Broken
| Game 110: August 9, 2009 | |||
| Red Sox | 2 | BS, L: Daniel Bard (2, 0-1) | 62-48, 6 game losing streak |
 Yankees | 5 | BS, W: Phil Coke (5, 4-3) S: Mariano Rivera (35) | 69-42, 7 game winning streak |
| Highlights: My friend cleverly said, “Victor Martinez had a Coke and a smile” when the catcher belted a two-run homer to right in the eighth inning. I thought it was so witty I twittered it. Nine pitches later Johnny Damon tied the game. | |||
Two pitches after that Mark Teixeira broke the tie.
Terry Francona tapping Daniel Bard in the eighth instead of Hideki Okajima was one of his too clever by half moves, like playing Kevin Youkilis in left. Not only didn’t he bring in Okajima to start the eighth he waited until Bard walked Alex Rodriguez to call on the lefty.
Okajima’s opponents’ stats without runners on: .200 batting average, .273 on-base, .430 slugging. With runners on: .267, .333, .293. Although the slugging percentage drops, you don’t necessarily need power to drive in the runners already on the basepaths.
Aside from Victor Martinez’s homer, the only other bright spot was Luis Tiant’s visit to the booth. We got to see replays of Luis Tiant striking out Joe Morgan in the 1975 World Series and hear some stories about Tiant’s defection to the United States. The Lost Son of Havana recounts El Tiante’s life and return to Cuba; be sure to tune in after Monday night’s game on ESPN.
Morgan proved himself as unwelcome as Cynthia Rodriguez at a Kate Hudson feature film premiere. The color analyst sulkily mentioned that everyone thought that “Fisk won the series with that famous home run.”
Of course every true baseball and Red Sox fan knows otherwise, what with 1918 and all. We just wish the Red Sox had won rather than someone who seems to derive so little pleasure from being a member of the the Big Red Machine.
