October 8, 2007

Thundersticks

David Ortiz reached base in 11 of his 13 ALDS plate appearances. He batted .714 average with an .846 on-base percentage and 2.417 OPS.

I know three games is almost the very definition of a small sample size, but damn, those numbers are fun!
Game 1: 1B HR BB F8
Game 2: 1B BB BB BB BB
Game 3: K HR BB 1B
Flo has hit 10 home runs in 32 career playoff games with the Red Sox. He has hit safely in 11 consecutive DS games. In his last 23 postseason games, he has nine homers and 27 RBI -- which works out to 63 homers and 190 RBI over a 162-game season.

Manny Ramirez was on base eight times in 13 PA against the Angels. His Game 3 home run was his 22nd postseason dong (and a record 10th in DS play). He and Bernie Williams share the postseason HR record, though Manny has 150 fewer at-bats.

MBM: "Me and David, we're the best 1-2 punch ever. That's how it is."

Overall, the Red Sox outscored the Angels 19-4 and outslugged them .495 to .253. The Angels scored in only two of 27 innings. Sean McAdam, ProJo:
With the benefit of hindsight, the Sox' decision to spend the final 10 days of the regular season getting themselves set for October looks brilliant. Call it good timing or momentum — whatever it is, the Sox seemingly have a surplus of it.
I'm not sure why the media couldn't see this at the time. Maybe they did see it, but were waiting for the result before deciding if it was a wise decision or not.

In 16 post-season starts, Curt Schilling has a career 1.93 ERA. His DS ERA is 0.93 in five starts. ... Tim Wakefield threw a 45-pitch side session on Saturday. He is penciled in as the Game 4 starter in the ALCS.

Mike Lowell does not mind waiting until Friday for the next game:
It's OK because we know ahead of time what we're getting into - we saw the schedule ahead of time. I don't think we wanted this series to go five games just to have less days off. ... If you have a letdown because you have too many days off, you have a problem.
Hideki Okajima, on how locker room celebrations in the US differ from Japan:
We don't celebrate in the locker room, but it is much wilder. ... We don't want to get [the lockeroom] dirty.

2 comments:

allan said...

Two other bits:

Manny Delcarmen
"I'm living my dream right now. All I ever wanted was to play for the Boston Red Sox, to have a chance to be in a playoff series. It's even sweeter, too, because I'm here with Pap and Pedroia. We were in the minors together, hoping for the day something like this would happen to us."

Chad Finn at TATB
"That was pretty much the Trot Nixon Experience in a nutshell, huh? Another home run off Roger Clemens, followed by his patented charge-the-ball-whoops-I-overran-it-now-I-have-to-waddle-after-it-while-the-runners-circle-the-bases-I'd-better-look-angry maneuver. If he pulled a quad or strained his back while driving home after the game, well, I think that would about cover everything in his repertoire."

s1c said...

Being the resident Shiller for big daddy Schill (as the bot calls him) consider this in his postseason numbers. 9-2 is very good, but remember in 2004 he started the ALCS in MFY land, and was obviously hurt. His line in that game - 3 ip / 3 ER / 2 bb / 1k

Overall in 16 starts 116 1/3 IP / 25 ER / 23 BB / 108 K / 1.93 ERA

Take out that one game in which he was injured - 113 1/3 IP / 19 ER / 21 BB / 107 K / 1.51 ERA (.88 WHIP).

That is stepping up in the big game.