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Game 1 (live blogging)

Apr 2nd, 2007 by Rob Bradford

Final
Kansas City 7, Boston 1

Top of ninth
Peralta
Ramirez- FS, SliderS, 90FB, 81changeS (Strikeout looking)
Pena- 88FB, 84offspeedS, 88FS, 81changeS (Strikeout swinging)
Lowell- 90FS, CurveballB, 91FB, 88F (Double)
Varitek- 89FS, 88FB, 88FS, 83change (Fly out to left)

- If he can keep that change in place, Peralta could be a find for KC.
- Lowell’s double might not have meant much in the day’s game, but it goes along way to get that first hit of the season going forward.
- Varitek didn’t look comfortable at the plate today.

Bottom of 8th
Joel Pineiro

Gload- FB, 84sliderS, 84sliderS, 94FS, 91FB, Slider (Single, ball hits first base bag)
Buck-86sliderS, 92F (Pop up to short)
Pena-FB, 88sliderS, 88sliderS, slider (RBI triple)
(Pineiro out, Romero in)
J.C. Romero
DeJesus- 91F (Ground out to first)
Grud- 88FB, 78curveS, 88FB, 77curveS, 91FB, 81CurveS, 78CurveS (Fly out to center)

- Two triples for Pena today. He doesn’t look like a bad spring training pick-up.
- Some decent sliders from Pineiro, and one that caught way too much of the plate.
- Romero looked solid, and more importantly, consistently around the strike zone.

Top of 8th
Meche
Crisp-ChangeS, CurveB, 84sliderB, 90F (Ground out to first)
Pedroia- 87sliderB, 90FB, 88FS, 92F (Single)
(Meche pulled after 103 pitches, 62 strikes. Final line is: 7 1/3 inning, 6 hits, run, walk, 6 strikeouts. Reliever Joel Peralta in.)
Joel Peralta
Lugo - FB, SliderS, SliderS, 93FB, 89F (Single)
Youkilis - SliderS, 89FB, 78CurveS, 83offspeedB, 92FB, 88FS (Strikeout swinging)
Ortiz- 81changeB, 88FS, 78changeS, 81changeS, FB, 80changeS, 84changeS (Strikeout swinging)

- Meche silenced the contract critics for at least one day.
- Peralta has thrown the best change-ups of the day (much to the dismay of Ortiz).

Bottom of seventh
Okajima
Teahen- CurveS, FB, 82sliderS, 87FS (Strikeout swinging)
Sweeney- FB, 86FB, 82slider (Single)
Gordon- CurveS, 87F (Ground out to first)
(Pitching change, Okajima out, Donnelly in)
Brendan Donnelly
Shealy- FS, SliderB, FS, 92F (Strikeout swinging)

- Not many swings and misses from Royals today until Donnelly came in.
- Okajima looked decent. Although his fastball was just in the upper-80’s it had deception/movement because KC hitters weren’t getting a good read.
- Sox pitchers have pounded Rookie of the Year candidate Alex Gordon with off-speed today.

Top of seventh
Meche
Drew-F, SB, 91FS, CB, 81S (ground out to first)
Lowell- 85FS, 91F (Fly out to left)
Varitek-91FS, 75CS, 92F (Ground out to shortstop)

95 total pitches

- Meche certainly isn’t blowing anybody away with his fastball, but he is still getting outs with it.

Bottom of sixth
Hideki Okajima
Buck- F (Home run)
Pena- CB, 88FS, 87FS, 87FS, 84FB, 87FS (Strikeout swinging)
DeJesus- 76CurveB, 75CurveS, 88F (Fly out to center)
Grud- 76CurveB, 82sliderB, 82FS, 88FS, 88FS, 83sliderS, 81slider (Ground out to third)

17 total pitches

- Besides the first pitch, Okajima looked in control. Unfortunately it is tough to overlook that first pitch.

Top of the sixth
Meche
Youkilis-F (Error third base, thrown out going to second)
Ortiz-FB, CurveS, CurveB (HBP)
Ramirez-83sliderB, 89FB, 89F (6-4-3 double play)

85 total pitches

- After throwing two straight balls to Ramirez, Meche gets a visit from Buck, probably reminding him he has a four-run lead. Sure enough, he grooves an 89 mph fastball which Manny uses to ground into a double play.
- New first base coach Luis Alicea must have a migraine after watching two guys get thrown out trying to stretch singles into doubles today.
- The Hero in the Dark is in – Hideki Okajima. (His first pitch was a home run to Buck … ouch!)

Bottom of 5th
Javier Lopez

Gordon - FS, F (HBP)
Shealy- FS, 78changeS, 79offspeedB, 79offspeed (Double play 6-4-3)
Gload- F (Ground out to first)

7 pitches

- Schilling out after 89 pitches. His final line was: 4IP, 8 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts. It was a long way off from last year’s opener when he threw 117 pitches through 7 innings. He threw probably his best splits to his last batter, but was never really consistent in location on any of his pitches.

Top of 5th
Meche
Coco- CurveS, 78curveB, 81splitB, 90FB, 87FS, 92FS (Strikeout looking)
Pedroia- 88FB, 85sliderS, 73curveS, FB, Slider (Ground out to short)
Lugo- SliderS, CurveB, 89sliderS, FS, 79CurveS (Strikeout looking)

77 total pitches

- Take a look at the pitch selection and you see how Meche is really setting up hitters nicely. Clearly his out-pitch is the big curve, which got Lugo (who has had better days, certainly).

Bottom of 4th
Schilling
Gload- ChangeB, SplitS, 76ChangeB, 85F (Ground out to second)
Buck-89FB, 70curveS, 89F (Double)
Pena-91FS, 89FS, 87FB, 89FB, 88FB (Walk)
DeJesus-82splitB, 82split (Fly out to left)
Grud-89F (2 RBI double)
Teahen-85 split (RBI single)
Sweeney-FB, 81splitS, 89FS, 82split (strikeout)

89 total pitches

- Grudzielanek’s double came on a first-pitch fastball. Besides on change-up, his first at-bat was all fastballs, which resulted in a first-inning single. This after the second baseman’s horrific history against Schilling.
- Schilling threw some of his best splits to Sweeney only after giving up the two run-scoring hits.

Top of 4th
Meche
Ramirez-FB, SliderB, 91F (Ground out to third)
Drew-83splitB, 91FB, 88FS, 92FB, 91F (Single)
Lowell-88F (Grounder to third)
Varitek-92FS, 75curveS, 93FB, 78curveS, 91FS, 83change/split (Strikeout looking)

61 total pitches
- Curveball Meche broke off on second pitch to Varitek was his best pitch of the day.
- Drew has seen five pitches in each of his at-bats, with a walk and single to go for it. Get used to the patience.

Bottom of the third
Schilling
Sweeney-F, F (fly out to center)
Gordon- 71ChangeB, 77splitS, 89FB, 84FS, 91FS, 84splitS, 81split (Strikeout looking)
Shealy- FS, 89FS, 91FB, 92F (Ground out to third)

13 pitches (69 pitches total)
- I’m not positive about first two pitches to Gordon, whether we saw splits or a change was mixed in. As NESN accurately pointed out, Pena triple came on a split. Usually change will stay up in zone more and tend to veer away from lefty hitter.

Top of 3rd
(A little off on velocity this inning)
Meche
Lugo-SplitS, sliderB, SliderS, CurveB, 91F (Strikeout looking)
Youkilis-94FS, 90FB, 90FS, 95FS, 79CurveB, 88Slider (Fly out to right)
Ortiz- 84splitS, 78curve (Ground out)

46 pitches total
- Meche begins to earn his money a bit.

Bottom of the 2nd
Schilling
Buck - 91FS, 91FB, 75Curve87FS, 91FB, 91F (Ground out to short)
Pena-91FB, 87FB, 88FS, 85FS, 84 change(Triple)
DeJesus-88FS, 90FB, 91FS, 90FS, 92F (Strikeout looking)
Grud- 91FB, 89FB, 76 change (single, RBI)
Teahen- 88FS, 71changeB, 76changeS, 84split (Strikout swinging)

23 pitches (56 total)

- After giving up triple and RBI single on change-ups, came back with two more to Teahen. First change to Teahen was worst of the bunch, but then came back with probably his best.

Top of 2nd
Meche
Varitek-91FB, 76CurveS, 91F (fly out to second)
Coco-91FS, 84split (ground out)
Pedroia-90F (single, thrown out)

6 pitches
4 fastballs
1 split
1 curve

- Dustin got too excited, trying to stretch a single to a double. I bet you don’t see many of those mental errors from this season.

Bottom of the 1st
Curt Schilling
Dejesus- 90FB, 89FS, 89FB, 91FS, 91F (Fly out to right)
Grud- 89FB, 91FS, 75ChangeB, 91FB, 91F (Single to left)
Teahen- 89FS, 84SplitS, 91FS, 84Split (single up middle)
Sweeney-89FB, 88Slider (single)
Gordon-91FS, 92FS, 82splitS, 82splitB, 93FS, 85splitS, 85split (stikeout swinging)
Shealy-94FS, 84splitB, 91FS, 93FS, 83splitB, 91FB, 94FS, 85slider (Walk, RBI)
Gload-88FS, 87split (fly out to center)

33 pitches
21 fastballs
1 change
9 splits
1 slider

- When was the last time Curt Schilling issued a walk with the bases loaded? It’s worth looking up.

Top of the 1st
Gil Meche

First nine pitches fastballs
18 fastballs
2 splits
2 changes
5 curves
27 pitches

Lugo- 90FB, 92FB, 92FS, 91FS, 89FB, 91FS (Struck out looking)
Youkilis-89FS, 90FS, 94FB, 90Split (Single to right)
Ortiz-91FS, 82ChangeS, 92FB, 92F (Double to left-center)
Ramirez-76CurveB, 76CurveS, 93F (Fly out to center)
Drew-90FB, 80ChangeB, 91FS, 76CurveB, 93FB (Walk)
Lowell-78CurveS, 93FS, 95FB, 78CurveB, 91Split (Strikeout)

- Topped out at 95, sat in low 90’s
- First non-fastball was hit for single by Youkilis
- You can see how this lineup, with the addition of Drew, will really make pitchers work.

National Anthem
What’s better to kick off a season than hearing a little REO Speedwagon, the artists who performed today’s National Anthem? If you want more REO you can next catch them at the Exchange Park Fairgrounds in Ladson, South Carolina on April 21. I do feel a little cheated since evidently they sang the song for last night’s game in St. Louis. Doesn’t MLB have enough singers to draw from that they don’t have to go to REO Speedwagon twice?

Share This

Posted in Red Sox | 20 Comments

20 reader comments to “Game 1 (live blogging)”

  1. 1
    Anonymous said:

    REO Speedwagon ?

    I wonder how many home runs George Brett will hit this year.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 3:27 pm
  2. 2
    manzo said:

    I can’t fight this feeling any longer….

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 3:37 pm
  3. 3
    Tim Daloisio said:

    Ugly first for Curt for sure. Could have been alot worse.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 3:42 pm
  4. 4
    Anonymous said:

    Looks like we will get to see how that bullpen is going to do early in the year.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 3:55 pm
  5. 5
    majchaz said:

    Is it me, or are a lot of guys slipping on this field? Both center fielders have falen on their backsides while chasing down balls on the track.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 3:59 pm
  6. 6
    Anonymous said:

    Looks like Curt can start on his blog early tonight.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 4:40 pm
  7. 7
    Anonymous said:

    Thank God that one only counts as one loss. Yuck.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 6:29 pm
  8. 8
    Anonymous said:

    This team stinks.

    Seriously though, the bottom 4 of the batting order is worrysome.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 6:50 pm
  9. 9
    Anonymous said:

    Oh, give Meche a little credit. And it’s only one game.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 7:24 pm
  10. 10
    Anonymous said:

    So Red Sox Waterboy Bradford…how are you going to put a spin on this one? They stunk!

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 7:25 pm
  11. 11
    Anonymous said:

    Ech.
    We lost both the 03 and 04 opening days in *horrific* fashion and those two seasons turned out ok.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 7:27 pm
  12. 12
    Anonymous said:

    Schilling should stay off the blog and focus on his pitching.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 8:21 pm
  13. 13
    Anonymous said:

    Is it time to find another catcher? Or can we DH for TEK? He can’t hit. People say his age is catching up to him, but Posada and I-Rod are older than him and still hitting.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 9:30 pm
  14. 14
    Griffin said:

    I just knew there’d be several “the sky is falling!” comments here. Thanks for the amusement.

    Posted: Apr 2nd, 2007 at 9:42 pm
  15. 15
    YankeeFan said:

    The Sky is Falling!

    The Sky is Falling!

    Posted: Apr 3rd, 2007 at 3:55 am
  16. 16
    Anonymous said:

    As usual Rob, you inflated our minds with this nonsense that this would be a good team. But you failed to mention all the holes this team has. We saw them all yesterday. I know its one game, but this team can’t beat Toronto or the Yankees with that lineup.

    Posted: Apr 3rd, 2007 at 8:19 am
  17. 17
    Anonymous said:

    On the bright side, our bullpen did pretty well :)

    Posted: Apr 3rd, 2007 at 8:55 am
  18. 18
    Adam said:

    Boooorriing

    Posted: Apr 3rd, 2007 at 2:49 pm
  19. 19
    Anonymous said:

    C’mon, people. Anyone with a satellite dish and decent eyesight has known for a month now that there’s a gaping hole in the bottom of this batting order — if you didn’t know that already, it’s not because of some vast media conspiracy. All that info is out there for you. Jeeze.

    Posted: Apr 3rd, 2007 at 3:55 pm
  20. 20
    Shaun said:

    In response to the Big O, who just asked you “Who actually reads this stuff?”…..I DO BIG O….just because you don’t have the mental ability to follow each pitch and track pitch type/speed. Thanks for the info Rob….WE appreciate it, unlike some people.

    Posted: Apr 4th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
SexyComments by BorkWeb

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