1. Dominant. That was a classic '07 Red Sox game: great pitching, great defense, and solid, smart hitting.
2. Francona is pissing me off, after choosing the disadvantageous eight-day series and starting Dice-K second instead of Schilling. No way Beckett should have started the ninth. Maybe Beckett demanded it, but a manager's supposed to be able to tell his players to yield when the team's best interest demands. The Sox are hugely rested and off tomorrow; Beckett had no business starting the ninth after having thrown 101 pitches through eight. In fact, this was a good place to try out Okajima to see if he's still got his stuff. We'll see if Francona's folly costs the Sox (and Beckett's ERA) some runs Thursday. Perhaps Francona wanted a super-rested bullpen in case Dice-K stinks in game two.
3. To what extent was Ortiz's home run hit off a bad pitch and to what extent was it great hitting by Ortiz? Obviously the curve stayed too high, but it did seem to have a lot of movement. I suspect most hitters would have swung and missed, but I'm not sure.
4. To me the best hit ball wasn't Youkilis's or Ortiz's homer but Mike Lowell's RBI single. He extended to smack the low-and-away pitch--probably the hardest pitch to hit--into center field, slightly left of dead center at that. I imagine that takes some strength, and I only imagine because clearly it's strength I don't have.
PLUS:
The Angels are starting Joe Saunders over John Lackey in Game 4? That's according to the Angels' website. I assume they seek to avoid Escobar being overworked or injured and would start Lackey in game 5. But they really have no margin for error against a Sox team that is slightly, but clearly, better in every category (offense, fielding, starting pitching, bullpen pitching). Saunders pitched splendidly against the Sox this year, but the Angels ought to prefer starting Escobar or Lackey over Saunders for the purpose of winning the series, unless Escobar's health is extremely bad (yet somehow not so bad to start game 2).
Goddamn, Fire Joe Morgan's JoeChat is hilarious today. I know Joe Morgan is dumb, but the depth and myriad applications of his stupidity never cease to amaze and confound. It's beautiful, really. I'm choking up just thinking that someday Joe will pass on or, becoming recognized as senile, be taken off the air.
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I didn't see Lowell's single, but I agree that Ortiz's home run was pretty impressive; in terms of the movement, it looked to me like it cut down quite a bit at the last minute, and Ortiz didn't necessarily hit it with the center of his bat. To still kill the ball is impressive.
The research is somewhat controversial, but at least some studies seem to indicate that the average decline in subsequent performance goes as the cube of every pitch over 100 (there is of course a lot of variation from pitcher to pitcher.) Now, Beckett will probably be ok as he got out of the 9'th pretty fast, but a few long at bats could have easily pushed him north of 120, which is generally not a good idea. In retrospect it should be fine, but it was still a dumb move.
I don't know, if the Angels are down 2-1 going into game 4, would they really send out Saunders against Beckett? Even if Excobar is hurt, I still think you have to go to Lackey, since that is (obviously) an absolute must win.
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