Game time: 7:05 pm

Scheduled starters: Ryan Madson (7-4, 5.79) v. Josh Beckett (8-3, 5.09)


BOSTON weather - 11 am observation at KBOS: Wind out of the west southwest at 7 mph, visibility 3 miles in haze, few clouds at 5,000 feet, 25,000 broken, temperature 81F, DP 69F


FORECAST: There's a very complex situation out there today. There have been some thunderstorms in the area, mostly across southern NH and SW Maine, and across CT/RI; these are the remnants of the MCS that stirred up some very nasty weather across Ohio and PA yesterday. This morning's scattered storms are the appetizer. The main course is still to come.

The main actor tonight and tomorrow will be a stalled frontal boundary that's likely to orient itself just west of the coast. The heaviest rains will occur along that boundary, and north and west of it. The rain will consist of showery rain with thunderstorms and tropical downpours. There's a lot of water, and a lot of potential energy, in the atmosphere. So while it won't be raining all the time, and it won't be raining everywhere at the same time, when it does rain it's likely to be a drenching rain.

Unfortunately, this pattern is going to continue through the weekend, and into next week. The heaviest rains are likely to fall tonight and tomorrow, but there's a chance of heavy rain on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday....
The Boston area is likely to get 2-5 inches of rain, but some locations could get more. One concern is that training cells could develop, and if that happens, localized areas could get seriously drenched.

The winds will be southwest, which is blowing out toward right.


As for options in the event that one or more games get rained out, both the Sox and the Phillies have Monday off.

If you are going to the games this weekend, wear your waders!

Anni

Beat Philly Mojo:

*Mojo-Military Campaign Mojo-Day 7*

Sometimes a campaign or battle turns on a newly deployed technical advance. Weopons of mass destruction go back a long ways back. As this guy once said:





What better way to make the other guy die for his country than to lob death from afar-e.g. missles and projectiles.




During the battle of Crecy (part of the 100 years war), English longbowmen employed the innovative tactics of massed firepower to defeat a larger, heavily armored French force.


A well-trained archer could launch 15 arrows per minute at a distance of c. 300 yards.

At Fenway tonight, the Phillies can expect to be greeted by a massed volley of longballs from Papi, Manny, Tek, Youks, Nixon amongst others.

Just to add another Patton quote:

"Now there's another thing I want you to remember. I don't want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We're not holding anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We're going to hold onto him by the nose and we're going to kick him in the ass. We're going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we're going to go through him like crap through a goose."

What are the odds this game is played?

Anyone else going to the game tonight? I hope they get it in somehow ... if not, it looks like Monday possibly? That won't quite work for me, but I'll do what I've gotta do.

Here's a great little website to check out during the weekend series: http://www.phillysucks.com/philliessuck.html

Here's a taste:

Well so far the showers are popping up all over the place, but no organized formation of any area of heavy rain, but the overall coverage of the rain has been going up.

We can only hope that Boston lucks out like I have up here in NH with being right in the middle of 2 storms. Also hopefully the storm that just went through will help to supress any future storms because of the cooling.

I hope you're right... It doesn't look all that great right now. A couple more cells have formed off in NW Middlesex county in the last 15 minutes, and they're tracking SE. They're popping up all over now.

Hmm. Doesn't look like a good bet for me to get up and try and follow this game tomorrow morning. Gee, a chance to sleep in on Saturday morning. Hope the Sox kick some serious Phil tush while I'm snoozing...

Ya they key will be to see what happens to the current storms when they get around Worcester, if they keep together all they way to Boston we might be in some big trouble tonight..

It also looks like a line is forming from Nashua NH southwestward down to Springfield, this could be an interesting thing to watch over the next few hours.

Well, a quick look at 02215 on weather.com makes me think this game is screwed. There is a big long green blob coming in from the SW and severe weather alerts plastered everywhere.

Odd thing is, I'm 400 miles south and we have almost the same forecast, although not quite as much rain.

When did we all start living in Florida?

Well the problem is we have one storm system coming from the west, and a tropical system from the Bahamas, so it will feel like Florida for a day or two.

The game isn't looking too good, but up here in coastal NH we have only gotten 2 light showers all day, just missed a bunch of storms, so the same could happen in Boston, but ya never know...

A retractable roof doesn't have to cost 4 million dollars and change the skyline does it? Can't they look into suspending a tarp from several blimps or something to cover the park during the game? This year has been a mess...

[codebox]Philadelphia Boston
------------ ------

Pos Player HR RBI AVG. Pos Player HR RBI AVG.
--- ------ -- --- ---- --- ------ -- --- ----
SS Rollins, Jimmy 9 24 .253 1B Youkilis, Kevin 9 33 .319
2B Utley, Chase 12 41 .290 2B Loretta, Mark 2 30 .308
RF Abreu, Bobby 8 49 .288 DH Ortiz, David 21 64 .267
DH Burrell, Pat 18 52 .266 LF Ramirez, Manny 18 45 .288
1B Howard, Ryan 25 66 .293 RF Nixon, Trot 6 39 .333
CF Rowand, Aaron 8 25 .279 C Varitek, Jason 7 34 .262
LF Dellucci, David 3 12 .282 3B Lowell, Mike 7 37 .307
3B Bell, David 4 25 .256 CF Crisp, Coco 3 12 .280
C Fasano, Sal 4 10 .258 SS Gonzalez, Alex 3 19 .255
P Madson, Ryan (7-4, 5.79) P Beckett, Josh (8-3, 5.09) [/codebox]


Well, we've got a lineup. Now, let's see if we have a ballgame.

There are a couple lines of strong cells moving east, one north of Boston and one a bit southwest, and they look like they are merging and could result in heavy rain.

Or just position a bunch of high powered fans on the light towers, to blow the rain away from the field of play.

I walked by this awesome $350 fan at Home Depot yesterday - it created enough of a windstream to lift a midget off the ground. A skinny midget, at least. A few of those, and you can flood the Pike but keep Fenway dry.

Ya it isn't looking good, the cells keep forming between Worcester and Boston, at the very least the game will be delayed at the start, hopefully the development stops with the cells over Worcester...

UPDATE: Actually looking good now, the rain appears to be falling apart to the west, so maybe we might have some luck tonight

They have sandbagged the Sox clubhouse..

The way it is raining there is no way they should play tonight. Also, with the amount of rain that appears to have fallen it just seems impossible to me. I would be amazed if they get it in.

Well except for the next batch of lighter rain the heavy stuff is gone for now, so unless the amount that has fallen is too much, they should get some playing done tonight...

I think they will get this in, squeeze it in if they have to.......too much rain forecast for the weekend and too many rainouts already.

There is water on the floor in the clubhouse. That indicates to me that there is a LOT of rain. If the clubhouse is flooding, the field must be a lake. Time for me to find another interesting game tonight. (reverse jinx!)

WEEI just reported that they are going to try to get the game in, but that it will NOT start at 7:05. NO start time was provided yet. The worst of the cells are moving off to the east, and there doesn't appear to be anything building behind it. There's a large area of light rain off to the west, though, so there's no chance of playing this game and not getting wet.

Remy just said on the pre-game they're looking at 7:45, maybe 8 to start up.

Looks like the rain is breaking up, so as long as the field can be taken care of, they should be all set around 8ish.

I was checking the AJC blog today to get an idea of what the heck is going on with the Braves, and I saw one poster had suggested this wonderful trade:

John Smoltz and Adam LaRoche for Kevin Youkilis and Jon Lester.

I'm still splitting my sides.

Just noticed that Beckett has given up more HRs (17) this year than any other year in his career. 14 starts and 17 HRs is not a good ratio.

I'm getting pretty tired of you east coasters and your rainouts and rain delays...

Maybe it's the unbalanced NL - AL thing. He's also having trouble getting the curveball over, but maybe that's very much related.

In 1983 shorty!

Any updates?

he's given up 13 HR's in 27.1 IP's when he didn't pitch a quality start.
He's given up 4 HR's in 54 IP when he pitched a QS.

His QS (8) ERA is 2.00
His ERA in other games (6) is 11.20

He's having trouble in certain games, but he's either being Cy Youngish or literally atrocious. He has never been "ok". Either lights out or a virtual loss...

Are we still looking for eightish?

They've taken the tarp off the field, and are going to try to start at 7:45. It's still raining lightly, and probably will all evening, but it looks like they're going to try to get the game in. There's no really heavy rain "upstream" and there are a couple of breaks in the precip to the west.

Lots of runs, boys, early in the game...

Thanks Annie!

Thanks for the update Anni!!!!

The game is up on the mlb.com scoreboard now. Yanks up 3-0 early.

Here we go.

Dear Josh,

Don't suck.

Thanks.

Nice rebound by the kids, now 3-3.

It could have been worse for FLA in the 1st as the Yanks also left the bases loaded to end the inning.

Did Beckett ever have consistent command of his curve in the NL? Because he hardly ever has this season.

Nip really needs to work with Beckett on that curve ball. It is atrocious.

Two on for Manny, hes going to be looking to put one over the monster here.

Nice.

Manny 3 run home run.

Okay into the monster seats but I was close.

Nice! Can you do that every time runners are on for Manny?

Well, he finally got a few over.

Coco takes advantage of the close pitch...

This idiot is incapable of bunting.

Base hit.

And tell me this clown wasn't trying to bunt with two strikes after two pop ups in foul ground?

HE SINGLES instead of bunting!!!

gonzo been on fire lately.