Jon Lester is unbeatable; Tampa Bay series preview.

The Red Sox big right hander Jon Lester cannot lose. He's been pitching out of his mind of late. Jon Lester hasn't given up more than 4 ERs since May 26th. With an offense like the Red Sox have knowing you only have to score five runs to win a game is a great feeling.

Lester takes the mound for the first game in the Tampa Bay series and I know since I decided to write this article on Lester that he will undoubtedly give up eight runs over three and third.

Tonight's matchup: LHP JON LESTER BOS vs. RHP ANDY SONNANSTINE

The Red Sox and the Rays appear to be headed in totally different directions. The Rays have decided to send their ace to the Angels for basically nothing, and they're going to try to win the wild card with the likes of prospect Wade Davis, Sonnanstine, Price, Garza, Niemann, and Shields. Other than tomorrow nights Garza vs. Beckett matchup I'm not too worried about Tampa. They're going to be playing some very tough teams down the stretch and the Red Sox are starting to click at the perfect time.

Look for tonights game to be a close game with Jon Lester throwing in another quality start. I expect Lester's line to be something like 7 IP 5 H 3ER 8K's 3BB

J.D. Drew should play a big role in deciding tonight's matchup. A win will put Boston well on their way to securing the Wild Card.

Paul Byrd makes his first start for the 2009 Red Sox today

As if we haven't had enough of convicted steroid users, Paul Byrd will make his first start of 2009 this afternoon for the Boston Red Sox. As we all know this didn't fair too well for our other first time starters of 2009. We had old man Smoltz put on a Red Sox uniform and try to do his best impression of Curt Schilling, FAILED. We had Junichi Tazawa throw on the Red Sox uniform and do his best to put the Red Sox on his back and carry them into October, well he's in the GCL right now, FAILED. We had Michael Bowden come up for a guest appearance in the bullpen, well one inning and six runs later(something like that), FAILED.



So What makes the Red Sox think Paul Byrd is going to go out there and dominate the Jays like his counterpart has been dominating the league for 6 months? I have no idea. I don't believe they even remotely believe Byrd will make it through the third. My prediction is Byrd will give up 6 runs and won't make it through the third.



Here's what to expect from Paul Byrd (other than my 6 ER in 3 innings):



Byrd in his journeyman career is 2-2 against Toronto with a 4.86 Era over 33 innings.

At Fenway Park Byrd has an ERA of 6.29 in 24 innings.

Byrd has been known for a tough first inning so if Byrd gets through the first with no troubles we can probably expect a decent outing. If not... we might be seeing Nick Green tonight.

Yesterday I went 4-1. This brings my record to 30-16 (.652)

My picks for today...
There is no way the Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays
There is no way the Chicago White Sox beat the New York Yankees
There is no way the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Detroit Tigers
There is no way the Oakland Athletics beat the L.A. Angels

8/29 I refuse to be wrong.

Todays picks:
There is no way the Yankees lose to the White Sox
There is no way the Cubs lose to the Mets
There is no way the Angels lose to the A's
There is no way the Rays lose to the Tigers

After yesterday (3-1) I am now 26-15 (.634)

THE exception to the Steroid Era

Old news, David Ortiz came "clean" on being "dirty" a few weeks back. Since then things have been going fairly well. He now has 22 dingers and 77 RBI's a very nice line since he started out the season so terrible.

David Ortiz smoked 8 bombs since his announced "careless supplement" use. He's played in the most hostile of environments, New York, Baltimore, Toronto, Tampa Bay, and Texas.

My big question here is: Why aren't fans booing Big Papi? The guy admitted to using steroids (kinda), but its assumed that he was. I mean the same thing happened with Alex Rodriguez and he can barely step into the box at Fenway the steroid chants are so loud. It appears to me that the Yankees fans and fans of baseball have dropped the ball on this one. If Yankees fans want to declare themselves the best fans in sports, you can't be whispering when David Ortiz comes to bat at Yankee Stadium. This is your time to shine.

Maybe you guys can take some pointers from the Fenway Faithful (see video 1)

Video 1:




Video 2: (keep in mind this is IN the balcony of Yankee Stadium so it might appear to be louder, the first video was ESPN mics which are typically quieter and pick up less crowd noise)



Also other than two days of Yankees fans knocking on Ortiz for "tainting world series" I think they kind of dropped the ball on the internet as well. I'm still shitting on A-roid for the things he did, why are the Yankees fans so quiet on the Ortiz front(it can't possibly be cause they secretly love him, could it?).. YANKEES FANS THIS WAS YOUR TIME TO SHINE!... YOU BLEW IT!

Back to the Grind

I went 4-1 last night. You can blame the stinking Braves for that.

This brings my season total to 21-12 thats .636 and rising.

I'll give you my predictions for today.

The Rays will have an off day ;-)
The Cardinals will beat the Astros
The Braves WILL beat the Padres
The Cubs will beat the Nationals (with a little luck)

Just recieved my ESPN "Lets go streaking shirt"

Hey I just recieved my shirt from ESPN from my winning streak.
It's better than expected high quality shirt. I'd love to sell it but.. it's pretty cool.



Tonight's picks..

Tonight I will pick 5 picks just to show you guys how good I am at this.

Red Sox over White Sox
Cubs over the Nationals
Braves over the Padres
Rays over the Jays
Phillies over the Pirates

After going 4-1 last night (DAMN RAYS and DAMN ROY HALLADAY)
(I included the first game of the sweep as a victory and since i posted hot girls on my blog that another victory)

I am now 14-8.



You have to see this video!!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

AL Wild Card Update

I was lucky enough to be featured on Firebrand AL check it out. http://firebrandal.com/2009/08/21/al-wild-card-update.html

The longer the Rangers stick around the more I feel like they’re here to stay. With the way Ian Kinsler is swinging the bat he throw the team on his back and carry them into October. With a 27-28 record on the road, the Rangers really need to pull things together down the stretch. The Rangers have 26 road games left, including three games at the New Yankee Stadium, four games in Anaheim, and a big three game series against the Rays in Tampa. It doesn’t get any easier at home either with three games series versus the Mariners, the Angels and the Rays.

You know how I know the Tampa Bay Rays aren’t here to stay ? They can’t beat the O’s. Last year if Tampa had been down 5-1 and then Ben Zobrist hits that same home run the Rays will come back and win this game in extras. This year, it’s not shaping up that way as the Rays have fallen back in the AL Wild Card to four games behind the Red Sox. Be careful counting these Rays out with Scott Kazmir heating up in his last four starts going 3-0 with a 3.26. They are also hitting .312 with a pitching E.R.A of 3.00. This upcoming series against Texas is going to be huge, Tampa has a dominating 40-20 record at the Trop, either way, a Rays sweep, Rangers sweep, any mix in between this race is far from over.

The Red Sox are looking at the month of September with inconsistant pitching, the Red Sox bats have finally come around with 14 HR’s in 7 days. Ortiz is on fire bombing 3 HRs in his last 4 games, Drew with two dingers last night and V-Mart showing Sox fans how great of a leader he can be. Varitek has been sitting more and more, which means he’ll be fully rested when/if we need him in October. Pitching is a whole different ball game, the Sox have a combined 4.50 ERA over the last 7 days tying them for 18th in the MLB. The good news for the Red Sox is that their competition will hopefully be beating each other up in September and early October, the Rays start a series with the Rangers tonight. Then the Rays have six games left with the Bronx Bombers, six games with the Rangers, and six games against the Red Sox. The Red Sox will have their hands more than full tonight with the Bombers in town. It appears that Penny has lost his swag and Pettite is turning things up a notch. It’ll be interesting to see if the Red Sox can take the first game of this series against a red hot Yankees team.

One thing is for certain, the team that wins the wild card this year will have most definately earned it.