I think leaving a closer in the game last night would have won the game for the Sox. I would rather have Kim's 98 mph fastball and 91 mph slider over Embree's mediocre stuff anyday. Wasted game.
From what I've read, I tend to agree with you. Unfortunately, I began to snooze around the 5th inning last night.
Well, I felt like I wasted 3 hours of my life last night and I am pissed that I only got 5 hours of sleep. I was supposed to get up at 5 this morning but woke at 5:30 instead. When I went to bed at 12:30 A.M. CST, the game was fixing to enter the 10th inning. I knew when I went to bed that Boston was going to lose. What a waste this bullpen is...you have a team that has 8 guys with 80 or more RBIs, their #7 hitter was the freaking AL batting champion, and their team slugging percentage was higher than the '27 Yankees for chrissakes. Yet, they have complete idiots and tools in their pen in guys like Embree, Kim, Sauerbeck, etc. Timlin, who really has been the most consistent reliever, probably should have pitched the 9th inning. I don't care how great Kim's stuff is...the dude just cannot mentally pitch in a pressure situation. Period. And it is even worse against lefties. Walking the oh so fearsome Billy McMillon on 4 pitches and then hitting the "dangerous" Chris Singleton was a f*cking joke. I hope that loser never gets another opportunity to close a game out for the Sox. Of course, did I mention that Pedro threw 130 pitches and probably won't be able to pitch Game 4 (if it happens, lol) and that Lowe threw 45 pitches and STILL has to pitch Saturday? And for some insane reason, let's leave off Jeff Suppan who has been pitching better of late in favor of fossil John Burkett, who has no business whatsoever of stepping onto the field in a playoff situation. Yet, he may be the guy to pitch Game 4. *great*.... Looks like another wait til next year which has been going on only since the dawn of time with the Sox. I will say this, though - the Red Sox have shown incredible resiliency this season. This loss reminds me a lot of the bullsh!t loss to Cleveland in the 1st game of the ALDS in 1995 because it was an extra inning loss. Of course, the Sox folded after that and got swept. Yet, I have seen from this season that *may* not happen this time. Because if it does happen - meaning a Red Sox loss, then the series is over. What a damn shame....could have seen possibly a Red Sox - Cubs World Series if it hadn't been for such a lousy pen.
Kim should have stayed in the game...I thought bringing Lowe in was a great move, but that damn suicide squeeze... Go Sox!!!
Kim was doing fine Manny. He had one out to get. He could have gotten a groundout i thought to end the game.
the life or a Red Sox fan...losing a playoff game on a bunt is like something out of a movie...in fact, it was in a movie!
I disagree Nomar. Kim has always had trouble with lefties this season and Durazo was red hot with the double that brought in 2 runs and that 11 pitch walk against Pedro. If Kim had stayed in and walked Durazo, you still have another lefty in Chavez coming up. I don't know what it is about lefties but Kim just can't get them out on a consistent basis like he can with righties. We'll never know if Kim could have gotten Durazo out, but obviously, second guessing will be done since Fastball Embree failed.
Grady Little decided to play the odds - lefty pitcher against a lefty batter, thus the reason why Kim was taken out.
Kim has always had trouble with lefties this season Vs. righties this year: .227 avg, .339 slugging Vs. lefties this year: .221 avg, .342 slugging
I'm on the west coast, and was up listening to this game (and wrap up) past midnight!! Got me thinking... How do you folks on the East Coast, or even central time zone manage??? My paper's at the door at 5:00am with a recap of the game. Do the early editions back east tell you where the game was at when their deadline hit, or just ignore the game altogether?
The Chron just prints the word "late" next to where the score would be. I heard about the end of the game on sports radio as I was driving in this morning.
Is that with just Boston, Major, or does that include his combined stats with Arizona and the Sox? Cause I will clarify and say that he has trouble with lefties since coming to Boston or at least it seems like he has.
No edit - Plus I will add that those stats are skewed, Major, in that Kim pitched like 15 or so games as a starter this season.
As a reliever with the Red Sox, Kim had a 4.67 ERA against lefties and a 1.54 ERA against righties. He had 38 baserunners in 27 innings vs. lefties including 6 HBP and 20 baserunners in 23.1 innings against righties.
how exactly do you get an ERA stat for righties and lefties? i know whenever i would look up a guy's fantasy stats you could get the whip obviously, but era was blank, which also seemed obvious since they don't bat consecutively or actually account for all the runs. so is their some formula or do they just do runs driven in by righties/lefties divided AB/27 for righties/lefties regardless of how it happened?
That's a good question. Unfortunately mlb.com did not explain their formula. For instance, if you load the bases with righties and then a lefty hits a grand slam, how are the runs divvied up?
Thank you bobrek. The Red Sox lost this series last night. Maybe the Cubs will get in, so at least I can watch some of the WS this year.
BTW - this stat was in today's sports page of the Boston Globe: But Little said the Sox do have some concern about Kim's command against lefthanded hitters. Of the 13 batters Kim has hit with pitches this year, all 13 have been lefthanded. He walked or plunked 32 of the 254 lefthanded batters he faced during the regular season, while he walked only 13 of the 242 righthanded batters.
