Sunday  October 11, 2009  12:07pm  Game #3  ALDS   Fenway Park  Boston, MA

Anaheim Angels Batting Practice (Pregame) at Fenway Park

Sox gave a huge round of applause for our Captain Jason Varitek (and justly so!)

Angels Hero  

Torii Hunter    

At Bat

SP  Clay Buchholz  pitched  Game 3  (Francona's Mistake # 1) Mistake # 2 was having a frozen bat and incompetant catcher Victor Martinez behind the plate at all 3 games in ALDS!.

Sox

Mound

Meeting

Farrell

Very

Unhappy

..... And then, we hear the familiar Thump Thump of the Dropkick Murphy's Signature tune for our resident Prima Donna Closer....Mr. Jonathan Papelbon !!  The crowd goes crazy in the 8th, seeing a sure-thing walk-off win in just a moment....     (not so fast Boston!)

And the Anaheim Angels overtook the lead in the end, sweeping the Boston Red Sox and winning the ALDS in 2009 in just 3 games.  Sorry, no photos taken of the Angels celebrating on the Fenway field....was in shock (unfortunately recorded live by tv cameras on TBS!!)

The 2009 Postseason Ended Unexpectedly Early For The Boston Red Sox On 10/11/09.

Now They Can Golf !!   Take Some Extra BP Each And Every Day Of The Offseason Boys!

- fenway fruitgirl 2009             (see you all later!)

Friday   October 2, 2009    Boston Red Sox  vs.  Cleveland Indians  ( W )

SP  Daisuke Matsuzaka  /  Jason Varitek    vs.   SP  Jeremy Sowers / Kelly Shoppach

Pregame Stretches and Pitching Practice (Red Sox Bull Pen) Fenway Park

Yes, that is Drew's fill-in   Rocco Baldelli in RF picking his nose.....Dig, Dig !!

Pregame, a family won the opportunity to spend the 6th Inning INSIDE the Monster & update the Scoreboard....cool, huh?  (part of Fan appreciation week at Fenway)

SP  Michael Bowden brought-up to fill-in for Josh Beckett on  9/28/09  (throwing to Victor Martinez  C)

RF   J D Drew hits

CF  Jacoby Ellsbury hits

View Inside The Dugout  (Lucchino's seats) 

(My photo memory card is worth an absolute fortune!)

- Fenway Fruitgirl 2009

Congratulations to the 2009 Boston Red Sox on clinching the AL Wild Card spot !!

Venturing out to Fenway Park on Friday night to watch the Tampa Bay Rays take on the Boston Red Sox on 9/11/09 did not turn out as originally-planned....

....And then the rain picked-up, and the drizzle turned to showers, which turned to downpours!

Not looking good. Waiting in the concourse for word from umpires...POSTPONED

There will be a Double-Header on Sunday 9/13/09 between Tampa and Boston. No longer Lester vs. Shields   now   Buchholz vs. Garza  at  12:00pm 

(Great Action Shot, huh ?)  Graza was very good, but had no run support.

One of the day's heroes:   MVP    Mr. Dustin Pedroia   (Double & HR)

Trouble for Tampa  (lost 11 in a row as of 9/14/09)  Losing Kasmir (SP) & Pena (1B) taking it's toll on the team.

Red Sox Win  3-1  and later in the day, take game 3 and sweep the Tampa Bay Rays!

- Fenway Fruitgirl    9/13/09     May The Sox Be With You . . . . .

Young Speedy Reliever Daniel Bard Practice Pitches In Sox Pen (Fenway)

        Toronto Star Pitcher Roy Halladay Warms (Fenway)

Toronto Blue Jays Shortstop Marco Scutaro Returns Sun.8/30 After Being Hit In Head 8/28.

      Blue Jays Ace Roy Halladay Could Not Hold Back The Red Sox From A Shut Out Win.

And Sox Starter Paul Byrd's Debut Is A Success. (Pitched 6 scoreless innings)

In this past Homestand at Fenway Park, the Sox have managed 6 wins in 7 games ! The Boston Red Sox had  50  Homeruns in August, that's a club record for August.

Newly added Sox pitcher Billy Wagner also debuted 8/30 at Fenway with 3 K's.

Currently the Red Sox seem to have a hold on the Wild Card spot in the American League.

There's a whole lot to be said about a safe place or a person whom you rely on to guide you or stear you through the right path to victory and salvation. That was taken away from our Ace Josh Beckett a couple of hours before gametime on Tuesday when he was to save the team and bring home a much needed W. The end result of last night's game in Toronto was 10-9 Red Sox....but it was not an easy win to say the least!

From the start, our un-phaseable Beckett was not quite himself. His timing not quite right, or missing his spots, or Martinez not knowing his intricasies. It seemed Josh was not pleased with the results, and after allowing a steady stream of hits, was removed from the game a bit soon. If that happened to only ONE pitcher last night, it could be chaulked-up to being just an bad day....but our closer Jonathan Papelbon was also visibly shakey on the mound last night. Pap loaded the bases in the 8th, allowing 2 runs, and too many hits and close-calls in the 9th. Why would our prized stallions both be so unlike themselves ? What was missing from last night's game ? Who ?

Jason Varitek's name was scratched from last night's roster because of a neck issue. The man has played about 75% of the season's games so far and needed a day to heal. Not having him as their backstop removed their "Comfort Zone". They could not even look to Farrell in the dugout for support, because he was absent from the park.

The hits came, from both sides. It was an exciting game with constant hits, and some of our bats were hotter than usual for a summer evening. In the end, Youkilis caught a pop-up to end the game for Pap, and put us up by 1/2 a game in the Wild Card Race.

Mr. Beckett, Mr. Lester, and Mr. Papelbon have a COMFORT ZONE in Mr. Varitek, and that should NOT be messed with. Every game counts now.

*Yankees won to the A's and are still 7 games up on us, and Buchholz is pitching tonight against Halladay !*   Cross your fingers...   

- fenway fruitgirl     

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  (Salute To All Branches Of Our Armed Services 8/13/09) *  *  *  *  *  *  *

The series at home (Fenway) against the 1st place in Central AL division Detroit Tigers went well until I got to the park on Thursday afternoon for game 4 of the series. Did not have that spring in my step when I walked into the park that afternoon when I heard the lineup. Drew, Pedroia, and Varitek not playing - and Youkilis on suspension. (After he tackled Porcello near the mound upon being hit-again!) 

The Sox were shutout of the game that day with a 0-2 loss in game 4...no sweep.

Onto Texas, fingers crossed and prayers muttered throughout game 1 in the uber-important series against our closest rival for the AL Wild Card race.  Lester pitched a decent game (aside from 1st inning) 11K, but not much going on bat-wise until late in the game. The bats woke up in a huge way (Ortiz,Varitek,Ellsbury,Pedroia,Martinez,Bay and Drew) to miraculously end the game at 8-4 Sox !!  Very impressive teamwork.

I won't even discuss the ridiculous decision Tito made to insert Buchholz in as pinch runner for my Captain on 2nd, and his subsiquent hesitation and debocle running home that almost cost us the game !!!!!! Focus ... Terry ...  Focus.

Boston Red Sox are now 1.5 games up over the Texas Rangers in the AL Wild Card Race, and in 2nd place in the AL East behind the New York Yankees. Have faith.

- fenway fruitgirl

Short painful 2 game series with the pesky Tampa Bay Rays is over and done. I do not understand why those fans ring cowbells, do they attract Sting Rays in the ocean? Other than "OUCH" there is not very much to say about the short sweep, other than why pitchers don't just walk Pena??? He may have the lowest batting average on the lineup right now,but he is a dangerous home run hitter...and it's always wise to minimize damage and prevent him from hitting those homers, and driving his fellow team mates who are on base accross home base with him, right?

Lester certainly had Longoria's number. Evan was unable to get anything done with Jon on the mound on Tuesday. Speaking of Tuesday's game and Jon Lester, it was the 5th time this year that our young LHP had 10 or more strikeouts in a game. Nice.

Young CF Jacoby Ellsbury is about to surpass his total stolen bases for 2008. He is in 2nd place in the MLB behind Carl Crawford.

Tonight's game matchup and lineup makes me a bit queasy, but I will watch the game with a strong cocktail in my hand and grin and bear it for my team. Veteran pitcher John Smoltz takes the mound against young Yank Joba Chamberlain in the Bronx just after 7:00pm tonight with Victor Martinez scheduled to catch. It's Martinez's first taste of the rivalry in person. Jason Bay will not play for 2 games because of his hamstring problem.

Friday night's game will be one of those "Gotta Watch" games of the summer, every sports bar on the East Coast will have that one on, and rightly so. Ace Josh Beckett takes the mound against A.J. Burnett, and the fireworks will begin! Go get him Josh!

Saturday night's matchup is another queasy and uneasy game to avoid or bear on FOX with Clay "Don Knotts" Buchholz against C.C. Sabathia in the House of Pain.

It will all end-up on Sunday with a classic matchup of our horse Jon Lester taking the mound against Andy Pettitte. That game will be televised on ESPN. Should be a very good game to watch.

Then, home they go to Boston to play a 4-game homestand against the Detroit Tigers from August 10-13, then off again to Texas.

Boy wonder, Boston Red Sox resident preacher and bull pen ray of sunshine Justin Masterson has been traded to the Cleveland Indians on Friday July 31st.

Born in Jamaica, the tall farmboy with a rocket arm and a heart of gold did a post-trade interview with NESN Friday afternoon in Baltimore saying how sad he was to be leaving Boston and his team, but understanding that baseball is a business. He took some pride in the fact that he was traded for the likes of a player of Victor Martinez's caliber. Masterson is known for his modesty, he has tremendous potential and is only beginning his illustrious career in the majors. I look forward to following his career as a baseball fan, and as a fan of Justin Masterson as an individual.

In my personal opinion, it was a mistake to trade our golden boy for a catcher we did not need. We had the need for pitching and shortstop players, not 1st base and catching. And the scouts for the Cleveland Indians are no dummies, they did not want Buchholz, who we tried to jam down their throats, they demanded more - they wanted Justin Masterson. Why didn't you just say NO Theo?