The Year after the Year After Next Year
Boston Red Sox 2009
Copyright © 2008-2009 Timothy Horrigan
[October
11, 2009] 2009 seemed like a bad season for the Red Sox compared to
2008, but actually they ended up with the same regular season record both years:
95-67. The difference was that the Sox finished far behind the New
York Yankees in 2009, whereas in 2008 they were just a couple of
games behind the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Sox didn't hit very well, and their starting pitching was problematic. Their ace, Daisuke Matsuzaka, was injured and only made 12 starts, finishing 4-6. Josh Beckett and Jon Lester had good— but not great— seasons and the rest of the rotation was mediocre at best. Luckily, the bullpen was very effective. The Sox did get the wild card and took on the Fullerton Angels of Anaheim in the Division Series, and got swept.
Although the playoff series was excruciating, the absolute low point of the season was a disastrous 4-game series at New Yankee Stadium from August 6 through 9, highlighted by an excruciating 15-inning loss on Friday, August 7th: Alex Rodriguez broke a scoreless tie with a walkoff home run. The Sox were shut out on Saturday as well, and they went scoreless for the first 7 innings on Sunday: the Yankees shut out out the Sox for 31 innings in all. That was the lowpoint of the Red Sox's season.
Hopefully the Division series will be a highlight. All games will be on the cable channel TBS:
Thursday,
10/8/2009: Moreno Valley Angels of Anaheim 5, Boston Red Sox 0 @ the
Big A
Not much to say, really: Torii
Hunter hit a big home run in the 5th, and the Sox played well
but barely hit the ball at all. The Angels' RF
Bobby Abreu played the whole game and went 0-0: he walked 4
times. It could have been much worse than 5-0: the Angels loaded the
bases with no one out in the 7th inning and only got 2 runs.
Friday,
10/9/2009: Palmdale Angels of Anaheim 4, Boston Red Sox 1 @ the Big
A
At least the Sox scored a run this time, but in 18 innings
the offense still had only 8 hits and just 1 run.
Sunday,
10/11/2009: Pomona Angels of Anaheim 7, Boston Red Sox 6 @ Fenway Park
Red Sox Nation came out very flat: the fans sounded like they were watching the last home game of a last place season. The Sox did finally start hitting;
Jonathan Papelbon blew the save in the 9th inning, with lots of help from his teammaets. Manny Ramirez's replacement, Jason Bay, contributed greatly to the meltdown by making
a spectacularly poor cutoff throw: he either missed Dustin Pedroia by about 50 feet, or wasn't throwing the ball at anyone in particular. (Manny's Dodgers won their Division Series,
and there is a good chance of an I-5 World Series later in the month.)
The big prize of the 2008-2009 free agent season was former Red Sox great Manny Ramirez. The Sox didn't bid on him. They can afford to pay him the A-Rod Bucks which he deserves, but they don't want him back. The team they traded him to last season, the Dodgers, did want him back. Even though he was Manny, and even though he missed 50 games on a steroids suspension, the deal worked out well for the Dodgers. The Sox may have to face him in the World Series: the Dodgers are in the playoffs.
![[Red Sox at spring training, Hot Springs, AR (baseball)] (LOC)](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3169/2679863064_58427a479c.jpg)
Some Red Sox links:
Official Red Sox web site: http://redsox.mlb.com
Boston.com's Red Sox page: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox
Baseball-Reference.com Red Sox page: http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BOS
CBS Sportsline Red Sox Page: http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/teams/page/BOS
Web Directories about the Boston Red Sox:
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