Momentum
Game 24: May 1, 2005
Red Sox (13-11), 6
Rangers (12-14), 5
W: Matt Clement (3-0)
H: Alan Embree (2)
H: Mike Timlin (4)
S: Keith Foulke (4)
L: Ryan Drese (2-3)
Finally, a series win, this time at the expense of the Rangers. It was closer than I would have liked with Foulke giving up a 2-out home run to Mark Teixeira with David Dellucci on base. Foulke looked visibly upset with himself, but Jason Varitek took the blame. “That was a selection error on my part,” he said. “We stayed in one too many pitches to Teixeira. We got those runs to play with, so you have a little bit of a margin of error.”
I was surprised to see that this is the first series the Red Sox have won at this ballpark (formerly The Ballpark in Arlington, now Ameriquest Field) since August of 2000. I find the visitor’s bullpen badly placed, and Don Orsillo mentioned that it seems like an afterthought. Nothing like warming up in a hallway. They should just throw some balls in the aisles of Section 54. That would probably be just has hospitable. It is better than the loosely-termed bullpens in foul territory in Tropicana Field, the self-styled “Ballpark of the 21st Century.” I’d like to interview Embree and Timlin and find out which facilities they prefer. I’d ask them if spitoon placement was a selling feature, or if optimum urinal placement was more important.
Clement has become more consistent with location as the season progresses, but he allowed the same number of walks as he did strikeouts (4). He went for 6 innings with 6 hits and 3 earned runs.
This game comment is pretty late. I was wrapped up in my minor league adventure. Interesting to note the difference in timbre between Triple A and the majors. I’ll write about it some time.
