Victor
| Game 104: August 2, 2009 | |||
 Red Sox | 18 | W: Manny Delcarmen (4-2) | 62-42, 4 game winning streak |
| Orioles | 10 | L: Jason Berken (1-9) | 44-60, 3 game losing streak |
| Highlights: The Red Sox were to runs what Augustus Gloop was to food, what Keith Richards was to illicit substances, what Yankees are to entitlement. Enough was never enough. Victor Martinez led the team in hits, going 5-for-6 with 4 RBIs and a run scored. | |||
How arbitrary is it that a starting pitcher has to stay in the game for 15 outs to be in line for the win? Not that Clay Buchholz (4 innings pitched, 9 hits, 7 earned runs, 4 walks, 3 strikeouts, and 2 home runs allowed) deserved the win, but the conventions of scoring require that someone get assigned a W. Despite the fact that Takashi Saito pitched for more outs (two scoreless innings compared to Manny Delcarmen’s 1⅔ and Ramon Ramirez’s 1⅓ innings), allowed less hits than Ramirez, and didn’t permit a run as Delcarmen did, Delcarmen was adjudged to be to be the winner.
But players need statistics to shoot for so they can argue their case before an arbitration panel. When Don Orsillo complimented Dave Roberts on how he stole runs from the opposing team with his outstanding defense, Roberts joked that he would have liked a metric for that to take to arbitration. It’s too late for Roberts, but he could have used ultimate zone ratings (UZR) or probabilistic model of range (PMR, explained here by David Pinto of Baseball Musings).
Tom Caron’s two sons and their Framingham Orioles Little League team invaded the NESN studios but down in Charm City Terry Francona was dealing kids’ stuff himself.
Two days removed from his major league debut Josh Reddick caused a delay of game in the bottom of the second inning with a nosebleed. Like a dad making sure his son got his turn at the dish, Francona slowed down the game to ensure Reddick got his swings in.
The skipper’s care paid off: Reddick launched Brian Bass’s pitch into the first row of the left field seats. Butterfingered fans in that section bumbled the ball and Reddick was assured that he would have a tangible reminder of his first major league home run.
John Smoltz relieved the tedium of the day by pranking George Kottaras. Josh Beckett distracted the young catcher while Smoltz perfectly placed the bubble on Kottaras’s crown. Neither Nick Green nor Reddick tipped the catcher off when he sat between them on the bench. They shouldn’t be hassling him, he’s got “a nagging lower back injury.”
