Doofy EZ strikes again

or well, actually, *walks*, not strikes. thank God, it's not for the Red Sox anymore at least. he was brought into the game for the Padres last night to pitch the 10th inning. at the end of the ninth, the score was tied up at 9. the Padres managed to squeak in a run to take the lead in the top of the tenth. all that remained was for the bullpen to come in & get three outs. apparently the Padres have learned nothing from the Red Sox this year, even though they must watch a lot of the Sox games, considering the number of players that shuttle back & forth between to the two organizations. the last pitcher you want in a pivotal situation is Rudy Seanez. what did he do? why, he walked the first batter he faced, of course! the rest is history. up steps our old boy, Nomar, and belts a long ball out of the park to give the Dodgers a walkoff victory.

oh yeah & did i mention that by losing this game to the Dodgers, the Padres are now back in second place in their division by a half game?? again, i wonder...Rudy Seanez was *really* your best option at this point? REALLY??? wow.

the Dodgers hit 7 home runs in that game. did you know that Dodgers that are last in home runs in the National League?!

now that it's almost certain, in every way except mathematically at this point, that the Red Sox will *not* be playing next month, i think that i have to root for either the Dodgers or the Padres to go to the World Series & win it. it is almost a given at this point that one will be the division winner & the other the wild card team (unless the Phillies scratch their way back in). do you realize how many ex-Red Sox players play for those two teams?!? it would be almost like the Sox are still playing, if you squint your eyes & ignore the fact that the pitchers have to hit.

seriously though. check out these rosters:
Dodgers: Derek Lowe. Aaron Sele. Nomar Garciaparra.
Padres: Scott Cassidy. Alan Embree. Cla Meredith. Rudy Seanez (suppressing the urge to scream here!). David Wells. Josh Bard. Mark Bellhorn. Todd Walker. Dave Roberts.
that is a *lot* of former Sox!

a couple of other Sox-related notes i've found & have been meaning to mention:

But give credit where credit is due. Julian Tavarez is slowly pitching himself into a roster spot for next season. (Dirty Watah: Another Crummy Weekend): not the first time or place i have read this, nor the last. there was a time this season that these sentences would have struck terror in my soul. now i am thinking that he missed his calling, at least in Boston, and that he is considerably better than most of the guys we tried to make number-five starters. food for thought... and what about a starting rotation of Schilling, Beckett, Papelbon, Wakefield, Tavarez? (i don't think we'll see Jon Lester again until 2008, to be honest...) that doesn't sound half bad to me!

If you want to know the difference between Belichick and Tito, is that when Belichick makes a tough call, he does it for a reason. (Dirty Watah: Week 1 Bills at Pats): truer words have rarely fallen on this Boston pro sports fan's ears...errr, eyes. talk about two completely different team management styles. Belichick, like Tito the Lumpy Head, often makes me furrow my brows with confusion at his in-game decisions. the difference lies in the fact that Francona's decisions often are as hairbrained (hahahaha...) as they initially appeared to be, while Belichick's almost always make him look like a genius. i think Terry Francona needs to take up watching football in October & learn a thing or two about gutsy moves that actually *work*.

something else Dirty Watah pointed out that i found noteworthy: Craig Hansen's ERA without Jason Varitek = 10.61. Craig Hansen's ERA *with* Tek behind the plate = 5.31. anyone else still want to argue that the Cap'n's absence didn't have a *lot* to do with the downward spiral in August? all these young pitchers...and who did they have to lean on? Javy Useless Lopez.

one last thing. the icing on the "Boston takes the series in NY" cake. "MVP" Jeter ended his 20-something game hitting streak (you know, the one that they allowed to continue even though he was walked & hit by a pitch in an earlier game, thus *not* getting a hit. i wonder how the decision would have been made if you substituted Manny for Jeter...) against a nobody pitcher for the Sox, Kevin Jarvis. ::evil smirk::

see? there *is* still joy in baseball, no matter what the standings say!