Thursday, August 14, 2008

Texas is a AAA Battery; Sox' Energy Outlasts Rangers, 8-4

With the Sox up 8-0 in the 8th inning a day after giving up 17 runs, Orsillo cited "the old adage" that 'momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher', suggesting, in so many words, that Lester's performance corroborated it.

Lester, pitching brilliantly through 7, had stopped the velocity, the forward motion of the Texas lineup. But I think I recall that momentum is mass times velocity. And the Texas' heavy hitters were still massive. And mass, among other things, is involved with (in some way I don't remember) potential energy. The Texas momentum, in an ill defined sense, was still there, latent, dormant, waiting to be unleashed.

So one batter after Don's hitherto accurate pronouncement, Kinsler rocketed a dong over the monster on a 3-2 fastball, making it 8-1, and then Young shot a liner to right on a cutter down and in. After Ellison's high chopper back to the mound yielded an Ellsbury single, Francona went to the ultimate momentum stopper, the immovable force, Mike Timlin (and his 5.23 ERA.)

Even Timlin's two championship rings didn't save him from boos after Bradley's 3 run blast and then Byrd's double employed some of the previous days' inexhaustible supply of latent momentum. Potential energy became kinetic, and the crowd became frantic, anxious, fearing the hidden potent forces that animate the universe might manifest, vengefully and angrily. And Timlin seemed as good a lightning rod as any.

(By the way, Benjamin Franklin was awesome.)

But Youkilis was a badass again, and the Sox offense generated its own force, and picked up another game in the WC race- now up 6- on the suddenly impotent Yankees.

8 comments:

Barry said...

To call Youk "badass" is to understate just how bad his ass is. Put the guy in any spot in the lineup, and he'll be trouble.

Tonight, with runners on second and third, some Texan made the decision to walk Ortiz to get to white-hot Youk. I understand that Ortiz hurt the Longhorns (or whatever they're called) bad last night, but so did Youkilis. Everything may be bigger in Texas, but it's certainly not smarter. Pow. 2 run double. He's not batting cleanup for shits and giggles. At least not exclusively.

Having just finished Moneyball last week, all I can think of is pudgy Youkilis being branded by Billy Beane as "Euclis, god of walks".

His little baby's all grows'd up and he's all grows'd up.

Peter N said...

Ha ha ha Barry! Well said. Youk is rapidly becoming the most important cog in the Mannyless offense. His defense at first or third has been stellar. A long term contract should be in his near future.

Sizzlenuts said...

of course anything can change at any moment, but most importantly for youk, he seems to be playing an entire quality season. the last couple he had great first halves, but then stunk it up in the second.

Soxlosophy said...

i agree with peter's haha.

sox fans' affection for youk has gone beyond his name containing an 'oo' sound, which of itself seems to warrant a chant, even for mediocre players.

he's got a 147 OPS+ this year! that's 3rd in the league, only behind milton bradley and a-rod (j.d. drew is 5th, by the way)

and we're well into the second half; 121 team games so far, halfway into august. and he's got a 1.007 OPS since the all-star break. he was already declining by this point last year.

basically, i'm reverting to numbers because i don't know how else to describe how bad his ass is.

Rooster said...

But, it does worry me about the injury situation. We won't cry about it like Hank, instead, we'll leverage quality prospects, like we have all season (Masterson, Lowrie, Moss, etc., etc.).

What a poor excuse Hank!

Soxlosophy said...

according to hank, chien ming wang has won 19 games in each season since the beginning of time, and a pitcher who has won a grand total of 3 games as a starter is the greatest pitcher of all time.

hank's a dumbass, which also understates thing.

Unknown said...

"rocketed a dong" (you say) ?

Soxlosophy said...

sure, why not? how else is a dong going to get out there- take the stairs? :)