Thank god WMP is not batting 5th?!?!

Lets go Youk!!!!!!!!

madden is going to allow meadows to lose this game

Meadows is really their closer?

Yeah the FO is known for signing top FA starters. I doubt Schmidt signs with the Sox. And if the Sox don't sign him whats the plan? After next year Schilling is gone and Beckett is the ace of the staff, a 5 ERA ace.

what happened to ruddy lugo? i thought he closed?

Damn, that would have been huge if it was fair.

have i mentioned how glad i am that Lopez is batting 6th..UGHHHHHHHHH

Come on Javy. Make your 1st hit be a salami!!

The plan if it's not Schmidt is Zito.....or Mussina. Many more options for FA starters than closers. Now would be a nice time for you to make a Hansen counterargument......



The year when Oswalt, Zambrano, Carpenter are FA's? There will be some choices...don't worry.

Love the fact that WMP doesn't bat anywhere near the big guys. ****ing A.

WHY WHY WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, at least Javy will be an easy sign after the season.....

FIRST F***ING PITCH WITH THE BASES LOADED.

javy lopez a very clutch first pitch hitter

I bet my wife $10 that Lopez would hit into a DP.

She didn't take the bet.

WHY THE F*** WAS HE BATTING 6TH?????????????????????????????????

Great AB Javy?!?! Great AB?!?

I don't know - there are some Atlantic League teams that might have a passing interest in him.

wow..first pitch swinging, DP. WTG javy.

note to tito: Lopez is a number 8 hitter at BEST.

JAVY YOU SUCK YOU SUCK YOU SUCK

AAAAGGHH!!! What a kick in the balls.

Of course, I'm going to give him much more time, but this is about as bad a start as a guy can have, especially one who has been pretty good in the past...

Lopez is a bat boy at best... sigh...tough way to end things.

i hope someone asks francona that

Seriously that was so horrible I want to throw the TV out the window. I'm in such a foul mood.

What a shitty game.

good thing we got this Lopez guy

We got beat by Grag Norton and Josh Paul.

We don't even own the WC anymore. Glad we decided to stand pat at the deadline because we will be awesome in '08. Oh, and cost controlled too! Can't forget that.

As much as I don't like Lopez at this particular moment in time, he's not the reason we lost this game. But I, too, question Francona's batting him 6th. I don't care how good he was in the past, he's been craptastic this year. You have to learn to walk before you can fly.

Because he has the most HR by a catcher in a season

WMP is too young to bat 6th, never mind 5th. Right Tito.

OMG let it go. Tek went down after the deadline which is why we don't have a catcher. With a real catcher the Sox win tonight.

Look, Tito, you don't want to bat WMP 5th, fine (not really), but at least bat him godd*mn sixth. I fully expect to see WMP batting 9th tomorrow behind Kapler and AGonz.

I have reversed my decision after seeing Hansen tonight; keep Paps as closer forever and let's hope Hansen can eventually turn into Timlin.

To quote Samir from Office Space.... "THIS IS... A... SUCK!!!!"

Really, I don't know why every team that plays us just doesn't use lefties every game (call up any A level player when playing the Sox) since we can't do anything against them. It sucks when Kazmir + Lilly kill us, but Casey freakin' Fossum has dominated (never thought I'd use that word with this guy) us this season...and Trot wasn't even playing.

At least we can do some damage against RJ :halffull:

Don't worry Foulke will make everything all right soon.

[codebox]Boston ab r h 2b 3b hr rbi w k avg.
Crisp, Coco cf 5 1 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 .281
Loretta, Mark 2b 5 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 .307
Ortiz, David 1b 4 1 2 0 0 0 1 1 1 .291
Ramirez, Manny dh 4 1 2 0 0 1 3 0 0 .319
Youkilis, Kevin 3b 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 .293
Lopez, Javy c 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .257
Pena, Wily Mo lf 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 .310
Kapler, Gabe rf 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 .265
Gonzalez, Alex ss 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .284
Totals 35 5 9 3 0 1 5 4 7

Tampa Bay ab r h 2b 3b hr rbi w k avg.
Hollins, Damon cf 5 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 2 .235
Crawford, Carl lf 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .306
Cantu, Jorge 2b 4 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 .255
Lee, Travis 1b 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .207
Gomes, Jonny dh 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 .215
Norton, Greg rf 4 3 3 0 0 1 2 0 0 .281
Upton, BJ 3b 3 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 .278
Paul, Josh c 4 1 3 1 0 0 3 0 0 .257
Zobrist, Ben ss 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 .059
Totals 34 8 12 2 0 1 8 2 7

Boston 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 -- 5
Tampa Bay 0 0 0 4 0 1 0 3 X -- 8

E_D.Ortiz, B.Upton 2. LOB_Boston 10, Tampa Bay 5. 2B_C.Crisp 2, M.Loretta,
D.Hollins, J.Paul. HR_M.Ramirez (31) off J.Switzer, G.Norton (7) off D.Wells.
SF_M.Ramirez, B.Zobrist. SB_C.Crisp (14), G.Kapler (1), G.Norton (1), J.Paul
(1). GIDP_D.Ortiz, J.Lopez, C.Crawford. DP_Boston 1 (A.Gonzalez, M.Loretta
and D.Ortiz); Tampa Bay 2 (J.Cantu, B.J. Upton and T.Lee), (B.Zobrist,
J.Cantu and T.Lee).

Boston IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA
Wells, David (L 0-2) 6 8 5 1 1 5 1 95-70 8.05
Tavarez, Julian 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 9-5 4.94
Hansen, Craig 1 2 3 3 1 2 0 26-16 5.47

Tampa Bay IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA
Fossum, Casey (W 6-4) 6 3 1 0 1 5 0 88-56 4.63
Camp, Shawn 1 1 1 0 0 2 0 18-14 4.33
Switzer, Jon 2-3 2 2 2 2 0 1 31-17 6.32
Meadows, Brian (S 8) 1 1-3 3 1 1 1 0 0 22-16 4.20

HBP_by C.Fossum 2 (G.Kapler 2).
WP_S.Camp.
T_3:10. A_30,603.
Umpires_Home, Jerry Meals; First, Andy Fletcher;
Umpires_Home, Jerry Meals; First, Andy Fletcher;
Second, Mike Reilly; Third, Jeff Kellogg.[/codebox]

We are making a huge deal about our lineup but its our pitching that is losing games for us.

-Horrible outing by Hansen and worse game management by Francona for not having a quicker hook.

-Despite this, I have to think if Youks' one strike foul ball down the line is 4 inches to the right, the score is 8-6 with runners on second and third with Lopez up. Lopez grounder becomes out #2 and we have the tying run on second with the score 8-7 and WMP up. 4 inches....it was not our night.

-I have watched the Sox have decent 9th inning ABs all week. I wish they could put the same intensity into their ABs in the other 8 innings...it seems we don't wake up until the 5th or 6th every night.

And so tonight, August 5th, the Sox are on the outside of the playoff picture looking in when they had an opportunity to jump back into first.

Lopez should be batting 8th from now on. Although it would be easy to blame him for not getting a hit with the bases loaded it is not his fault we lost. It is all about pitching....

Hansen needs to go back to Pawtucket and learn how to pitch. He has not been good and I would prefer not to see him out there in a close game like that again. I look forward to Foulke hopefully coming back soon. I'm not confident considering all the injuries he has had, but I'm somewhat hopeful that he will do better than Hansen is now.

After watching tonights game it just p*sses me off even more that they did not get a pitcher at the deadline. I just can't fathom that they did absolutely nothing to improve this team. It is so aggravating. I'm not expecting them to trade the farm for Roy Oswalt, but they should have done SOMETHING. damn it!!!

Now I feel a little better....Oh wait, Jason Johnson is going tomorrow.

<<<After watching tonights game it just p*sses me off even more that they did not get a pitcher at the deadline.>>>

That's not true. They dealt for Bryan Corey.

Hmmm, wait a second.....

And no, i won't let it go.