Game 100: Boston 3 Los Angeles 5

Boston (57-43)	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	6	0
L.A. Angels (60-38) «	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	x	5	7	1

Game Recap

Boston lost a heart breaker to the angels Sunday after blowing a 3-2 lead after Wake gave up a lead off double, then MDC gave up 2 more runs to cap off the win for the angels.

The game started good for wake, until he gave up back to back homers in the second to Vlad and Hunter to give the angels a 2-0 lead. The sox countered that with hits by Manny and Lowell to make the score 2-2. After that, wake went onto cruise control until the 8th. Darren Oliver was credited with the wins, and Rodriguez came in to get amazingly his 40th save of the year.

What else is different, Pedroia got another 3 hits with a double. Talking about being the hottest player in the league right now.

Before the game, the sox placed David Aardsma on the 15th day disabled list because of a strained right groin. Justin Masterson got recalled up to take his spot as a starter-turned-reliever.

Next Game

The sox will go back to late night against the Seattle Mariners in a 3 game series starting with Lester taking the mound against Jarrod Washburn to try to turn their road games misfortunes to fortunes and to reclaim our 1st place position.

Game 99: Boston 2 Los Angeles 4

Boston (57-42)	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	8	0
L.A. Angels (59-38) «	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	x	4	9	0

Game Recap

Beckett pitched his first complete game of the season going 8 innings, only allowing runs on a bases loaded clearing triple by pinch-hitter Erick Aybar, who later scored to give the angels the lead at 4-2 in the 7th inning.

Boston's 2 runs scored came from Youk who hit his second homer of the series.

Pedroia continued his unstoppable numbers going 2-4 and a walk. Youk is right up there also with Pedroia, going 2-4 with a homer.

Coco Crisp made a a spectacular play, making a leaping catch then crashing into the wall on a shot by Casey Kotchman. He went on to only say that he will be a little sore.

Pedroia has now hit safely in each of his last 20 road games, tying him with Nomar with the 3rd longest streak in red sox history.

Francisco Rodriguez came in the 9th to make his saves number into 39.

Next Game

Wake will pitch for the sox to avoid the sweep against the angel's Jon Garland at a 6 PM start time on ESPN.

Sox sign first round pick Casey Kelly

"BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox signed their first-round draft pick Casey Kelly, an 18-year-old pitcher-infielder.

Team officials said Thursday that Kelly will be assigned to the Rookie League Gulf Coast Red Sox." - ESPN

"The recent high school graduate from Sarasota, Fla., hit .473 (44-for-93) as a senior with 13 doubles, a triple, five home runs and 11 steals. He had 77 strikeouts and walked 12 in 66 innings." - ESPN




It looks like he will start out as a Shortstop, then eventually be exposed to pitching.

"The Boston Red Sox also signed 18-year-old shortstop Derrik Gibson, the club's second-round draft pick." - ESPN

Game 98: Boston 3 Los Angeles 11

Boston (57-41)	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	5	1
L.A. Angels (58-38) «	3	0	0	1	4	3	0	0	x	11	14	0

Game Recap

The game started out as a disaster right from the beginning when Buchholz struggled to get out of the inning, allowing 3 runs that could have easily been more.

Youk got a 2-run homer in the 2nd to make the score 3-2. Man Ram also got a dinger in the 4th inning. Buchholz finally settled down and went onto cruise control, well, until the 5th inning. They could have gotten out of that inning without any runs, but a costly error by Cora cost the sox 4 runs to make it 8-3.

Javier Lopez came in to pitch the 6th, but got hammered by the angels, giving up 3 runs to make it 11-3. During that inning, Maicer Izturis popped up to left field that Man Ram ran after to make the catch that he ended up missing, then got up, tripped, the ball got stuck under him, and he just stares as Izturis ran towards third for the triple.

Timlin and Hansen came in for the rest of the game to pitch successful innings to keep the score 11-3.

Pedroia continued his red hot July going 2-4 with a double. Man Ram also made up for that big time mistake going 2-3 with a homer and a walk.

Next Game

Beckett will take the mound to try to make the series even again against Jon Garland at a 3:55 PM fox game.

Yanks pick up a slumping Sexson

The yanks pick up another ride along by signing Richie Sexson today. Might as well if you have the money like they do. The yanks picked up Sexson to pinch hit against left-handed pitchers and spot start off the bench I assume with they're heavy left-handed offense. Sexson still has some power in his bat, but not like he used to.

I must admit that this is a good move for the yanks, considering their lack of offense against left-handers. Sexson is pretty much the right-handed Jason Giambi. He will strike out a lot, but he might make up for that with his homeruns.

7/18 - 7/20 Series Preview: Boston at Los Angeles

The Red Sox will begin their second half of the season on the road in a 3 game series at Los Angeles. This could be a preview of the American League championship games, with both teams having fantastic seasons. The sox have been less than stellar on the road this season, going 21-29, while the Angels are better on the road than home.

Game One: Clay Buchholz VS. John Lackey

Clay Buchholz had a rough outing on his return to the team in his last game, only going 5 innings and giving up 4 runs and a nasty 5 walks. He will be looking to rebound from that god awful game and show who he really is.

On the other side, John Lackey will get the ball and will try to continue his cy young like season. He definitly did not pitch like a cy young pitcher in his last start, only pitching 5.2 innings giving up 6 runs. Lackey has been awful against the sox in his career, going 1-6 with a 6.27 ERA in 11 starts.

Game Two: Josh Beckett VS. Jered Weaver

Josh Beckett also had a terrible outing in his last game, giving up 5 runs in 5 innings. Beckett has been terrific against the Angels in his career, winning 2 games in 4 starts with a 2.16 ERA.

Jered Weaver has been lights out in his last 3 games, going 1-1 with a 1.40 ERA, but has struggled with his pitch count. In 5 games against Boston in his career, he has gone 0-2 with a 5.46 ERA.

Game Three: Tim Wakefield VS. Joe Saunders

Tim Wakefield has found his groove lately and looks to continue his success against the Angels Sunday. He hasn't been that stellar against the Angels in his career, going 9-11 with a 4.79 ERA in 22 games.

Joe Saunders threw 8 great innings in his last start, only giving up 3 runs, but ended up with the loss. He gave up no walks in that game, striking out 5. He has been great against the sox in his career, getting 2 wins and a 2.92 ERA in 4 games. Saunders has been great this season going 12-5 with a 3.07 ERA.

Minor League Update

AAA - Pawtucket Red Sox

Chris Smith continues to impress down in Pawtucket and makes a good point on why he should be added to the team. What I think Boston should do is release Timlin ASAP, and call up Chris Smith, then send down Hansen and call up Masterson again now that he is a reliever and has done is schreduled games in Pawtucket. This way the bullpen has a new look that will do better than it is right now. Masterson has pitched in two games throwing a perfect two innings, striking out two.

AA - Portland Sea Dogs

Michael Bowden continues his great season in Portland. As everyone knows, he should be pitching for Boston within the next two years, and could be a good part of the team. The thing that impresses me alot about him his how many batters he strikes out. He has struck out 52 batters in his last 54.2 innings in his last 9 starts. He also has a 2.33 ERA in 104.1 innings with a 9-4 record.

Lars Anderson has been called up to Portland from Lancaster where he has been having a wonderful season. In 77 games he has a .317 average with 13 homers. He will be climbing the ladder up to the majors in the next few years.

Jeff Corsaletti is also having a big season, hitting a .311 and 12 knockers. He has been one of the top hitters, if now best for the Sea Dogs.

A+ - Lancaster JetHawks

Josh Reddick is just killing the ball this season. Since being called up to Lancaster from Greensville, he has hit .353 with 15 homers. He also has a little speed stealing 8 bases this season for lancaster just getting caught only once. It will be fun following him climb the ladder.

Christopher Jones strikeout/walks ratio really impresses me. In 80 innings this season, he has 80 strikeouts and only 13 walks this season. Now that is good, even though his record and ERA don't show it (4-5, 6.30).

A - Greenville Drive

As some of you may know, Che-Hsuan Lin won the All-star futures game MVP Sunday at Yankee Stadium, hitting a two-run homer to help the World team beat the US team 3-0. In Greensville, he is batting a .248 with five homers. He has a lot of speed, stealing 27 bases in 82 games. Hopefully that MVP is a sign of the future.

AL wins All-Star game, Drew gets MVP

Nothing better than a Sox player winning the all-star game MVP in the Bronx. Drew was a big reason for the AL win and home field advantage for the future 2008 World Series Champs the Red Sox. He drilled a 2-run homer in the 7th inning to tie the game at 2-2, which went onto 15 innings.

Now that was the good news for the Sox, and the bad news was that Paps gave up a run in the 8th, then got booed back to the dugout by the non-classy yankee fans. To make things worse, Rivera came in the 9th inning and pitched a perfect 1.2 innings. Like that is what we needed to make the rivalry heighten even more. Paps run gave a reason for the yankee fans to boo him for his comments earlier about why he should close the all-star game and not Rivera. I think the yankee fans were wrong to boo him. Paps didn't mean nothing towards Rivera and was showing lots of respect for Rivera. He just thought that the man who closed out the win for the world series champs should close the game. He didn't mean nothing bad, and of course the yankees fan are right on his butt about that.

Okay, enough of that.

Varitek came in the game for a short while, just until it was time for his at-bat, then they yanked his butt out of the game. Gos' to show how the team feels about his horrible hitting this season. I have no idea what will happen to him and his red sox future. I know that he is the captain for the red sox and for some reason, they win more when he is in the game this season, but his offense is just sad. He always seems to come up in big situation moment, and he always strikeouts or pop ups. He can't just hit the ball far to score the run, he has to pop it up in the in field. This needs to stop soon, and he needs to find his stroke like he had his many previous years. This gos' the same for Lugo who does the same exact thing as Varitek, only he has bad defense also. I have no idea why we still have him on our roster. Why don't we just play Cora or Lowrie? Can't do no worse, and they at least can get those plays we need to score a run, or can actually throw a runner out. I say just play them for now on, then get a better SS for next season and get rid of Lugo ASAP.

Okay back to the all-star game again.

Man Ram and Pedroia had a hitless game and struck out twice which is quite disappointing. Ah well, Pedroia will have many, many more all-star games in his future, and Man Ram doesn't need to prove himself anymore.

I must say that I feel bad for Uggla this all-star week. He get eliminated in the first round of the home run derby, make 3 errors, and hits into a DP in the all-star game. Now that is poor luck, and I feel bad for the man. I thought he was going to shine this week, but I was more than wrong.

Well, that is this years all-star game, and lets hope for more memories in next years all-star game.

Introduction

Welcome to my new blog, YourTube Sox. I intend to make this one of the top Red Sox Blogs out in the blog world with my rants, raves, news and thoughts. I will keep this updated as much as possible to entertain the loyal Red Sox fans, and I would like to here your guys opinions and thoughts on current Red Sox issues. I hope you guys enjoy this blog and I hope you guys will keep visiting!