Bay State: A's-Sox Gamer VIII

Everyone says Jason Bay should not be looked at as a replacement for Manny Ramirez. Of course, he's playing Ramirez's position and puts up his best numbers from Ramirez's spot in the lineup. So good luck selling that one.

So Bay will understandably face a lot of pressure as he adjusts to Boston. Here's a quick checklist to gauge how the Boston press will treat Bay's performance tonight:

• Home run: "Manny who?"
• RBI: "Theo Epstein is a genius."
• One hit: "Bay almost as good as Ramirez."
• 0-for-4: "Red Sox lineup doomed for rest of season."
• One or more strikeouts: "Theo is an idiot."
• 0-fer plus an error: "Bring back Gagne!"

With that in mind, comment away!

Red Sox
1. Dustin Pedroia 2B
2. Kevin Youkilis 1B
3. David Ortiz DH
4. Mike Lowell 3B
5. Jason Bay LF
6. J.D. Drew RF
7. Jed Lowrie SS
8. Kevin Cash C
9. Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Starting Pitcher - Tim Wakefield

Oakland A's
1. Ryan Sweeney RF
2. Kurt Suzuki C
3. Jack Cust LF
4. Frank Thomas DH
5. Carlos Gonzalez CF
6. Mark Ellis 2B
7. Jack Hannahan 3B
8. Bobby Crosby SS
9. Daric Barton 1B
Starting Pitcher - Justin Duchscherer

Comments

[SF]

Two down.

Lowell has a strained hip, not sure the severity.

[SF]

Fister to left, squib single. Lame. F*ck. No f*cking luck this game.

[SF]

Solid play by Cora, inning out. Maybe Jason Bay can be a hero, that would be a nice closing.

[Atheose]

Glad to see Timlin not totally suck. Time for our #3, #4 backup and #5 hitters to rock!

[SF]

Alan Embree is pitching. His ERA is near 5.00.

[stuck working]

I remember when it was common to see Embree and Timlin in the game...

[SF]

I remember when Embree threw heat that had no movement and left the park in a hurry.

Ortiz goes down looking at one. Totally fooled. Aaarrgh.

[SF]

And now Cora is up in the cleanup spot. Yeeesh.

[SF]

What shit luck.

[Atheose]

HOLY SHIT HE FUCKING DID IT!

Oh god it barely misses being a homer. Triple!

[Atheose]

I thought that was gone for sure.

[Atheose]

RED SOX WIN! RED SOX WIN!

[Atheose]

TURNING POINT!

[SF]

yes!!!!

[rootbeerfloat]

Got home just in time to hear the last few plays! On A's radio even. And they are such non-homers that even they are excited for Bay.

[Atheose]

Welcome to Red Sox nation Jason!

[Atheose]

Not as dramatic of a performance as Manny's first game in Boston, but not too bad either.

[Atheose]

Perfect timing... now I get to switch over to the Dodgers game and watch Manny's first at-bat.

[rootbeerfloat]

And apparently his parents missed the game since they are on the way to Beijing to see his sister play for the Canadian softball team.

[stuck working]

Yeah, well, I'll take it, Ath. Actually, Bay hitting a triple versus Manny hitting a HR is probably about what we can expect.

[Atheose]

Yeah I'm 100% satisfied with Bay, don't worry stuck. I would have rather seen that triple go about 2 feet further though.

[stuck working]

Wow, how funny for Manny's 1st AB as a Dodger to be against RJ.

[rootbeerfloat]

one pitch out for Manny.

[Atheose]

Okay, Manny got a super-gay introduction... and they're playing random techno music to his entrance.

Wow, the Dodgers announcer just compared his entrance to Mariah Carey entering at a concert.

[Atheose]

And look, Nomar is back on the DL! All is right in the world.

[rootbeerfloat]

The radio guys compared him to Barbara Streisand (I think, the kids were making noise).

[stuck working]

Well, Bay walked in his first plate appearance, so the Red Sox win the trade! Hooray!

[Atheose]

David Murphy hits a walk-off in Texas!

[stuck working]

Are you just trying to remind me that we *lost* the Gagne trade, Ath? Thanks.

[Atheose]

Walk-off double, I should say.

[Atheose]

No Stuck, I'm just happy for him!

[Paul SF]

Jason Bay's line with the Red Sox: .333/.600/1.000, plus one fantastic catch.

[stuck working]

Here's a random Dodger question: WHY THE HELL IS ANDRUW JONES STILL IN THAT LINE-UP?!? I always knew that Torre had a soft spot for veterans, but that's INSANE. He has 11 XBH on the season!

Look at this line for the season, compiled over 196 ABs:
BA .163
HR 2
RBI 13
OBP .263
SLG .245
OPS .508
BB 26
SO 71

It should be illegal for children to look at numbers like that in a box score.

[stuck working]

Manny singles.

[stuck working]

Not sure how to score Manny's single vs. Bay's HBP. Hmm. We'll say that the trade still slightly favors the Sox, as of comparing their first two plate appearances. Sound good?

[stuck working]

Manny's poor fielding just contributed to an AZ triple. Heh. Folks at Dodger Thoughts already starting with the "Manny being Manny..." reactions.

[stuck working]

Alright, this will be my last post about this Dodgers game: Torre announced he's going to play Juan Pierre over Andre Ethier?? http://tinyurl.com/5hrjbb

Man, that negates like half the value of the entire Manny trade. Sad. I'd like to see Manny in the post-season and that decision surely reduces the chances of that.

[Brad]

Yeah, well, I'll take it, Ath. Actually, Bay hitting a triple versus Manny hitting a HR is probably about what we can expect.

Except Manny would have been on first base because he watched the ball fly, the jogged to first, then thought about two, but the OF would have been well on the way to getting the ball back in, and we lose.

Last two years, Bay has hit just as many HR as the tumor, and surprise, when he didn't hit one, he actually legged out everything he could from the hit.
It's been awile since we've seen that from a LFer.

The guy is a piece of shit, so lets stop deluding ourselves that we're SO much worse off than we were a week ago. We're better. Period.

[Brad]

And lets stop with the Hanson love too - the guy has lived off a college career and Boras Hype. He was nothing short of terrible on the whole for the last three years. A few nice little moments tossed into a full bucket of suck.

[Brad]

Sad. I'd like to see Manny in the post-season

Sad, indeed.

I'd like to see Manny have the worst two months of his career, then spend the next three years looking stupid (not that hard) in Shea Stadium being booed to the point of another "strained knee" or some other mystery ailment that keeps him out of the lineup.

[Paul SF]

As much as I'd like to get on Brad for his irrational hatred for Manny Ramirez, it's hard today, what with Gordon Edes' story in the Globe today that said Ramirez promised to be good if the Sox didn't trade him and agreed not to exercise their option on him for 2009.

If that doesn't confirm that he wasn't deliberately acting up these last couple weeks, I don't know what does.

[Brad]

A) It's not irrational

B) I read that too, and didn't surprise me one little bit. Boras and Manny both know that he's going to put up better numbers (contract money making numbers), and have less opportunity to look like a totally incompetent defender if her were in Boston. They're not stupid. Manny is going to appear to be a superior player in Boston than he is LA. He has more protection, shorter HR distances, and less ground to cover in the field.
A full half season in LA is exactly what Manny deserves, though I can't fully speak for Dodger fans - they probably don't deserve it at all.
Though, they may be smart, and put Jones in for Manny in late game situations for defensive purposes.

Bay's numbers will be far superior to Manny's numbers in LA, and I'm sick of all the "we're going to compare every AB of every night" between the two guys.
Imagine what Manny's numbers would be if he was being protected by Laroche and Doug M for the last year?

Good riddance, and good luck getting that 100M$ slice of "mental peace" somewhere else. A city that leaves games in the sixth inning is exactly what this guy needs. Nobody to care what he does (or doesn't do) on a nightly basis.

[Brad]

And Kudos to the Sox for telling Boras where to stick it when it comes to this bum.

[Nick-YF]

Brad, it's somewhat irrational.

[Atheose]

Chill out Brad, nobody above said that we're a worse-off team. All I was saying is that after Manny's first game (homer on first pitch) I was hoping to see some Bay-related heroics. We almost did (with a walk-off) but I'll GLADLY take the triple. And I'm happy to have Bay replacing Manny, even if I do miss Manny a good deal.

[Brad]

Brad, it's somewhat irrational.

Okay, I admit it.:)

Ath, I wasn't getting on you or your comments, Buddy.

It was more a general statement, and I should have classified it as such. I know that some people miss Manny, I'm just not one of them. I do think the Sox are a better team without him, and apparently, a good number of the guys on the team thought so as well. From the attitude to the level of play last night (the did face one of the better pitchers in the AL this year) - everything was different, and I LOVED the difference.

But again, I wasn't jumping on anything you said. Although, SW's comment about "we can expect triples instead of HR" strikes me as one that suggests that Manny has so much more power than Bay right now, and clearly the numbers suggest differently. He'll hit just as many HR as Manny from here on, and that's without the rest of the crap that comes with actually being Manny instead of him.

[Atheose]

Fair enough Brad. Also, I for one think Bay is going to LOVE hitting with the Monster in left field. I bet you can see a giant spike in the number of doubles he hits.

[Brad]

I agree - and actually being surrounded by competent hitters won't hurt him either. This is why I suggested that he hit third and Ortiz then Lowell, then Drew, then Youk. It goes L -R the whole way.

Bay has taken a good situation into an awesome one for him to produce, and Manny has taken a huge step back in LA.

Only down side - Bay's agent = Boras. ha. So the better he is this and next year, the Boras inflation percentage will automatically kick in. I hope it stays near JD Drew type money, and not Tex type money.

[Hudson]

Bay got on base in 3 out of 5 at-bats, scored both of the Boston runs, played great defense in left, and had a huge clutch hit. Though I may be the only SF here who was sorry to lose Manny, I couldn't be happier with Bay's debut (sample size being miniscule, of course).

[QuoSF]

Brad,

Where does it say his agent is Boras? Cot's and MLB4u both say Joe Urbon/Octagon Sports

[Brad]

Quo -

In a moment of mental lapse, I took something I heard this morning on Mustard and Johnson for face value. But, you are correct.
My apologies.

[QuoSF]

No need to apologize, just wanted to make sure there wasn't a snippet of something I'd missed.

[Brian Houk SF]

Bay was on base 4 times not three (triple, HBP 2 walks) and though a pair of walks is not as sexy as a pair of singles, it's still a man on first.

The run saving catch in the 5th by Bay could have been a total game saver.
To my way of thinking for a first game, a two out 12th inning triple, one that leads to to a walk-off win, trumps an early game homer by Manny in his first Sox AB, any day, every day. Bay scored both Boston runs and while he might not be said to have dominated that game, he put his stamp on it.

Manny's stamp on his first Dodger game?

2 for 4, two singles (the good) while defensively turning a double into a triple (the bad) AND with his team down a run in the 9th he grounded into a double play with none out (the ugly).

I agree 100% with Brad and if I could retro-actively fine Ramirez for some of his more blatant behavior including some of his past stupidities, I would. If you aren't for Manny all the way, in his mind, you are an enemy. The fact is, Manny has always been, and will always be, a spoiled child that has tantrums when everything isn't exactly the way he wants them.

Well, Manny the Man-child is gone and anyone who misses him is missing the point, at the end he was more of a cancer than even his greatest production numbers could ever hope to overcome.

Thanks for the World Series wins Manny.
Hope the door didn't hit you on the ass as you left the clubhouse.

P.S.
Stay in the National League... K?

[I'mBillMcNeal]

I hope my Manny schadenfreude moves on rather quickly. I rather enjoyed seeing him and Jones dog it on that triple, as well as him hitting into a DP in the 9th. It was all so sweet, especially after Bay played such a vital role in the Red Sox' victory.

And I hope he grows up. That petulent child act has lasted far too long, and we have been his enablers. Well, we and his bat. And, yeah, I'm gonna miss that bat.

With news that he lobbied to stay after the deal was done, it seems clear that he doesn't think about consequences and only lives in the moment, that he'd never heard the phrase, "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it." He suddenly realized that his comfort zone was gone, that he had no more room to "be Manny."

And when HOF time comes around, I want to know that kissing and making up part took place a long time before hand. Manny meant way too much to this organ-I-zation for it to end like this. I hope someone helps him realize it. (And I doubt that someone will be Boras, based on his comments in Shaughnessy's column today.)

I still feel like Papi, melancholy and uncertain, knowing that Manny did it to himself, feeling cheated because Manny quit on me, and knowing that it really didn't have to be this way.

OK, enough is enough. There's a pennant to win. And it's going to be tough, Manny or no Manny.

[I'mBillMcNeal]

"Where does it say his agent is Boras? Cot's and MLB4u both say Joe Urbon/Octagon Sports"

Brad and Quo: It's been reported that Bay is represented by Boras. I heard it at least twice from the afternoon mouths on WEEI. Loudmouth Pete Sheppard repeats everything he hears.

[I'mBillMcNeal]

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that Boras IS his agent, only that I'd heard it reported, too. It is my understanding that Boras is NOT his agent.

[SoxAddict]

You forgot 'Strikes out twice but scores the only two runs of the game including a clutch triple in the 12th.'

[rootbeerfloat]

No gamer for today I guess. Can someone explain to me why Varitek bats before Coco?

[Brian Houk SF]

Tek is ahead of Crisp in the line-up because if Varitek makes the final out of any inning you have Crisp (who has spent a good chunk of his career leading off) leading off next inning. Additionally, If he gets on base to start the next inning, with his speed, Crisp opens up all sorts of possibilities.

AND, if Crisp makes the final out of any inning batting 9th, well then you are back to the top of the order.

On the other hand if Varitek bats 9th and Crisp, batting before him, makes the final out of any inning, Varitek would lead off the next inning. Varitek is the worst possible choice to have leading off, if he gets on, while that is well and good, he's so slow that there is a good possibility that double will not score him from first.

Crisp, if he's running, with his speed has a chance to score on a well placed single.

So, that's why Tek doesn't bat 9th and Crisp/Jacoby do.