Shake-up in the AL east

zuutroy

Gonna be a big 10-12 days in determining the early front runner. Boston plays Toronto ( Schilling vs Halladay 5:35pm Irish on Thurs) and the Yankees this week.
Next week Toronto have the Yanks and the Red Sox (Halladay vs Schilling again), and the the Sox and Yanks at the weekend...

Hehe, its gonna be a fun fortnight (I hope)

free2fly

I'm going to the Sox - Yankees game on Friday night. Hope it's a good one.

zuutroy

free2fly wrote:

I'm going to the Sox - Yankees game on Friday night. Hope it's a good one.

Sox-Yankees in Fenway, Of course it will be a good one!....Who's slated to pitch. Lester or Wakefield is it?

free2fly

zuutroy wrote:

Sox-Yankees in Fenway, Of course it will be a good one!....Who's slated to pitch. Lester or Wakefield is it?

I'm not sure yet. The weather has been awful here this week so the rotation is all screwed up. Matsuzaka is suppose to pitch tonight, but it's uncertain if they'll play.

zuutroy

free2fly wrote:

I'm not sure yet. The weather has been awful here this week so the rotation is all screwed up. Matsuzaka is suppose to pitch tonight, but it's uncertain if they'll play.

Its in the dome....I think they will!

free2fly

zuutroy wrote:

Its in the dome....I think they will!

Doh!! Forgot they were inToronto

It looks like it's going to be Schilling for Boston and Pettitte for NY.

zuutroy

Excellent, you'll get your money's worth. Looks like I miscalucated. Turns out Halladay's up against Tavarez. Hopeully Toronto can at least take that one!

free2fly

It should be a good pitcher's duel. I hope. I'm bringing a friend of mine from Dublin who has never been to a baseball game. What better way to experinece it then a Sox/Yankees game at Fenway? And we have box seats. I had to call in a huge favor to get those seats!

Being a Sox fan I can't honestly hope that they lose any of the games against Toronto

zuutroy

Bringing a novice eh? Can be taxing! Good luck explaining the rules. Dammit why does Toronto have to be so far away. I'd love to go to a few games. When I get my betfair system refined I'm gonna take six months off real work to live there for the season, supporting myself through gambling!

free2fly

zuutroy wrote:

Bringing a novice eh? Can be taxing! Good luck explaining the rules. Dammit why does Toronto have to be so far away. I'd love to go to a few games. When I get my betfair system refined I'm gonna take six months off real work to live there for the season, supporting myself through gambling!

I've just given him the basics. I told him to ask me if there are things he doesn't understand. Besides, I'm sure he'll just enjoy the atmosphere at Fenway during a Sox/Yankees game anyway

Yes, I'd say Belgium is a bit too far to commute to Jays games. But your idea sounds like a plan!

Believe it or not, I don't get to Fenway very often. The tickets are very expensive and nearly impossible to get hold of. Have you ever been to Fenway?

zuutroy

Nah, never been to Boston. Yankee Stadium and Skydome only :-(
Never had problems getting tickets in Toronto. As I'm sure you know its a hockey town so baseball is a bandwagon sport. Never a problem getting a ticket. I used to get a free 500 level ticket with a six pack of coke in the supermarket. And even behind home plate is only about 30euro.

free2fly

Yeah, that's pretty sad. The stands are always so empty. Just like in Tampa Bay. But it's always good for Sox fans when they want to travel to Toronto for a game. They can always get tickets.

You should try to get to Fenway some day. It's a very unique atmosphere. And Boston is a great city to visit in the summer.

zuutroy

Its just that the dome is so big. They get 25,000 most nights even for the 'weaker' teams but it seats 55,000 so it always looks empty...Been there for opening day a few times where there wasn't a seat to be had...that was great fun.

free2fly

Ah, that's true. Fenway holds less than 40,000. I'm not sure of the exact number with the new seats they've added this year.

zuutroy

Yeah they really keep cramming them in!
Here's a snap of my last trip to Yankee Stadium:

zuutroy

Just watched the condensed game from last night...Damn Matsuzaka has got nasty stuff. Pity he ran into two amazing pitching performances in a row!
Looked at little shakey with men on base but the rest of the time...Wow!

free2fly

Yeah, he did pitch well last night. Unfortunately we couldn't get more than one run for him though. That was quite a homer from Willy Mo though! So, you got your win

That's a great shot of Yankee Stadium.

zuutroy

Grrr!...What the hell was Gibbons doing taking Halladay out after 90-odd pitches. Another ace outing wasted, more so given that it was an intra-divisional game. The sooner Glaus and Ryan are back the better!

PappaCSkillz22

zuutroy wrote:

Grrr!...What the hell was Gibbons doing taking Halladay out after 90-odd pitches. Another ace outing wasted, more so given that it was an intra-divisional game. The sooner Glaus and Ryan are back the better!

yes, then you can battle out second place with the Yanks!!

zuutroy

After all these years, if it's a wild card earning second place, I'll take it gladly!

PappaCSkillz22

zuutroy wrote:

After all these years, if it's a wild card earning second place, I'll take it gladly!

Ha ha
- good comeback!!
Thats a good attitude to have!! I would honestly say the Blue Jays are more of a threat than the Yanks, without A-Rods crazy explosion the Yanks would be in serious trouble

Redsoxfan

I would never rule the Yankees out. Matsui and Wang will be huge additions when they return. Mussina, maybe not so much anymore. Their lineup is still scary when compared with the Sox and Jays. I wouldn't be surprised if one of their young pitchers turns into this year's Wang. One worrying thing for the Yanks is Jeter's defence (bad start). They haven't been able to blast their way to a WS, so if they lose anything on defense, they are in trouble. Mientkiewicz a nice defensive option at first base this year.

Watched the 12.37 game from Toronto the other night-good game, especially considering it was the Sox 'B' infield (although surely Cora should be ahead of Pedroia at 2nd?). Pep didn't exactly inspire confidence, but hey, job done. Hopefully that's the start of things for Manny.

But tonight's game should be great. Schill against Pettite. Bring it on.

PappaCSkillz22

The Yanks lineup is impressive, no doubt, but I think the Sox lineup is more balanced, one through nine. The Yanks had guys like Phelps, Nieves and Cairo batting last night in a game they surely wanted to win badly. Those are not scary bats at all.

Sweep, sweep...

vorbis

I was at the Red Sox game last night, great game! The 4 home runs in a row was something else. The pitcher wasn't doing that badly up to then
Papelbon against A-Rod for the last out was a great climax as well.