come back, but Riske blew it in the 8th (where was Foulke?), and Ryan shut the door. They need a big start from Beckett tomorrow, because Wednesday is Lilly vs. TBA. Ack.
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More Jays news: AJ Burnett was moved to the 60-day DL. That contract already has "Darren Dreifort" written all over it, but as long as Halladay is healthy, I'm convinced they can hang around...
Vernon Wells hits a 2-run bomb off of Clement to give the Jays a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third. I'm now scouring NL rosters to find a team the Red Sox could trade Clement to.
Clement, after giving up an Overbay homerun, back-to-back doubles to two catchers, and a few more hits to drive the lead up to 6-0, is finally yanked. His ankle seemed to be bothering him in the middle of this inning (bottom of the 4th), and if they have to DL him, then they've got a serious problem. Wells could hit the DL after getting hit with a liner in his last start, DiNardo, who was terrible anyway, is already on the DL, and they wouldn't have enough time to stretch out Papelbon before Clement's next start.
That only leaves a few options in the minors: there's Abe Alvarez, who's a spot starter/long man at best, and there's the emergency option, John Lester. I don't think they want to turn to Lester this soon, especially given the rough start he had in Pawtucket this year, but they may not have a choice. Jermaine Van Buren is now pitching the 4th inning - it may be desperation time.
Just looked over the Pawtucket roster, and the only other realistic option is Matt Ginter, who got torched by Norfolk today (Millidge was 3-for-6 with 3 RBI). The good news is that if he does need to replace Clement, he'd be pitching on normal rest.
The Sox still need someone to pitch for Wells on Wednesday, and I would assume that would have to be Alvarez, who pitched three days ago. Lester pitched yesterday, so it couldn't be him, although he could replace Clement if needed on one extra day of rest.
I can't believe they're having this problem after going into spring training with seven starters.
Well, the Sox are making a game of it, even against Halladay. Crisp hit a solo shot in the fifth, and after Ortiz was hit in the knee by a pitch (I didn't breathe for at least 20 seconds after that, but he looks like he's okay), Manny hit a bomb into the second deck in left to make it 6-3.
Any now my favorite part of any road game, as a "Let's go Red Sox!" chant breaks out, and the bitter home fans, upset that they can't sell out their own stadium for a game against a first place team, start booing to drown it out. Good times.
Varitek just tied it up with a 3-run dong off of Spier in the 8th. I've never been happier to lose a win for a pitcher on my fantasy team.
By the way, Mike Lowell is a doubles machine. He needs a good nickname.
You can't believe they're having this problem? I said the day they traded Arroyo that they were going to have this problem.
This was an obvious problem (of course not at the beginning of Spring Training when they still had Arroyo).
You can't believe they're having this problem? I said the day they traded Arroyo that they were going to have this problem.
This was an obvious problem (of course not at the beginning of Spring Training when they still had Arroyo).
Weird half-inning going on now. Bengie Molina led off the bottom of the 8th with a liner down the left field line. The ball clearly hit the foul line - you could even see some chalk kick up when it hit - but Joe West called it a foul ball.
It didn't end up mattering, of course, because he lined a double to right-center a few pitches later. The Jays immediately pinch ran Hinske for him, which would have made sense if their other catcher wasn't the DH. Either way, they bunted him over to third, then pinch-hit Hillenbrand for Alfonzo, which resulted in an RBI single.
Now they have the pitcher batting 7th and someone named Luis Figeroa playing second base, and they're three outs from BJ Ryan away from winning.
Game over. Blah.
And, as I said, I can't believe it given what they had at the start of the spring. After they traded Arroyo, I thought they may have to rotate 5th starters every once in a while - I never thought they'd be worried about the 4th starter because the rookie they thought would be in the rotation all of a sudden became the best closer in baseball and thus unstartable.
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