Born Into It In Iowa- A Red Sox Blog: John Lackey

Showing posts with label John Lackey. Show all posts

Friday, November 1, 2013

Red Sox After Season Awards

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I am going to do my post season awards (not postseason awards). These are the players I think deserve the after season awards on this Red Sox team. These are all based on my own thoughts; so if you disagree, certainly you can explain who you think should win and why in the comments. Now, here's the awards:

MVP: David Ortiz

Photo from Bleacher Report

David Ortiz hit .309 during the season with 30 home runs, 103 RBIs, and 28 doubles. Those numbers are great, but you need to add it to what he meant to this team. Ortiz made his now famous post Boston Marathon speech in April, and that seemed to be the catalyst for this team to strive for the top. Yes, they had a point to prove after last season, but they also wanted to lift the City of Boston on their shoulders. Ortiz was the man to make the speech and bring this team back to greatness.

Of course, in the World Series, he was dominant. He hit .688 with 2 home runs, 6 RBIs, 11 hits, and 8 walks (with only 1 strike out). He now has 3 World Series rings and 1 MVP award in his career.

Cy Young: Jon Lester

Photo from NESN

This season, Lester went 15-8 with a 3.75 ERA and a 1.294 WHIP. Some people may be asking how he can by Cy Young with those good but not great numbers. I chose Jon Lester because he was the workhorse the Red Sox needed this season. He pitched 213.1 innings, when the next closest was John Lackey with 189.1 innings. After the All Star break, Lester seemed to improve with every start. His ERA fell from 4.58 to 3.75 for the season, almost an entire run.

This postseason, Lester made a name for himself as an ace. In the World Series, he had 2 winning starts, pitched 15.1 innings, and only gave up 9 hits, 1 run, 1 walk while striking out 15. His World Series ERA was 0.59.

Rookie of the Year: Xander Bogaerts

Photo from USAToday

This one was a little hard for me, as there wasn't a Rookie that made a season-long impact on this team. There were players that had been up and down in the minors for the past couple years (Daniel Nava, Will Middlebrooks), but I don't think any player made more of an influence on the team than Xander Bogaerts. During the season, he hit .250 in 18 games with 11 hits, 1 home run, and 5 RBIs. Defensively, he showed he was capable at both shortstop (his natural position) and third base (the position he eventually took over for Will Middlebrooks in the postseason).

In the World Series, Bogaerts started all 6 games, batted .238 (which was surprisingly the third highest on the team behind Ortiz and Ellsbury) with2 RBIs and 5 hits, including a triple.

Comeback Player of the Year: John Lackey

Photo from ESPN.GO

John Lackey didn't pitch at all in 2012 because he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. Tommy John surgery is serious, but I think it was a blessing in disguise for Lackey. In 2011, many Red Sox fans cast Lackey as a villain, as the post child for everything that went wrong with the team in September. He heard more boos than cheers, and the media seemed to be against him as well. He took 2012 off to recover from surgery.

When he came back this season, no one knew what Lackey would bring. He looked healthier, physically thinner and stronger, than he had in recent years. He had a presence to him that showed confidence, and he pitched with confidence. He had a 10-13 record, but that was because he couldn't get the run support. He completed the year with a 3.53 ERA (it was 6.41 in 2011), 189.1 innings pitched, and a 1.157 WHIP.

This World Series, Lackey pitched in 3 games (2 starts), had a 1-1 record, and a 2.57 ERA. He gave up 14 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks, and struck out 11.

Honorable Mention: Daniel Nava

Photo from YawkeyWayReport

No one can argue that Daniel Nava had an incredible season. If you recall, Nava made headlines in 2010 when he hit a grand slam on the first pitch he ever saw in the minors. He was the guy who didnt make his college baseball team right away and was the team manager for two seasons. Then, he played in the Golden Baseball League, and his contract was bought by the Red Sox for one dollar. In 2011, he was buried in the minors and designated for assignment without any other team showing interest. In 2012, he hit only .243 in 88 games. Many thought he was just a good story, but he wrote another chapter this season.

Daniel Nava hit a career high .303 this season with 12 home runs and 66 RBIs. He played 134 games, platooning with Jonny Gomes and filling in for Victorino when needed. He was a presence at the plate, but he wasn't one of the over-the-top players that seemed to flood the media this season. He was grounded, and he will certainly be back in the Majors next season.

That's it for me today. Tomorrow, I will be attending the Red Sox World Series parade, so make sure to check back early next week for photos and commentary. It's been a great and intense season, but you can't be upset about the outcome.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Red Sox Win World Series

What a night! That's really all I can say. Last night, the Boston Red Sox became World Series Champions by beating the Cardinals 6-1. For the first time since 1918, the Red Sox won the World Series at home, at Fenway Park. Such an incredible night for this amazing team!

I'm really excited to say that I'm planning on attending the Duck Boat parade on Saturday morning in Boston. My boyfriend and I had discussed it a couple times prior to last night's win. We were keeping our fingers crossed that the parade would be Saturday, as we wouldn't be able to make it Friday or Sunday. Lucky for us, they've announced the parade is scheduled for 10:00 AM Saturday.

Photo from The Boston Globe

David Ortiz deservingly won the MVP, hitting .688 (2nd highest in average in World Series history), hit 2 home runs, 6 RBIs, and was walked 8 times. If there wasn't Ortiz, who knows what would've happened to this team.

Photo from The Boston Globe

Honestly, I would say Ortiz is the MVP of the season, and I'll get into that more tomorrow when I do my end of the season awards. It started in April when Ortiz took the microphone and made his infamous speech. Here's the clip again:

Ortiz kept this mentality going all season. In his MVP speech, he made sure to dedicate the World Series to the Boston marathon victims and the City of Boston. Here's his MVP speech:

John Lackey won the clinching game, becoming the first player in his history to win two World Series clinching games (his first was with the Angels in 2002 as a Rookie). Lackey, who Red Sox fans loathed for years (that may be a bit strong, but you get the point), won this game for the Red Sox, and the Red Sox fans made sure to show their appreciation. I thought it was a touching moment when Lackey tipped his cap at the crowd, a crowd that had ridiculed and booed him in during his tenure with the Red Sox.

Photo from The Boston Herald

This offseason, the Red Sox went out and got what they thought would not only bring the fans back to Fenway, but bring a championship back to Boston. They brought in John Farrell, having to trade to an division rival for the manager they knew could do the job and knew this team.

Photo from The Boston Globe

The Red Sox brought in David Ross, Jonny Gomes, Shane Victorino, Ryan Dempster, Mike Napoli, and Stephen Drew, who all contributed in huge ways to this World Series winning team. It's still seems surreal that this team has gone from worst to first.

As mentioned, I'll post my postseason awards for the blog. Until then, please enjoy the photos, videos, and tweets from last night! What a way to end a season!

Dropkick Murphys Pre-Game Performance

National Anthem and Shipping Up To Boston

Carlton Fisk
Photo from NESN

Photo from The Boston Globe

Photo from NESN

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Preview of Game 3 of the ALCS

The Red Sox and Tigers are set to face off for Game 3 of the ALCS. The series is tied 1-1, and it's really anyone series at this point. The Red Sox will send John Lackey to the mound today, while the Tigers will send Justin Verlander.

Let's recap the series to this point:

After Game 1, I think it was safe to say the Tigers looked like they had the advantage. Their starting pitching is electric, and the Sox looked like Little Leaguers at bat. Lester had a great outing, but it was no match to the Tigers' Sanchez. The Red Sox lost a heartbreaker 1-0.

Game 2 started out much like Game 1, with the Red Sox seeing pitch after pitch fly by them for strikes at the plate. Unlike Game 1, Buchholz wasn't challenging the Tigers batters like Lester had been, and he gave up 5 runs, including 2 home runs.

As we now know, the Red Sox bat came alive, punctuated by a David Ortiz grand slam in the 8th inning, and the Red Sox Game 2 6-5.

Photo from USAToday

Which Red Sox will we see today- the Red Sox who are power hitters or the Red Sox who look more like zombies at the plate?

As stated, the Red Sox will be going against Justin Verlander, 2011 Cy Young Winner (he came in 2nd to David Price last year). This season, Verlander is 13-12 with a 3.46 ERA and 1.315 WHIP. His career postseason numbers are: 7-4, 3.48 ERA, and a 1.113 WHIP.

Against the Red Sox, Verlander's results have been mixed, to say the least. In three of the eleven starts against the Sox, Verlander has surrender 5 runs, which is the same amount of games he's surrender 0 runs.

The Red Sox faced Verlander once this season, which was a 7-5 lost for the Sox. However, the Sox chased Verlander out of the game after 5 innings, making him throw 112 pitches. That should be the strategy for the Red Sox tonight- to make Verlander work hard, throw a lot of pitches, and force him out earlier in the game.

Photo from ESPN.GO

Conversely, Lackey started his career against the Tigers winning 7 out of his first 8 starts while with the Angels. However, since 2007, Lackey has not won against the Tigers.

Lackey has faced the Tigers twice this season, and they were both quality starts. On June 20th, Lackey went 7 innings and allowed 3 runs; and on September 2nd, he went 7 1/3 innings and allowed to runs. However, both of these games the Red Sox lost.

Photo from Bleacherreport.com

To win this game, the Red Sox will need to battle against Verlander and the Tigers. As I stated before, the key to the Red Sox success tonight will be to get Verlander out of the game early. Outside of Benoit and Smyly, the Tigers bullpen was pretty shaky this season.

Photo from NESN

Another thing the Red Sox need to work on is getting Ellsbury and Victorino on base. They have 1 hit between the 2 of them in the first 2 games of the ALCS. These two need to get on base to put pressure on both Verlander and the rest of the Tigers defense. If Ellsbury and Victornio can get on base, they should be able to manufacture more runs.

As I mentioned yesterday, I will be live tweeting during the game today. You can either follow the tweets directly from Twitter @BornIntoItInIA or here on the blog (on the right side of the screen). Here's hoping for a Red Sox win!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Predicting the ALDS Rotation

American League Division Series tickets for the Red Sox went on sale yesterday at noon. I am pleased to announce that I will be attending Game 2 of the ALDS. This is a huge deal for me, since when I lived in Iowa, attending a Red Sox playoff game was never really an option.

The Red Sox will start the division at home, and it has not been announced who they will be playing. Depending on how the records wind up on Sunday, the Red Sox will either be playing the A's, Tigers, or one of the Wild Card teams. More than likely, it appears the Red Sox will be playing the Tigers or a Wild Card team, as the A's are only a game back for the best record in the American League.

There are now four games left for the season. The Red Sox's record is at 95-63. While winning 100 games is out of the question now, having the best record in the American League is still very doable (as mentioned, the Sox are currently a game up on the A's). The Red Sox also currently have the best record in the Major's, a huge improvement from last year's 69-93 season.

The playoffs officially start Tuesday, October 1st with the National League Wild Card game, and the American League Wild Card game will follow on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Wild Card game is new this season, as two wild card teams per division will battle in a one-game playoff to find out who continues. The NLDS will begin Thursday, October 3rd, and the ALDS will begin Friday, October 4th.

There's been some speculation about who the Red Sox will go with for their rotation in the ALDS. I think it's pretty safe to say that Lester will be the Game 1 starter. Lester is 15-8 with a 3.67 ERA; his last start, Friday, not only clinched the AL East for the Sox, it was also his 100th career win. Lester's ERA was as high as 4.60 on July 8th, but it has steadily been been declining. In 13 games at home this season, Lester has a 3.09 ERA, compared to a 4.09 ERA in 19 away starts.

Personally, I'd rather see Lackey go Game 2. Lackey's been probably the most consistent throughout the season. His season ERA is 3.52, which is remarkable considering he didn't pitch last season while recovering from surgery. I would pitch Lackey Game 2 because his home numbers (13 games, 2.47 ERA, 1.033 WHIP) are so much better than his away numbers (16 games, 4.48 ERA, 1.271 WHIP).

Game 3 will be away and played on Monday. The choice for starter for this game could be interesting, as it could go to either Buchholz or Peavy. I think a lot will depend on how well Buchholz and Peavy pitch their last starts. Peavy pitches tonight against the Rockies, and Buchholz will pitch Friday against the Orioles.

Buchholz, though injured for 2 months, has been phenomenal this season. In 15 starts, he has a 11-1 record, a 1.60 ERA, and 1.026 WHIP. Buchholz's last start, against the Blue Jays, wasn't as impressive as previous starts (6.0 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 106 pitch count), but he's been dominant most of the season.

Peavy has been consistent while on the Red Sox. Since coming from the White Sox, Peavy has a 3.68 ERA and a 1.074 WHIP. His home stats (7-0 record, 2.73 ERA, 0.973 WHIP) are considerably better than his away stats (4-5 record, 5.09 ERA, 1.224 WHIP). Despite this, Peavy isn't the "Ace" of this team or has only been with the team for the past 3 months.

Choosing the Game 3 starter is important, as this pitcher could potentially clinch the ALCS birth for the Red Sox. I'm going to say that it'll be Buchholz, and Farrell will bring Peavy out for Game 4 on Tuesday. Essentially, the Game 3 and Game 4 starters will have the same job- get the job done away from Fenway Park.

Make sure to check back this Friday for Twitter Friday. Next week, I'll have more about my trip to Baltimore on Saturday and discussions about the playoffs.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Red Sox @ Yankees, September 7, 2013

As I stated last week, I went to the Red Sox-Yankees game at Yankees Stadium on Saturday. The Red Sox won 13-9, and I'd like to say that they won handily. They didn't, as you can tell from the score. Despite that, it was exactly what I expected a Red Sox-Yankees game to be. There were lots of runs, great plays, and the atmosphere was incredible. The Red Sox ended up taking 3 of 4 against the Yankees in the series.

Lackey was the starting pitcher for the Red Sox. I was really expecting a great performance by Lackey and a low-run support from the Red Sox offense, as that seemed to be the case for the last month or so of Lackey's starts. I got the opposite. Lackey gave up 7 earned runs in 5.2 innings, but he got the win as the Red Sox exploded with 12 runs before he was pulled.

I witnessed Xander Bogaerts' first, MLB-career home run on Saturday as well. The ball was crushed (estimated at 443 feet) to right-center-field and landed about 10 rows in front of where I was seated. I found it interesting to hear people cheer when the person who caught the ball tossed it into the Red Sox bullpen, as if a Yankee fan wouldn't want a home run ball by anyone (I would... unless maybe it was A-Rod hitting the home run). What the people booing may not know is it was Bogaerts' first home run, and the fan who caught the ball was probably compensated by the Red Sox.

Yankee Stadium is really nice too, though I found it a little too gimmicky for my liking. The Stadium is everything you'd expect from the Yankees: big, nice features, expensive beer, and gourmet food. However, in between innings the Jumbotron had different features like matching games, learning Spanish words from Mariano Rivera (and teammates), and Derek Jeter giving service announcements constantly. Overall, I would definitely go back.

Remember, I will be going to the Red Sox-Yankees game this Saturday at Fenway Park. After this weekend's experience, I'm even more excited about the game. Here are some pictures from the game on Saturday: