Quinquaginta
Game 152: September 20, 2006
Twins (90-61), 8
Red Sox (81-71), 2
W: Boof Bonser (6-5)
H: Jesse Crain (8)
H: Pat Neshek (8)
H: Keith Foulke (13)
BS, L: Craig Hansen (2, 2-2)
For me, this game was just an appetizer for Thursday night.
I did have a chance to go to Fenway on Wednesday night thanks to the kind offer of Witch City Sox Girl (who, alas, won’t be posting any longer), but I actually had to prepare for a full slate of meetings at work as well as make a sign for the series finale.
So, I didn’t see David Ortiz’s 50th home run in the flesh. It came in the sixth inning against Twins rookie Boof Bonser.
I also didn’t witness Dustin Pedroia’s first major league run batted in in the second inning.
And also missed seeing Bonser pitch in person. I actually had a bet with a friend of mine from the Royal Rooters message board. Bonser and Francisco Liriano were making their first major league starts in the same week and both would be pitching in the Milwaukee Brewers series in May, Liriano on the 19th and Bonser on the 21st. The categories were strikeouts, ERA, WHIP, win, and quality start. The breakdown:
Strikeouts
Liriano: 5
*Bonser: 8
ERA
Liriano: 1.800
*Bonser: 1.500
WHIP
*Liriano: 1.000
Bonser: 1.333
W
*Liriano: 1
Bonser: 0
QS
Liriano: 0
*Bonser: 1
Since I lost that particular battle, I had to have his mug as my board avatar for a week accompanied by the tagline, “Boof is a better pitcher than Liriano.” Were it not for his injury, Liriano could have won the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards and been the first to do so since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981.
Needless to say, I’m not a big fan of ol’ Boof, no matter how spiffy his name is.
