Ready for 2016 Fall Classic

October 24, 2016 Leave a Comment

The 112th World Series begins Tuesday in Cleveland. The Indians (94-67) will go with Corey Kluber in Game 1 versus the Cubs (103-58). Chicago manager Joe Maddon has yet to announce his starter for the series, the Cubs first such appearance since 1945.No matter which team wins, Red Sox fans can attest, it will be something special for their fan base. Both teams have the dubious honor of owning the longest winless streaks in their respective leagues: 68 years for Cleveland and 108 years for Chicago.

Indians history traces back to Grand Rapids in 1884, though the club moved to Cleveland to play in the new American League in 1901 as Cleveland Bluebirds (then the Bronchos and Naps before adopting their current name in 1915). They are two-time World Series champions (1920 and 1948) and have collected five American League Pennants (1920, 1948, 1954, 1995, 1997, and 2016) in 12 total playoff appearances.

Chicago’s National League ball club goes all the way back to 1876, with the very founding of the league. They’ve played successively as the White Stockings, Colts, Orphans, and finally, the Cubs starting in 1903. Like the Indians, the Cubs have two World Series trophies for back-to-back wins in 1907-08. Chicago owns 17 NL Pennants (1876, 1880-82, 1885-86, 1906-08, 1910, 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, 1945, 2016) over 18 total playoff appearances.

World Series Game Schedule

The World Series will be carried on the FOX Network with the first two games at Progressive Field at 8:08 ET / 5:08 PT for first pitch . Games 3, 4, and if necessary, Game 5 will take place in Chicago at Wrigley Field on Friday through Sunday, October 28-30.

First pitch for Friday and Saturday’s game is 8:08 ET. Saturday’s game’s first pitch would come at 8:15 ET. Should the series continue, it will return to Cleveland on November 1-2 with first pitch at 8:08 ET.

Calling the Games

It’s an honor to be chosen to umpire the World Series and this year’s crew will be led by John Hirshbeck, a 33-year MLB veteran, who will be participating in his fifth career Fall Classic, including his third as a World Series Crew Chief. Hirschbeck’s crew will be umpires Chris Guccione, Sam Holbrook, Marvin Hudson, Tony Randazzo, and regular season crew chiefs Larry Vanover and Joe West. It will be Vanover behind the plate for Game 1.

Embed from Getty Images

For Umpires Guccione, Hudson, Randazzo, and Vanover it will be a first-ever appearance in the World Series. For veteran umpire West, this year’s will be his sixth.

As in all postseason games, the umpiring crew includes officials in left and right field to augment the regular set of umpires at each base. A seventh member of the crew operates as the replay official in Games 1 and 2 before rotating into on-field duties.

Weekend Odds ‘n Ends

September 23, 2016 Leave a Comment

Unbelievably, we’re heading into the final full week of regular season baseball. Here are some standout thoughts from the week that was:

21 wins, 6 strikeouts for every walk issued, both the best in baseball. 0.978 walks and hits per 9 IP, the best in the American League. Among Sox starters, a club-best 3.08 ERA and a club-best 148 ERA+. Seriously, how really thought Rick Porcello would have the year he’s had in 2016?
Enjoyed Ken Rosenthal’s report on how Dustin Pedroia kickstarted his season with the help of his friend, Andre Ethier. Nice details, too, on what it’s like for Andrew Benintendi, who became roommates with Pedroia and Aaron Hill, once Pedroia’s family headed back to Arizona for the start of the school year.
Sandy León ended an 0-for-17 slide on Thursday but still opened that day with a .316 AVG on the season, speaking to his absolutely torrid mid-summer performance. He was 22-for-61 (.361) from July 3rd to 31st and 18-for-41 (.439) over 12 games in mid-August. He’s solid behind the plate and offensively may still come back around down the stretch.
Xander Bogaerts, who batted just .219 in August and .221 thus far in September, may not crack 200 hits this season. He projects out to about 194 at this point, with the projection skewed by his solid early season batting average. For the combined months of May and June, Bogaerts was 83-for-229 (.362). In those 54 games, Bogaerts had a club-best 45 hits, the most of any Sox player. In the 49 games since August 1st, however, Bogaerts has a hit in 28 of them, whereas Mookie Betts has hit in a club-best 42 of those games. Betts, of course, has already surpassed the 200 hit milestone this season and Pedroia projects out to finish with 204, which would be his most since a career high of 213 hits in his All-Star 2008 season. Only three times before have the Sox had two players with 200+ hits, most recently Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez in 2011.
Benintendi’s second career home run on Wednesday was the club’s 200th in 2016, making Boston one of eight teams with 200+ HR this season. It’s the Sox’ 10th season with 200+ HR since at least 1913. The Mets and Rays crossed the 200 HR threshold for the first time in their franchise histories this year, leaving four Major League teams that have never hit 200: Royals (139 as of this writing), Padres (168), Nationals (193), and Pirates (146). The Red Sox’ last 200+ HR season was in 2011 (203). Their most HRs in a single season since 1913 was 238 in 2003.

Rick Porcello
flickr photo shared by Keith Allison under a Creative Commons ( BY-SA ) license

If the season ended at the time of this writing, the Red Sox would face the Indians in the American League Division Series. This season, Boston leads that match-up 4-games-to-2 (2-1 both at home and in Cleveland). Since 2013, when Tribe manager Terry Francona took the helm, Boston has bested Cleveland 14-12 (9-5 at home, but 5-7 at Progressive Field).
We’ve looked at David Ortiz‘ remarkable performance this season as a player, just like anyone else. We’ve looked at his incredible performance compared to others playing at age 40 or older. Now, we look at Big Papi as compared with others in their last season and, not surprisingly, it’s still a great story.
The Cardinals recently ended a streak of 25 straight games with a home run, tying a National League record and breaking their own, which was set in 2006 (19). The Padres also collected 25 straight games this season with a home run. Both teams jumped ahead of the Red Sox, who still hold the American League lead in 2016 with HRs in 22 straight, April 29 to May 22, going 15-7 for that span of games. The 2002 Rangers hold baseball’s overall record for consecutive games with a HR (27)
With the way he’s been clubbing the ball of late, who doubts that Hanley Ramírez will connect for one more home run? That would give Ramírez 30 on the season for just the second time in his career and the first time since belting 33 in his 2008 All-Star season. It would join the Red Sox with the Orioles as the only teams this season with three such players (including Betts and Ortiz), something that hasn’t happened for Boston since 1977 (Butch Hobson, Jim Rice, George Scott).

Sox make shutout history

September 28, 2015 Leave a Comment

It has been a long time since the Red Sox shutout a single club in three straight games.

The surprising Red Sox, still in the cellar of the division, blanked the Orioles in three consecutive games this past weekend for the first time in the history of the clubs’ match-ups.

It was just the 10th time in more than 100 seasons that the Red Sox have managed a club-record three consecutive games where the opponent failed to score. The last time was April 25-29, 2004 against the Yankees and the Rays.

Before the Orioles this weekend, the Sox have shutout a single club in three straight games just twice before and only once before at Fenway Park. On August 24-26, 1990, Boston won the back three of a four game set against the Blue Jays in Toronto with final scores of 2-0, 1-0, and 1-0.

You have to go all the way back to 1958 (and a team that doesn’t exist anymore) to find the Sox’ only other set of three game shutout wins at Fenway: September 19-21, a sweep over the Washington Senators with the final scores of 2-0, 2-0, 2-0.

MLB shutout history

Since 1914 the Cardinals and Orioles have had the longest streak of shutout wins, both clubs with streaks of five games each.

The Red Sox actually figured into the Orioles’ historic streak, which happened late in the 1974 season. Baltimore swept Boston at Fenway in a doubleheader September 2nd (1-0, 1-0) and then a shutout Boston again on September 4 (6-0). From there, the Orioles went on to shut out the Indians in the first of four games at Cleveland (2-0, 1-0).

MLB Shutout Win Streaks

As shown in the table above, the Indians, Rangers, Orioles, and Yankees are the only American League clubs in the past 100 years with shutout wins in 4 or more consecutive games.

Where we stand: 13 games in

April 15, 2014 Leave a Comment

Casual fans (and significant others of avid ones like us) tend to remind us it’s so early in the season that it’s hardly worth fretting about our team’s performance here in mid-April. And to some extent, they’re right. Teams go through hot and cold streaks throughout the year and every game counts equally. Still, in the hotly contested American League East, where literally every team is a viable contender, wins matter and losses hurt in the overall March to October.

With an off-day after the club’s first 13 games of the season, I thought we could take a look at we’ve seen from our 2014 Boston Red Sox. What can we learn little more than 8% of the way through the season?

No way around it, a weak start

2014-04-14_16-32-28 Even casual fans can’t be impressed with the Red Sox win percentage at this early point in the season. Boston’s 5-8 record is only marginally better than the 4-7 record held by the Royals, the team with the lowest win percentage in the American League. The Cubs, Reds, and Diamondbacks are the only MLB clubs off to a worse start.

Still, we probably can’t take away much from what we’ve seen so far given the early injuries (Breslow, Middlebrooks, Pedroia, Uehara, Victorino) that have kept a consistent Red Sox lineup from appearing on the field.

The Red Sox have used the MLB average of 27 batters over their first 13 games. The Dodgers have used the most (31), the Brewers the least (24). BOS has fielded 26 players (one off the MLB average of 27). The Dodgers have used the most (29), the Brewers the least (24). 13 Red Sox pitchers have made appearances, which is the MLB average. The Dodgers and Indians have used the most (15), the Brewers have used the least (11). [Read more…]

Sox sign Grady Sizemore

January 27, 2014 Leave a Comment

"<strong

The Red Sox signed 3-time All-Star Grady Sizemore to a one-year, $750,000 deal recently, though most reports say he can make up to $6 million this season via incentives related to play time. That seems a smart business move for the club given that Sizemore hasn’t played in the major leagues since September 22, 2011 due to a variety of injuries.

Red Sox scouts, no doubt, saw a lot of potential in the once fast and powerful Sizemore as he worked his way back to form. With him signed there’s better depth in the outfield and a counterbalance to Jackie Bradley, Jr., whose readiness for full-time work at the major league level has been questioned.

[Read more…]

« Previous Page