Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury takes 3B
Adrian Beltre's knee to his ribs 11 days ago
(AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
A few thoughts pertaning to the Boston Red Sox and their environs while the club literally throws away its game against the Texas Rangers:
- The only thing Adrian Beltre has hit hard so far this season is Jacoby Ellsbury.
- A report on WEEI.com says Tim Wakefield will be the odd man out when Daisuke Matsuzaka rejoins the major league pitching rotation next week. If accurate, it’s tough news for the knuckleballer and his loyalists, not in the least because it all but kills his chance to set the club record for wins before his contract expires at the end of next year. (He currently stands 17 behind co-leaders Roger Clemens and Cy Young.) But even if Matsuzaka pitches like, well, Matsuzaka, he won’t be less effective than Wakefield was last time out, and it’s possible that fewer than nine bases will be stolen against him.
- David Ortiz, in what could be the twilight of his career (you should pardon the phrase), reminds this observer of Mo Vaughn in the very early days of his career, when very little was going right either at the plate or in the field. Does anybody else remember the game in which he flung his glove in the air in frustration after failing to make a play at first base? The resemblance continues with the physical, as both men exude a large physical presence. But it may end there as the Hit Dog went on to have a decent career, and Big Papi may be running out of time.
- The Cape League All-Star game will be played at Fenway Park again this summer (July 28, to be precise). Fans on and off Cape fervently hope the weather is better than it was last year, when a monsoon forced an early end to the festivities but a good time still was had by all concerned. Well, maybe not all, as many Cape-side supporters take a dim view of the venue because it removes the game from what they see as its proper domain. But baseball fans should flock to snap up the $10 general admission tickets, for the only other way to gain access to those seats for a ballgame in the Fens (besides attending the Beanpot) is for somebody to die and leave them to you.
- Did Marco Scutaro's heads-up tag-and-advance to second base yesterday remind anyone else of Dave Roberts' famous steal of second in the 2004 playoffs? The circumstances were hardly the same, but the desperation in the Nation was eerily similar.
- Isn’t it awfully early to be thinking about voting for the All Star team?
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